She’s taller than Nelson’s Column, wider than Pall Mall and more than twice as
heavy as the Titanic. P&O’s Ventura is a whopper of a cruise ship.
Launched last weekend, she has a restaurant bossed by Marco Pierre White, a
spa, a full-scale theatre, a circus school and bunk room for 3,000
passengers. Yes, 3,000 – but by 4pm on day one, there wasn’t a single berth
left on the maiden voyage.
Boutique she ain’t, but busy she is, brimful of amenities designed to make
long days at sea pass without boredom. Ventura claims to be the ultimate
cruise ship for families – which is why my nine-year-old son Jonah
accompanied me on her first jaunt to the Med last Friday.
As befits a maiden voyage, there was a military band on the Southampton
quayside, her highness Helen Mirren cracked the champagne and fireworks
filled the skies as we edged into the Solent. Compared with the season’s
other big-time opening, Heathrow’s Terminal 5, everything seemed to progress
seamlessly.
First impressions? Ventura is as British as sausage and onions, with
Boddington’s on tap in the bars and home-grown ship’s officers – one crew
member for every three passengers. The interiors are contemporary but
restrained. There’s none of the extreme bling favoured by many new ships
these days – thank goodness.
There’s lots of open deck and pool space, including an area with a retractable
glass lid, so you can still swim if things get squally. The cabins – many
with balconies – are particularly impressive, cleverly laid out to give an
illusion of space. Or, as Jonah put it: “Although it’s small, it’s actually
quite big.”
What catches the eye, though, is the kids’ stuff. With giant Scalextric, an
(excellent) circus school, football coaching, a rock school and a resident
Noddy for toddlers, Ventura is designed to wow young sailors.
Already, as many as 800 youngsters are booked on one summer cruise alone. And
with banded children’s clubs spanning ages 2 to 17, and a night nursery for
the under-5s, parents get as much “me time” as they want. There are also
lots of all-the-family activities and shore excursions, too.
Food is a big thing on cruise ships, and definitely a good thing on Ventura
(apart from the ship’s porridge). Especially fine is The White Room, Marco
Pierre White’s first restaurant afloat – not that he wields the saucepans in
person, of course. You pay a £20 supplement to eat there, not bad for
Michelin-style dining, and you can eat under the stars. There are 11
restaurants in all, including four reserved for family dining, and the
service throughout is smart and friendly.
There’s also a breathless programme of on-board activities. You can start the
day with a Spinning class at the gym, learn how to remove someone from a
digital photo, watch live footie on a big screen, endure a spot of
acupuncture or tooth-whitening at the spa, and (on our cruise) spend the
evening tittering at Jimmy Carr in the ship’s enormous theatre.
Gripes? Design-wise, it has plastic sun-loungers, and there’s a bit too much
Astroturf for my liking. The shops are underwhelming and room service was
excruciatingly sluggish.
Nor is Ventura as all-inclusive as you might hope, with extras ranging from
drinks at the bar to in-cabin movies, Pilates classes to tips. Prices,
however, are reasonable: a bottle of wine starts at £10.50, while a
45-minute Spinning session is £7.
Ventura has yet to be rated by Berlitz, the only independent dispenser of
nautical stars, but I’d give her 4½ out of five – we’re talking John Lewis,
rather than Harrods or Harvey Nichols.
Would we go back for a proper holiday? An unequivocal yes from Jonah:
“Brilliant. Ten out of ten.” If I wanted to cruise without the family,
though, I’d opt for a more intimate ship and a wider choice of destinations.
The details: Ventura has summer-long sailings from Southampton to the
Med and the Baltic, then visits the Canaries in autumn and the Caribbean in
winter (based in Barbados). A two-week Magical Mediterranean cruise, sailing
on July 18 to Barcelona, Cannes, Florence/Pisa (from Livorno), Santa
Margherita, Rome (from Civitavecchia), Alicante and Gilbraltar, starts at
£8,060, based on a family of four sharing an outside cabin. Call 0845 355
5333 or visit www.pocruises.co.uk.
