Ventura Review

Short Taster Cruise from Southampton To Bruges

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Ventura
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FluffyFiFi
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Apr 2015
Cabin: Outside Twin with Balcony and Shower

We really enjoy these short breaks and we look forward to spending a few days on board, as we live not far from Southampton it makes it easy for us to get to and from the port. The embarkation time we were given was 12.30 and we got to the port by 11 - we waited for our letter to be called and it was all very easy, we were on board and eating in the self service retaurant by 12.45, the food was very good and we were pleased that there were plenty of wine waiters so we didn't have to wait long to have a glass of wine. As usual it was very busy but we managed to get a table by the window and queued up for our lunch, the food was very good with lots of choice and the view from the top of the ship over Southampton water was great.

We we booked this as a guarantee cabin and only found out a few days beforehand that we were going to be on Riveria Deck which was deck 14. We had booked a balcony cabin and were slightly disappointed that we weren't lower down the ship where the balconies are bigger. However the cabin was very comfortable although we did have 6 bottles of water left for us with a note to say we could buy the pack if we wanted to. We put this under the small table but it was in the way. Our cabin steward didn't come and introduce himself and we only saw him once when he let himself into our cabin and then told us we should have put the "do not disturb sign" out.

We were supposed to find out our dining arrangements once on board and when this has happened before there is usually a card left on the desk for us. This time there was nothing and we were worried as if we were eating at 6.30 we would need to get ready in a hurry. We phoned down to reception who said we would need to contact the dining manager, we tried ringing but the phone was constantly engaged or just kept ringing. We ended up going down and were told that we were able to eat at any time so we took it we had been allocated Freedom Dining. It took quite a bit of time to get this sorted which is annoying when you are only on a short trip as every hour is precious. Freedom dining suits us best so we were pleased with this, but saying that we did find we had to wait over an hour to get a table as P&O seem to have increased the amount of freedom diners. We had a drink in the Metropolis Bar, the Raspberry Brulee which is my favourite cocktail.

Cabin Review

Outside Twin with Balcony and Shower

Cabin JC

Comfortable cabin which was very quiet, balcony not overlooked and the bathroom was small but perfectly acceptable. We didn't like the large pack of 6 water bottles that were left in the cabin for us to purchase, they took up too much room and just got in the way. We had the beds arranged as a double (Queen) and we both slept very well as the beds are big and comfortable. The television was small and very slow in loading, it seems a shame the choice of programmes are so limited and it would be nice if the films were free rather than try and get even more money out of us. The small dressing area was big enough for us both to use at the same time, the hangers do bang a bit when the sea is rough but this was only on our last night when we had packed so the hangers were bare.

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