We're just back from a 4 day mini cruise on P&O Ventura from Southampton to Bruges and Guernsey and have sailed with a variety of cruise lines but this was our first with P&O. Embarkation was swift and we were on board and sat relaxing in a bar within an hour of arriving at Southampton.

I liked our cabin which was a mid ship balcony with great storage space, a good sized balcony and a powerful bathroom shower. It's worth noting that Ventura is a very stable ship and I barely felt any movement or motion at all.

We chose freedom dining and ate in the Saffron restaurant on three nights with a birthday celebration in the speciality restaurant East on our first. We ate lunch on a few of the days in the Waterside buffet where a decent selection was let down by the enclosed and claustrophobic serving area. Rather frustratingly if you wanted burgers, pizzas or fries, you needed to head out of the buffet to the one of the pools. Not great when travelling with kids. I did like the a la carte breakfast served daily in Saffron where there was a great choice of food with changing daily specials. But generally I found the food on board a little disappointing. It just wasn't fine dining and the menu choices seemed limited in the evenings. Read more