What it’s like to sail on the P&O Ventura?

P&O Ventura was built in 2007 and was refurbished in 2018. Ventura can hold up to 3100 guests and has 1200 crew onboard. The Ventura is a grand class ship, is the sister ship to the P&O Azura and has 14 public decks, 8 restaurants, 6 boutiques, 5 pools and 3 show lounges.  

P&O Ventura is primarily a British cruise ship but we felt right at home sailing abroad. Ventura is a family-friendly ship. We saw Ventura as a great port intensive ship to sail on. A great ship to take you to different areas of Europe. We were on a Northern Europe itinerary and it was spectacular. We loved every minute of our sailing. Nights on Ventura are slower that other larger ships we have sailed on but we preferred the quieter nights because it allowed us to not feel like we were missing something on the ship. We were able to have a fantastic dinner, catch a few songs in one of the lounges and then head to bed to get ready for another packed port day.

P&O Ventura Playlist (click on playlist arrow in top right corner)

Our Review – All Things Good & Bad

Ship Design –

• Modern decor
• Layout 
  • Easy layout
  • Love the mid ship stairway and elevators. A little tip: mid elevators too busy, walk to the front or aft of deck 7 and use the elevators with little to no wait
  • Mention restaurant weirdness on Deck 6 – Oriental Restaurant
• The ship reminded us of the Royal Princess. Very elegant and pretty.

Food –

• Buffet (complimentary B, L, D) – excellent buffet food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We typically avoid the buffet on most ships but the buffet on the Ventura was the best we have experienced at sea. Everything was always so great and although, being on the small side, there was a lot of choices. 
• Main Dining Room (complimentary B, L, D) – the main dining room was a hit or miss for us.
  • Breakfast – great breakfast. Loved the coffee. 
  • Lunch – we loved the options for lunch. Sean had a wonderful vegan meal as well. P&O does have great options for vegetarians and vegans. 
  • Dinner – we ate dinner during the Black Tie night (formal night for P&O) and it was ok. The food was good but not great. I think that was because of formal night but we thought the menu was a little too fancy. The options were just weird. 
  • The one common thing in the Main Dining Room is that service is slow for all meals. Breakfast took an hour and lunch and dinner took around 2 hours. From our experience in Main dining rooms, that was a long meal. We never mind the length of a meal because we get to chat about the day and enjoy time together. But we wanted to mention the time just in case you had an activity or excursion that is time sensitive
• .Poolside Grill (complimentary L & snacks) – We loved the grill. It was an easy way to grab some chicken tenders and fries. They even had some grab and go salad and yogurt options. Loved how easy it was. 
• All in all, the Ventura had some of the best complimentary dining we have tried at sea. Especially the buffet
• Sindhu at East (specialty D)
  • The first specialty dining restaurant we experienced was Sindhu at East. This is the indian restaurant on board. And this was some of the best indian food we have had anywhere on land or sea. The food was great and there was so much of it. There was a course and then another and another and another. I didn’t know if the food would stop. 
  • Something cool about our sailing is they offered a discount on Sindhu if you dined there the 1st night. I thought that was really cool and it was so great, we booked for another night as well.
• The Beach House (specialty D)
  • The Beach house is a cool restaurant located in the back of the buffet. They transform one quarter of the buffet seating area into the restaurant at night. 
  • Loved the menu at the Beach House. Wings, ribs, burgers, steak and so many more. The options were great. 
  • We had the Lavarock Steak which was a neat experience. You cook the steak youself on the stone. Basically the steak comes out rare and then you cut slices off and cook to  your taste. I loved this and the steak was so tasty. Great steak
• There are 2 other specialty dining restaurants that we did not experience. The Epicurean and The Glass House. 
  • The Epicurean looked like an amazing restaurant. Our schedules just didn’t work out to get a reservation there. Next time we are on P&O, we definitely want to make this a priority.
  • The Glass House served food tapas style. The menu looked amazing but the only problem for us was finding a table. We tried a couple nights to eat there and it was always busy. The tables are seat yourself and there is also a bar there. So most people were enjoying cocktails but not eating (most of the tables were being used to wait for the main dining room anytime dining). Unfortunately without a table, we could not eat either so we moved on to the main dining room or the buffet.

Entertainment –

• We absolutely loved the entertainment in the Manhattan Club and in Metropolis.
  • The Manhattan Club was a great place for small venue entertainment
  • We loved watching the singers. We saw an Ed Sherran tribute, an Adele tribute and another night, both singers came together and performed songs together. 
  • It was the perfect place to grab a drink, relax and listen to some great music
    • The Metropolis ended up being our favorite lounge on board. 
      • The location was awesome. It’s in the aft of the ship. There are huge windows all the way around and the view is spectacular. 
      • In the evening they had a piano player and a singer. Both were very talented and it was a nice way to spend the evening.

Onboard Activities –

• The daily Horizon was delivered every day and there was always the typical cruise ship stuff going on. 
• There are 5 pools on board. 
  • The largest pools we have seen. 
  • There is an adult only pool in the front of the ship
  • There is an indoor pool in the middle of the ship. 
    • It was not warm though. Indoor pools here are typically in the 80s. I would say this area was in the high 60s, low 70s. Too cold for us but everyone else seemed to really enjoy. 
    • If that’s too cold for you as well, there were 2 hot tubs in this area to enjoy
  • The pool area was really nice on the Ventura. It was on the cooler side so not a lot of people were swimming but definitely lots of places to enjoy the pool if the temps were more cooperative. 
•  The Great British Sailaway
  • This was the most fun sail away we have exprienced. 
  • Everyone was dancing and smiling and singing
  • Everyone was just happy
  • We definitely recommend checking this out if you are on a P&O ship. So much fun.

Video Review – P&O Ventura