This was our first cruise and therefore have nothing to compare it with but we were very impressed. I was worried that I may be sea sick for two weeks but (perhaps it was particulary calm waters) we hardly felt any movement at all, though we were in the middle of the ship on deck 11. Cleanliness of ship, restaurants toilets and cabin was excellent. The food was wonderful, if you couldn't find anything on the menu (and I think you have to be too fussy if you couldn't), you could always have steak, chicken or salmon; I asked the waiter if it was possible to have a variation of something on the menu (I can't remember what) and he said 'Madam, anything is possible' and he meant it, if anything, you were spoilt for choice. We didn't realise until the second day that we could eat in the Saffron restaurant for breakfast and lunch (as we were freedom dining, which I would recommend and we never had difficulty getting a table, perhaps because we were flexible), and we ate in the buffet area - didn't like that at all, not because of the food but because I felt as though I was in a supermarket canteen.

The staff couldn't have been more friendly and helpful, though I did feel a little embarrassed, perhaps ashamed, or even guilty, for being so pampered when I found out that the Asian staff work for 9 months with 3 months off, I don't know what their wages are but my conscience was pricked. Our cabin steward was lovely, he kept our room spotless and immaculate, he was attentive but always discreet; there was no decaf coffee in the container and straight away he appeared with a bowl full of decaf sachets - thank you Melrose.

I'm afraid the onboard entertainment let the ship down in a bad way. The theatre company were dancers and sometimes not bad singers, the girls could stand for quite some time with one foot on the stage and the other vertical (like doing the splits standing up) - quite vulgar - perhaps some dirty old men enjoyed it, or perhaps some men didn't quite know where to look; the last evening's show was purely self indulgent, either to the theatre company or the cruise director - not sure who takes responsibility for it but it was awful (Hairspray, the kids might have enjoyed it but not adults and I at 49 was probably one of the younger people there), if we hadn't have been in the middle of a row, we would have walked out. The 'Stowaway' comedien and violinist were excellent. The 'turns' in the Tamarind were what I would expect to see at the local pub. The shops were nice to wander round and some things not expensive. We didn't do any Tate talks but button holes and coursages, fitness talks, hair styling, Red Arrows, aviation and navigation, Donald Campbell, wine tasting and many other talks were very interesting - it was a shame the tv satalite navigation information wasn't working as my husband would have liked a daily update.

Would we go on the Ventura again? Of course - in fact that's why I'm on this site, looking for the prices so we can take my mum and her friend.

Done the Canaries cruise and have no complaints about the itenery. OK, Ship cleanliness, pretty good apart from the odd beer glass lying around but just picked it up no problem. Food, superb even in Bay Tree but as we are not used to 7 courses we only used it twice, ended up using Beachcomer and Beachouse most of the time which wes perfect for me and the wife.
Ship staff...No complaints whatsoever allways there and very helpful.
Onboard entertainment...Some great some awful depends on your taste.
I would have no problems sailing on this ship again but have booked Arcadia for next years jaunt just to see what life is like without kids.
As a man who isn't scared of a drink or two found onboard prices just as cheap as home and our cabin steward even delivered bottles of whatever to the cabin whenever. Tax free fags and booze for the cabin no probs.
Only one smoking area inside and that is one quarter of Exchanges bar...didn't bother us but too many non smokers actually ran through it not realising you could use the other entrance (fools). To help them P & O should put a sign up at either end of the bar to warn them !!!!

We booked on the much trumpeted Ventura knowing it was a family ship & as the cruise we took was out of the school holidays there were not many kids on board thank god! However you still could not get in any of the pools for them and despite all the excellent facilities on board for them the lifts seemed to provide them with their best entertainment.
Our cabin was on R deck, right at the back so we had a long hike to get anywhere at all. My partner has mobility problems so we almost had to set out the day before to get to the restaurant on time for dinner - the distance you have to walk is incredible. Also not all lifts go to all floors which is not shown clearly on your pocket map of the ship.
The food was excellent as on all P& O ships and the service also. Our cabin steward was attentive and everything we required was dealt with.
The ship seems incredibly unstable. I am very prone to motion sickness and the last day coming back through the Bay of biscay wasn't rough but the movement on the higher decks was amazing. The other ships don,t seem to be affected to this degree.
The PA system was inaudible, the lady who did the noon announcement needs more reading practice!
Overall we enjoyed our holiday (Canaries Cocktail) but I'm sorry P & O, we love your other ships especially Arcadia, but you have got too greedy with Ventura and you are letting your standards slip. Would we sail on Ventura again? Only if she was going somewhere we were pretty desparate to see!!

The ships cabins etc where very good but unfortunately the entertainment was very poor during the cruise I had taken my elderly Mother on. The Arena Theatre is too small to cater for the amount of passengers they can take on any cruise.
I would of loved to have had a swim but every pool was occupied by children so I was put off going in any of the pools as I was scared of getting hurt as I have had major surgery on my lower back.
The atmosphere on the ship was very strained and not friendly at all. The shop asistants are not well trained in customer service.
In previous years I have travelled on the other cruise liners that P&O have in the fleet and enjoyed them.Sorry I will not travel on this ship again.

PLEASE IGNORE THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS ON HERE!!!! I cannot believe some of the comments put on here by some people, i sailed on Ventura last year and all of us in our party had a very enjoyable time, the food was great, (esp the East restaurant) the entertainment was good (great Meatloaf tribute in the Havannah bar) Firstly the Ventura is a FAMILY ship it is advertised as a family ship and therefore it IS a family ship. I was very surprised to hear people slagging off the ship because of kids running around. Im sorry but if you are old and all you want to do is sit in a chair in peace and quiet, read a book and rot then book a SAGA holiday! Dont moan and spoil it for everybody else! There are other ships out there full of old people that want peace and quiet dont go on Ventura if you dont like to see familys having a good time!
I would also like to say how much i laughed at the lady who said she wasnt pleased to see a 1/2" gap between the floor of the lifts and the corridor! Because somebody might look up her skirt! i do not know of a lift anywhere that finishes flush to the floor and secondly no-body can possibly see anything through a gap that narrow and i doubt that anybody would risk their life in a lift shaft on the off chance of being able to look up her skirt!! pathetic! The only thing i thought that let the ship down was the narrow gaps around the self service buffet areas, people were banging into each other as they worked their way round it was very crowded. A simple horseshoe shape with a clear line would work better just like the Lido on the QE2. but all round very good, a beautiful ship and some great public areas, would definately sail on it again.

I sailed on Ventura from the 17th August to the 31st August and this was our second time with P&O.

We very much enjoyed our holiday on Ventura and there are many qualities it has but there are also some issues, i'll start with these first.
- Balcony cabins on Decks 9 and 10 were overlooked, luckily we were on Deck 11 so this didn't bother us as we were overlooking the cabins not being overlooked.
- If you have booked Club Dining be aware that you are unlikely to get the table size you requested, we were unhappy with our allocation and ended up moving to Freedom Dining which we actually preferred.
- The ship doesn't really cope well with bad sea conditions, as an example Oceana didn't rock much in a Force 8 Gale but Ventura went crazy, we didn't really move out of our cabin much on the 1st sea day, very bad.
- Room service food was good but limited, especially breakfast; this was very unimaginative.
- Corridors very long and some lifts only go certain areas, you need to get used to this.
- Children Very Mad! They were ok in the first week buy by week 2 they got a bit out of hand, spilling things, leaving glasses in lifts etc.

Now for what I thought was very good:
- The Cabins were very nice and well looked after and was always immaculous. The beds were comfy and to our surprise even the upper pullman berth. Very good tea & coffee making facilities, continually stocked. Brilliantly proportioned, bathroom and wardrobe space were great, plenty of towels and toiletries. Also brilliant was the interactive TV where there was a good selection of channels (Sky News, BBC Prime, CNN, Cartoon Network, BBC News) plus a brilliant selection of Films and about 70 TV Shows on demand and free, it was great. You could also get dress guides, order room service, get weather info, news etc.)

- The Waterside and Beach house are good dining venues and I think the food is very nice there, great breakfasts and lovely food all day with some paricularly nice desserts.

- The White Room is FANTASTIC definatley worth the cover charge, excellent service and amazing food, would recommend. Tazzine also worth a mention, very nice drinks.

- Shops were very good and had great gift ideas and nice items that were well priced. A total of 6 shops all very nice.

- Entertainment brilliant, some very good comedians, great shows from very experienced entertainers plus good music all the time and right through the ship, always something to see.

- Promenade Deck was fantastic, we thought it was much nicer than Oceana's there was a better drinks service, better seats and you could walk to the front, very good.

Overall the ship is brilliant, perhaps too many kids but if you're going don't worry just make sure you're aware of the items i listed first, I personally found no real issue with the pools and sunbeds, there are plenty available around the ship. Plus there's a nice adults only pool. I would also recommend you use CPS parking as they drive your car away and then take your luggage back to your car and guide you to where it's parked at the end, so brilliant service & FREE! You will definatley have an enjoyable time as long as the weather stays nice and the Sea stays calm.
Bon Voyage!

This was our first cruise and their is not enough room here to give the ship and its crew justice. From getting off our coach to broading the ship only took 30 mins. Which we thought was very quick and efficient considering the amount of people that were on the ship(the ship was full). The ship was always clean and tidy no matter the time time of day or night. As for our cabin steward every time we left our cabin she came in and cleaned up. The food was always great to eat if i did have a gripe some times thier was't enough we only used the self service buffet on a couple of days and that was ok as well.We were on the freedom dining option which wes ok the only down fall was you could only book two days in advance for dinner and slect dinning was full up months in advance. The white room we used once and had a lovely meal but we did hear some people who used it were not happy. We did hear good feed back about east(more than once) but we never used it. The ships bar staff were always on hand and very quick to attend to your orders. The in house entertainment left a little to be desired but the rest of the entertainment was very good. Their was surpposed to up 700 kids on the but it did,nt feel that way. All in all we met some lovly people and made some new friends. We would use this ship again but will try another in fleet first. And remember take your your walking boots because shes a big girl.

After reading reviews on this ship I went with lots of reservations. They were unfounded, Ventura is fantastic. It was spotlessly clean (even when the Bay of Biscay was hit by torrential weather and everyone came down with sea sickness the toilets etc were kept clean). The food in the Bay Tree restaurant was superb as were our waiters (Senthil and Shanker) and our wine waiter (Ava). The food in the buffet was good for breakfast and lunch but on the one occassion we ate there in the evening it wasnt very good and was a bit like eating in a canteen. We didn't choose to eat in any of the other restaurants but they were not full on any of the fortnight we were on board (17th-31st August)and you could get a booking. The bars we drank in were lovely particularly Ramblas and The Red Bar. The smoking bar was not even worth going near as the smell was horrendous and as a non smoker unbearable! Entertainment was not brilliant, the saving grace was Mick Miller the Comedian who was very funny. The Tate Modern art gallery from London gave a series of talks which were fantastic (and I'm not into art) and the Whitewall Gallery is well worth looking around. My kids aged 16 and 13 had an amazing time and didnt want to come home. The ship is big and does have lots of kids on board but it is advertised as the largest ship built for the Brits and Family friendly and it was in school holidays so what do those who complain expect. Most of the folks who did complain were couples without kids. I have been on Aurora and Oriana so can compare and at the end of the day my family and I had a wonderful time and came back with only happy memories, I would definately go back on Ventura.

We have just returned from Adriatic Adventures after having an absolutely fantastic 16 nights. We loved Ventura although even by the end of the holiday we still didn't totally know our way around! Sometimes all the sunbeds were taken, I agree with other reviews, P and O need to monitor this, however we always found somewhere to sit near the pools and when the beds became available we moved. Freedom dining worked well for us, some nights we could dine with the children, sometimes meet up with my parents, sometimes sit with other people which was always pleasant and sometimes we ate as a couple. We could eat at whatever time we liked usually fitting it around the shows. The two nights we had to wait it was no longer than 20 minutes. The other restaurants especially the White Room are worth a try. We found all the staff extremely friendly and most of the other passengers we chatted to were enjoying themselves. Some people like to make comparisons with other chips and did seem to focus on the negative.
For the children it was fantastic, the clubs are well staffed and resourced and every day is different. My youngest went in the Night Nursery most evenings and was really happy to do so, it meant she got a really good sleep every night therefore making the most of each day.
Cabins are great, really good size, well looked after, liked the interactive TV and choice of films.
Overall we had a fantastic holiday, we went determined to enjoy ourselves and it was not difficult.
There are a few 'teething' problems on the ship, but nothing major. Stand back, relax and enjoy...it over all too soon!

Spent two weeks on board travelling the Med. It was ab fab. We read the reviews before going and felt a little down hearted but we need not have worried. The Ventura is big but it is advertised as that. It was full of families with children but it is advertised as a family ship. We had previously travelled on Aurora and Oriana and can say it compared well. If I had to choose between them I would have to say Oriana is a favourite but that would not stop me going on Ventura again.