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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10-DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY SIX: (13TH APRIL, 2026) DAY TWO AT LISBON

After breakfast at the buffet, we disembarked Ventura and went for a stroll around the streets of Lisbon. The first thing we noticed was the style of buildings, some had pastel facades and the others, which were my favourite, had azulejos tiles on the outside.

We also noticed the trams which were abundant in the streets. They looked old-fashioned but very quaint and we decided we’d like to travel on one, just for the experience.

As we were exploring the city, we came across a fantastic viewpoint which was called Santa Luzia View Point and from there, we could see our ship, Ventura and also the Majestic Princess. This is often dscribed as the best viewpoint and from here, you can see the historic district of Alfama.

A quick trip to the Tourist Information Centre and we had purchased tickets to go on the tram and visit a park just outside of the city. It seemed as though the whole of Lisbon was in a massive traffic jam and for about 20 minutes no cars moved by our bus stop, but eventually the tram arrived.

We travelled through the streets safe in the knowledge that our stop was the last one on the route, but luck wasn’t on our side and it stopped in a busy square and we were told that the tram wasn’t going any further due to roadworks, so we had to leave the tram at this point. We got off, a bit annoyed that we had spent 10 Euros each to travel for about ten minutes!

After a few minutes of walking, we managed to find the main street in Lisbon called Rua Augusta which has lots of shops, restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. We had a couple of things to eat along this road, the first being a Codfish Cake, even though we weren’t too sure what it was when we ate it.

And we also purchased the tradidional Pastel De Nata in a shop and we had them hot with ice cream – delicious!

We then walked up to King Pedro IV Square with it’s impressive statue of King Pedro himself and some rather spectacular fountains.

A walk back down Rua Augusta took us under the Rua Augusta Arch and into the Praca do Cmercio, which was a huge square.

After exploring the square, we found our way back to Ventura, we didn’t have any lunch as we had eaten in Lisbon.

Leaving Lisbon, we sailed back under the bridge, which is just as exciting the second time!

We ate in the main dining room and then took part in a quickfire quiz challenge in Havana in which I did quite well in the beginning, but faded away halfway through!!

It was onto the the Arena Theatre next for a Headliners Theatre Company production of a musical called Paradise City. It was full of rock music and I have to say, it was very loud!! There were some good songs, even if the acting was a little wooden…

An end of evening coffee in Costa, before we headed back to the cabin and looking forward to a day in Porto.

Day Six is up on YouTube if you would like to watch it. Please consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.

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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10-DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY FIVE: (12TH APRIL, 2026) DAY ONE AT LISBON

We managed to get up early today, so that we could see Ventura sail underneath the 25 de Abril Bridge.

25 de Abril Bridge.

It was extremely windy and cold up on the top decks, but we stayed there until she had safely passed under this iconic bridge. You can get some amazing video footage of this, which is, of course, in my vlog of Day Five. Please consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.

After having eaten breakfast, we got ready to go on an excursion that we had booked through P&O which was to visit some underground caves. The blurb about this had me a little worried as I was reading it, as it stated there were about 200 steps to go down, and I thought, “So, there must be 200 to climb up!!” But thankfully I then read that there was an elevator to take you back up to ground level…

The caves were spectacular, it was mindblowing to hear how they were created. There was lots of steps, but they weren’t too steep and most of the time there was a handrail to hld on to. Obviously it wasn’t suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs. It took about an hour to walk through as we stopped every so often to listen to our guide explain the geology of everything.

After the tour of the caves, we were taken to a restaurant for lunch. Just a word of warning here, if you struggle to walk up hills this may be a bit of a challenge as the walk was steep and long. But, the coach was at the top of it in the car park, so after your lunch it was there already.

Lunch was vegetable soup to start and then you had the choice of either pork or fish. I chose the pork and Phil had the fish. It was very tasty, especially when it was washed down with as much wine as you wanted. There was also orange juice available. I didn’t bother with dessert, but Phil loves his desserts and so he had pannacotta.

Fish
Pork

We had a little time to have a browse around the souvenir shop and we crossed the road to admire the stunning view.

There are cloakrooms there which you can use before you go down to the caves and also toilets in the restaurant. This is important for me as having a stoma, I need access to a toilet at a moment’s notice sometimes…

We then returned to the coach for our journey home. I’d just like to say that our tour guide was excellent. He sat with us during lunch and explained lots of Portugese customs and advised us where to go when we explored Lisbon the next day.

We had booked The Beach House for dinner which has a cover charge and there is also an additional cost on some of the menu items.

Phil chose Crab Tostadas for his starter and I had Crispy Bacon and Cheese Potato Skins and for mains, Phil had 10oz beef fillet on a lava rack and I had the Beach House Rib Combo. I was far to full for dessert, but Phil had a Banana and Strawberry Daiquiri Sizzler.

The whole meal was superb: the ribs were succulent and juicy, Phil’s steak was perfect and the side dishes were tasty. Our only minor complaint was that there wasn’t enough sauce in the pots, but that was quickly remedied by asking the waiters for some and they very quickly provided more.

We then went to the Arena Theatre where we watched juggler, Jon Udry. Juggling isn’t really our thing, but there was a lot of humour injected into his act and so we quite enjoyed it.

As we were still feeling pretty full, we decided to retire to our cabin, watch a bit of TV and then fall asleep. I think I fell asleep before I had watched any TV!!

Join us next time, when we’ll be exploring the beautiful city of Lisbon!

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P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10-DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY FOUR: (11TH APRIL, 2026) A DAY AT SEA

As is our usual routine on a sea day, we had breakfast in the main dining room and I decided on a fried breakfast…

…and Phil had Bircher Museli, followed by some American Pancakes with maple syrup.

We then went to the Arena Theatre to listen to a very interesting talk all about AI by John Walker. It really is amazing what has been achieved in this field in such a short amount of time!

After this presentation, we had a wander around the ship, all the pools were closed off as it was a bit choppy today. The captain told us that the waves will get up to about 6 metres, and there were a lot of sick bags dotted around the ship. We played cards for a while, we have an ongoing Rummy competition which we have been playing since about seven cruises ago and both have topped the leaderboard and both have had enormous scores! If I remember correctly, Phil had a very good run of luck today and so we finished with him in the lead…

At 3pm, we went up to the Epicurean for our afternoon tea. We had this the last time we were on Ventura, about ten years ago and weren’t very impressed but because Phil loves a cream tea, we thought we would try again and boy, this time we weren’t disappointed!

Each portion of the afternoon tea was perfection and it was hard to decide on a favourite, but I thought that the Blueberry Yoghurt Cheesecake was the best and Phil enjoyed the Golden Chocolate Sphere the best.

There were lots of choices of tea as well, I chose the Mao Feng Green Tea and Phil had the Everyday Brew.

After we managed to eat most of the afternoon tea, we definitely were not hungry for a three course meal at 6.30pm. So, we went to a couple of shows: Made in London which was performed by the Headliners Theatre Company which was the best of British music.

Then it was back to the Arena Theatre to watch Dan Conroy, who was Maroon Live earlier in the week, sing his favourite songs and a lot of them were ours too!

By this time, we were starting to feel a bit peckish and so where do you go? To the Waterside buffet of course!! We both had a roast dinner which tasted surprisingly good at 9.30 in the evening…

The video of our day at sea is now available on YouTube. Please take a look and consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.

Cruise Blog, Cruising, Holidaying

P&O CRUISES: VENTURA 10 DAY CRUISE TO SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE

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DAY THREE: (10TH APRIL, 2026): SANTANDER

We woke up in the port of Santander and as the captain had said in his announcement that as it was a bit windy and the clouds would soon disappear, we decided to have breakfast in Saffron Restaurant.

I chose the Eggs Benedict and Phil had smoked salmon with tomato and bacon, both of which were very tasty.

We hadn’t booked any excursions for this port and so we decided to take a stroll around the town and take in the sights.

We found the town hall and then as we were walking up a street we came upon a produce market. We entered and were immediately greeted by a bustling market with stalls of fresh fish, cockles, mussells, crabs and lobsters, in fact everything you can think of that lives in the sea! It was amazing to see the locals haggling and the noise was incredible.

Then we went upstairs and there was lots of stalls selling meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables. Everything looked much bigger than you get in Tesco’s!!

It was time to find Santander Bank, which we did fairly easily as there were a lot of people standing around it, taking photos pointing to the bank’s sign! So, of course, we had to do it.

Just across the road from the bank is the Cathedral Basilica, which was a Gothic-style cathedral. There is a lower church which is worth a visit as well as it houses the relics of saints. It cost two Euros each and it was money well spent as it gave you time to reflect and it is a place of solitude amongst the hustle and bustle of Santander.

After that, we decided to go back to the ship where we had some lunch and then as it was a sunny day, Phil decided to go swimming in the Oasis Pool and I laid on the sunlounger soaking up the sun.

Dinner was at the Sindhu restaurant and we made our way down to Deck 7 to indulge in truly amazing Indian cuisine. We always try and have a meal at Sindhu when we are on a P&O ship as we are fans of Atul Kochhar and have eaten at his London restaurant, Kanishka. I did write a blog about our experience at his restaurant, which you can read here.

Phil and I chose the same starter which was Goan Pork and Choris Chilli Fry. We should have taken note of the number 3 spice level indicator as it was quite spicy, but this didn’t detract from the taste, it was delicious!

For our main course I had Shahi Murgh Chicken Korma and Phil had Lamb Rogan Josh which we shared. The rice was exceptional, it was light and fluffy and very moreish. Both the curries tasted fantastic and we cleared all the dishes, which we don’t manage very often.

Phil had Chocolate Textures for dessert and I had Boondi Ladoo which is honey and rose yoghurt cheesecake and I have to say, this was probably one of the best desserts I have eaten on a cruise ship!!

After we couldn’t possibly eat any more, we went to the Havana club which was just down from Sindhu on the same deck where we watched Busker, Aiden O’Brien. He was very good and sung different genres of music and it was lovely to sit and relax with a drink and listen to him.

We took a walk along the promenade deck, where we watched the sun set on another wonderful day on board P&O’s Ventura.

The video of our day in Santander is now available on YouTube. Please take a look and consider subscribing, it is totally free and it would really help me to create more travel content.