Impressions of a Suite on P&O Ventura

In November 2018, my husband Chris and I went on a 3 night mini-cruise on Ventura. Although we have cruised quite a lot over the years we had never travelled in a suite before. This being a short cruise,  we booked a suite for ourselves as a treat. It was a guarantee deal, whereby we did not choose our suite number.  We were allocated R410, otherwise known as the Cathay Suite. This was one of the lower grades of suite on Ventura, situated midships on the Riviera Deck. It had a very convenient position, close to the lifts and within easy reach of most central areas. There was occasional noise of moving furniture from the lido deck above, which might be more intrusive in the Summer, but it did not bother us.
Before I describe the suite in more detail, I would like to make it clear that if we had unlimited funds, we would, of course, always choose a suite, but, like most cruisers, we do have to watch the pennies. In this post, I have tried to give some helpful details for anyone considering the extra expenditure.

So what did we get for our money?
Firstly, and in my opinion, most importantly, we had lots of extra room.....
a large sleeping area, separated from the living space by heavy curtains.

There were two TVs, one in each area, a large dressing table, desk, and an extremely useful extra sink with  glasses and plates stored in an upper cupboard.

     

Storage was generous with ample drawers and a large walk in wardrobe with a full length mirrored door.

There were two double patio doors which led to a well furnished wide (not deep) covered balcony. The cover added extra privacy and considerable protection from the November weather. It would, I am sure, provide shade on sunnier days, but might also cut out a lot of the sun, depending on the position of the ship.

 The bathroom consisted of two rooms, so the sink and toilet were separate from the full size spa bath and shower.

The bathroom was well appointed with all the usual supplies, plus white company toiletries and use of P&O plush towelling dressing gowns.

I soon learnt not to use too much shower gel before turning on the spa!!!

What other extras did we get from our suite status?

• Early embarkation and a buffet lunch with complimentary drinks reserved only for people in suites and top tier loyalty customers. This provided a great start to our cruise, and we felt very privileged.
• Optional breakfast in Epicurean. Breakfast here was lovely, but as the opening times were limited, when the clocks went forward we had to eat rather earlier than we wanted to take advantage of the venue.

 

• Champagne, fruit bowl, chocolates, atlas, binoculars and daily canapes including chocolate dipped strawberries on the formal night.

• And of course the services of a butler in addition to a steward! We did not take advantage of the butler's packing/unpacking services, but it could be useful if perhaps you were elderly with limited mobility. He brought our canapes, visited daily to check if we needed anything, arranged large print menus for my husband, but on such a short cruise we had little need of him. On a longer cruise we might have taken occasional advantage of the in-cabin dining which he would have been happy to arrange.

So would I book a suite again? For a very special occasion or if someone trebled my pension, possibly yes. I would want it to be on a much longer cruise and to choose the location of the suite. Chris's sight is not so good these days, and extra space does help, but for now, we're going back to booking deluxe balcony cabins, which are as large as we can afford. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to have any cabin with a balcony on a cruise ship. Having said that, if anyone on P&O is reading this, we would not say 'no' to a complimentary upgrade!