P&O’s ‘Ventura’ Makes A Grand Debut in Southampton
P&O Cruises is Carnival’s British Brand and likes to present their ships as sympathetic with British tastes. So, the newest of the P&O Cruises international configuration is given a few Anglo-touches in configuration along with a marketing presentation to the line’s UK fans as the “Superliner designed and built for Britain.”
An energetic stem-to-stern tour to the ship just prior to the April 16 official naming ceremony revealed the ship’s features and facilities quite clearly. Ventura is an engineering “pea” out of the Princess Cruises/P&O “pod”. The P&O sister brands are ordering very similar ships in this post-Panamax (115,000 ton) class of super-cruiser with internal layouts that are modestly tweaked to match the changing needs of the two lines. The ship’s technology is the efficient, and reliable, conventional diesel-electric system
Passengers will find the decor re-imagined to refresh the appeal and provide some novelty, but the ships do not offer any “surprises” in layout or in the arrangement of facilities and passenger features. Of course, these days porthole or windowed cabins are mostly a thing of the past. Outside cabins are nearly all glass-rimmed balconies and the
Deluxe balcony stateroom
exterior appearance of the ship is now that of a glittering glass cliff. From the inside of the more that a thousand balconied cabins things could not be nicer, from the light and air point of view that is. The decor of the Ventura cabins (totaling 1546) is an informal mix
of finishes, and they are busy with what I assume is intended to be a cheerful mix of colors and patterns. The outside cabins are well arranged—for pricing spread—with the inside cabins appearing to be pretty well identical throughout the ship's eight accommodation levels. They are all sized within the industry-standard for their price point.
The Ventura is more smart than elegant in its interior designs. The public spaces tend
toward to an English pub tone is several rooms, such as the casino and bars. Even celebrity chef Marco Pierre White’s premium dining venue looks like a trendy city luncheon spot rather than evoking the tone of a luxurious restaurant. This “White Room”
The White Room
is one of the few physical changes to the standard Princess design. The room is inserted into the stack of public rooms high up, overlooking the stern, on Deck 17, just below the Metropolis night club.
In some ways the stairways are the most interesting part of the ship. The hundreds of recent artworks up and down the many stairways are worth the climbs. (Nearly 7,000 art works from 40 British artists are on display throughout the ship)
Three-deck-high Atrium
The Dining Rooms (three) are low-ceilinged spaces, almost identical, which could be the
restaurant of a ship of say 30,000 tons. The British, it seems, tilt toward the traditional style of same-table dining, which leads to two of the three rooms—the Baytree and the Saffron— being allocated to a two-sitting nightly program. The third Dining Room—Cinnamon— and the two alternative venues provide the choices that the cocktail crowd expect. On my daytime tour I was unable to sample the cuisine and service standards. But, I was assured that the bacon was British-style (not crispy) and the beer held at the temperature favored in the best of country pubs!
The added-to-your-bill supplement for the alternative dining restaurants is quite high, at £20 ($40) for both the East restaurant and the White Room. There is no traditional “club room-type” bar-lounge, with a promise of a quiet drink on the Ventura. The on-board merchandizing area is not particularly large with a smaller shopping area than might be expected. Ventura’s casino is notably smaller that other ships of this size.
Up on Deck 16 the Beachcomber Pool, one of four places to get really wet on Ventura, boasts a Skydome to enclose the space on cool days. Another P&O design feature, up on the top decks, is stadium seating surrounding the outdoor pools - an echo of the “Passage to India” days when the long days at sea were enlivened with games in and around the pool. The value and safety of family cruising is doing a lot to bring down the average age of cruise passengers. P&O makes a strong couples-with-children appeal with Ventura’s large youngsters-only zones crafted for the diversion of children from tots to teens. The youngsters' area includes reserved outdoor spaces and a paddling pool.
In pursuit of the younger cruisers and their youngsters, the P&O designers have equipped the sports deck with features the clearly compete with the sporty activities found on the newer large ships of other cruise lines. Up high on Deck 19 at the stern, the Ventura offers bungee bouncing, tethered trampolines and trapeze games that P&O says is a first on the high seas.
Trapeze aerialists at Cirque Ventura
Called “Cirque Ventura the facilities for wannabe aerialists suggests the antithesis of the
genteel deck games of cruising's past. This is about as young as you can get in the ship-board activities department!
P&O’s reputation as a British maritime institution is secure with its flag flying at the mast of the marvelous Ventura. The ship will fulfill its promise of providing happy cruise holidays on a cheerful, lively ship. The ship is carefully tuned room-to-room to its market segment and their expectations of value-for-money cruising from an historic British brand.
--- Roger J. Ritchie, Contributing Editor
*Photos courtesy of P&O Cruises
Ventura’s Ship Statistics___________________
Shipyard: Fincantieri/Italy
Entered Service: April 2008
Gross Tons: 116,000
Length: 290 meters
Width: 36 meters
Draft: 8.5 meters
Height (from keel): 67.4 meters
Height (from waterline): 59 meters
Power system: Electric Diesel
Registry: Bermuda
Passenger Decks: 15
Passengers: 3,080 (double occupancy)
Crew: 1,220 International
Pools: 5
Passenger Cabins 1,546 (880 balcony)
