Selbourne

FINAL THOUGHTS Another enjoyable cruise. Having had cruises on Ventura, Iona and Britannia over the last four months, we have now firmly dispelled any fears that the post-Covid P&O may no longer be for us. Only one of the much publicised cut backs (guest lecturers) impacts significantly on our cruise experience, most others having just negligible impacts. In the case of evening turn down service, we actually prefer not having it. We wouldn’t rush to do another Canaries cruise but this, like the weather, is nothing to do with P&O. We just prefer all the other ex-U.K. destinations. We loved Ventura as a ship and felt considerably more at home on her than we did on Iona. I hope that my ramblings over the past fortnight have provided some interest and light relief. It is always my intention to be 100% honest, whether that be reporting good or bad things. Hopefully, whether you agree with my views or not, they come over as being balanced. So, here are our Top 5 likes and dislikes with Ventura; LIKES Traditional cruise ship ambiance. You feel that you are on a ship and we love the classic theming throughout. Food. With a few minor exceptions, the food on the ship was excellent, especially in the main dining rooms. Service. Again, excellent. Almost every staff member that we interacted with gave excellent service. Unlike Iona, we never felt that any area of the ship was under staffed. Accessibility. The lifts on Ventura are large and reliable. The ship also attracts a clientele that is considerate to the needs of those with disabilities. We had none of the issues of lift access or poor behaviours that somewhat blighted our Iona experience. WiFi. First time I’ve ever used it, but the usability and speed were both significantly better than I had anticipated. DISLIKES Stability. Ventura doesn’t seem to cope with rough seas as well as some of the other ships. Guest Speakers. Not enough and poor subject matter. A cut back too far. Air Conditioning. Insufficient cooling for passenger comfort. Many areas of the ship are too warm (inc cabin, even with a/c on lowest setting) Restricted Promenade Deck Access. Frequent roping off of doors to the promenade deck for no logical reason, when the deck itself is actually open Cabin TVs. Far too small. Poor picture quality. Woeful user interface. Fit for the bin. In conclusion, I would say that the things that we liked the most (certainly the first four) are the most important aspects of a cruise for us (in addition to itinerary). Our dislikes were extremely minor points in comparison and do not, in any way, ‘balance out’ the positives. We would book Ventura again in a heartbeat, but next time it will be somewhere other than the Canaries!

DAY 15 - Saturday 11th November (Disembarkation) We vacated our cabin just before the 8am deadline and went to the foreword lift area. There were already two other wheelchair users there who claimed to have been waiting 20 minutes. However, it rapidly became clear to me that they were being far too passive, and letting lifts go that they might have had half a chance of getting in, so I stepped in and after 5 minutes I’d managed to marshall a few lifts of passengers to get them on their way. We then managed to nab a lift that was going up, so we got in that to come back down again. Needs must. To get to the MDR for breakfast we had to walk through the pub, which was the accessibility assistance point. Packed as usual. We were given a pager for breakfast and whilst we were waiting I chatted to a couple of the assistance guys who were waiting for general disembarkation to begin. I mentioned that we don’t use the service anymore and explained why. Their response was interesting. They said that they had been told that it’s changing in December in order to try to minimise the abuse of the service and their understanding was that the only people who would be allowed to use the assistance service would be those who have submitted the on board needs forms declaring genuine mobility issues. We shall see. I was also interested to hear that the assistance staff no longer have passes to get lift priority and they prioritise those who are booked on coaches. Whether or not it’s true that the assistance policy is changing I don’t know, but it might explain why we have received emails this week for each of our forthcoming P&O and Cunard cruises, stressing that if we have any accessibility issues and haven’t flagged them in advance we might be denied boarding, and that they have actually been doing this with some passengers recently. I was quite relieved that we had a table for two for breakfast. I have no knowledge of whether or not we had any viruses on board doing the rounds, but it has been noticeable over the past few days that a number of people were coughing. If I had a cough or a cold on a cruise, I wouldn’t share a table, for fear of giving it to others, but some people can be less considerate. Once we’d finished our breakfast I did as I now do on all our cruises. We got in the first lift, straight to deck 5, joined the very short queue and walked straight off the ship. When in the lift within the Mayflower terminal a couple of pushers, who had obviously been given horror stories by the couple that they were escorting off, said “you survived the rough seas then”? I replied that it had been a bit bumpy but that we’d had worse on previous cruises. By their scoffing reactions, the elderly couple clearly thought that it would not be possible to have experienced worse than we had just been through 😂 We got a porter quickly and after getting stuck in a bit of congestion (caused by a chap who kept stopping in the middle of the main flow and faffing about with his trolley, oblivious to the throngs of people behind him trying to get past) I miraculously spotted our two cases within seconds. Exiting the luggage hall was much quicker than it had been when we’d disembarked Iona but for the first time in countless cruises there were actually customs officers doing checks on some people. According to our porter, they had caught a number of people who’d gone over their duty free limits. CPS pick up was lightening fast and our car was just a few spaces from the kiosk in a disabled bay, so we were loaded and off within minutes. No traffic issues getting out of Southampton and we were home just after midday. I shall make one final post shortly with our final thoughts on the cruise and the ship.

They implied that the offers change monthly Bob and that the current offer was somewhat exceptional but, as I pointed out, whilst the discounts might be good, the start prices are very high, so I didn’t consider the prices they are asking to be a good deal. Also, the OBC offered was more than we’d spend. Makes more sense for us to have a much lower headline price with no OBC and then get loyalty discount on on-board spend.

DAY 14 - Friday 10th November (Sea Day) Well it was a rough old night and it got worse as the morning went on. It was nigh on impossible to stand still in one spot without hanging on to something and, when you did walk, one minute you were walking up a steep hill and the next running down the other side 😂 After our outward crossing there were a few first timers vowing not to go on another cruise, so I suspect that those views have hardened rather than softened as this cruise has gone on! I don’t think it’s helped matters that Ventura and Azura don’t seem to handle rough weather quite as well as some of the other P&O ships. As hardened seafarers we braved the aft MDR for breakfast 😂. I’ve now discovered that they only accommodate 100 covers in the Bay Tree MDR at breakfast, hence why it’s never advertised as open and a request for a table for 2 usually involves a wait. I even managed a cooked breakfast! We couldn’t really do anything during the day as it was so choppy, so we just relaxed in our cabin and after lunch in the MDR we broke the back of our packing. We then went to Tazzine for a drink and, when returning the library books, I noticed that the future cruises desk was free, so I enquired about on board offers. The current deal is 10% discount plus triple OBC on all cruises of 16 nights or more, up to Autumn 2025 (plus low deposit). We got quotes for 2 cruises (one each for Arcadia and Aurora) but, even after all these discounts, they were still more than we are prepared to pay, so whilst the offer may sound good it may be an expensive time to book those cruises. Pre dinner we went to Metropolis and were delighted that the pianist did a James Bond melody that he’d mentioned earlier in the cruise. As it was our last visit I tipped the drinks waiter who’d managed to keep me supplied with Doom Bars that hadn’t been spoiled in a fridge 😂. Our final dinner of the cruise was in Epicurean and after a fortnight where the food in the MDR has been a highlight, I’m saddened to have to report that, put simply, the food in Epicurean wasn’t good enough. Yet again, my starter was poor. This time I had what was supposed to be a cheddar ‘mousse’ that, in reality, was hard and tasteless. We both ordered the “whole lobster” and, following the separate thread that someone has started on this subject , I specifically enquired if it was a proper whole lobster including the claws (best part). I was assured that the claw meat is included within the dish, but it wasn’t. One half of the lobster was reasonably OK but I would struggle to fill a tea spoon with the amount of meat from the other half. I mentioned this to the manager and he offered to get me a different main but I knew that I wouldn’t manage it. He kindly gave us both a complimentary aperitif. We both had the crème bruleee with white chocolate sphere, which was just sensational. The ambiance in the restaurant is lovely and the service was good, but given that a meal in Epicurean costs a couple £60 on top of what you have already paid for the included MDR meal, it really should be better than this. Thinking back over our 3 P&O cruises this year, our first meal in Epicurean on Britannia was poor but the other 3 meals were good, so a 75% success rate. On reflection, having had my steaks cooked more than I’d asked and with the lobster being poor, plus two out of three starters being poor, I’d say we had no more than a 50% success rate on Ventura. The only ship where we had a 100% success rate in Epicurean was Iona. By contrast, I’d say that our success rate in the (no extra cost) MDRs has been 95% on all 3 ships 🤔 We didn’t bother with the final show, but I swung by reception to fill out a recommendation card for our deck manager. I also did a final lap of the promenade deck and was pleased to see the lights of the south west coast of England. Tomorrow disembarkation and home, from where I shall post my final report and our final thoughts.

6pm. Still rough but definitely starting to ease. One last photo before I lose my final 24 hour internet. Room service (food only) menu (not that we’ve used it)

Noon announcement - we have 50 miles per hour winds with 70 miles per hour gusts and high swells. Conditions continue to be (quote) “Dynamic”. Thankfully we both continue to feel fine, and will do everything in moderation. These are definitely not the conditions to get pithiviered 🤪

A pithivier (English: /pɪtɪˈvjeɪ/;[1] French: pithiviers, IPA: [pitivje] ⓘ) is a round, enclosed pie usually made by baking two disks of puff pastry, with a filling stuffed in between. It has the appearance of a hump and is traditionally decorated with spiral lines drawn from the top outwards with the point of a knife, and scalloping on the edge. It is named after the French town of Pithiviers, where the dish is commonly assumed to originate.

I’m sure that we are all doing the maths. Shame that P&O didn’t 😂

@Megabear2 was it you who wanted to know how many total covers there are in the two MDRs on Arvia? Well it’s 1,700.

Yes, unused, but our steward tells us he’s had lots of spilled coffee and tea to clear up. Poor chap. His job is challenging enough!

I’m trying to think of things that I’ve not posted that may be of interest to people. Here’s the MDR breakfast menu

DAY 13 - Thursday 9th November (Sea Day) With the rough night that we’d had, we were extremely grateful that the creaking in our cabin had been sorted. When we woke in the morning it wasn’t as rough as the previous night, so if it does start cranking up a few notches from lunchtime (as the Captain had said) we can hopefully cope with it. At this point I should say that the sound insulation between cabins is excellent on Ventura. We haven’t heard any of our neighbours at all the whole cruise, unlike our cruises on Aurora where the lack of sound insulation between cabins has been problematic for many of our cruises on her. The refund for my messed up Seville excursion has now appeared. It wasn’t straight forward and involved 3 frustrating visits to reception (a place that I try to avoid as much as the buffet), but is now sorted. We had a leisurely morning during which time I had my first look around the shops. Someone on this thread had asked me to check if there were any perfume offers. I couldn’t see anything specific, other than the usual £x off etc. Presumably this is a discount against recommended retail price? If so, I’m afraid that I have no idea how this would compare to the normal online offers at home. In the noon announcement the Captain said that sea state was currently better than anticipated, but would worsen as the day progressed due to yet another incoming front. There is a remote chance that we might just keep ahead of it. Let’s hope so as, so far this cruise, we have generally had worse conditions that the captain has forecast. Either way, the heavy seas are likely to last until Friday night. We went to the Glasshouse for our complimentary lunch, courtesy of our excellent deck manager Kasper. I was delighted to see that my favourite Glasshouse dish, the Sea Bass in banana leaf with prawn curried broth was on the menu, so there was no need to look at anything else. Unfortunately, what turned up was a pale imitation of what I have enjoyed dozens of times previously in the Glasshouse on other P&O ships. The sea bass, prawns and rice were all fine, but I could tell the second that it arrived that the broth wasn’t right. It looked very pale and insipid compared to the usual version. The taste matched the look. None of the delicious intense flavours that this dish usually has. I just hope that they haven’t messed with it on Aurora when we are on her in January, as this was my go to dish in the Glasshouse. I hope that it’s not gone the way of the breakfast smoothies across the fleet - watered down and now lacking the flavour and consistency! My wife had the sliders (small burgers) and enjoyed them. It was also nice to have some French fries for a change rather than the thick cut chips that seem to be the only ones available in the MDRs and other restaurants. For dessert I had an Indian Fusion trio and my wife fancied cheese, which was handy as the latter is listed as ‘to share’ and my wife is a light eater, so I knew that some of the cheese would eventually come my way, as it did! Both were really excellent, and it was lovely to have a proper cheese board and not the faux version now served in the MDRs. We decided to go for a coffee in Tazzine afterwards. As we are not sun worshipers, we have never experienced the frustration often reported on this forum caused by the ‘sun lounger hoggers’, who leave towels, books etc on empty sun loungers whilst they are off doing something else, preventing others from using them. Well, as we have now discovered on several occasions, this phenomenon has now extended to the atriums when dance classes are on. For some reason, some of those participating in dance classes feel that it is acceptable to reserve chairs with bags or books for the entire duration of their dance class, thus depriving a seat to those who wish to sit down and buy a drink. I’m afraid that I couldn’t bring myself to do as some do on the sun decks and move their belongings off the chairs and sit down, but it’s sorely tempting as such selfishness can bring out the worst in me 😂 By this time the sea was definitely getting a lot rougher but, thanks to some preventative sea sickness tablets that we’d taken when we got up, we both felt fine. The juddering was now adding to the motion. As this was the penultimate night of the cruise, it was the final (of four) black tie nights, preceded by the Peninsular drinks party, which was the first time that we’d seen the Captain. He seems very personable. As we are booked in Epicurean for the last night, tonight was our final dinner in the MDR. Another excellent experience and we took the opportunity to show our appreciation to our waiters Alois and Khan, who have both been superb. We were amazed to hear that Khan was on his first contract with P&O. They are both going home after this cruise for 2 months and then rejoining Ventura again. We didn’t fancy going to the forward theatre due to the movement, so went to bed after and were rocked asleep 😂. Last day tomorrow.

Update - Captain has just made another all cabins announcement. He said that he was sea sick himself last night, so what hope do us mere mortals have 😂 He says that we are in the peak of it now and it will remain this bad for another 6 hours before it starts to subside, but very gradually. Have to say it seems to be getting even worse. We are really rolling now. The glasses went over in one lurch and a champagne flute has smashed 😱

I’m sure you will be fine. Stugeron has saved us many times, including this time.

Yesterday’s update to follow, but a quick update to say that the sea state (and wind) worsened overnight and has remained bad this morning. Ventura is getting thrown around quite a bit and it’s currently a rough ride. Standing up without holding on to something is a challenge and when walking you go from walking up a steep hill to running down the other side! Our balcony doors are firmly closed but the wind noise against them sounds as though they are open. Worst of all, we nearly lost a bottle of champagne that slid across the worktop, jumped over the securing rail and was rolling towards the wall at great speed. I managed to rescue it but must remember to open it outside when we get home 😆

Tonight’s menu. Spoilt for choice. 😋

In all honesty I can’t recall whether the yellow tubs are plastic or ceramic 😂 . It’s the smearing of the preserves up the sides of the tubs that puts me off. Whilst I dislike the buffet, I noticed that the tubs of preserves there looked far better and didn’t have the same look of having been around the houses as they do in the MDR 😂

DAY 12 - Wednesday 8th November (Lisbon) Now that the loud creaking noises in our cabin have been resolved we have been sleeping really well and even with the clocks going back one hour for our arrival into Lisbon we still had a bit of a rush to get to breakfast for the 9.30am cut off! I had woken in time to see our transit down the Tagus and under the April 25th bridge (the eery roar from which I could still hear as we passed under it, even with the balcony doors closed) into Lisbon city centre. Iona had left Cadiz an hour or so ahead of us but only arrived 10-15 minutes earlier. We had a leisurely breakfast in the Bay Tree and sorted ourselves out in the cabin prior to heading ashore. This was the only port of call this cruise that felt a bit chaotic and not terribly well organised. We exited the cruise terminal in exactly the same spot as over 5,000 Iona passengers, so there were enormous queues. We were pounced on by loads of entrepreneurial people selling tours of all sorts (including an accessible one, which was impressive) but we couldn’t see any indication whatsoever as to where the accessible shuttle was. I asked a lady who seemed to be herding people and she asked which ship we were from, and when I said Ventura she said “keep going that way”. I did and could see no signs or helpers at all so just gave up and decided to walk instead. Anyhow, the lack of organisation worked to our advantage, as we walked along the riverside and 15 minutes later were in the main square. I suspect that with the long queues and faffing about, it would have taken three or four times that long had we attempted to use an accessible shuttle. On that note, I would advise everyone other than the most immobile not to waste your time using shuttles in Lisbon. They take longer than walking and are frankly superfluous as I t’s a short, level walk into the city centre. Just turn left outside the terminal and keep the river on your left. Unfortunately there’s a lack of proper dropped kerbs but the drops are tiny. The long term roadworks that blighted this route for a number of years are all finished and it’s a nice walk now along the waterfront. We are a bit fed up with Lisbon as a port of call as we’ve been so many times (we feel the same about Copenhagen), so after an hour or two we were back on the ship. We had lunch in the MDR and shared a table with the very well travelled couple that we’d met before, plus another couple and two ladies we’d not met before. It was an entertaining and enjoyable lunch. During the afternoon we just chilled in the cabin and then the coffee shop. I swung by the shore excursion to ask about my refund as was assured that it was in hand. Let’s hope. Prior to departure the Captain made an all cabins announcement to say that the return crossing to Southampton would be as rough as our outward crossing. He said that we should expect 7.5 metre waves from midday Thursday until midnight Friday. In reality, as soon as we exited the Tagus the motion started, but we know that it’s going to get far worse. I do wish that we could do fly cruises and cut out the first and last two days of ex-UK cruises which, in weather like this, can be a real chore. We had pre dinner drinks in a slightly wobbly Metropolis prior to dinner in the Bay Tree. At dinner we both had the smoked duck starter, which was very tasty. My wife decided to have the steak main course from the secret Signature menu, which she enjoyed. I had roast chicken. Unusually the portion of meat was huge. I like lashings of gravy with a roast, which you don’t get with P&O, so it was a bit dry, especially as they’d forgotten to put the advertised bread sauce on it. There were three or four quite sudden lurches during dinner which made the waiters jobs all the more difficult! After dinner we went to the Burt Bacharach themed Headliners show ‘Magic Moments’. The ship was bouncing around quite a bit at this stage and the show was 5 minutes late starting, so we were relieved that it went ahead as we were expecting a postponement. The show was OK, but the singing wasn’t as strong as the previous night. Whilst it’s great that spaces are provided at the back of the auditorium for wheelchair users and companions, this is the area where late arrivers tend to stand and many seem intent on having conversations throughout the performance with no regard for the fact that they are spoiling the enjoyment for others 😡 Talk in the lift after the show was that the Captain’s assurance that the seas would be pretty normal until lunchtime tomorrow were clearly way off the mark. We had said the same over dinner. Either the shipping forecast company that they use is completely naff or the Captains deliberately understate the forecast so as to not worry passengers! If this is mild compared to what we are heading into tomorrow then heaven help us! 😂

If that’s the case apologies for the repeat. I usually delete the photo once I’ve posted it. Must have messed up my system this time. Haven’t seen tonight’s menu yet.

I’ve just purchased a final 24 hours internet coverage with some of our remaining OBC. I shall post yesterdays report in a minute, but first here’s yesterdays MDR dinner menu and the MDR wine list for those who might be interested. IMHO the prices are extremely reasonable. Also, without wishing to reignite the debate about preserves, I’ve attached a photo of what greeted us on our table in the MDR this morning. I can’t imagine that I’m the only person who finds this presentation a bit off-putting?

My sense is that other passengers had been told about the earlier departure and the chap who told me it was still 9am was in the wrong.

The Captain has just done an all cabin announcement to say the sea will be as rough on the way back as it was coming. 7.5 metre waves from midday tomorrow until midnight Friday 🤢

I had read a lot of reviews of Ventura that were similar to your experience, so I can only assume that P&O have responded and upped their game on the ship (of course, the staff change periodically as well, including senior staff, which can make a huge difference). We have just been having a coffee and. with this cruise only having a few days left, were discussing our top likes and dislikes about Ventura. I will outline them in my final post on this live blog when we get home but (spoiler alert) I’m happy to share that two of our top likes will be food and service. These are hugely important issues for us on a cruise (as I’m sure they are for most people) and I can honestly say that on this cruise both have been excellent.

The chap said that a few other people “hadn’t turned up as well”. You’d think that might have been a clue 😂

@jeanlyon Jean, can you remember when you were on Aurora recently what the latest time was that you could enter the MDR for breakfast? On Ventura and Iona it’s been 9.30am on port days and 10am on sea days. On Britannia it was 10am on the first sea day but then, for reasons that were unclear, it reverted to the ‘old’ closing times of 9am on port days and 9.30am on sea days which we find is a rush. Thanks.