The Ventura from Southampton, arrived at Port, with high hopes but quickly felt like I had stepped into Butlins from the 1960s - not classy at all. Tacky Entertainment, Ship had no atmosphere, the ship was so crowded you had no where to escape, packed like sardines upstairs on fresh air decks where the stench of smoke stuck to your clothes or you were nose to tail with people drinking all day long. We walked around endlessly looking for a table in the small crowded buffet area, gave up and orded room service for breakfast most days. The sailaway parties are a total joke and the entertainment team is so tacky and amateur , with football lounges, pubs, tacky quizes, its skin crawling, beer swilling , football 'lads' culture. Having cruised with RCCL and Celebrity, I was really shocked. They automatically add gratuity charges of £35 per person over 12yrs before you start and you have to pay for the so called free shuttle buses. They offer seminars on various aspects of health, I attended one called How to Re-alkaline your body. That was meant to be an hour, it was over in 15 minutes becuase non of us wanted to pay £30 for test..so the guy stopped it right there, so we didnt hear most of the information. He was curt and treated us like fools. We all got up and left feeling very uncomfortable. The acupuncture talk was interesting, and we had our tongues analysed. I was told I needed chinese medicine, at a cost of £180 ...of course only available on the ship.

Our first shore excursions was a disaster , 39 pounds each , and the boat was so congested, we couldnt get off...so we missed it ...by about two minutes..surely they must have had a list of names and they could have waited ....there was a nice chap who chased the bus down the road and stopped it so eventually we got it..the aquarium was about 7 minutes drive away and a family ticket to was 36 euros, max and this was 2 adults 2 children, the guide said my son was a child and needed a child ticket yet P & O said he was an adult. So we had paid 39 pounds each to P & O to spend 7 minutes on a bus and get a ticket into the Aquarium which didnt even allow access to the temporary exhibition...then we got picked up at 12.45 for a 50 minute drive around the city...the boat didnt leave till 4 pm so why on earth did we get taken back at 1:35. Total rip off.

Kids clubs was chaos, they wouldnt let my 13 year old sign up on the first night so he felt he missed the chance to do the introductory stuff and wouldnt go again. Read more