The fabulous Ventura – part 1 Venice & at sea

Well my week of a great cruise on the P&O Ventura is sadly over and now back to normality. Both my aunt and myself had a great time and although the weather wasn’t great for the majority of the trip we made the most of it.

The morning of my birthday we was up and out on our way to Gatwick at 4.45am to check in with Thomas Cook to Venice.  The newly revamped security at Gatwick South Terminal made the ease of checking in and getting to departures so much faster than I have experienced in a long while. On arrival into Venice Marco Polo airport the P&O representatives was ready and waiting and we just followed their lead, we didn’t have the hassle of having to wait for luggage as P&O was taking it direct from the plane to our cabins for us.

We had a short wait at Venice port to check in but not too long and was advised our cabin would be available from 1pm, we had half an hour to kill so did the same as others and headed for lunch in the buffet restaurant on deck 15. After a light lunch we then headed to our balcony cabin, we was placed on starboard side, forward of the ship on deck 12 (Australia deck) cabin A205 and this was the view of Venice that greeted us on arriving into our cabin…

We dropped our hand luggage and headed out to see some of the sights. We only had a few hours before sail-away and as I had visited Venice in November of last year, I had seen everything of interest but as I have many clients visiting Venice on cruises over this summer, so we decided to see how easy it is to explore Venice on your own.  We headed off the ship, there was P&O reps offering a water taxi shuttle to central Venice for a cost of £8 per person each way, but we decided to walk towards the ‘people mover’ at the entrance of the port to go into Venice for a cost of €1.30 each way. The ‘people mover’ is a tram that only has one stop from the port to the Piazzale Roma and from here you can start the walk towards the centre of Venice or go to the nearest water bus stop and grab a water bus further into the city. We decided to walk through the narrow streets and across the canals, it took about 30 minutes to reach the Rialto Bridge, after a short pit stop we started to make our way back and went a different route towards the people mover, getting a bit lost along the way, but thankfully Venice has signs to point you in the right direction. If you are intending to explore more of Venice, I would recommend (if you are quite happy to walk) to continue across the Rialto Bridge towards St Marks Square.  During the the walk through Venice, you come across many little piazzas where you can grab food and drink. Or in the narrow streets small food outlets offering slices of pizza on the go. If you have the time, why not take a bit of a break and let someone else take you through the canals on a gondola.

If you are fortunate to have a full day or an overnight in port at Venice, then I recommend getting off of the ship early and spending the day exploring. The city is very easy to navigate on foot, but I have to be honest and advise that for those that have mobility issues, Venice is not quite as friendly as other cities. There are many bridges to cross and most of these are with steps. If you do have mobility issues, I would recommend using the water bus services to reach the main point of interests but again please be aware that you will need assistance to embark and disembark from the pontoons.

After reaching the Piazzale Roma we stopped for another wine pit stop before getting back on the people move to the port.

As it was my birthday we decided to sit up on deck as the weather was nice and have a few glasses of wine before sail-away, on the table next to us was the legend that is Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth from Coronation Street). I managed to sneak her in a photo but didn’t want to disturb her as lots of other guests on the ship did keep going up to her and although she was very obliging in chatting with them, you could see she was tired and would rather be left alone.

Prior to us sailing from Venice we had to wait for the other cruise ship, the Costa Magica to sail first. I have mentioned previously that in November I had seen a few ships sail-away from Venice and the sight was magnificent. Well let me tell you the sight being on the ship sailing from Venice was 100 times more magnificent.. be warned lots of photos next.

As we had started the day and spent a lot of the afternoon walking around Venice, we was both fairly tired (I think the wine might of contributed too!), so we just ate in the Waterside buffet restaurant and sat at the exchange bar for a quick drink before heading off to bed.  The next morning although we had a full day at sea, we decided to rise early for breakfast and explore the ship.

The Ventura is a large family friendly ship being the 2nd largest ship in the current fleet, she was introduced in 2008, weighing in at 115,000 tons and has 1226 crew looking after 3096 passengers. She is a mighty large lady and it took us all morning to explore. On board she has 5 swimming pools, including one with a retractable roof and another for adults only. A retreat on the upper deck for adults that like more comfort away from the main areas of the ship with attentive service for a charge for the day or full duration of the cruise, based at the front of the ship. A fantastic children’s club for all ages up to 17 years, with activities going on throughout the day and evening and also a babysitting service at night. A wonderful spa with a large gym area, a fantastic array of treatments on board to entice you to have a bit of ‘me time’ being pampered.  I took advantage of this on our second sea day! Sports court areas with basketball, football, tennis, there is also a golf swing area, suffleboard & quoits. Plenty of areas to bathe in the sun around the many pools or around the open decks. Deck 7 is the promenade deck and if you complete the circuit approx. 4 times it is the equivalent of walking a mile! So many areas to do as much or as little as you want.

Oh, another selfie with the main pool behind me

There are 3 speciality dining rooms on board, the White Room (Marco Pierre White), East (Atul Kochhar) & the Glass House (Olly Smith) all need to be pre-booked and come with a supplement. They do sometimes offer a deal to eat in these restaurants and it is worth checking your daily ‘Horizon’ paper to check for special offers on the ship. You then have 2 freedom dining restaurants The Cinnamon and The Saffron, both offer the same menu each evening but it gives you a chance to mix and dine with different passengers at a time that suits you. The main set dining is held in the Bay Tree and are set for 6.30pm or 8.30pm dining. You also throughout the day and evening have the buffet restaurants offering nearly a 24 hour dining service, the Waterside and the Beach house. Part of the Beach house is turned into a waiter service restaurant in the evening and the food is fantastic and great for intimate dinning, this does get very busy though and you can not pre-book, so you are recommended to go early rather than later and just head to the Metropolis bar for a pre dinner drink whilst you wait for your table. During the day there is the poolside grill and also a pizzeria. In the main atrium of the ship there is a patisserie offering cakes to wraps to sandwiches and also they have speciality coffees by Costa Coffee. The food on the ship is amazing and it is very tempting and very easy to just eat, eat & eat.

There are also various bar and lounge areas around the ship, Metropolis, The Tamarind Club, Havana, the Main Atrium, The Red Bar,The Exchange and Casino. Breakers bar on the open deck and the fantastic 2 tier Arena theatre. All of the above offer entertainment throughout the day and evening from quizzes to comedians, seminars to movies, theatre performances to live singers, bingo to karaoke. You will never get bored.

Our first night at sea was a formal evening and the gentlemen all looked fantastic in their black ties and the ladies magnificent in their beautiful evening dresses.

After a long day at sea and tour of the ship, a beautiful evening spent meeting new people, eating fantastic food and finishing the night off with some Karaoke and a nightcap, it was time to retire and to look forward to waking up in Kotor, Montenegro.

To be continued….

Dawn x