Thoughts on Ventura N313

[SeaJane]

We returned from 7 nights on Ventura from Southampton to Spain and Portugal on Saturday. It was our first cruise since October 2019 having had 2 cancelled. This was booked as a taster to see if cruising is still for us and also if we enjoyed a larger ship, having not been on anything larger than Arcadia before. We are next due to do 19 nights on Aurora in October.

 

We had priority boarding and left the car with CPS, walked straight through check in and security and having visited our muster station were seated in Cinnamon restaurant for lunch by 12.30. 
We’d booked an aft suite on A deck and found this to be spacious with a lovely big balcony which we were able to make good use of as the weather was warm and sunny throughout the week. 

Overall the ship was in good condition and as usual the staff were hard working, cheerful and friendly.

We had pre-booked Epicurean for dinner the first night and this being our first experience of this restaurant we were very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food and the excellent service. We ended up dining there 3 times as well as breakfast every morning. As we had a large OBC on this cruise we would have eaten there more often, but unfortunately they did not change to the second menu during our week.

 

This week was also our first experience of Freedom dining. We don’t like to eat too early and found that by turning up at one of the two MDR at about 8pm and being happy to share a table we always walked straight in. There was no need for us to join a virtual queue although the ‘app’ was being used by some. 

There were two formal nights on this cruise and the dress code was followed by the majority of passengers. The ship was full and we were surprised at how many families with school age children were on board as it was not yet half term for most of the country. This meant that the ship felt very busy and many venues and bars were full and noisy a lot of the time. The buffet was also a bit of a scrum and best avoided most of the time! Many people were first time cruisers. 

 

There were a variety of musical acts as well as Headliners performing. In the past we have gone to the theatre most nights, but this cruise a lot of the acts were performing in the smaller venues. This was because Jay Blades, Ross Kemp and Nadia Wadia were booked in the theatre for three of the nights. Booking on the ‘app’ was required for their performances, but not otherwise. 
 

Our major complaint was the quality of the evening meals in the MDR. We ate there on four evenings. We were prepared for the reduction in choice on the menu, but did not expect this to be a problem as we enjoy a variety of food. We did expect the food to be well cooked, well presented and hot. On the two formal nights my food was passable, but on the other two nights the offering was very poor, looked as though it had been thrown on the plate and on both occasions our dining companions sent food back. Many people that we spoke to during the week were similarly unhappy, but I’m not sure they had actually complained. Some first time cruisers were saying they would not cruise with P&O again.  This was very disappointing and has made us concerned for our October cruise! We made a formal complaint whilst onboard, but it took perseverance to be taken seriously. Since we’ve been home my husband has emailed Paul Ludlow - we’ll see if we get a meaningful response! 
 

Overall we enjoyed our week away and had a good time in the ports. Bad weather was forecast for our visit to St Peter Port, but the Captain anticipated this and managed to arrange for us to call at La Coruna instead which impressed us. We were happy to be back at sea, but apart from Epicurean restaurant Ventura is not for us. 
 

 

[Selbourne]

Thank you for your comprehensive and balanced review. We have two 14 night cruises booked on Ventura over the next year, so I was disappointed to read that your MDR experience was below par. Whilst we felt that the food quality and presentation in MDRs wasn’t quite as good in the few years before Covid, it has always been fine for us in the past (dinner better than lunches), and we won’t want to be using speciality restaurants for all 14 nights! The MDR experience is an important part of a cruise for us.

[jeanlyon]

I agree and again it's disappointing to read this.  Food is not the main reason we cruise, but I do expect it to be at least hot and well presented.

[Palaceman]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thank you for your comprehensive and balanced review. We have two 14 night cruises booked on Ventura over the next year, so I was disappointed to read that your MDR experience was below par. Whilst we felt that the food quality and presentation in MDRs wasn’t quite as good in the few years before Covid, it has always been fine for us in the past (dinner better than lunches), and we won’t want to be using speciality restaurants for all 14 nights! The MDR experience is an important part of a cruise for us.

Comments on dining are always subjective but that said I was surprised to read Seajane's comments re the mdr on Ventura. During March this year we dined in Saffron restaurant (freedom) 32 nights out of 35 and did not experience any of the issues mentioned. Food was always well presented and hot, including soups, which often come in for criticism, good portions and tasty. I can only speak of our experience and how we found it.

By the way the other 3 nights we dined in Epicurian and enjoyed each visit very much. 

 

[jeanlyon]

1 hour ago, SeaJane said:

We returned from 7 nights on Ventura from Southampton to Spain and Portugal on Saturday. It was our first cruise since October 2019 having had 2 cancelled. This was booked as a taster to see if cruising is still for us and also if we enjoyed a larger ship, having not been on anything larger than Arcadia before. We are next due to do 19 nights on Aurora in October.

 

We had priority boarding and left the car with CPS, walked straight through check in and security and having visited our muster station were seated in Cinnamon restaurant for lunch by 12.30. 
We’d booked an aft suite on A deck and found this to be spacious with a lovely big balcony which we were able to make good use of as the weather was warm and sunny throughout the week. 

Overall the ship was in good condition and as usual the staff were hard working, cheerful and friendly.

We had pre-booked Epicurean for dinner the first night and this being our first experience of this restaurant we were very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food and the excellent service. We ended up dining there 3 times as well as breakfast every morning. As we had a large OBC on this cruise we would have eaten there more often, but unfortunately they did not change to the second menu during our week.

 

This week was also our first experience of Freedom dining. We don’t like to eat too early and found that by turning up at one of the two MDR at about 8pm and being happy to share a table we always walked straight in. There was no need for us to join a virtual queue although the ‘app’ was being used by some. 

There were two formal nights on this cruise and the dress code was followed by the majority of passengers. The ship was full and we were surprised at how many families with school age children were on board as it was not yet half term for most of the country. This meant that the ship felt very busy and many venues and bars were full and noisy a lot of the time. The buffet was also a bit of a scrum and best avoided most of the time! Many people were first time cruisers. 

 

There were a variety of musical acts as well as Headliners performing. In the past we have gone to the theatre most nights, but this cruise a lot of the acts were performing in the smaller venues. This was because Jay Blades, Ross Kemp and Nadia Wadia were booked in the theatre for three of the nights. Booking on the ‘app’ was required for their performances, but not otherwise. 
 

Our major complaint was the quality of the evening meals in the MDR. We ate there on four evenings. We were prepared for the reduction in choice on the menu, but did not expect this to be a problem as we enjoy a variety of food. We did expect the food to be well cooked, well presented and hot. On the two formal nights my food was passable, but on the other two nights the offering was very poor, looked as though it had been thrown on the plate and on both occasions our dining companions sent food back. Many people that we spoke to during the week were similarly unhappy, but I’m not sure they had actually complained. Some first time cruisers were saying they would not cruise with P&O again.  This was very disappointing and has made us concerned for our October cruise! We made a formal complaint whilst onboard, but it took perseverance to be taken seriously. Since we’ve been home my husband has emailed Paul Ludlow - we’ll see if we get a meaningful response! 
 

Overall we enjoyed our week away and had a good time in the ports. Bad weather was forecast for our visit to St Peter Port, but the Captain anticipated this and managed to arrange for us to call at La Coruna instead which impressed us. We were happy to be back at sea, but apart from Epicurean restaurant Ventura is not for us. 
 

 

Sounds like you are also on our Aurora 19 night cruise in October.  Let's hope it's better.

[jeanlyon]

Just now, Palaceman said:

Comments on dining are always subjective but that said I was surprised to read Seajane's comments re the mdr on Ventura. During March this year we dined in Saffron restaurant (freedom) 32 nights out of 35 and did not experience any of the issues mentioned. Food was always well presented and hot, including soups, which often come in for criticism, good portions and tasty. I can only speak of our experience and how we found it.

By the way the other 3 nights we dined in Epicurian and enjoyed each visit very much. 

 

Makes you wonder if the chef is different on the OP's cruise.

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, Palaceman said:

Comments on dining are always subjective but that said I was surprised to read Seajane's comments re the mdr on Ventura. During March this year we dined in Saffron restaurant (freedom) 32 nights out of 35 and did not experience any of the issues mentioned. Food was always well presented and hot, including soups, which often come in for criticism, good portions and tasty. I can only speak of our experience and how we found it.

By the way the other 3 nights we dined in Epicurian and enjoyed each visit very much. 

 

That’s great to hear. Thank you for sharing. We will be experiencing 3 different P&O ships over the next 10 months, so will be very interested in forming our own opinions as to what the ‘new’ P&O looks like. 

[SeaJane]

8 minutes ago, Palaceman said:

Comments on dining are always subjective but that said I was surprised to read Seajane's comments re the mdr on Ventura. During March this year we dined in Saffron restaurant (freedom) 32 nights out of 35 and did not experience any of the issues mentioned. Food was always well presented and hot, including soups, which often come in for criticism, good portions and tasty. I can only speak of our experience and how we found it.

By the way the other 3 nights we dined in Epicurian and enjoyed each visit very much. 

 

 

7 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Makes you wonder if the chef is different on the OP's cruise.

We ate in both Cinnamon and Saffron and both were as bad as each other.
The Head waiter who eventually spoke to us about our complaint did say that the Head Chef had only recently joined the ship. However surely if he is joining a well trained team preparing the same food that they have been serving for months it shouldn’t deteriorate so badly. It does certainly cast some doubts on his ability to manage his kitchen though! 

Edited May 29, 2023 by SeaJane
Spelling

[Palaceman]

3 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s great to hear. Thank you for sharing. We will be experiencing 3 different P&O ships over the next 10 months, so will be very interested in forming our own opinions as to what the ‘new’ P&O looks like. 

Snap. We will also experience three different ships this year as we are on Arcadia next week and Aurora in September.

[Britboys]

5 hours ago, SeaJane said:

We returned from 7 nights on Ventura from Southampton to Spain and Portugal on Saturday. It was our first cruise since October 2019 having had 2 cancelled. This was booked as a taster to see if cruising is still for us and also if we enjoyed a larger ship, having not been on anything larger than Arcadia before. We are next due to do 19 nights on Aurora in October.

 

We had priority boarding and left the car with CPS, walked straight through check in and security and having visited our muster station were seated in Cinnamon restaurant for lunch by 12.30. 
We’d booked an aft suite on A deck and found this to be spacious with a lovely big balcony which we were able to make good use of as the weather was warm and sunny throughout the week. 

Overall the ship was in good condition and as usual the staff were hard working, cheerful and friendly.

We had pre-booked Epicurean for dinner the first night and this being our first experience of this restaurant we were very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food and the excellent service. We ended up dining there 3 times as well as breakfast every morning. As we had a large OBC on this cruise we would have eaten there more often, but unfortunately they did not change to the second menu during our week.

 

This week was also our first experience of Freedom dining. We don’t like to eat too early and found that by turning up at one of the two MDR at about 8pm and being happy to share a table we always walked straight in. There was no need for us to join a virtual queue although the ‘app’ was being used by some. 

There were two formal nights on this cruise and the dress code was followed by the majority of passengers. The ship was full and we were surprised at how many families with school age children were on board as it was not yet half term for most of the country. This meant that the ship felt very busy and many venues and bars were full and noisy a lot of the time. The buffet was also a bit of a scrum and best avoided most of the time! Many people were first time cruisers. 

 

There were a variety of musical acts as well as Headliners performing. In the past we have gone to the theatre most nights, but this cruise a lot of the acts were performing in the smaller venues. This was because Jay Blades, Ross Kemp and Nadia Wadia were booked in the theatre for three of the nights. Booking on the ‘app’ was required for their performances, but not otherwise. 
 

Our major complaint was the quality of the evening meals in the MDR. We ate there on four evenings. We were prepared for the reduction in choice on the menu, but did not expect this to be a problem as we enjoy a variety of food. We did expect the food to be well cooked, well presented and hot. On the two formal nights my food was passable, but on the other two nights the offering was very poor, looked as though it had been thrown on the plate and on both occasions our dining companions sent food back. Many people that we spoke to during the week were similarly unhappy, but I’m not sure they had actually complained. Some first time cruisers were saying they would not cruise with P&O again.  This was very disappointing and has made us concerned for our October cruise! We made a formal complaint whilst onboard, but it took perseverance to be taken seriously. Since we’ve been home my husband has emailed Paul Ludlow - we’ll see if we get a meaningful response! 
 

Overall we enjoyed our week away and had a good time in the ports. Bad weather was forecast for our visit to St Peter Port, but the Captain anticipated this and managed to arrange for us to call at La Coruna instead which impressed us. We were happy to be back at sea, but apart from Epicurean restaurant Ventura is not for us. 
 

 

I've sailed on Azura twice, which is of course the same layout. Neither cruise had a lot of families on board but I still felt she was too crowded and too noisy. That's the main reason I now have no desire to sail on Azura again and consequently Ventura too...

[Denarius]

13 hours ago, Britboys said:

I've sailed on Azura twice, which is of course the same layout. Neither cruise had a lot of families on board but I still felt she was too crowded and too noisy. That's the main reason I now have no desire to sail on Azura again and consequently Ventura too...

The problem with Ventura and Azura (and their Princess equivalents) is that they are based on the Grand Princess but with an extra deck of cabins added, increasing the passenger capacity by about 20%. But there is no more public space, indeed some has been lost to fit in yet more cabins! So when the ships are full they feel overcrowded as there are 6 people using space and facilities designed for 5.

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Denarius said:

The problem with Ventura and Azura (and their Princess equivalents) is that they are based on the Grand Princess but with an extra deck of cabins added, increasing the passenger capacity by about 20%. But there is no more public space, indeed some has been lost to fit in yet more cabins! So when the ships are full they feel overcrowded as there are 6 people using space and facilities designed for 5.

Yes, totally agree with you.

[SeaJane]

2 hours ago, Denarius said:

The problem with Ventura and Azura (and their Princess equivalents) is that they are based on the Grand Princess but with an extra deck of cabins added, increasing the passenger capacity by about 20%. But there is no more public space, indeed some has been lost to fit in yet more cabins! So when the ships are full they feel overcrowded as there are 6 people using space and facilities designed for 5.

We had lovely weather so the open decks were indeed very crowded. The prom deck, which on Aurora and Arcadia are popular seating areas, felt claustrophobic and did not seem to get any sun at any time of day so apart from the smoking area it was deserted. We were very glad that we had our balcony to retreat to! 

[davecttr]

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

The problem with Ventura and Azura (and their Princess equivalents) is that they are based on the Grand Princess but with an extra deck of cabins added, increasing the passenger capacity by about 20%. But there is no more public space, indeed some has been lost to fit in yet more cabins! So when the ships are full they feel overcrowded as there are 6 people using space and facilities designed for 5.

Those extra cabins are the awful noisy single ones in what was the lounge area of the main bar. They were getting little income because it was full of people not drinking  much.

[July morning]

Thank you for posting your review, I found it interesting as I shall be on Ventura in October.

 

[Denarius]

On 5/30/2023 at 3:37 PM, davecttr said:

Those extra cabins are the awful noisy single ones in what was the lounge area of the main bar. They were getting little income because it was full of people not drinking  much.

Which for P&O was a problem, as their business model nowadays is to sell cruises dirt cheap and make the money on onboard spending. So every area has to earn revenue, and a general lounge area where passengers can relax without doing so does not fit it.