Just booked First P&O. Ventura!

[billyelliot]

Hi, Just booked our 1st P&O. 20th May11. Its also a 1st for Southampton, balcony and freedom dining!! Done quite a few RCI mainly Caribbean. Fancied a change. Any top tips/ dos and donts?

Ports of call: Vigo, Lisbon, Bilbao, Brest. Where should we visit?

 

Any information will be great. Im sure I will be on the boards asking loads of questions!

[Host Sharon]

Welcome to the P&O boards - ask away.

As for the ports,

Vigo is not that great a place IMO but is perfect for a trip to Santiago de Compostela which is beautiful

Lisbon - I suggest the free shuttle to the city centre and wander. The 1890s iron elevator to the upper town gives wonderful views. The centre is compact and pedestrian friendly. Bilbao - well the Guggenheim is great if you like modern buidlings, and the old part of town is very classical Spanish and again easily walkable or stay and wander up the seafront at Getxo where the shp berths.

Brest - good restaurants or get out in the Brittany countryside. I am sure you will have a great time.

[billyelliot]

Thanks! Im doing lots of research, but cant seem to find any menus or wine/drinks prices. Any idea

[BrianI]

Thanks! Im doing lots of research, but cant seem to find any menus or wine/drinks prices. Any idea

Menus

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/example_menu

Bar/wine prices

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/available_drinks

Brian

[DamianG]

In Vigo we usually take a stroll in the old town (Casco Vello) and enjoy a meal in one of the restaurants such as Picadillo, Calle Fermin Penzol 10. There's also oyster sellers at the roadside if that's your thing, but the restaurants have plenty of choice and the seafood platters are fantastic, best washed down with some local Albariño wine which is one of our favourites.

Enjoy.

Damian

[Lottycruiser]

We are on the same cruise ,its also our first with P&O , we have done two cruises with RCI and wanted to try something different . we dont usualy spend much time off the ship though .

[Thejuggler]

Similar to our first cruise - we did Le Verdon rather than Bilbao.

 

Vigo - OK for a walk around but we arrived on a Sunday and all the shops were shut!

 

Lisbon - beautiful, very compact and plenty to do over a day. You need to be up on deck for before 7am to experience passing under the bridge.

 

Brest - offers very little. Expensive and no much to see - blame the RAF for bombing it to smithereens in WW2!

[billyelliot]

Thanks for the info! really looking forward to a new experiance! Well a few infact. its our 1st from Southampton, 1st balcony and 1st freedom dining! any views on these would be good.

Lottycruiser have you been on the roll call?

[Lottycruiser]

Thanks for the info! really looking forward to a new experiance! Well a few infact. its our 1st from Southampton, 1st balcony and 1st freedom dining! any views on these would be good.

Lottycruiser have you been on the roll call?

 

Hi no i am too shy :o coincidence that we have both cruised with RCI and both fancy a change , we also have freedom dining and a superior deluxe balcony ?

[dsrdsrdsr]

Brest has a decent castle on the sea front. If you don't like castles, it has ... er ... well, let's hope you like castles! :)

[billyelliot]

Lorrycruiser have you done freedom dining before? If so what's Yr thoughts?

D. I do like castles lol can you go in?

Brianl. Thanks for menus! Drinks priced look really good! We used to paying expensive RCI prices!

[Lottycruiser]

We did my time dining on both RCI cruises and are doing freedom dining on our ventura cruise . we had two different experiances with RCI first cruise we just turned up at the dining room and were led to a large table and dined with different guests at different tables each night , the second cruise we requested a table for two and during our meal we decided we liked our wait staff and we were in such close proximity to other couples dining that we would chat amongst ourselves at our leisure without feeling that we had to make conversation when being sat at the same table as a group, we did enjoy that experiance more and so we asked for the same table for two each evening with the same wait staff ,we would often have the same people sat close by and be able to chat with them now and then which was more relaxing than feeling you had to make conversation .One night on our first cruise we were sat with a couple from Korea who could only speak broken english and although they were a lovely couple it was very hard for us to communicate and it did get a little embarrasing .

[Denarius]

In Vigo we usually take a stroll in the old town (Casco Vello) and enjoy a meal in one of the restaurants such as Picadillo, Calle Fermin Penzol 10. There's also oyster sellers at the roadside if that's your thing, but the restaurants have plenty of choice and the seafood platters are fantastic, best washed down with some local Albariño wine which is one of our favourites.

Enjoy.

Damian

Oyster sellers line one particular street not far from where the ship ties up. If you buy, the sellers will open them for you if you wish - the custom is to take them to one of the adjacent bars, buy a drink and eat them there. Tip; if you just sit down at one of the bars and order drinks, you will sometimes get a few complimentary oysters as a tapa.

[CRUISENSNOOZE]

Thanks for the info! really looking forward to a new experiance! Well a few infact. its our 1st from Southampton, 1st balcony and 1st freedom dining! any views on these would be good.

Lottycruiser have you been on the roll call?

Hi Billy

Just a note of warning - check your confirmation order and if it says "w l freedom" this means you are not!! We just back from Ventura and w l stands for 'wait list'. We ended up on the second seating at 8.30pm. Our TA did not explain this to us and was cross at the time but all turned out ok.

Chris

[billyelliot]

Thanks I will check, but our TA did say we were Not on a wait list.