[1][7] British actress Dame Helen Mirren officially christened Ventura and became the ship's "Godmother", prior to its maiden cruise to the Mediterranean Sea.

[8] In a break with tradition, Dame Helen commanded a team of Royal Marine Commandos to assist her in naming Ventura in a dramatic abseil.

[citation needed] After experiencing bad weather on 18 October 2012 in the Bay of Biscay, Ventura suffered slight damage to the aluminium superstructure deck high up on the ship.

Three men were rescued, when their jet ski had run out of petrol and drifted 100 miles (160 km) into the Mediterranean Sea.

All three men were rescued safely and stayed on Ventura until the Spanish Coast Guard arrived to collect them.

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 a number of major components identified as needing replacing as these had failed due to ingress of steam into the systems.

During a presentation to passengers in the Arena Theatre on 16 December 2019, Captain Andy Willard gave more details of the technical problems.

On 6 February 2022 at approximately 18.30 Ventura suffered a power and propulsion failure about 40 nautical miles (74 km; 46 mi) south of Plymouth in the English Channel.

[citation needed] On 4 June 2022 a forklift, operated by the Port of Southampton, dropped a luggage cart into the Solent while attempting to lift it from the vessel.