Aboard Ventura with P&O Cruises
Cruise Overview
Lying near the head of Southampton Water, a peninsula between the estuaries of the Rivers Test and Itchen, Southampton is Britain’s largest cruise port.
It has been one of England’s major ports since the Middle Ages, when it exported wool and hides from the hinterland and imported wine from Bordeaux.
The city suffered heavy damage during World War Two and as a result the centre has been extensively rebuilt, but there are still some interesting medieval buildings including the Bargate, one of the finest city gatehouses in England.
Amsterdam combines the unrivaled beauty of the 17th-century Golden Age city center with plenty of museums and art of the highest order, not to mention a remarkably laid-back atmosphere.
It all comes together to make this one of the world's most appealing and offbeat metropolises in the world.
Built on a latticework of concentric canals like an aquatic rainbow, Amsterdam is known as the City of Canals—but it's no Venice, content to live on moonlight serenades and former glory.
Quite the contrary: on nearly every street here you'll find old and new side by side—quiet corners where time seems to be holding its breath next to streets like neon-lit Kalverstraat, and Red Light ladies strutting by the city's oldest church.
Indeed, Amsterdam has as many lovely facets as a 40-carat diamond polished by one of the city's gem cutters.
It's certainly a metropolis, but a rather small and very accessible one.
Locals tend to refer to it as a big village, albeit one that happens to pack the cultural wallop of a major world destination.
There are scores of concerts every day, numerous museums, summertime festivals, and, of course, a legendary year-round party scene.
It's pretty much impossible to resist Amsterdam's charms.
With 7,000 registered monuments, most of which began as the residences and warehouses of humble merchants, set on 160 man-made canals, and traversed by 1,500 or so bridges, Amsterdam has the largest historical inner city in Europe.
Its famous circle of waterways, the grachtengordel, was a 17th-century urban expansion plan for the rich and is a lasting testament to the city’s Golden Age.
This town is endearing because of its kinder, gentler nature—but a reputation for championing sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll does not alone account for Amsterdam's being one of the most popular destinations in Europe: consider that within a single square mile the city harbors some of the greatest achievements in Western art, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh.
Not to mention that this is one of Europe's great walking cities, with so many of its treasures in the untouted details: tiny alleyways barely visible on the map, hidden garden courtyards, shop windows, floating houseboats, hidden hofjes(courtyards with almshouses), sudden vistas of church spires, and gabled roofs that look like so many unframed paintings.
And don’t forget that the joy lies in details: elaborate gables and witty gable stones denoting the trade of a previous owner.
Keep in mind that those XXX symbols you see all over town are not a mark of the city's triple-X reputation.
They're part of Amsterdam's official coat of arms—three St.
Andrew's crosses, believed to represent the three dangers that have traditionally plagued the city: flood, fire, and pestilence.
The coat's motto ("Valiant, determined, compassionate") was introduced in 1947 by Queen Wilhelmina in remembrance of the 1941 February Strike in Amsterdam—the first time in Europe that non-Jewish people protested against the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime.
Amsterdam combines the unrivaled beauty of the 17th-century Golden Age city center with plenty of museums and art of the highest order, not to mention a remarkably laid-back atmosphere.
It all comes together to make this one of the world's most appealing and offbeat metropolises in the world.
Built on a latticework of concentric canals like an aquatic rainbow, Amsterdam is known as the City of Canals—but it's no Venice, content to live on moonlight serenades and former glory.
Quite the contrary: on nearly every street here you'll find old and new side by side—quiet corners where time seems to be holding its breath next to streets like neon-lit Kalverstraat, and Red Light ladies strutting by the city's oldest church.
Indeed, Amsterdam has as many lovely facets as a 40-carat diamond polished by one of the city's gem cutters.
It's certainly a metropolis, but a rather small and very accessible one.
Locals tend to refer to it as a big village, albeit one that happens to pack the cultural wallop of a major world destination.
There are scores of concerts every day, numerous museums, summertime festivals, and, of course, a legendary year-round party scene.
It's pretty much impossible to resist Amsterdam's charms.
With 7,000 registered monuments, most of which began as the residences and warehouses of humble merchants, set on 160 man-made canals, and traversed by 1,500 or so bridges, Amsterdam has the largest historical inner city in Europe.
Its famous circle of waterways, the grachtengordel, was a 17th-century urban expansion plan for the rich and is a lasting testament to the city’s Golden Age.
This town is endearing because of its kinder, gentler nature—but a reputation for championing sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll does not alone account for Amsterdam's being one of the most popular destinations in Europe: consider that within a single square mile the city harbors some of the greatest achievements in Western art, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh.
Not to mention that this is one of Europe's great walking cities, with so many of its treasures in the untouted details: tiny alleyways barely visible on the map, hidden garden courtyards, shop windows, floating houseboats, hidden hofjes(courtyards with almshouses), sudden vistas of church spires, and gabled roofs that look like so many unframed paintings.
And don’t forget that the joy lies in details: elaborate gables and witty gable stones denoting the trade of a previous owner.
Keep in mind that those XXX symbols you see all over town are not a mark of the city's triple-X reputation.
They're part of Amsterdam's official coat of arms—three St.
Andrew's crosses, believed to represent the three dangers that have traditionally plagued the city: flood, fire, and pestilence.
The coat's motto ("Valiant, determined, compassionate") was introduced in 1947 by Queen Wilhelmina in remembrance of the 1941 February Strike in Amsterdam—the first time in Europe that non-Jewish people protested against the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime.
It has been one of England’s major ports since the Middle Ages, when it exported wool and hides from the hinterland and imported wine from Bordeaux.
The city suffered heavy damage during World War Two and as a result the centre has been extensively rebuilt, but there are still some interesting medieval buildings including the Bargate, one of the finest city gatehouses in England.
Amsterdam combines the unrivaled beauty of the 17th-century Golden Age city center with plenty of museums and art of the highest order, not to mention a remarkably laid-back atmosphere.
It all comes together to make this one of the world's most appealing and offbeat metropolises in the world.
Built on a latticework of concentric canals like an aquatic rainbow, Amsterdam is known as the City of Canals—but it's no Venice, content to live on moonlight serenades and former glory.
Quite the contrary: on nearly every street here you'll find old and new side by side—quiet corners where time seems to be holding its breath next to streets like neon-lit Kalverstraat, and Red Light ladies strutting by the city's oldest church.
Indeed, Amsterdam has as many lovely facets as a 40-carat diamond polished by one of the city's gem cutters.
It's certainly a metropolis, but a rather small and very accessible one.
Locals tend to refer to it as a big village, albeit one that happens to pack the cultural wallop of a major world destination.
There are scores of concerts every day, numerous museums, summertime festivals, and, of course, a legendary year-round party scene.
It's pretty much impossible to resist Amsterdam's charms.
With 7,000 registered monuments, most of which began as the residences and warehouses of humble merchants, set on 160 man-made canals, and traversed by 1,500 or so bridges, Amsterdam has the largest historical inner city in Europe.
Its famous circle of waterways, the grachtengordel, was a 17th-century urban expansion plan for the rich and is a lasting testament to the city’s Golden Age.
This town is endearing because of its kinder, gentler nature—but a reputation for championing sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll does not alone account for Amsterdam's being one of the most popular destinations in Europe: consider that within a single square mile the city harbors some of the greatest achievements in Western art, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh.
Not to mention that this is one of Europe's great walking cities, with so many of its treasures in the untouted details: tiny alleyways barely visible on the map, hidden garden courtyards, shop windows, floating houseboats, hidden hofjes(courtyards with almshouses), sudden vistas of church spires, and gabled roofs that look like so many unframed paintings.
And don’t forget that the joy lies in details: elaborate gables and witty gable stones denoting the trade of a previous owner.
Keep in mind that those XXX symbols you see all over town are not a mark of the city's triple-X reputation.
They're part of Amsterdam's official coat of arms—three St.
Andrew's crosses, believed to represent the three dangers that have traditionally plagued the city: flood, fire, and pestilence.
The coat's motto ("Valiant, determined, compassionate") was introduced in 1947 by Queen Wilhelmina in remembrance of the 1941 February Strike in Amsterdam—the first time in Europe that non-Jewish people protested against the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime.
Amsterdam combines the unrivaled beauty of the 17th-century Golden Age city center with plenty of museums and art of the highest order, not to mention a remarkably laid-back atmosphere.
It all comes together to make this one of the world's most appealing and offbeat metropolises in the world.
Built on a latticework of concentric canals like an aquatic rainbow, Amsterdam is known as the City of Canals—but it's no Venice, content to live on moonlight serenades and former glory.
Quite the contrary: on nearly every street here you'll find old and new side by side—quiet corners where time seems to be holding its breath next to streets like neon-lit Kalverstraat, and Red Light ladies strutting by the city's oldest church.
Indeed, Amsterdam has as many lovely facets as a 40-carat diamond polished by one of the city's gem cutters.
It's certainly a metropolis, but a rather small and very accessible one.
Locals tend to refer to it as a big village, albeit one that happens to pack the cultural wallop of a major world destination.
There are scores of concerts every day, numerous museums, summertime festivals, and, of course, a legendary year-round party scene.
It's pretty much impossible to resist Amsterdam's charms.
With 7,000 registered monuments, most of which began as the residences and warehouses of humble merchants, set on 160 man-made canals, and traversed by 1,500 or so bridges, Amsterdam has the largest historical inner city in Europe.
Its famous circle of waterways, the grachtengordel, was a 17th-century urban expansion plan for the rich and is a lasting testament to the city’s Golden Age.
This town is endearing because of its kinder, gentler nature—but a reputation for championing sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll does not alone account for Amsterdam's being one of the most popular destinations in Europe: consider that within a single square mile the city harbors some of the greatest achievements in Western art, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh.
Not to mention that this is one of Europe's great walking cities, with so many of its treasures in the untouted details: tiny alleyways barely visible on the map, hidden garden courtyards, shop windows, floating houseboats, hidden hofjes(courtyards with almshouses), sudden vistas of church spires, and gabled roofs that look like so many unframed paintings.
And don’t forget that the joy lies in details: elaborate gables and witty gable stones denoting the trade of a previous owner.
Keep in mind that those XXX symbols you see all over town are not a mark of the city's triple-X reputation.
They're part of Amsterdam's official coat of arms—three St.
Andrew's crosses, believed to represent the three dangers that have traditionally plagued the city: flood, fire, and pestilence.
The coat's motto ("Valiant, determined, compassionate") was introduced in 1947 by Queen Wilhelmina in remembrance of the 1941 February Strike in Amsterdam—the first time in Europe that non-Jewish people protested against the persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime.
Cruise Itinerary
Aboard Ventura
Launch Year: 2008 Length: 290 Width: 36 Currency: GBP Capacity: 3078 Crew Count: 1205 Deck Count: 14 Cabin Count: 1556
Family friendly - There’s always something happening on Ventura, enjoy delicious fine dining, a tranquil spa, many quiet spaces to unwind, great sports facilities and four pools. Evenings are particularly memorable, with the lavish two-deck theatre where you’ll witness elaborate shows and stand-up comedy.
Ventura Facilities
Ventura Includes
Cabin Details
From inside cabins to balcony cabins and luxurious suites, you will find a room for every budget and taste.
All cabins are air-conditioned and well designed, to give you as much space as possible and to help you relax into your surroundings. Many feature balconies to give you additional outside space. All feature Egyptian cotton sheets, free tea & coffee making facilities, refrigerator, hairdryer, safe, in-cabin television and good sized en-suite bathrooms with toiletries pack. You will also enjoy the services of a personal cabin steward who will look after your every need, and can enjoy room service from early morning until late evening at no extra cost.
