CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR ON VENTURA

We have spent Christmas and New Year on P and O Cruises for the past 5 years and the food and crew members were, as always, outstanding especially Minguel our Cabin Steward (A326) who was always smiling and really friendly.

This year, along with many other passengers, we noticed that many cuts have been made which meant that the Christmas wow factor was sadly lacking on board.
The Christmas Day Meal, always a high point, had no hats, balloons or decorations and the dreary crackers were a joke. It didn’t feel special at all. Surely this can’t be just down to environmental concerns.

The first port was cancelled because we had such bad weather so we had an extra day on board with little entertainment arranged as a compensation.
My partner, who is a keen golfer, usually uses the golfing net twice a day and was very disappointed that it was not in use. After asking for a reason several times and finally sending in a written complaint, he was advised that an accident had happened several cruises before and the net was due to be altered to make it safer. He was advised that it was due to be fixed for the next cruise. When he said he was staying on board for the next cruise this was quickly changed to say they didn’t in fact know when it would be available again. He was then advised that there was plenty of other entertainment on board to keep him amused which totally missed the point

The Sail Away Parties were the worst we have ever seen and totally lacking any atmosphere.

This felt like a cheap version of previous P and O Christmas Cruises

For most people on board Christmas is a very special time and this year it wasn’t anything special at all