Ventura

[londinium]

The replies so far to my last question were very helpful, so hope you don't mind if I ask another. On Ventura going to Portugal, Spain and France at the end of March, are inside areas and cabin warm enough for say a short sleeved shirt? I will be wearing trousers as well!!

What do you think about driving onto the port and letting the company deal with the car, as opposed to off port parking in say a BCP car park? I have read on some of the reviews about queuing for an hour or more on the port.

Many thanks again.

[MattyBarlow]

I would let the port look after the car. It really is so much easier in my experience. Your trip sounds like the one i did on Oceana in April this year. I wouldnt worry about the temperature inside the ship but take a good mix of clothes. I found Lisbon to be very hot (got sunburnt), Vigo wet, and Brest Wet and very very windy!

[BrianI]

We were on Ventura three weeks ago and had free parking with CPS as we booked early and no doubt many others on the cruise did. We drove straight up to the terminal as directed, no queues. Luggage was taken out of the car, signed the piece of paper to handover the car and got receipt, walked into the terminal with our hand baggage straight to a vacant desk to check in. No queues, no hastle, no problem.

Brian

[Gerrym]

CPS is often a nightmare when Ventura is in town.

 

Unless...

 

You have to get there early (before 12:00) to make sure you beat the rush.

 

You will get people here say that they got there at whatever time and there were no queues, don't rely on it, they got lucky!

 

When we went on Ventura, the people who turned up after 13:00 missed the fire drill at 16:30!

 

 

Cheers

 

Gerry

[Beckyfaye-2008]

We like BrianI got there early at 11, were on board by 12.15. Car was taken by CPS as described by BrianI no problem and because it was dirty when we picked it up after cruise, got it cleaned for nothing.

I understand because 3 ships were leaving same day Ventura plus 2 Queens, that traffic was heavy and those on coaches had a nightmare, just getting to the ships, and therefore very late in getting on board.

Motto get to dock as early as you possibly can after 11am, best way to do that is stay over night in Southampton, pre cruise.;)

Happy sailing

Beckyfaye.

[tom_uk]

Maybe we were lucky, but this is how it went for us at the beginning of N816:

 

"Up early and (after a false start or two) in the car at just after 8:30. An easy relaxed journey with a couple of stops saw us turn into Dock Gate 10 at Southampton at 12:45 or so; we handed the car keys to the CPS people before 1 o’clock; and we were on board by 1:15."

[BrianI]

Gerry,

Because of the number of free car parking places on offer for Ventura, more people were arriving by car, surprise, surprise. I believe there were problems in the early sailings of cars queuing at the Mayflower terminal. When we arrived there were two drop off areas for car parking, the normal one to the west of the check in building and one to the east, thus doubling the handling capacity. We arrived at 11:45 and were in the departure lounge by 12:00, where we had to wait for around 30mins before getting on the ship. QM2 and QE2 were sailing the same day so the approach roads to the port were busy. Looking from the ship we never saw any cars queing at the terminal, so I think they have now sorted the problem. The big bottleneck is cars turning right from the dock road into Gate 10 but there are ways to avoid that

Brian

[jeanlyon]

We used CPS on Artemis and were told to arrive at 2.00. We had about a half hour wait, but didn't find that to be a problem at all. After handing the car over, baggage was taken by a porter and we were on the ship in another 20 minutes.

[LibraLass41]

As others have said, YES let CPS deal with your parking, the car park is next to the ship, if you went somewhere else you would need a taxi to get to the arrivals hall? and probably the same cost. CPS is there to aid cruisers and is so near and well organised.

 

Here is a link to my Ventura cruise in Sept where there are some photos of the arrivals hall etc and view of Ventura from the car -park.

 

Most tickets say arrival 12.30 or 2pm a lot of cruisers ignore this and arrive around noon. There must of been a few hundred in the check-in queue when we arrived, but with 40 or so check-in desks open it was fine, and we only queued for 20 mins or so.

 

here is link: press 'Slideshow'

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/AuroraPartyCruiseSueV/VenturaWeekenderSept08#

 

In another album, the Canaries one (see Sue's gallery) photos of arrival into Lisbon - a great sail-in under the bridge.

[londinium]

As others have said, YES let CPS deal with your parking, the car park is next to the ship, if you went somewhere else you would need a taxi to get to the arrivals hall? and probably the same cost. CPS is there to aid cruisers and is so near and well organised.

 

Here is a link to my Ventura cruise in Sept where there are some photos of the arrivals hall etc and view of Ventura from the car -park.

 

Most tickets say arrival 12.30 or 2pm a lot of cruisers ignore this and arrive around noon. There must of been a few hundred in the check-in queue when we arrived, but with 40 or so check-in desks open it was fine, and we only queued for 20 mins or so.

 

here is link: press 'Slideshow'

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/AuroraPartyCruiseSueV/VenturaWeekenderSept08#

 

In another album, the Canaries one (see Sue's gallery) photos of arrival into Lisbon - a great sail-in under the bridge.

Many thanks for the photo's. I'm not sure about the lobster, I'm veggie only!

We will let them take care of the car.

[londinium]

Don't know if the last reply got thru, so thanks again for the photo's.

[LibraLass41]

Yes got your reply, have a great time. You can book your car parking online very easily. I have already booked my space for my may and aug 2009 cruises. About 4 days after booking, received my ship sticker to put in windscreen, keyfob and paperwork. They are very efficient.

[Aplmac]

Sorry to be a bit off-topic..

but if anyone wants to see Ventura as she entered Barbados waters

please click on the Ventura link at my P&O webpage..

http://www.angelfire.com/wizard2/cncisland/bigships/pando.html

 

 

 

 

 

There's an even-larger image to be had at URL..

http://pictures.cruisecritic.com/showphoto.php?photo=5847&limit=recent

[londinium]

Pretty impressive!

[supered]

Thanks Aplmac for posting the link to your pictures. We were on Ventura as she enetered Barbados for the first time after her Transatlantic Cruise.

It was very exciting :D

 

Eddie

[LEESRE]

Thanks for the photos as Eddie says we were onboard at this time.

Very good Cruise.

 

Rex

[stopgo]

Great photos there the best ones I have seen of Ventura.