Ventura Cruise N226 .1-8 October 22

This was a very enjoyable short cruise to Portugal, but largely because of the weather and because we were travelling with good friends we hadn’t seen since before Covid. But in a lot of ways the experience was not up to the standard we had experienced before. Apart from the fact that Ventura is starting to look in need of a refit/ spruce up, the main issue appeared to be shortage of staff . Whilst as usual they were all very friendly, and our cabin steward was quite satisfactory, it appeared that the waiting staff in the main restaurants and the workers in the the self service were quite frankly chasing their tails. For instance on the first formal night on freedom dining in cinnamon the waiter was so busy it took over half an hour to get bread, water and give our orders. Up top there were frequently shortages of plates, cutlery, and hot water services out of action. Freedom dining through the app was a joke. One night we waited nearly 2hours for a table.!

Whilst P and O advice recommended people wearing face masks in crowded spaces, no one was, and quite frankly if we hadn’t just had our booster we would have felt quite unsafe covid wise. We were disappointed that the company no longer requires people to take a test before boarding, given that case rates are increasing and there were apparently a lot of cases on the previous cruise.

Apart from Sindu specialist restaurants didn’t seem to be open or bookable on the app, no food in the Glasshouse.

All in all it seemed a good crew we’re doing their best, but not enough of them