Now, I’ll let you into a little secret. When I first met my wife, over 15 years ago, the first real holiday we ever went on was to Benidorm. Now at the time I knew nothing about the place but very quickly got to grips with the place and we ended up going back about half a dozen times. We really enjoyed the place and if we didn’t like cruising then I’m sure we’d still be going there. So when we found out that today we could take a day trip to Benidorm, we jumped at the chance.

We set off nice and early from the ship for a 45 min coach ride. We were dropped off right in the centre of Benidorm and had mostly the whole day to explore on our own.

We visited all the old haunts, stopping for a beer each time!! – Then we hade some lunch and a little shopping before a few more beers. One thing I could not get over was the number of motorised scooters there were, you know the type used by people with walking difficulties. They were everywhere on the roads, on the pavements in the shops and bars.

Nevertheless, we had a great time and were a little sad when it was time to re-board the coach back to the ship.

Tomorrow it’s Gibralta.

Not really a lot to report today, other than we had a very lazy and relaxing day at sea.

We arrived here nice and early in the morning, around 7.30am, this was so all the tours could get off and into the Italian Traffic. We have been to Rome a couple of times before, so we decided this time to spend the day relaxing on board. This evenings entertainment was very good, a Comedian by the name of Adrian Walsh. Now I do vaguely remember seeing him on TV some years back, but no matter. He was very funny, not rude and did not pick on anyone in the audience, which was good. Up on the main deck there was a production of ‘Plunder’ which involved the singers and dancers in a Pirate themed show around the main pool. We didn’t go up but were told it was quite good. Later in the Exchange they had video horse racing. Amanda won £12 and I won £50 at blackjack, so all in all not a bad day. Tomorrow we have a lazy day at sea, so I’ll check back with you when we get to Alicante.

Santa Margherita is a tender port, this is because the port itself it a tiny fishing village, however it does have a bay large enough for s hip the size of Ventura to anchor. So we took the tender boats to the shore. Today we are booked on our first excursion, a walking tour of Portofino. To get to the secluded bay of Portofino, it’s just a short ferry ride.
Portofino itself is really quite beautiful and should be on anyones list of must see places. In fact Rod Stewart was married at the Castle on the hill (Browns Castle) and Portofino also featured as part of the wedding celebrations of Wayne Rooney.
Once ashore, we started our walking tour, which took us up a steep incline away from the port and up past Browns Castle and onto the small church that sits up on the hill. Needless to say, walking back was much easier and after a short ferry and tender back to the ship a glass of wine and lunch were very welcomed.
Entertainment varied tonight, your choices, apart from the bands, were a talk by Lord Sebastian Coe, Comedy Club and Test Ventura. We went for the latter and it was indeed very interesting. Each audience member had a small hand held keypad. Questions were then projected up onto the big screen and you pressed your answer on the keypad, A, B, C, D etc. The keypad then acted like a remote control, sending the answers back to a computer, at the end of each round, scores were displayed on the big screen. Then the winner of each of 2 heats would take part in the final later that week, to win a mini cruise later in the year. We came a very close second.

Tomorrow we dock in Civitavecchia, which is the port for Rome.

Hi Everyone,

As some of the more observant amongst you may have noticed, I have been away from my blog for quite a few weeks now.
There are any number of reasons why I have not been posting, including having gone on 2 more cruises!
In any event, I have returned and will be completing my review of the Ventura Maiden Voyage before starting upon, The Monarch of the Seas from Los Angeles to Enssenada Mexico and a 3 night mini cruise on The Fred Olsen ship, the Boudica from Southampton.
Also, I am looking forward to my next cruise which will be with NCL around the UK, with stops in France, Cornwall, Southern Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Holland and Belgium.

Ventura Maintained her easterly course throughout the night towards Livorno, passing to the north of the small island of Gorgona. Ventura embarked her two local pilots at 06.33. At 06.55 we entered the harbour, passing the breakwater on our starboard side. At 7.10 we entered the inner basin and commenced turning short round bow to port. By 8.10 Ventura was all secure port side to at Banchino Al Fontala Berth, Livorna.

Since departure Villfrance until our arrival in Livorno, Ventura steamed a distance of 129 nautical miles at an average speed of 11.5 knots.

With all pre departure checks complete and the local pilot on board, Ventura slipped her lines and commenced thrusting off the berth. At 19.06 we passed the breakwaters leaving the harbour and disembarked the pilot and set course and speed to Santa Margherita

Today we are in Livorno, the Port for Pisa and Florence.

As usual, Amanda and I just took the complimentary shuttle bus into the town. As first glance there did not seem much to do, then as if by magic, we rounded a corner and there was the market – Amanda seems to have a nose for it.

The fruit market was something else, the fruit was so fresh looking and everything smelly lovely.

We found and American lady who ran her own dog rescue shelter, as we are both suckers for a dog, we had to dig deep and let her have a few coins for the dogs, and Amanda had a photo.

We bumped into quite a few passengers from the ship who were also just having a lazy day wandering around the local port.

Back on board, we contemplated what to do that evening, we thought perhaps we would eat at “East” the oriental restaurant (with a cover charge)

but after looking at the menu decided that it was not really what we wanted, so we opted for the main restaurant again.

One of tonights acts was a singer called Robbie Allen, we what a vocal range, this guy really could sing everything from falsetto to Barry White. Excellent show.

There were still no takers on the electronic poker machine, so Simom, The casino manager set Amanda and I up with a demo game, and guess what, she 'Busted' Me :-(

Tomorrow we are in Santa Margherita.

As Ventura made her final approaches to the anchorage, the Captain rang "Standby Below" on the engines. Once in position, the order was given to let go the starboard anchor and commence lowering the boats. At 07.39 the anchor was "brought up" to seven shackles on deck. Once the boats were lowered to the water, pontoons rigged and SHore party established the passenger tendering was commenced.

Since departure Barcelona until our arrival in Villefrance, Ventura steamed a distance of 272 nautical miles at an average speed of 22.6 knots.

With all bridge and engine room departure checks underway, all tenders were safely hoisted and back onboard by 17.20. At 18.25 the order was given to start heaving the starboard anchor. The Officer in charge reported the anchor "aweigh" and the Captain manouvered the vessel to clear the bay. Once all boats were reported secure for sea and the anchor safely brought home, Ventura disembarked the local pilot and set various easterly courses throught the Ligurian sea towards Livorno.

Today we arrived in the pretty little fishing village of Villefrance, the ideal port for trips to Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo.

Ventura anchored out into the bay and the mode of transport to the shore way by tender boat. Now being this was a maiden cruise and this was the first tender port, you could guess that there may be some teething problems?

Well you’d be right, we though it best to allow the people on booked excursions to get off first, then we wandered down a little later and go straight onto a tender – Little did we know at the time, but we were supposed to have gotten tender tickets from reception and waited our turn to be called – no one told us!!

Anyhow, we ended up on land and had a lovely walk along the narrow seafront where there were shops and restaurants. They even sent out a helicopter from MOnaco to have a look at the ship.

One street back from the front are the 14th Century catacomb streets, very picturesque.

Around lunchtime, we decided to head back to the ship.

On board our tender was a delegation from the local mayors office, who were having lunch with the Captain – very nice.

We spent some of the afternoon at the pool, but later on it clouded over so we adjourned to the pub instead.

That evening we saw the second of the Legends shows, this time it was Kylie Mynoge, Elton John, Robbie Williams and Freddie Mercury (although Freddy did look suspiciously like the George Michael we saw earlier in the week.

I would recommend this show every time, great fun.

Tomorrow is Livorna, the port for Pisa and Florence.

At 6.30 "Standby BElow" was rung as Ventura approached the Catalonian Coast. At 7.02 the local BArcelona Pilot embarked as we entered Barcelona Harbour. All Bridge and engine room arrival checks were complete and at 7.05 Ventura swung bow to port off berth. At 7.34 the first mooring line was sent ashore and by 8.04 Ventura was all secure alongside Muelle Adosado Terminal B in Barcelona.

From noon until our arival in Barcelona, Ventura steamed a distance of 372 nautical miles at an average speed of 21.6 knots and from Southampton to Barcelona Ventura steamed a distance of 1743 nautical miles at an average speed of 21.1 knots

At 15.30 2 hours notice was given to the engine room for departure. Clearance was granted from the local authorities for departure and with all pre departure checks complete, the captain gave the order to let go the mooring lines. 17.14 with all the mooring lines clear we commenced thrusting off the berth, and 2 mins later we bagan to move ahead. Once clear of the breakwater, Ventura disembarked the local pilot and set a north easterly course along the Spanish and French coastline.