Mini cruise to Bruges…

Last weekend i was lucky enough to go on P&O Ventura, 2 night mini cruise over to Bruges and back. As i had not been on Ventura before this was a great chance to experience the ship.

My trip started off with a short flight from Newcastle airport down to Southampton early on the Friday morning with my colleague Michaela, we then took a short taxi ride from the airport to the port which is where we met up with the rest of the team that were attending the conference on board.

First impressions of the ship were very good and she seemed a lot bigger than i was expecting, she holds 3192 passengers so not the biggest ship out there but bigger than some of the others I’ve been on recently. Once on board we made our way to our cabins, we were staying in an inside cabin at the aft of the ship on deck 9, i was pleasantly surprised with the cabin it was a good size and had everything we needed. We then made our way to the Havana bar on deck 7 where we began our conference, hearing from different cruise suppliers and guest speakers.

Later in the day once our work was finished we got the chance to have a quick look around the ship before going up on deck for the sail away which was brilliant, the sun was shining and everyone was having a great time enjoying a few drinks and listening to the music. The pool deck is lovely and i can imagine even better when in a warmer climate. After the sail away it was time for a quick change before heading back to meet everyone for pre dinner drinks in the Havana bar, then at 8.30 pm it was time for dinner, we ate in the main dinning room and the food was lovely. After dinner, back in the Havana bar we watched the Take that tribute band which i absolutely loved, everyone was up dancing and singing it was a really good atmosphere in there.

Next morning it was an early start with more work from 8.30 am until 12.00 pm where we did a speed dating sort of exercise where we had a few minutes at each supplier to get some helpful info about each one. After the mornings work we got a coach transfer from Zeebrugge port in to the center of Bruges which took about 20 minutes, our lovely guide then walked us to the center where we then had a few hours free time to look around. I have not been to Bruges before but i loved it and would definitely like to return some day, it had lovely cobbled streets with little traditional markets, the Belgium chocolate with waffles was my favorite and we also stopped off to try some Belgium beer!

Once back on board, we went for a few drinks in the Exchange bar which is a British traditional style bar which the casino right beside it, they had football on screen and also hold things like karaoke (which we experienced later that evening) quizzes and live bands.  Then it was a quick change ready for our gala dinner, it was great to see everyone dressed up on board, our meal this evening was beautiful i had the smoked duck breast for starter followed by beef wellington for my main and apple tart for dessert. We then had a wander around a few of the bars on board before heading to bed as we had to be up early the next morning for breakfast and check out.

I had a fantastic weekend and loved the Ventura, have you been on board Ventura before? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Trudy x