Vibrant Ventura

We travelled by Eavesway to get to Southampton and our holiday started from the moment we got on the coach. It was so convenient and stress free and we would definately do it again. We sailed on Ventura on 20th August 2012 around the Western Mediterranan.
On arrivel at Southampton we were really impressed with how quick and efficient the check-in was. When we first got to the ship it really had a wow impact! It seemed huge! Everything was very clean and shiny and my husband was left a bit speechless which was nice too! Our cabin steward came to say hello straight away and he was so helpful all throughout our stay.
We chose to do freedom dining and I would highly recommend this. We wanted a table for 2 every night and we never had to wait long so that was brilliant. They gave us a pager and sometimes we hadn’t even moved far from the restaurant before the pager went off. We also paid to eat in Ramblas and really enjoyed it. The food was lovely and was worth the supplement and the service was great too. The food in the main restaurants and buffet was fantastic!! As my husband is a chef he is normally very hard to please with food but we both found it to be excellent!!!
We only booked two excursions and the rest we did independantly. We booked Florence and Pisa on your own and Classical Rome. We really enjoyed both excursions and the guides were fabulous.
The shows we saw were good and were very popular. we had to stand a couple of times as the theatre was so full! The atmosphere was brilliant! We particularly enjoyed seeing the commedians.
My husband went to watch films in the theatre as well on the sea days as he is not keen on sunbathing. He said that it was really good and they had a good mixture of films on. Another great point about Ventura that there really is something for everyone.
Although she is a very big ship we found our way around quickly and it was very clear and easy to see what was where! Like everyone else we used our little maps a lot at the start! It was funny to see everyone walking around with maps and turning around a lot and the comedians onboard used this to great benefit! Considering how large the ship was and how many people there were onboard we never had to wait long for lifts etc or for a table in restaurants or the buffets.
We thoroughly enjoyed everything about Ventura and would definately love to cruise on her again!