Tell Me About The Ventura

We've only done one cruise with P&O and whilst we thoroughly enjoyed the itinerary we were disappointed with the ship, the Oriana. Our conclusion was that although we would be prepared to do another P&O cruise it would have to be an itinerary that really really appealed.

I think we may have found it; US and Caribbean No-Fly (February 2020!!!) 35 nights.

However, reviews (always a contentious issue) are very mixed and after our disappointment with the Oriana I don't know whether to seriously consider this trip or not.

We like a mixed age group and although the ship is British we like meeting people from other countries.

Thoughts please.

Ventura has just returned having done this itinerary, I assume the age is fairly high and mainly British passengers, hopefully a passenger who has just returned can confirm.

You might also get bad weather across Atlantic and I know they missed some ports this year.

I see you are seasoned cruisers so you know the risks of crisscrossing the Atlantic in February !!!!

If you like a mixed age range, then a 35 night in February won’t provide that. It’ll be mostly retired passengers who can have that amount of time off.

If you’re after an international group of passengers, then likewise P&O won’t provide that. In the main it’s UK passengers, though I meet a few Ozzies (always welcome!) on UK to Scandinavia cruises.

Did you not like Oriana for its layout, or the above mix of passengers? If it was solely due to the ship, then book and go down for a ship tour... far cheaper than not liking her for 35 nights!

I've just returned from 35 days on Ventura and the itinerary was certainly amazing and we were very happy with the ship. We found the food much better than in previous years and we enjoyed the entertainment (although this is always subjective). However having done this cruise several times now I would say the age range is mainly, but not only, retirees. You cannot really expect a mixed age group at that time of year. After all, not many people can take 5 weeks off work in February. That's not to say there were not younger people but I only saw 3 children at the Kids Club activities. It is quite rare to meet people from other counties on P&O at any time of year so if that is important, then P&O is not for you. We met a Belgian couple and a few Aussies but P&O's main market is clearly in the UK.

I would not do a 35 night cruise on a ship and a cruise line I am not familiar with.

I like Ventura but then I also like Oriana. Plus I like the British people on board and the food which caters for British tastes.

One final thought. I generally don't pay much attention to reviews. Mainly because we all have different tastes and expectations.

I wouldn't do a 35 day cruise with P&O due to the lack of other nationalities aboard. Meeting people from other countries is part of the joy of cruising, and you don't get that on P&O.

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Hi, Babs... I've read other posts of yours, and know that you like the international buzz..No, that won't be there. We've done 2x 28 days across and back on Ventura, and as Tartanexile says- it's mainly retired people, or people in between jobs- we even met someone who was having a year on the ship, wherever it went!

I see that you've been on a Princess ship- if it was one of the Grand Class ships, then Ventura is identical- we met a forum friend who'd just been on Crown Princess, and she knew her way round immediately!

We love this cruise, and have always been happy with the passengers we've met- so much so that we've met up with them again the next year. The entertainment/activities have always been to our liking, and we can save the mixing with other nationalities till our next cruise.

Lots of sound advice as I expected from people on this forum :D We sailed on the Oriana before her refit and found her to be very tired. I honestly don't know exactly what it was but somehow she just didn't gel with us at all.

I agree 35 nights on an unknown ship is a risk but we've just come off the Queen Elizabeth Southampton to San Francisco and met several couples who where doing the full 100+ nights world cruise and it was their FIRST EVER cruise!! Couldn't decide whether they were brave or foolish, especially as the crossing to New York was the worst we had ever encountered. Rumour had it that when we docked in the Azores (too rough to even attempt to reach Bermuda) a lady disembarked because of the weather.

Cruise is not until 2020 so we have lots of time to make up our minds. Again, thanks for the advice.

We've only done one cruise with P&O and whilst we thoroughly enjoyed the itinerary we were disappointed with the ship, the Oriana. Our conclusion was that although we would be prepared to do another P&O cruise it would have to be an itinerary that really really appealed.

 

I think we may have found it; US and Caribbean No-Fly (February 2020!!!) 35 nights.

 

However, reviews (always a contentious issue) are very mixed and after our disappointment with the Oriana I don't know whether to seriously consider this trip or not.

 

We like a mixed age group and although the ship is British we like meeting people from other countries.

 

Thoughts please.

We have had several cruises on Ventura and always enjoyed them.

We always go for a:

Superior Deluxe Balcony Cabin.

It is a bigger cabin,has a bath,larger balcony,2 tv, sitting area,changing area plus a free bottle of champagne and box of chocolates in the cabin on embarkation day.

I would not do a 35 night cruise on a ship and a cruise line I am not familiar with.

 

I like Ventura but then I also like Oriana. Plus I like the British people on board and the food which caters for British tastes.

 

One final thought. I generally don't pay much attention to reviews. Mainly because we all have different tastes and expectations.

Good points,the only thing i would listen to is a critisism of a certain cabin because of noise etc.

We have had several cruises on Ventura and always enjoyed them.

We always go for a:

Superior Deluxe Balcony Cabin.

It is a bigger cabin,has a bath,larger balcony,2 tv, sitting area,changing area plus a free bottle of champagne and box of chocolates in the cabin on embarkation day.

We always go for a C deck balcony on this cruise, over the D deck Superiors despite the perks. We'd rather have a larger outside area in the (usually) very good weather and as we use the balcony constantly we don't like that there's no privacy and no shade either on D deck

I wouldn't do a 35 day cruise with P&O due to the lack of other nationalities aboard. Meeting people from other countries is part of the joy of cruising, and you don't get that on P&O.

 

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If I felt like that I'd never cruise on P&O because they, without doubt, are 100% geared to the UK market. As long as people are friendly and polite I don't care what country they're from.

If I felt like that I'd never cruise on P&O because they, without doubt, are 100% geared to the UK market. As long as people are friendly and polite I don't care what country they're from.

That is my criteria too.

If I felt like that I'd never cruise on P&O because they, without doubt, are 100% geared to the UK market. As long as people are friendly and polite I don't care what country they're from.

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I just find that, especially on longer cruises, the topics of conversation on P&O tend to become a little 'samey' by the start of the third week, whereas this is not the case with a more cosmopolitan passenger mix.

 

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Whilst I also enjoy meeting and chatting with American passengers I cannot agree that they have a wider range of topics to discuss over dinner. We have just returned from this years carib. and USA cruise and were never short of varied topics to discuss in our freedom dining room, possibly seeing the same table companions in a club dining room for 35nights you might run out of topics, but that's likely to happen with Americans as well.

Our last Princess cruise included Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Americans and a handful of Brits. Never ran out of topics of conversation.

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We did a 17 night cruise mid August in Ventura and can't say that we 'fell in love' with her. We love a mixture of ships but can honestly say that this is one ship that we don't feel we will want to return to.

Just hadn't got that something special for us...

Really were not keen on our superior deluxe cabin D114 --------