Ventura Review

4.0 / 5.0
851 reviews

Was dissapointed with this cruise

Review for the Mediterranean Cruise on Ventura
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roberta1330
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2014

Went on this cruise to celebrate my 60th birthday, and my husband's birthday. The cabin was a Superior Deluxe balcony, which could have done with a carpet shampoo. The bathroom was ideal as my husband can't use a shower, so the bath was great. The wardrobe was open..unusual for any I had seen before. The balcony looked as though it never gets cleaned, as we could hardly see through it. My husband started to clean it, and the people up above asked him to do theirs as well!!! Room service proved to be a bit of a problem, as we were not told when they were going to come to the cabin, and we waited in most of the day!

The entertainment was 80% good, apart from a stand up comedian who managed to get rid of the audience faster than fill it! The food was not particularly great. If you don't mind what you eat, then you'd be ok with it. One night it was Antipasti, and we got three types of Italian meat just rolled up and put on the plate with a few small bits of bread! Cock-a-leekie soup seemed to contain prunes! Dining room staff and cabin staff were great. If you love to have your photo taken then you'll love this ship. Personally they were a pain in the neck. They jumped in front of my husband, knowing he had a walking stick, and tried to stop him. When he didn't we got a remark from one, which should never have come from anyone in the crew. Some of the trips were expensive for what you actually got. The restaurants were not ideally laid out, as people were putting towels and bags on the seats to book them in order to be able to sit down after getting their meal. The theatre was not easy to get a seat in, as people were again putting bags on the seats next to them, to book them for their friends. On the days where formal dress was required, we went to the restaurant to have our dinner, and afterwards to a show. as it was packed, my husband being disabled took his jacket and bow tie off as he was extremely hot. We went from there to the 'Red Bar' and went and sat down next to another couple, due to lack of seats. We got our drinks, then about 30mins later, the waiter came up to my husband to tell him that someone had complained my husband was not wearing his jacket. He told the waiter that because of having an artificial leg, he gets very warm and had to take his jacket off, although he still had it with him. He told him he would have to put his jacket on, and my husband refused. The bar manager then came over to tell him he needed to put on his jacket, and my husband reitterated what he had tol the waiter, adding that there was a person sitting across from us with a T shirt and jeans. He left it at that saying that they had not served that person. My husband went to the cabin and I went to complain at reception, whereby I met the bar manager, who apologized profusely about the situation. He said that he had a word with his staff and it would not happen again. Friends of ours were on free dining, therefore did not need to wear formal clothes, and went to the 'Red Bar' and were served, then after a short time were told to drink up as they were not suitably dressed. The sign entering the bar was very small, and insignificant. Some of the trips appeared to be overly expensive for what you got.

As we got to the end of our trip, we went to the gangway at 7.30am on the morning we were leaving as we had to vacate our cabin at that time, and as independent travellers we had our taxi the same as a number of others, booked for 8am. We were told by Security that we would need to leave after 9-9.30am after all the others waiting on bus transfers had gone. We went to reception, where they said we would need to wait on the announcement. The ship had been docked since the day before, so all quarantine checks etc had been done, so nothing should have stopped us getting off the ship. After quite a number of people were getting quite distraught at possibly missing their taxi transfer to the airport, we were told that we could get off the ship. It was a good cruise, but I would give P&O a miss in the future, as it was not my type of ship.

Cabin Review

Didn't see the reason for the large rounded bit under the TV sets, as we hit our heads a number of times on it when bending down to get a glass. The rest of it was nice, although settee was a bit worn looking and the carpet could have done with a good clean. balcony was filthy.

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