Just returned from a fantastic holiday aboard Ventura to the Baltics. This was our 3rd P & O cruise and we loved it just as much as the previous cruises. When we arrived at Southampton and had our first glimps of Ventra we just couldn't believe her size, she is enormous. Our Room was on the 12th Deck, spotlessly clean and we really liked the new layout, with the bunks sunk into the ceiling, our Cabin Steward (Joseph) was lovely. We thought the food in the buffet restaurants was really good, some mornings it was a bit crowded, (probably worse on port days as most people were leaving the ship on trips), but with a bit of patience we always found a seat. Our main dining room was the Saffron, which we really enjoyed, but due to the fantastic facilities the Den had to offer we rarely were accompanied by our children. We managed to have a meal in East and I must say both the service and the food was fantastic. Our waitress (Lisa) was lovely, so cheerful and nothing was any bother to her. It was well worth the cover charge. The White Room was equally as nice. The entertainment most nights was great, a few of the comedians were a bit flat, but the main comedian Gary was fantastic, I believed that he filled the Theatre every time and the mind reader had people baffled for days. The trips were fantastic, although we were a bit disappointed not to get into Copenhagen, due to the weather ??? Not to sure what they meant because it didn't look that bad, but who am I to say. St.
Petersburg was wonderful I think it must be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen, and the sail away from here and also Warnemunde left a tear in your eye. Frankis Pizzaria was a favorite with the kids, staff really friendly. The kids club on board was, in the words of my children, "absolutly minted" they had a ball and hated the thought of having to go ashore incase they missed anything. The only down side was that we were on second dining and liked going to the late shows but the kids club closed at 11 the shows didn't finish until 11.30, which left them in limbo till we got back. We loved Ventura and will certainly cruise on her again. The only criticism we would have was of the rudeness of some of the older passangers and way that they spoke to the waiters in the Waterside/Beach House had me cringing and most of the time it was because there were no clean teaspoons (use the other end of your fork if you have too). The way they treated the children also was a bit sad, they only have to check the brochure and where it states FREE CHILDREN they should avoid it like the plague if they are going to complain that "the children are making too much noise in the pool" or the classic that our neighbour pulled our 10 year old son up for was to stop letting the cabin door bang closed. Another we heard was a passenger complained that there was no Molton and Brown in the bathroom (bring you own)!! Or the lady that complained that there was a gap on the floor as you stepped out of the lift (approx 0.5 of a Cm) because someone might see up her skirt - I had a good laugh at that one. All-in-all we loved the Ventura and like any other new ship there will be a learning curve, but a year down the line i'm sure it will all be plain sailing.

I'm not sure where Darrin from Mansfield got the idea from that there was 700 children on board Ventura on her Balic trip. There was infact less than 200. Not that many considering the ship carries 3,200 passengers.
We had originally hoped to go on Ventura in August when she would visit Venice, but 3 day after the holidays went on sale, it was full, the previous two weeks were unsuitable, so the Baltic cruise sounded perfect, purely because we had never been before and it sounded wonderful, we knew we wouldn't be disappointed. I remember on 2 occasions when around Russia, sitting in a quiet corner of Metropolis, watching the sun go down, a truly wonderful sight, well work keeping the children up that bit later to see. So it was for these reasons alone that we went, not because of the free child places. We have cruised 5 times before and this is the first time we been able to take advantage of the added bonus of free children.
We love cruising because you know your chidren are playing with and forming friendships with nice children in a safe environment. It is such a shame that in this day and age that our children are not allowed to be children especially when on holiday. I know children can make noise and do sometimes make mistakes, but surely it is by doing so that they learn from them.
As for the door banging. There must be more than 1,500 doors on board that are fitted with a spring hinge and are meant to close freely behind you. So perhaps for a moment look at the biggar picture. Could the door banging not be a design fault of the ship rather than the fault of a 10 year old merely being a typical child and due to the excitement of meeting new friends and a thirst for adventure, leaving in a hurry allowing the door to close freely behind, like i'm sure many other people on board would do. In hotels all over the world there will always be elements of noise, be it from doors closing, t.v's, lifts, footsteps in corridors etc.
Perhaps a more relaxing and quieter holiday resort next year would be better, can I suggest the moon or perhaps therapy.

I'm writing this review in defence of Darren from Mansfield.The Rennie family from West Lothian just let their children run riot. A few other passengers had commented on their behaviour and only Darren had the guts to complain. I was there on A deck with my husband and two children who are no angels but were very well behaved.
The Rennie children WERE seen and heard to be banging the doors intentionally so much so that it did wake myself and my children up a few times. Mr & Mrs Rennie were seen a few times getting rather drunk in the bars and although they were not rowdy i feel they did not set a good example to their children.

I suggest that it is they who need therapy instead of writing ridiculous reviews slagging off other genuine passengers who did nothing but give a truthful overview of their holiday.

Anyway, without sinking to the Rennie familys level here is my true account of the Ventura.

This was our first cruise as a family and we very much enjoyed our cabin. We had an inside cabin which was very comfortable.
The food on board was excellent and even during the day there was so much choice.

I was told by one of the reps that there were quite alot of other children onboard which was great for my 2 children. They were very well looked after and my son who is 13 enjoyed the use of the pools but there were some inconsiderate children who were jumping and diving when they were not supposed to. There were no lifeguards to be seen.

The entertainment was very good, the shows were very well produced and certainly worth the status of west end level.Although it did get very busy in the theatre as i understand that some people were unable to get a seat.

We all enjoyed the experience and we will certainly be going on another cruise. We may try the Oceana next time as I understand from many people that it is very good.I just hope there are no more families like the Rennies as i'm sure many people will be put off.

At the risk of repeating some of the points made below, here are my thoughts on "Tranquil Fjords" (13th-20th June 08).

We have cruised on Aurora before and many years ago on Canberra. We found Ventura mildly disappointing I'm afraid. Stupidly, I thought that a larger ship would mean larger public areas and more of them. This is not the case and the ship feels very crowded most of the time compared with Aurora. I got the feeling that more passengers and sililar facilities = more profit...

I admit that musical theatre is not really my thing but I had to walk out of "Chronicles" about 15 mins in. It was clearly designed for the sole purpose of showing off some strength/balancing acts which would have been more at home in a circus. There was no attempt at a plot of any kind.

Another irritating feature of the cruise was the very intrusive and loud pop music being played nearly everywhere. I'm relatively young, only 40, but this gets right on my wick! If I wanted music wherever I went, I'd buy an iPod. I don't, so I don't have one!

On the plus side the kids had a great time in 'The Den' although we found the staff there not quite as enthusiastic as we'd met before.

The cabin (one of the cheapest) was larger than we expected and very well appointed.

The food was not very ambitious or exotic but our waiters were excellent. In fact, all the crew we encountered were very courteous.

I was going to book a table in 'The White Room' for our anniversary but it was fully booked for the entire cruise on day 1. I then enquired about 'East' but when I discovered the £20 per head cover charge I thought better of it. We had a good bottle of wine instead!

We won't choose Ventura again unless it is heavily discounted as you get a much better cruise experience on Aurora for the same money.

If P&O can fill Ventura year after year at current prices, then good luck to them but I've a feeling they'll struggle.

The Mediteranean cruise which ended today(30th May to 13 June) was our 4th P&O cruise, and obviously the 1st on ventura and it will be the last. The standard of food, service and cleanliness is nothing like the usual high standards of P&O. Our opinion, and many others, is that they've got greedy and shoe-horned 3200 people into a space nowhere near big enough. Most of the day it's manageable-but-busy but at peak times it's like a football crowd with sticks.

Every morning, the public decks carried the mess and litter of the night before, and one half-finished desert stayed on the outside of the public open deck for 3 days!

We heard from crew members that the ship was well short of full crew, and there were clearly things half-finished, or not started. The Cinema doesn't yet exist, and people at home will have bigger scalextric tracks than the much-publicised one wheeled out for an hour a day on-board.

Other things behind the scenes were not working, with no hot water for the whole ship for a whole afternoon\evening - this at the height of the Norovirus outbreak! One little girl was injured when the jaccuzi malfunctioned and we heard from a staff member that all the jacuzzis were not set up right and would have to be changed, and until then couldn't be used! I saw P&O staff photographing the inside of the jaccuzi so there must be something wrong.

The entertainment was fairly good, and someone deserves a medal for devising ways of introducing a boy/girl balancing act into every conceivable show. The first time we saw them we were impressed but if ever a horse was flogged it's this one.

The food in the main dinner restaurants was good but choices are fewer and sometimes service was very slow - 40 minutes between courses. The staff will probably suffer, as people won't tip as usual, and there was a feeling among them of despondency - not something we've seen before on P&O. Of the 5 crew who answered my question, 4 said they preferred their old ship and the 5th was new!

We travelled as a family group with a total of 6 children, and the kids' clubs were good. All of ours enjoyed it. It's just as well, because out of the kids clubs they were criticised at every turn by the older passengers, some of whom did nothing but complain. Why these people book onto a family ship is beyond us - there are ships designed and run specifically for these people, with no children allowed, but they come on family ships and spend a fortnight moaning and complaining. One middle-aged man told me he had suffered ill-mannered behaviour such as queue-jumping and barging every day, and in each case it was one of the older generation!

We will return to P&O, as the 2000-passenger ships are so much better run, but we feel Ventura will struggle after the fuss of its maiden year.

Have just returned back from 7 nights in the Norwegian Fjords, before we sailed I read every review I could find and have to say I was extremely dubious about our forthcoming holiday, needless to say we have had a fabulous week on board a wonderful ship.

The staff throughout the ship are as courteous and friendly as always, our waiters were good fun and always happy to help, our cabin steward although quiet did a wonderful job. We stayed in a mini suite D310 on Deck 9, having previously stayed in a mini suite on Oceana we were slightly disappointed with it, but that is our opinion. It was nicely decorated, always spotlessly clean, good storage space and lovely comfy beds. The balcony had a square dining table and 2 chairs on it .... there are NOT loungers on the balconies of mini suites. The balcony is also overlooked by everyone else's balcony too!!

Food was plentiful. Yes the Beach House and Waterside is fairly basic and often the same but it's fine. It's always busy in there too. We ate in Bay Tree, though visited Saffron for afternoon tea one afternoon which was very traditional and we enjoyed it. The kids loved Frankies for pizza and hot dogs etc. Poked our heads in East, White Room and Ramblas but did not eat in there. Wanted to do Tapas but never got round to it!!

Entertainment from what we saw in the evening was good. We saw the theatre group do Saturday Night Fever, rumour was that 2 of the cast were X Factor or Britains Got Talent auditionees??? Good show. Also saw Stu Francis who kept us amused for an hour. Lots of daytime activities to do for all ages. Vist the cirque de ventura on top deck .... you can learn to juggle, trapeze, bungee trampoline, breakdance and hula hoop, staff were great fun and very friendly.

Kids club ... our children were in the Den (9-12 yrs). They can come and go as they please, the room is bright and spacious with PS3's, plasma screen with music videos and movies, dance mat, air hockey table. They all eat together in the Beach House at 5.30pm and their activities are fab. The days are jam packed and as usual we struggled to get them to spend time with us!!

Destinations for us were Bergen, Flaam, Olden and Stavanger. It was nice that each port offered easy access to it's places. No shuttle buses needed you could just get off and walk doing your own thing. If you visit Flaam, would highly recommend you pre book the excursion for the railway, we wished we had after listening to people's comments .... apparently the scenery is stunning.

We had relatively good weather for the week. Loved the Ventura, would we sail on her again ???
Try and stop us.

We returned yesterday from the Norweigan Fjord Cruise (Myself, My Husband, Dauhter, Son-In-Law Grandson (10) GrandDaughter (8)
We all went on the Oceana last year & decided to try this new ship & we were not disappointed. Having read some of the reviews prior to going we were rather concerned at the negative views.
EVERYTHING about this ship is First Class (amd might I add we are ALL very fussy..even the Grandchildreen especially where cleanliness & hygiene are concerned. Everywhere was spotless. My only "gripe" was the Exchange Bar. You had to walk throug to get to another part of the ship and it was always smokey. Very surprised smoking was allowed on the ship at all! The staff cannot do enough for you. We had 2 lovely waiters in The bay tree restaurant (Ravinder & Olwyn) Food was lovely and plenty of choice.We had a nice cabin with Balcony on Deck 14. Towels changed twice a day. The "Family" had a Family Suite on Deck 9 . Both cabins were roomy with plenty of Storage Space. (I needed it with the amount of luggage I took!!!) The Children had the time of their lives. They are safe on the ship and kept busy in the Children's club from 10 in the morning until 11 at night on a sea day. On a shore day they wanted to get back to go to the club. We hardly ever saw them.
Some critics have complained about the amount of Children. This is a FAMILY ship...there are 2 Adult only ships in the fleet. Also complaints about the amount of Children as it was term time. For those who are not aware you can take your Child out of school for 10 days during the year. Besides, if a particular cruise (such as the Fjord one) is what you want and it only goed certain times of the year then you must go at that time.
Hubby & I are both 65 and we found it was our age group (or older) who compain the most and who are the rude ones. They moan about the Children but we found them all very well behaved. We only saw 2 shows and they were good.
We would sail on Ventura again, but maybe in a year or two. Next year we have booked the Oriana (just the 2 of us as Family not Cruising next year)
All in all a very enjoyable holiday

The ship was pretty clean, but it should be it is less than2 months old.
Buffet food ok, except for sweets, mailnly cake in vivid colours, late buffet poor though.
Breakfast in dining room generally ok, but shortage of staff, toast al delivered to the table at once and atstart of meal, so cold when eating. Have to ask for water, nobody filling up coffee cups. My wife likes green tea, and always got a loose tea bag, no pot and then nowhere to put tea bag.
ist sitting for dinner, 4 years since last sailed with P & O definately gone downwards, if they did not get most of customers from the South of England and mainly those whom have never sailed with anybody else, thentheywould be in trouble. 2009 they will be looking for first time cruisers as I cant see many repeat bookings, of the many people I talked with nobody had a good word to say about it.
Evening meals short on choice, last evenings meal worst of the week, wine expensive £4 for a 175 ml glass of what you could buy in the supermarket for less.Big ship, too many cabins, not enough space. On average Princess carry 500 fewer, dread to think what it will be like sailing to the Med in school holidays, if the weather is not warm and suny thenstay in your cabin, although you wont have anywhere to sit, except on the bed, in the main a lot of poor design, cazbin could have been far better designed, do they not consult Cruisers, Nowhere for the Captain to meet people and have your photo taken, no cinema, Havana room the worst design I have ever seen, think it was done by Frankie Detori, Atrium far too small, no wow factor anywhere. Ventura Theatre Company excellent, but not the same thing every night in just a different way, they will be burnt out with thre shows a night within three months
One thing that was excellent was the Art Gallery, all priced up at reasonable prices in the main, with knowledgable staff, we bought 3 pictures, not the usual Timeshare sales person, trying to sellin the main cheap prints. No decent toileteries, large cabin menu, but a great deal of it to pay for
It proved one thing that P & O dont do big
Why has the ship reverted to the old propellor system and not pods as it had a lot of vibration towards the stern, I would not have like one of theexpensive stern cabins.
No decent dancing, just loud music I am sure most P & O passengers will be reverting to the smaller ships
The whole ship was bland. I have another cruise booked for the end of the year RC, then in spring 09 Princess followed by late 09 our favourite Celebrity and in 2010 Artemis down the Amazon although after reading the reports am having second thoughts.

Ventura was, after all the hype, very disappointing. Billed as a cruise ship for the British Market it clearly serves only a part of that market and does not meet all its promises. It is big (we knew that) but it is also brash and gimicky. It does not cater for P & O's bread and butter clients - those who are regular cruisers who have come to expect a certain all-round standard and "Britishness" from P & O.

We arrived at the Mayflower Centre after an appalling traffic jam in the dock area. If P & O want to run so big a ship they will have to address this. The cabin was good. The ship was pretty clean, the lifeboat drill for so many passengers immediately highlighted the lack of seating, food was fair, but menus were repetitive and not as good as those enjoyed on other P & O ships. The Saffron dining room seemed to have a rather low ceiling for so large a room and it was also dark and our circular dining table for four was very small. The waiters were good. Staff generally were good though there were exceptions like shop staff who shouted to their colleagues across the Atrium.

Entertainment with the odd exception was poor (and why "adult humour on a family ship?) and the Cruise Director was virtually invisible. There was no cinema despite promises of a 3D one. The theatre was good but amplification far too loud. (The general P.A. system was very poor also - you simply could not hear announcements.) The art area was good and there were many good paintings and prints to savour, but why put so much space into this and miss out on other things?

A library without any seating, no card-room, so that people were having to play games in bars, in restaurants, and preventing others from sitting there, a dance-floor that might cater for 30 couples on a ship for over 3000, a promenade deck that allowed you to walk only part-way around the ship on one level and that you then climb quite a long way up steps to the next floor if you wanted to go around the bow area, before going down again to the promenade on the other side, the promenade itself narrow and not of wood but made of some compound that is already ballooning and unsafe, films shown in the Tamarind Club with too level a floor, seats in club configuration, lamps sticking up in your vision - and balloons added for good measure; there is all this and more to criticise.

We did not go into Copenhagen - it was said that the Captain feared that it would get too windy for us to get out safely. That seemed fair enough though one wonders if the size and newness of the ship did not play a part in the decision making. We then did not go into Stockholm but anchored out a Nynashamn and were bussed into the city - an hour's crive. We wonder why.

What really seems to be wrong, apart from the design decisions, is management within the ship. There were staff who didn't really seem to know what was happening, there was an absence of on the deck management, clocks were not changed when the hour changed, and on one occasion we walked along the deck where there were three clocks every one of which showed a different and wrong time. A representative of management should sit in the Tamarind Club and watch a two hour long film from one of the seats off-centre and behind a lamp, and listen to the rattling of glasses in the bar, and the talk and laughter of those who walk across the back of the club where the corridor is open to the club itself. Or he should try to listen to a classical concert in there, like we did, when the lifeboat is raised so that the piano has to stop because it cannot be heard! Of course they stopped serving drinks during the concert, but it did not stop the bar staff from walking around re-stocking the bar!

We are booked on Ventura again in February/March. We are hoping to change the booking.

My wife and myself have been on 3 other cruises and decided to give Ventura a try.I really don't think P&O can really cope with such a big ship. We went on the Baltic Splendour cruise and there were definitely 700 kids on board as we were told by a number of the staff who then informed us that there would be 800 on the next cruise.
Having read the smug comments on here from passengers with kids (Rennie family, west Lothian) yes we were well aware that it is a family ship and have sailed on other ships before that allow kids and they've never been an issue but on this cruise it was a total nightmare.
They took over all the pools including the only adult pool and although there were big signs stating NO JUMPING OR DIVING, they just ignored them and the parents didn't give a damn! Late at night there were a few teenagers who were staggering around obviously drunk and unsupervised. It was a total disgrace!
The food was very good, we had breakfast and evening meals in the Saffron restaurant but trying to get a seat in the Waterside restaurant for lunch was nigh on impossible, no matter what time you went.
The staff were very friendly and always looked very smart.
The entertainment was very good, the shows in the arena theatre were first class.Problem was there were limited seats especially if you went to the second show.The 8.45 show was very popular because at one point some friends we met had to miss one of the shows as they could not get a seat.
Would I sail on Ventura again? NO! I don't pay good money to have kids running around unsupervised having no respect for other people. Far be it from me to stop people from enjoying themselves but have a bit of respect for other passengers. All the other reviews on here from passengers moaning about the older passengers attitude towards the kids obviously cashed in on the 'kids go free' offer and without sounding snobbish, it's a recipe for disaster because you end up with some badly behaved families and that's exactly what we all got!