MV ''Ventura'' is a
cruise ship
Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...
of the
P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises is a British cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. It was originally a subsidiary of the shipping company P&O and was founded in 1977. Along w ...
fleet. The 116,017
GT ship was built by
Fincantieri
Fincantieri S.p.A. () is an Italian shipbuilding company based in Trieste, Italy. Already the largest shipbuilder in Europe, after the acquisition of Vard in 2013, Fincantieri group doubled in size to become the fourth largest in the world (2014 ...
at their shipyard in
Monfalcone
Monfalcone (; Bisiacco: ; fur, Monfalcon; sl, Tržič; archaic german: Falkenberg) is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Gorizia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, located on the Gulf of Trieste. Monfalcone means 'falcon mountain' ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
and is long. She officially entered service with the company in April 2008 and was named by Dame
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
.
''Ventura'' underwent a refit at the
Blohm & Voss
Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battle ...
shipyard in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, during March and April 2013, and re-entered service on 7 April 2013 with a voyage to Spain and Portugal.in February 2023 she underwent a minor re-fit again in the Hamburg ship yards And re-entered service in March 2023 after four weeks at the blohm & voss yard.
Overview
MS ''Ventura'' is owned by
Carnival UK
Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies – Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carniv ...
and operated by
P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises is a British cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. It was originally a subsidiary of the shipping company P&O and was founded in 1977. Along w ...
. When the ship entered service in April 2008 she was one of the largest cruise ships built for the British market. ''Ventura'' can accommodate 3,192 passengers, and has 1,550 cabins, of which about 60% possess private balconies. It has fourteen public decks, eight restaurants, six boutiques, five pools and three show lounges, including a theatre.
After being handed over on 29 March, ''Ventura'' arrived in
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
in the morning of 6 April 2008, ahead of its first mini cruise to
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
on 11 April, and her first full cruise on 18 April.
British actress Dame
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
officially christened ''Ventura'' and became the ship's "Godmother", prior to its maiden cruise to the Mediterranean Sea.
In a break with tradition, Dame Helen commanded a team of
Royal Marine Commando
The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
s to assist her in naming ''Ventura'' in a dramatic abseil.
[
]
Accidents and incidents
Passenger "rebellion"
During the Christmas 2008/New Year 2009 period in the Caribbean, there were reports of loutish behaviour on board, culminating in a rift between passengers who had paid the full fare and those who had not, described by the media as a passenger "rebellion". As a result of the problems, two passengers were ejected from the ship and three scheduled ports of call were omitted from the itinerary.
Bay of Biscay damage
After experiencing bad weather on 18 October 2012 in the Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
, ''Ventura'' suffered slight damage to the aluminium superstructure deck high up on the ship. ''Ventura'' underwent repairs in Southampton on 19 October 2012. P&O stated that this had no structural strength or safety implications. Some passengers were ordered not to use their balconies.
Power failure
Shortly after leaving the southern tip of Tenerife, on 25 October 2014 at around 6.15pm, ''Ventura'' experienced a fault with two of its six engines. As a result, power was lost. Once generators were working again and providing power to the ship, the engines restarted, around 40 minutes later. It then proceeded onwards, completing its further itinerary with no further issues. It was, however, reported by passengers that the same thing had happened on departure from Genoa, a week earlier.
Jetski rescue
On 5 September 2018, ''Ventura'' was involved in a rescue mission off the coast of Gibraltar
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, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
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, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
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. Three men were rescued, when their jet ski
Jet Ski is the brand name of a personal watercraft (PWC) manufactured by Kawasaki, a Japanese company. The term is often used generically to refer to any type of personal watercraft used mainly for recreation, and it is also used as a verb to ...
had run out of petrol and drifted into the Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
. All three men were rescued safely and stayed on ''Ventura'' until the Spanish Coast Guard arrived to collect them.
Propulsion system failure (2019)
On 8 December 2019, ''Ventura'' suffered technical problems with her propulsion system. Tugboat
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...
assistance was called for and overnight ''Ventura'' was assisted back to the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The ship had lost all four of her propulsion convertors following a major steam leak in the technical spaces where these systems were housed. The convertors were completely shut down and major components identified as needing replacing as these had failed in due to ingress of steam into the systems. Repair work was completed on one propulsion system on the 10th and a short sea trial conducted overnight with Lloyds Surveyors and Carnivals Electrical SME overseeing the tests. 12 December 2019 both propulsion systems were repaired and fully tested with a short sea trial being conducted in waters off Tenerife with tugs available in case of any problems. lloyds and the ships team were satisfied the ship was safe to operate without further restrictions and ''Ventura'' returned to Southampton missing out on the scheduled stops of Lanzarote
Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...
and Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
. An engineering team remained onboard the ship to monitor the systems and disembarked in Southampton on the 17th. A reduction of 50% of the fares was promised to all passengers. A total of 600 passengers elected to be flown back to the UK by charter aircraft on 12 December.
During a presentation to passengers in the Arena Theatre on 16 December 2019, Captain Andy Willard gave more details of the technical problems. On a scale of 1-10 he ranked this problem as '9'. He further explained that five tugs attended on 8 December two of which were 'pirate' tugs hoping for salvage rights. Specialist parts to repair the propulsion problem were flown in from Los Angeles, a sister ship in the Caribbean and the manufacturers in Germany together with a team of technical specialists. ''Ventura'' returned to Southampton on 17 December 2019, three days later than scheduled. No injuries were sustained with damage limited to the propulsion convertors and the steam system. On the voyage following this incident further incidents occurred aboard involving a Muster call and a fire in the onboard restaurant resulting in a crewmember being airlifted from the ship by the Portuguese coastguard on the morning following.
Propulsion system failure (2022)
On 6 February 2022 at approximately 1830 Ventura suffered a power and propulsion failure about 40 nm South of Plymouth in the English Channel. This failure was at the end of a 35 day cruise to the Caribbean. After 10 minutes lighting was restored and the main engines were restarted after a further 20 minutes. The ship then continued to Southampton docking around 0600 on 7 February at Ocean Terminal without incident. During the 30 minute failure the vessel drifted beam on to the prevailing westerlies at around 4kn.
Luggage Incident
On 4 June 2022 a forklift, operated by the Port of Southampton, dropped a luggage cart into the River Solent while attempting to lift it from the vessel. Two ship's tenders were launched to retrieve the luggage, unfortunately a small number of bags could not be recovered.
2020 pandemic
During the 2020 coronavirus layoff, the vessel spent some time moored off Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
and Teignmouth
Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at the ...
.
References
External links
''Ventura'' P&O website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventura
2007 ships
Ships of P&O Cruises
Passenger ships of Bermuda
Ships built by Fincantieri
Maritime incidents in 2012
Maritime incidents in 2019
Maritime incidents in 2022