Well that is us ashore and making our way home from Ventura. We had an amazing holiday, met great people, and stunning port calls. Value for money was excellent but where do you start with Ventura? She is clearly a Marmite ship with many loyal followers which is good, however and for us we was not impressed at all. Cleanliness is well well below acceptable standards never mind what you expect of a cruise ship. Yes there is ware and tare (don’t mind that, actually prefer it as it makes a ship feel more homely) but not sure why there is such a low standard for cleaning.

From what you can see as a passenger it is clear that upkeep and maintenance is also of a low standard, suspect safety culture and many other basic things I spotted that I could right a report on but I assume you get the gist at this stage.

Then there are the smaller things. We found the layout not the best, too many bars and speciality restaurants taking up prime locations when the main restaurants that are too small, cramped and somewhat underwhelming for the ship of this size. Too many bars also split folk up, you are often moving around a lot (not helped by short entertainment slots followed by contrasting acts) so it is hard to get settled. One thing for sure she is a superb at sea and handled the adverse weather extremely well. Read more