We travelled on the Ventura during October half term, so there were quite a few kids, which was a nice selection of ages. Embarkation was just about ok, we had cruised earlier on this year with Princess and their embarkation process was far better. We had no problems with our cabin which was a balcony on deck 12, we had a pull down bunk bed for our daughter which worked out ok but a week is plenty with this set up. I would like to comment on our cabin neighbours who were just awful, loud and had obviously never encountered a sliding door before as this seemed to be a fascination for them, opening it and slamming it every few minutes along with anything else that opened and closed, they were an older couple who had obviously no social manners what so ever.

We had freedom dining and were allocated Cinnamon , the food in fact was very good but the service was sooo slow, I would agree with other reviews that the staff although pleasant were not friendly, never experienced this before on any cruise, much the same in the buffet. We never had any problem in getting a table in the buffet and the one evening we did eat our main meal there we were pleasantly surprised it was set up lovely and it was quite quiet so we had no problem getting a table. The poolside burger and pizza places also served nice food. Personally I thought the drinks were expensive at nearly £6.00 for a glass of wine it soon mounts up, although the bottles of wine were reasonably priced. P and O didn't offer any drinks packages, our daughter has always had a soft drinks package where she can go to any bar and get a coke or juice and on our last cruise a Princess one, we purchased the ultimate drinks package which was great and well worth the money but nothing like this available on P and O.

I've gave 4 stars because it was a pleasant cruise and considering all the bad reviews it wasn't that bad, the entertainment was good, a couple of good singers and the ship's band Dynamite Groove were very good, we went to the arena theatre one night the see Headliners, not so good, there didn't seem to be any air conditioning on and it was so hot in there, then the sound went astray but it was handled well by the entertainments guy, the show was a bit poor. We went to see a film also in the Arena theatre which was packed, the picture quality was good considering it's not a cinema . Read more