2023-01-24 13:17:18

First of all let me say I love cruising. It's about 7 years since I last sailed on P and O. A combination of them scrapping Oriana and a drop in quality of entertainment being the push I needed to try out other lines. I booked the 5 night jaunt on Ventura as an early birthday present for my partner - he too likes cruises but hadn't tried out P And O before. The price we paid for a midship balcony cabin was extremely good value. I do feel sorry for those who had paid full price! I certainly would not have been happy. Interestingly every day all day saw a long queue at reception.! I read various reviews and watched various videos pre cruise. I knew the ship needs refurbishment. I knew some people would defend Ventura to the end regardless.! It was a short re charge of batteries after a busy Christmas.! First the positives Easy embarkation. The cabin and general state of the ship was much better than I expected. Metal tea spoons instead of nasty wooden stirrers in cafeteria. Cravendale semi skimmed milk instead of Uht.. I must point out I've never undertaken such a short cruise before, which might have accounted for 'proper' milk lol. Staff were lovely although sadly in very short supply. So negatives Very few staff to customer ratio Poorly trained restaurant staff seemingly unaware of how to serve.? Food I'd describe as basic pub grub standard nicely presented. No wonder all the speciality restaurants were fully booked! Formal night food was simply nothing special at all. The app thing for booking was confusing but once understood it worked OK for us. Entertainment was adequate. I only met the cabin steward twice, first time I spotted him and mentioned one of the bedside lights wasn't working I had already ascertained the bulb had blown. He checked it.. muttered something and disappeared. It wasn't fixed so the following evening I popped to reception advising it was a duff bulb. I appreciate the staff are extra busy, but on changeover surely things like that are checked.. Likewise the fridge was dirty and used sleep ear plugs left in bedside drawer Urgh! Second time I was Steward was the last day.! I appreciate Covid and Brexit have contributed to problems. The cruise companies lost a lot of money however pre Covid for years they were coining it in.! Overall the break was fine. Would we hurry back to P&O again? No. There are plenty of other cruise lines to choose from. I'd rather pay more and get a better experience. A cruise to me should be something special and this cruise simply wasn't!