Have just read your report on the cruise that you took on Ventura, I just wonder if it is as objective as you maintain, or do you have a motive in talking this ship up. I was lucky enough or should it be unlucky to have been on the maiden cruise back in April 2008, having cruised with P & O on many occasions, my first impressions of the ship where not at all favourable compared to other vessels in the fleet. Whilst the service crew was taken from experianced and inexperianced personel, the experianced crew tried to maintain standards but the newer members had a could not care less attitued. This attitued pervaided the ship. Having spoken to a number of the crew that I knew from previous cruises, it would appear that some of the department heads could not organise a drink up in a brewery. The older and more experianced members of the crew could not wait to finish their contracts and return to other ships in the fleet. One guy I spoke to said that he would not be renewing his contract as he was completly cheesed of with the Carnival managment, and all they seemed to want to do was dumb down the whole cruise experiance on Ventura and other vessels in the fleet, and I must agree with him, if what I saw on Ventura & Oceana are anything to go by. Strange the captian on both cruises was the same. As to the ship it's self what could be said about it, Large, Badly designed, poor sea keeping, and looks like a block of flats on water. A couple of people I meet and spoke to during the cruise where marine engineers, both independantly said to me that the best thing P & O could do with the ship was to take it back to the yard in Italy and demand their money back, as in their opinion the ship would only have a very short life, as a cruise liner and would be more suitable being converted to a container ship. Whilst the food was adequete, it was not up to usual P & O standards. as to the entertainment this was far below what I and many other passengers had come to expect of P & O, I have experiance amateur shows that where far better than those put on by the so called first rate American production company who where responsible for the entertainment on Ventura. However it was the maiden cruise so you expect things not to be 100%. Now over a year on since the maiden and having spoken to a number of passengers that have cruised on Ventura the situation that I experianced would appear to have worsened, not got better as you would expect. Over the past year Ventura has had a number of outbrakes of the Norovirus, which would indicate the lack of commitment of the crew and managment to Hygiene control. You mention in your report that Ventura has got a reputation of being a Chav ship, well I do not know how you gauge this, but a friend of mine came back from a cruise on Ventura covering the Xmas & New Year period, and was appaled at the actions of some of the so called passengers, getting legless, abusive to fellow passengers, not abiding by the ships rules, and in fact not carring about anyone else apart from themselves. And it appeared that the Security department on board was less than capable of dealing with the problem. I also believe that during the above cruise a couple of passengers tried to set fire to a christmas tree & decorations on board, ( one of the worst things that can happen at sea is a fire) so Ventura's reputation as a ship fit for chav's may well be justified. It would appear from your report that you had a good cruise, but I am just wondering if this was because you fall into the Chav category, or that it maybe that you are someway connected with Carnival (P & O). In closing I am informed that P & O have so many complaints concerning Ventura, that they are taking a long time to deal with all issues raised. I for one will never set foot on Ventura again.