Going on the ventura

[chirpy007]

Going back to the original thread question, I am sure you will have a great cruise, Ventura has had a few cruises now since the 'famous' christmas 'cruise, and have not heard of any major problems, Enjoy.....she is a fine ship.

 

 

Gerry, I know you didn't like her much , could you please tell us WHY???;)

Does he not Sue ? ;):D what makes you think that? :D

[Gerrym]

Going back to the original thread question, I am sure you will have a great cruise, Ventura has had a few cruises now since the 'famous' christmas 'cruise, and have not heard of any major problems, Enjoy.....she is a fine ship.

 

 

Gerry, I know you didn't like her much , could you please tell us WHY???;)

 

 

I have done that many times Sue, even wrote a review.

 

It's just not my thing, I prefer something a bit more classy. Each to their own though.

[tom_uk]

Hello

I am going on Ventura on 27th Feb

I need to know if I have to take my own hairdryer please.

Does anyone know what type is provided?

Sorry if this appears to be a trivial question - hope you can help

 

Gail

 

My Ventura cruise blog covered exactly this point, thanks to a contribution from my wife. I posted this on the last full day:

"Val has just been experimenting with the in-cabin hair-dryer (she brought her own and has mainly been using that). However she’s decided that she will pack her own and use the in-cabin dryer tomorrow morning, so we’ve just tested it. It seems to work OK, but it’s got a US-style two-prong plug, and we can only see one socket of that type, just to the left of the dressing-table mirror. One more thing about it, though - when I plugged it in I heard a bit of a ‘crack’, and it turned out that I had to click the Reset button on the plug to get it to work. But it seems to be OK - multi-settings, and no need to hold the on button permanently."

 

And the following morning just before disembarkation I posted this:

"Val gave me her report on the in-cabin hairdryer - it did a job, but wasn’t as strong or as handy to use as her own."

 

Here's a link to the whole blog:

http://tomtotley.wordpress.com/previous-cruises/cruises-in-2008/ventura-cruise/

[LibraLass41]

........She agrees with me then! :)

[Gerrym]

short and sweet......

 

beware of the keyboard warriors!

 

 

 

 

I thought I understood what that phrase meant, perhaps I don't. I always thought 'keyboard warrior' meant somebody who says something online that they would not dare say in the real world.

 

Are you really suggesting that nobody would give a bad review of Ventura in the real world?

 

 

My apologies if I have somehow picked up the wrong end of the stick.

 

 

 

Gerry

[The Mommy]

I appreciate I stepped out of thread (sorry) but many thanks to Libralass and Tom. I will take my own! Great info Tom - thank you - we are going on Ventura on the 27th of this month. A little concerned but we must try to have an open mind.

Gail

[stopgo]

Going back to the original thread question, I am sure you will have a great cruise, Ventura has had a few cruises now since the 'famous' christmas 'cruise, and have not heard of any major problems, Enjoy.....she is a fine ship.

 

 

Gerry, I know you didn't like her much , could you please tell us WHY???;)

I keep asking him that has well Sue.

[Gerrym]

I keep asking him that has well Sue.

 

 

:D @ SlowGo

 

 

 

:D

[stopgo]

I wasn't going to mention it Gerry, but to prove a point that the question as been put to you before. Now is the time to get off the fence and state exactly what you mean.

[Gerrym]

Not sure why I am doing this as it was all posted at the time (August 08), but anway just for SlowGo.....

 

 

 

"This is how I found Ventura, it is my opinion, so please therefore accept it as just an opinion.

 

Stateroom – 3 berth balcony on C deck. This is the best standard accommodation that we have come across on any ship. It was so good that I felt sorry for those on D deck who had paid for an upgrade but got a balcony that was small and completely overlooked.

The wardrobe arrangement is fantastic and so simple in design.

 

Dining – we chose Club dining, 2nd sitting. The food was not of the same standard that we have become accustomed to on our four previous P&O cruises. The Stilton steeped in Port (my favourite!) was dire, dry and flavourless. A couple of the meals were good, some were bland, none were bad but we are used to P&O dining excellence. We heard some horror stories about Freedom dining so we were pleased we did not choose this option. It would seem ‘freedom’ is a totally inappropriate word to use. It is more like ‘book in advance’ or ‘wait an hour’.

We went to East on one occasion, a fantastic restaurant and an excellent dining experience. We did not try The White Room but heard some good stories about it. A number of people felt it was nearly as good as East.

The Waterside and Beach House (or Trottters Trough or Pigs Paradise as they were affectionately nicknamed) were nowhere near as good as previous experiences of P&O buffet dining. I would strongly advise avoiding the buffet restaurants for breakfast. The fried eggs and bacon were cold and the only use for the toast is as a foundation to my patio. We found the availability of tables for breakfast and lunch somewhere between scarce and non existent. Breakfast in the Saffron was great. Afternoon tea was very good in The Waterside

The pizzas from Frankies were brilliant but the burgers from Frankies were average at best. The Frankies burger bar just seems to be an afterthought.

 

Kids Club – My daughter is 16, she went to the kids club on the first evening. The club is too small to cope and she could not even get inside the club due to the number of teens congregating there. She decided not to use the club after that.

On a positive note, we hardly saw any kids under 14 so they must be enjoying themselves somewhere!

 

Bars – What have P&O done here, it is a crazy system! You go up to a bar where you ask the barman for a drink. He beckons one of the bar stewards over and takes your order, he will go and give the order to the bar tender who will give the drink to the bar steward who will deliver it to you sitting at the bar! I have no idea what to say apart from that someone in management needs to find another vocation in life!

The Breakers bar is possibly the worst bar I have ever experienced from a waiting perspective. It is not unknown to wait 20 minutes from ordering to delivery of drinks, they are exceptionally slow and have a ‘could not care less’ attitude so there is no point in complaining. And why do they close so early, there were loads of us each night enjoying a drink in the sun out on deck and they would close at 18:30. Please will someone in management go on Oceana and see how the Pennant bar (and others) is run so effectively and efficiently.

The smoke in the Exchange bar and the lack of decent extraction made it a no-go area for most in the evening.

 

Theatre – I love the shows on Oceana and was so looking forward to being wowed by the Ventura theatre company. We were wowed by the Lloyd Webber tribute and Chronicles but the other four shows were embarrassing. I must state that I felt sorry for the performers as I believe they were talented but the material they had to work with was of a very poor standard. I cringed at the pirate show they put on, how embarrassingly poor can a show be? What was it with the muscleman and his assistant, no doubt they had talent but they looked so out of place in the shows.

I was so disappointed that the P&O cost reduction committee had seen fit to remove the orchestra and replace with piped music.

We originally wondered why the theatre company only put on six shows; I think we now have our answer!

We took the advice of other reviewers and did not bother with the comedians, a good move I since understand.

The Cruise Director really needs to consider his career options.

 

Tenders - We had read that a number of people had experienced problems with the tender process. All I can say is that it worked just as efficiently as it has on any previous cruise we have been on.

 

Loungers – We had read that it can be very difficult to get a sun lounger and we were quite concerned about this. Unfortunately it is true. I heard there are 1,500 loungers for 3,500 people, I guess the deck designer was not a mathematician.

P&O have decided not to police the reservation of sunbeds but I very firmly believe it is their problem and should not be up to passengers to use their common sense as it would seem there is not an abundance of this when it comes to reserving sunbeds. It is a big problem for many people, me included.

 

Stability – Again we had heard some negative reports, we found the ship to be very stable and did not hear of anyone suffering with sea sickness, I will admit the waters were fairly clam.

 

General layout – The biggest problem with Ventura is not its size but the design. It has been designed to maximise revenue by putting as many cabins in to the space as possible. This has a negative effect on many areas which results in:-

Nowhere for a quiet drink before dinner as every bar is absolutely packed.

Cannot find a sunbed after 09:00 as all reserved

Kids club too packed to use

Impersonal service

No wide teak promenade deck with Quoits areas

Very little to do on sea days

 

Summary – We had a fabulous holiday but were disappointed with the ships facilities and the clientele that P&O seem to be seeking. There seemed to be a fair amount of ‘yob’ element that could not get in to Butlins or Benidorm this year so have decided to try P&O. This ship is much closer to holiday camp than it is to luxury cruising.

We will not be sailing her again but will definitely keep using the P&O brand as long as they do not lower the standards as they have done on Ventura.

We met a number of people who had never cruised before, they all loved Ventura. It will be interesting to hear their opinion after sailing with another ship/line."

[Cambridgecruiser]

Hi GerryM

 

 

All our previous cruises had been on either the Oriana or the QMII and so thought for a change we would give the Ventura a try and so have booked the V909 trip sailing on the 17th April.

 

Its not quite what we were expecting from the company that gives us the Oriana!

 

But watch this space and I will report back after our trip round the bay;)

 

Cambridgecruiser

[stopgo]

Sorry Gerry, I get what you mean now according to you Ventura lacks class because it lets on the Yob element that can't get into Butlins or Benidorm. Its all becoming clearer now, I see where you are coming from. Don't agree though.

[LibraLass41]

Thanks Gerry for your views on Ventura

 

Stopgo why not tell us yours now? You seem to disagree with Gerry, thats fair enough - please tell us why...

[Gerrym]

Hi GerryM

 

 

All our previous cruises had been on either the Oriana or the QMII and so thought for a change we would give the Ventura a try and so have booked the V909 trip sailing on the 17th April.

 

Its not quite what we were expecting from the company that gives us the Oriana!

 

But watch this space and I will report back after our trip round the bay;)

 

Cambridgecruiser

 

 

 

Cambridgecruiser, please remember this is just my opinion. I do sincerely hope you go on board and have a fantastic time.

No cruise report would ever put me off unless the negatives were objective/fact. As I stated at the start of my report, it is my opinion and although there are some facts there, most is subjective.

 

 

 

I hope you have a wonderfiul holiday

 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

Gerry

[gwentman]

A few thoughts as we've just finished the Caribbean to Southampton relocation cruise. We were very apprehensive as you may see from my previous posting.

It is true that this ship does not fit the usual P&O image, and the Captain and other members of staff did state that the Azura will 'pull back' from the direction the Ventura has taken and return to P&O 'core values'.

I'm not too sure what he meant but please note that we have rebooked for the same cruise next year, but have switched to Azura for 2011.

Ventura is a well-designed large resort ship. The cabins have more storage space than any others we have been in (apart from suites and the QE2) although the bathrooms are too small - or would be for the larger passengers!

There is no ballroom or dance band - that will be replaced on the Azura, but the number and variety of lecturers and entertainers was better than we have experienced before (11 cruises). The production shows were magnificent and very well received - and they now do three shows per night.

We had some problems with the food - but that may be personal taste - and there was less emphasis on being on a ship. We saw the captain once: in the over-crowded officers' reception and the midday announcements were OK but rather jokey. Presumably this is because this is more a resort than a ship.We went through a force 7 wind (someone said it went up to force 9) and she rode well.

We had no trouble with children (we took none of our own!) but we weren't in a holiday period.

This is obviously aimed at families and I assume Azura (while not a child-free ship) will be more aimed at traditional P&O fans.

So - better than we thought but not traditional P&O.

Hope this helps.

Gwentman.

[Gerrym]

Thanks Gerry for your views on Ventura

 

Stopgo why not tell us yours now? You seem to disagree with Gerry, thats fair enough - please tell us why...

 

 

No problems Sue.

 

I think your question may fall on deaf ears as she has already explained she does not do reports. merely demand them of others.

 

 

Cheers

 

 

Gerry

[stopgo]

Thanks Gerry for your views on Ventura

 

Stopgo why not tell us yours now? You seem to disagree with Gerry, thats fair enough - please tell us why...

My views on the Ventura are well know r.e. Ventura Bashing thread. Even you asked Gerry why he dsliked the Ventura, to which he couldn't answer. I didn't ask him to repost his review, just asked him what he ment by it being not classy enough for him. He seems uneasy about explaining that phrase for some reason.

[Gerrym]

My views on the Ventura are well know r.e. Ventura Bashing thread. Even you asked Gerry why he dsliked the Ventura, to which he couldn't answer. I didn't ask him to repost his review, just asked him what he ment by it being not classy enough for him. He seems uneasy about explaining that phrase for some reason.

 

 

Couldn't answer? ROFLMAO!!

 

Uneasy? LOL

 

 

You are very funny.

 

 

:D

[stopgo]

Very uneasy, that was a nervous laugh !

[Cambridgecruiser]

But what do you mean by 'class'?

 

I've been on both Ventura and Oriana, and enjoyed both of them. Both had their strong points, both had weaker points.

 

I also have to say that we experienced poorer service on Oriana than we did on Ventura.

 

 

...Well I'm on the Ventura in just over a week (yipeee) and will find out for myself

 

Clive