New to cruising and Ventura looked wonderful - yes great ship, but a hopeless hotel. We believed the description of Freedom Dining - all untrue. We found that expecting a table for two on a luxury holiday was pure folly! Sit next to Bert and Ethel if you wish - it isn't how we planned a classy and romantic evening meal - so we didn't. All options very limited or not available (White Room fully booked from first day). Our 'junior suite' was very small and our cabin on the port side was the 'smoking side' (no-one mentioned that before!).
Prepare to sip champagne on your balcony with fag ash and butts drifting down from above. Cabin wasn't that clean considering it was only its second voyage - looked like vomit smeared on the wallpaper - we cleaned it with wet wipes - yuk!
Embarkation and the 'Express embarkation' (don't believe it) were chaos (as described by one of the crew)Think 1500 passenger and sometimes only one gangway.
In conclusion, we have never spent so many hours on a holiday queuing and the dining experience is abysmal.
Enjoy looking at Ventura - but don't waste your money unless you enjoy spending thousands on a floating bingo club - NEVER AGAIN!

Fantastic Ship
Great Food
Excellent Service
Overall a great holiday.
Definitely recommend this ship.

We travelled 9 - 23 May Spain, Madeira, Canaries and Lisbon.
Obviously this ship is spotlessly clean being only a couple of months old. We found there were a number of issues that were not related to the 'normal' whindging like weather or rough seas. The layout was somewhat confusing especially considering how big this ship is, discreet markings would be very helpful as in many areas you cannot see the direction of travel and head off the wrong way.
Food in the main restaurants was very good generally with reservations concerning the steak which all agreed was tough, but this was a one off. The waiters were adequate but on other ships we found them much friendlier and would engage in a little entertainment but not on Ventura.
The top deck Waterside and Beach Buffet Restaurants were usually crowded, breakfast in these was poor, toast like iron, hard fried eggs, greasy bacon,,,cannot recommed - breakfast in the main restaurants far superior. The White Room food was sublime our only disappointment being that we were unable to book again as itwas full for the rest of the cruise, shame. The Ramblas was good for Tapas, East we did not try as we felt the menu poor and we understood it service was lacking when busy.
Staff were OK but this ship relies heavily on interactive technology and as others have stated there are no announcements to the cabins and we found very few announcements other than tour announcements.
The senior crew did not mingle at night other than for a couple of 'cocktail with the crew, hours, again on other ships the senior staff would eat with the guests, not on Ventura. All othe rstaff were adequate but distant we felt, most of the staff appear to have been recriuted in India, which in itself is not an issue but showed a noticable lack of diversity and different characters.
Entertainment during the day we cannot comment on as we were off the ship mostly but I went to a 'How to edit digital photos' talk and was very surprised to find a ,nominal, fee of £20 applied, so I walked.
Steve Womack and Kev Erkian were two comedy acts of high calibre, the other four comedians were DIRE!
Two groups, Magic and Rang A Tang were the highlights of the entertainment for us, we would pay to see them in the future. The shows were professional and good but not to our taste, there were also singers, light music, pianists who were OK if you like that sort of thing. Cinema during the day was in the Tamarind Club which like Havana has a design fault inasmuch as the dividing barriers are too high and obscure your view.
The most active part of the crew seemed to be the photographers, I thought the cost too high but there are interactive terminal too have your own shots developed which were good value.
We only did two tours which were OK as we had been to all the destinations before.
Overall a good effort but the ship comes across as somewhat impersonal, work needed on buffet food and entertainment - what 3D cinema?
I am unsure if the aircon was turned down as it was not particularly hot weather but if not this will be a very hot ship in the high season.
Still I am sure it will be a succesful ship and in time no doubt all the little niggles will be resolved.

Having read previous reports I'm not sure I sailed on the same ship. We both had an excellent holiday on Ventura, the ship's public areas were spotless as were the cabins. The food could not be faulted and neither could the staff in the restaurants. Breakfast buffet was admittedly the same every day but what else can you do with breakfast? The food was hot and buffet kept well stocked with good choice of fruits and cereals. Service at dinner was excellent and the food unsurpassed.Only complaint - the weight I put on during the cruise! The public areas were beautiful, we particularly loved ramblas bar for an after show drink. Not sure where everyone else went in the evening but we seemed to have the bar pretty much to ourselves. The ship was certainly not crowded considering the number of people on board. The theatre company was brilliant as were the shows each evening. Would definately recommend this ship to anyone. Our only criticism, too many children. Maybe P&O might consider an adults only pool as they have onboard Aurora.

first time on a cruise
fantastic
i found out where we going,what we would be doing,
is the ship for families, or old couples before we booked.
anyone who moaned, should have done the same
we have booked again
my son is getting married on ship

I have to say that I was spured on to write this review as I am so dissappointed with some of the reviews so far. I have to say that from the first moment to the last my husband could not have enjoyed ourselves more, in fact we were trying to find out how we could stow away so that we could do it all over again!

We were made to feel like royalty and every querie was dealt with professionally and promptly, and I have to say that I did not see anyone being treated any differently. Most of the grumbles that I heard on board were to say that the ship was too big but as Ventura was clearly advertised as the largest ship in the P&O fleeet I don't feel that those complaints are justified.

The food was fantastic as were the staff, accomodation and entertainment it really was truely a wonderful holiday, one which I would recommend.

The only slight critism I have of the whole week was that the night before we left all passengers were asked to leave their suitcases outside their rooms ready for collection this made it tricky for wheelchairs and scotters to pass. Perhaps a sign on the door advising staff that your suitcases were ready would have been a better idea??

Altogether a five star rating from us!

As a ship- far too big and definitely far too noisy. Every bar was overcrowded, apart from Ramblas. There were no bars where you could actually have a quite drink unlike Andersons on the Aurora and the Crows Neds on both Aurora and Oriana.

To put a Gym on a ship this size in the best location ie the Crows Nest area was the biggest sin of all. On a ship this size who needs a large gym, the length of the corridors was unbelieveable.

I think P & O have completely lost the plot. They are cutting corners completely, they have encouraged people to take more and more cruises, you reach the Gold Club and slowly perks are eroding, one by one.

The number of children on this cruise was unbelieveable, especially when children with dummies were sitting at the bag up to midnight with their parents. All I can say is shame on the parents.

Days at sea became more and more difficult to find a lounger to sunbathe on and everything is so tightly packed on the decks it is very difficult to move in between beds.

Food: Not as good and up to the usual P & O Standards. Selection was not very good, no mention that it is possible to order a steak if there is anything you do not like - albeit you could order one but no-one told you so.

We visited the White Room and had to send two meals back it was so badly cooked, having said that the staff bent over backwards to put things right but after spending £20 per head plus £20 for a bottle wine, bearing in mind we had already paid for our food on board, we found it very disappointing, - no comparison to Gary Rhodes restaurant on the Oriana. 10/10 for Gary, 0/10 for Marco.

We sailed on 2nd-9th may 2008.
This was our first cruise and we had a wonderful time.What a great introdution to cruising! The whole experience was fantastic, the food was lovely, we opted for freedom dining and we would highly recommend it. we could literally turn up at any time and a table would be available even when we requested a table for two. On one night only we had to wait 30 minutes for a table and we were given a pager device which informed us when our table was ready, this enabled us to relax and have a drink in any of the bars. The entertainment was excellant with a good selection of acts to see(apart from a couple of comedians who we found were quite poor)The ship was keep spotless at all times and the staff were excellant. During our cruise we did hear a couple of negative comments from regular cruisers that the ship was too big! As the ship had been advertised as the biggest what were they expecting? We would definatly cruise on the Ventura again!!

This was the first cruise we have taken in company with a three year old. I was very impressed with the whole ship. The child care facilities are excellent, very clean and full of new and interactive games and toys. There was a wide variety of activities planned, our daughter could not keep out of the club, very motivated staff who appear to enjoy their work. Food was excellent, well done to the staff for catering so well for so many people. Some reviews have mentioned slow service in the restaurants, I had no experience of this and could not fault the quality or friendliness of all of the staff. Cabin space was very good, balconies are not private and can be overlooked, but I have no real problem if someone can see me having a beer in the sun. This is very much a family orinetated ship. I heard a number of, shall we say, older passengers complaining about the number of children on board. Surely, the fact that Noddy features heavily on the promotions for the ship gives a slight hint as to the flavour of the ship. Tender ports were not good, avoid going ashore first thing and don't try and come back across lunch. Embarking the ship was well organised, although the queuse on the dock roads took an hour to get through, once into the check in hall it was a matter of minutes from checking in to getting on the ship, far better than any airport offering. Disembarkation is not a pleasant experience, a vast hall full of luggage and trollies, although again when compared to a standard airport offering probably not a lot worse. On the whole, excellent ship, great food, first class child facilities and looking forward to going on the same ship next year.

The ship was clean and the food was excellent as usual with plenty of choice. The staff remain pleasant but I found them to be rather rushed at times. Very disappointing to find that the 3D cinema was not going to be available ? why, no member of staff knew why. Library also disappointing as there was nowhere to play board games or do jig saw puzzles and no chairs available. Due to the number of passengers it was very difficult when going ashore due to the long queues, sometimes queuing for 40 minutes to get off the ship and the same appled to going into the theatre in the evening, you had to queue at 8.15 p.m. to get in to see the see the 8.45 p.m. show. The Ventura theatre group were excellent but the other artistes left a lot to be desired. The quiz at 11 p.m. each evening is far too late due to the fact that they have to wait for the room to become available after freedom dining has finished. I don't think I will be going back on Ventura as it isn't as homely as Oriana.