Ventura opens Madeira’s 2026/27 cruise season
Madeira GuideThe P&O vessel brought 3,076 passengers to Funchal, with three more cruise ships expected in Madeira before the end of the month.
The P&O cruise ship Ventura opened Madeira's 2026/2027 cruise season on Wednesday, arriving in Funchal in the morning for an 11-hour call. According to Diário de Notícias Madeira, it brought 4,246 people: 3,076 passengers and 1,170 crew.
Ventura is on a 14-night voyage departing from and returning to Southampton. Funchal is its first stop, followed by La Palma, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Cádiz and Lisbon. The ship was scheduled to leave Madeira at 17:00 and return to England on 26 September.
The vessel was also the last ship to call at Funchal in the previous season, on 22 July. It has 18 years of service and was refurbished at the start of this year. It was built at the Italian Fincantieri shipyards at an investment of about 700 million euros.
Madeira is expected to receive three more ships by the end of the month: Disney Dream on Saturday, Celebrity Xcel on the 26th, and Celebrity Apex on the 30th.
Between September 2025 and May 2026, the region's ports recorded 344 calls, 791,707 passengers and 295,180 crew. Passenger traffic rose by almost 50,000 compared with the previous season.
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Madeira Guide
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