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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.

Cruise Blog, Cruising, Diary, Walking Dead Poetry

P&O Cruises: VENTURA 10 Day Cruise to Spain, Portugal and France

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DAY ONE (8th April, 2026): Embarkation

I woke up on the morning of this cruise with the feeling of excitement and a slight apprehension that we hadn’t finished packing our suitcases. Our boarding time was 12;45, so we had some time to complete this and due to the fact that we live in a village just outside Southampton, we didn’t have to leave until about 12:15.

After some clearing up: emptying the dishwasher, taking the rubbish out to the bins and making sure the toilets were pristine (just in case a burglar needed a wee whilst robbing us blind!!), we booked an Uber and we were suddenly advised it would only be five minutes before he arrived! (We later discovered the time you put in is the drop off time and NOT the pick up time!!) We then realised that we would be about an hour early at the port, but it was too late to cancel the Uber now.

Our Uberdriver took us on a very strange route to Southampton Docks, but as we had plenty of time, we weren’t duly stressed.

On arrival, apparently the hour too early didn’t matter, we were told which bay to deposit our suitcases in and then we headed to the main terminal. Boarding was probably one of the easiet we have had in a long time and about 15 minutes later, we were on board Ventura.

We headed straight to the buffet and filled our plates with salads, chips, ham, anything that took our fancy and after a stroll around the upper decks, we were informed that our staterooms were ready.

We had booked an inside cabin on deck 15, which was midship and we found it with no trouble. The cabins are practical, consisting of beds, bedside cabinets, vanity dressing table, dressing area, space to hang clothes, cupboard which includes a safe and a bathroom with shower and unfortunately a shower curtain,

Then we decided to go back up to the sun deck to watch the Sailaway from Southampton as we love seeing our village from the ship, it makes a change from us watching the ships sail down Southampton Water from the beach.

We had purchased the alcohol-free package prior to boarding and received 1.7% discount on the total price because we are at Atlantic tier in the loyalty tier.

Non-alcohol package is approximately £26 to £29 per person, per day, depending on which tier you are on.

Drinks shown are Paradise Punch: Pineapple juice, cranberry juice, orange juice, lemonade and grenadine.

The sailaway was vibrant and loud, with lots of singing and dancing and thankfully the sun was shining throughout. The last time we left Southampton on board Regal Princess it absolutely poured down.

After sailing past the Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley, we went back to our stateroom to change for dinner.

We had booked an early sitting at 6.30 PM and had chosen to sit at a table of six. I need to eat early as I have a stoma bag as a result of having had bowel cancer. I have blogged about my experience – please click here to read about my fight against bowel cancer.

We found the restaurant, The Bay Tree, and then found our table, we were the first to arrive. Minutes later another couple arrived, a man around his mid-50’s and his wife, also mid 50’s. They introduced themsevles as John and Martha, (not their real names) and then two ladies arrived who told us their names were Caroline and Mandy (again, not their real names.) Caroline and Mandy were good friends and had gone on many cruises together.

We all chatted, informing each other where we came from and both couples said they came from the North. We ordered our meal, which was very nice, the only glitch was that the waiters forgot my dinner and by the time I had mine, the others had nearly finished their dinners. Dessert was good and we finished with a cup of coffee.

After dinner, we went for a walk around the Promendade on Ventura which is on deck seven. There are some stairs at the front of the ship, which were only open a couple of times during the whole cruise, so it wasn’t always possible to walk around the entire ship.

Screenshot

Then, because we had been awake since early this morning, we decided to go back to the cabin and watch a bit of television before we fell asleep.

Our video below is embarkation day….