A mixed bag however OK under the circumstances

We have cruised with P&O many times, however standards of food and entertainment have certainly slipped. The electronic system for booking a dining table does not work on this ship as passengers who can’t be bothered simply form a secondary queue which is allowed into the restaurant anyway. Thus those who join an electronic queue then have to wait longer as the “can’t be bothered” passengers have filled the restaurant. On one night we were 1 hour and 25 mins in the queue whilst those who just turned up got a table.

We normally enjoy most on board entertainers however only Sammy Lomax and Phil Melbourne attained the normal quality. So much of the entertainment seemed to be aimed at a much older audience.

We have sailed on P&O Iona only 3 months ago which was fantastic. 5 Star. However Standards were no where near as good on Ventura. The formal/celebration nights now become torturous as you are forced into formal dress simply to be allowed into dining rooms. No captains welcome or cocktail parties. Formal photographs or celebration meet ups have declared these evenings serious “none events” and forced us into the buffet to avoid them. Something we have never done.

Food is nowhere near up to previous quality. Many items were repeated on menus night after night and limited if you don’t want vegetarian food. Buffet meals are now not themed and consist mainly of a casserole type meal and a single meat carvery. It is good that they have introduced vegetarian meals however it has been at the cost of other choices. Lunch time meals are even more limited, resulting in us having to find and read menus before commiting to getting a table, as so many times there were no suitable options, even for the simplest of tastes.

We will return to sail with P&O in the future however on this ship the Covid restrictions got in the way of enjoyment much more than on Iona. In our view 5 Port days out of 12 is not an itinerary that we would want to repeat. Nor would we want to sail again until more restrictions are removed.