P&O Ventura

Ventura is one of P&O's newer ships and continues to confirm the gulf between old style P&O (Aurora, Artemis) vs new P&O (Azura, Ventura, Arcadia). It is very much geared to the British market, including knees-up sailaways and pub sing-a-longs. There is also the fact that pretty much everything is available at an extra charge which is described as nominal, but I don't think

MicheleA's review: We spent february half-term on Ventura from Barbados. It was the first time we had taken our children, aged 7 and 5 on a long haul trip but they were in heaven with nine hours of snacks and TV and only a little sleep! We joined the ship and were welcomed into our spacious cabin with a private balcony (which helpfully has a child proof lock), a king size bed for us and sofa bed for the children. This was made up with a pink mermaid duvet cover on one side and a blue duvet cover the other - and lots of balloons in the cabin. we registered in the children's clubs which are complimentary and run every day. The staff are genuinely caring and full of life - you get the feeling they are there because they really love children and want to be there. The daily activities were so varied and exciting it was hard to get the children out of the clubs to see the ship and explore the different islands. Children's tea is served from 5 - 7 every day and there is always a buffet with plenty of choice - fussy eaters are well catered for. The restaurants were excellent, East a fine dining Asian fusion restaurant and The White Room which is run in consultation with Marco Pierre White who was on board when we were on. You could book adult or children cooking lessons with him which were great fun and only small groups so we learnt a lot. Lots of choice for cool, contemporary bars so my husband and I had more grown up time together than we have had since we were married! At night time the children happily went into the clubs. The little one watched DVDs then snuggled under a duvet until we picked him up while our daughter played games and danced with her friends. She especially loved the Pyjama party girls Night In evening where she had her nails painted and her hair done by the Reef Rangers. On port days we mainly did our own thing and explored local beaches and went for lunch - the food and atmosphere at BB's Crabback in Grenada are certainly worth a visit! We also booked a dolphin watching shore excursion in St Lucia which the children loved, although it was a little long and very hot - take water and hats! As it is a British ship the currency is all in pounds and the fellow passengers are all Brits. We were surprised and pleased that the ship is designed beautifully - lots of furniture that you'd want to have at home, everything was spotless and very contemporary. The pools are not supervised but are very safe and family friendly. The only thing you pay for are drinks (which are much cheaper than on the American cruise ship I've been on before) spa treatments, which are excellent and comparable in price to spas on land and shore excursions if you want to do them.

Having been on land-based so-called "family-friendly" holidays, this really came top and we would recommend it to anyone in terms of safety, facilities, fun, entertainment and value for money.