Selbourne

Day 53 - Saturday 24th February - Sea Day We both had a decent nights sleep, which was helpful as the clocks had gone forward, so we are now 4 hours behind the UK. In spite of the shorter night we still managed to get to the MDR in good time for breakfast. Our first activity of the day was Paul Stickler’s second true crime talk on ‘The Mysterious death of Sir Harry Oakes’. This was as interesting and enjoyable as his first talk. The only thing that I didn’t like was that he very much leaves the outcome up in the air, asking the audience to decide. He has researched these historic crimes in great detail, so I would like to know what his assessment is. That was the consensus view in the lift afterwards as well 😂. Maybe before he starts his next talk he will tell us what he thinks, but I’m not sure he will. That’s going to bug me, but they are great lectures otherwise. We had an hour or so in the cabin before lunch, during which time the Captain came on the airwaves for the 12pm announcement. We knew that there must be some news as he never does them. They are always delegated to junior bridge officers. Anyway, we will now be two and a half hours late into Tortola as we will make up a phenomenal 30 minutes of the 3 hour delay leaving Jamaica 🤔. Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining. Tortola was always meant to be a port that we were alongside in. It was never even a ‘possible tender’ port. We were therefore disappointed to discover mid cruise that it had become a tender port. Now, due to our late arrival, we will be tendering for the first 4 or 5 hours only and then the ship will move onto a berth once a Norwegian cruise ship departs. This is great news as it means that I will now be able to take my wife ashore as originally planned. We will also be in port into the evening to make up for the lost time in the morning. Thankfully, I had already cancelled my excursion in Tortolla after my tender experience in Grand Cayman, because that trip has now been moved to the afternoon, would necessitate me using a tender to join the tour and would also result in my trip ashore with my wife being too late in the day, especially as the tours are always late back. With all that stress removed we are now free to do as we please as soon as we are alongside. After lunch we attended a talk by Ivy Partridge titled Beach Boys vs The Beetles in the theatre. This is the lady who does the Ukelele lessons, which I could have been tempted to do had they not been at 9am each day which is when we have breakfast. She’s very enthusiastic, but we both felt that she wasn’t a good speaker. It was a combination of very obviously reading from a script and constantly asking the audience for shows of hands as to which tracks they liked most and whether they owned them on vinyl. Quite a lazy approach and not really a presentation, but the music clips from these two iconic groups still made it a pleasant 45 minute interlude. We stayed in the theatre for the port talk on Antigua. Lynn our port presenter has been excellent. St John’s looks quite a nice place so I decided to cancel my excursion there as well. I’ve had enough of those ruddy awful Toyota minibuses that all the islands use and result in people being crammed in like sardines. They aren’t built for tall people. Also, some of the tours I’ve been on have been a bit weak, so I thought I’d cancel whilst I could still get a refund (which I’ve already received). We returned to the cabin briefly before going for a drink at Raffles, during which time we noticed that the toilet wouldn’t flush. This is relevant as will become clear later, but I reported it to reception. After a relaxing drink and read in Raffles we went to the Playhouse for the final performance of Jeremy Huw Williams (Welsh baritone singer) and Giordano Ferla (pianist). Neither of us enjoyed the first performance as we didn’t take to him and the music wasn’t to our liking, but he had said that by his final performance he usually played to full houses with people sat on the stairs and my wife wanted to see if that was true. Needless to say, it wasn’t. I counted about 50 people in a venue that seats over 200. It was 45 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back, but there was an amusing part. He was half way through a song when all of a sudden “Bing Bong. Ladies and Gentlemen. Please be aware that the vacuum system that operates your cabin toilets is currently not working. This is because somebody has put something down their toilet and blocked the system”. Of course, it couldn’t possibly be that the toilet system is getting as knackered as the air conditioning system, it’s the passengers fault. To be fair, that’s probably the more likely reason, but it was quite an accusing tone. Anyway, to be fair to Jeremy Huw Williams he handled it in a very amusing way as it must have really thrown him. I then did 4 laps of the promenade deck. I set out from the outset of this cruise to try to do 10 laps every sea day, but this 4 week cold has sapped some of my energy, so I’ve fallen woefully short. Hopefully I can do more of this on the long drag back to Southampton, as long as the seas aren’t too rough. It was another black tie night with a decent looking menu. I have mentioned several times that grand sounding menus are often followed by underwhelming food, but tonight’s meal was very good. We both had the same three courses. The beetroot smoked salmon starter, whilst tiny, was very nice. Beef Wellington for mains. We both ordered them medium- rare in the knowledge that they’d arrive medium and we were spot on. Two minor down points were the fact that the obligatory green beens were served (at least they go with this meal) and the supposed Madeira jus had at best had the cap of the Madeira wafted over it. As Ricky Tomlinson would say, Madeira my @rse 😂. The trifle Wally Ladd was a nice end to the meal (and definitely had some sherry in it). To end the evening we went to the theatre to see Jayne Middleton as Annie Lennox. I had a degree of apprehension about this, as I love Annie Lennox’s voice and feared that a cruise ship singer might massacre some great songs, but this girl was great. Absolutely none of the usual tricks that the poor ones use, such as changing the high notes or getting the audience to sing the bits that they can’t. She got every song pretty much pitch perfect and as per the original version. The one thing that I wasn’t convinced about was her speaking voice. I think she was trying to impersonate Annie Lennox’s speaking voice as well but it was like no Scottish accent I’ve ever heard. I remember having to leave an Adele tribute once when the singer also tried to impersonate Adele in the strongest cockney accent possible and it completely ruined an otherwise good performance. Thankfully Jayne Middleton did very little talking between tracks and let her fantastic singing voice speak for itself. The funny accent permeated one song though, which every time the line was sung sounded all the world like “who’s that ‘heel’, running around with you”? 😂 My favourite Annie Lennox track (Why?) was partly ruined by two cretinous audience members who decided to leave half way through it and started having a full blown conversation as they did, but I was hugely impressed that she even played the piano whilst singing that track. The backing vocals and some of the music was pre recorded, but she was accompanied by Pulse who were also great. Sadly we’ve had to avoid Pulse all this cruise as the female vocalist is dreadful, so it was nice to hear the musicians on their own as they are clearly excellent. So a great evening. Tomorrow is Tortola.

Funny you should mention that. On several tours I’ve seen locals walking along with machetes. If that happened in the UK armed Police would arrive and the person could be looking at 6 months custody!

Tortola Update The Captain has just announced that we will be two and a half hours late into Tortola (we are cruising at 20-21 knots) but there is thankfully some good news at last. Tortola was never advertised as a tender port, not even a possible tender, so we were disappointed to discover during the cruise that it had changed to be a tender port. Apparently a Norwegian ship is leaving at lunchtime, so we will be tendering for the first 4 hours or so and then we will move alongside at a berth. This means that my wife will now be able to go ashore and also that we have no more tender ports this cruise, both of which are great news. We will also be staying in port until later to make up for the later arrival.

Today’s MDR menus. If dinner turns out to be anywhere near as good as it sounds then we shall be very happy, however……..

There were quite a few persistent tradespeople, but in all honesty we have found that in several of the ports. I tend to walk quickly (even pushing the wheelchair) which gives off a message that I’m not stopping. I suspect that amblers are easier game. I also tend to ignore them and don’t make eye contact or look at what they are selling. One chap walked alongside me for a short while, which was a bit intimidating and another, when I ignored him, shouted after us in a British accent “you’re from London, innit” which I thought was quite funny (we aren’t BTW) 😂

Day 52 - Friday 23rd February - Ocho Rios, Jamaica A very odd day in Jamaica. As a Carnival ship managed to damage the cruise pier a few weeks ago, and has apparently put it out of action for a year, we berthed at Reynold’s Pier, which the locals call the James Bond pier. It’s an industrial berth that was used in two James Bond films as the baddies lair. The local economy is going to take a big hit, as this pier can only take smaller ships (and maybe only one at a time?) so all the biggies are being rescheduled to either Falmouth or Montego Bay. The locals aren’t at all happy. I was booked on a ‘Panorama of Ocho Rio’s’ tour and it was on one of those awful Toyota minibuses that seem to be as prevalent around the Caribbean as the wild chickens are on Grand Cayman. I got in the front seat which, due to there being no door, involves a degree of contortion and dexterity to get in and out of that thankfully I can still just about manage (at a push). As we left Ocho Rio’s we climbed up through Fern Gully, which is a steep sided gully that was originally a river that got diverted as a result of an earthquake. Even though I was in the front seat it was difficult to see out as the minibus had a tinted band that covered almost the top half of the windscreen and it wasn’t well applied so distorted the view. Anyway, as we were climbing the gully, I noticed the greenery start to move at the side of the road and all of a sudden a person on stilts, absolutely covered in greenery (from their head to the bottom of the stilts), just ‘walked’ out into our path. As if this was perfectly natural, our driver just slowed down and then drove around him. A little further up the gully there was another leaf covered manned stall and our guide said that he was ‘Jack in the box’ and the chap on stilts was ‘Jack and the beanstalk’. They are apparently ‘tourist attractions’ (code for beggars). We weaved our way through some quite poor looking areas and then got to an affluent area where various music stars own properties and then stopped at a viewpoint (Shaw Park Ridge) that overlooks Ocho Rio’s. On our way back down the hill another chap dressed all in black walked out in front of the minibus and brought us to a halt. He then proceeded to do about a dozen backward flips down the middle of the road. I should at this stage say that Marijuana in ‘small doses for personal use’ is legal in Jamaica and I was beginning to wonder if I had inadvertently taken some. Anyway, it was another beggar who managed to get a few dollars from the more benevolent passengers on the minibus. We then stopped at an extremely average church (St Johns Anglican Church) with a very shabby graveyard. I have no idea why so many shore excursions on various islands do this. The average village church in the U.K. is more impressive than 90% of these. After that we stopped at the Taj Mahal shopping centre (yes, you read that correctly). Lots of shops all selling similar things - tourist tat, t-shirts, booze, cigars, jewellery etc. The prices all look astronomical to me, probably as Sterling is weak against the US dollar. Maybe the prices are more appealing to our US cousins. Next we headed out of town for a slightly pointless drive through the heavily congested village of St Ann’s (it’s Jamaica Day today so everywhere was busy), which included driving in and out of the hospital car park (I’m not making this up for effect BTW). The final stop was an outdoor eating area where they cook vast quantities of Jerk Chicken and pork. Again, I’ve no idea why. It smelt nice but wouldn’t get a food hygiene rating at home! Back to the ship just 20 minutes late which seems to be better than most excursions. BTW, If booking tours don’t plan on doing two in a day. Chances are your first tour will be late back. They don’t even seem to be aware of the scheduled return times! As the tour was late back we had missed lunch in the MDR so went for a burger at the Lido Grill. The service up there is poor but the burgers are OK and are a quick way to fill a gap. We were scheduled to have a relatively short day in Jamaica with an ‘all on board’ time of 4.30pm. Then we had the added challenge that wheelchair users could not get on and off the ship between midday and 2pm due to the tides (when only stepped access from deck 5 would be available). However, by the time we had grabbed some lunch the level step free access from deck 4 had been reinstated, so we headed ashore. Thankfully, although we were further out of town than the usual cruise pier, the walk into town was very good and wheelchair friendly. It was a tiny bit more tricky in places once we got into the centre, but still better than most of the places we have visited. On the way back to the ship we had a look around Island Village, a nicely landscaped shopping and leisure area. Having returned to the ship in good time for the early departure, at 5pm the Captain announced that we would be delayed in our departure due to a delivery of provisions having arrived late. As a result, people could go ashore for another 2 hours if they wished. I doubt that many did. He also said that this would mean that we would be a few hours late arriving into Tortola in 2 days time as a result. We ended up leaving at around 8pm. Clearly there is a tight budget on fuel costs, as the journey is apparently about 720 miles and we have 36 hours to do it if we are to arrive on time. That would mean travelling at 20 knots, which is well below Auroras designed operating speed of 25 knots. I wondered if the Captain would do the same as he did with Bermuda, when he patted himself on the back for getting us there just marginally late when we had made a big diversion to avoid the worst of a storm system. However, he said that there would be a communication about the impact of our delayed arrival on shore excursions, so maybe not. At 7pm we went to Carmen’s for a Headliners performance called ‘Up all night’. As those who cruise a lot will know, there can be big variations in the quality of the Headliners troupes. We’ve seen a few excellent ones and some quite poor ones. In all honesty, the troupe that we have is very good and it’s frankly amazing that the vast majority of them are on their very first contact with P&O. In the spirit of complete honesty, the male singers are let down a bit by one of their number being quite weak, but the female singers and the dancers are all excellent. Dinner was mediocre. We both had jerk chicken. I wasn’t terribly keen but it was a welcome change from the usual fodder. My wife enjoyed hers. My dessert was dreadful. I struggle to think of more than a handful of MDR desserts that I have really enjoyed. The 10pm show was vocal group ‘Legacy’ but we were both quite tired so didn’t go. Tomorrow is a sea day as we progress towards Tortola.

Many a true word spoken in jest John, although on the aborted Key West day we just spent the day with the engines off in flat calm waters…..not far from Key West 🤔

Do you think so? I’m surprised that a few hours late leaving here would result in a few hours late arriving in Tortola, given how much slack there has been in our timings the whole cruise. Would have thought they could make that up without any issue whatsoever. There was due to be 39 hours between the two ports and we can’t make up just 2 hours? 2 hours at even 15 knots (which is faster than we’ve been going many days) would mean that just going 1 knot more than they planned would easily get that time back. Something doesn’t sound right, unless their fuel budget is as tight as their tug budget 🤔. For those of you wondering what on earth Mollag and I are talking about, we had a relatively short day in Jamaica and all had to be on board by 4.30pm. At 5pm the Captain announced that we are still taking on supplies (that arrived late) and, as a result will be late leaving. People can now go ashore again with a revised all on board of 7pm. Suspect that very few will bother. Apparently, this minor delay is going to result in us getting in to Tortola a few hours late which, given the slack timings on this cruise seems very odd.

Yes room service is available but we’ve not used it. My wife and I are very different. She eats to live, whereas I live to eat. She’s happy to skip meals, something that is an alien concept to me 😂

Todays MDR menus

If it makes you feel any better, I felt it was one of the least interesting ports. As it’s so affluent it looks more like Florida than the Caribbean and lacks all the colour.

Day 51 - Thursday 22nd February - Georgetown, Grand Cayman Whilst my throat has been getting better, I’m still not right. I get a really annoying tickly cough, which is worse in the evenings, and last night I got congested again which disturbed my sleep. All quite minor in the scheme of things, but downright annoying when these symptoms are now in their fourth week. I can’t imagine that we will ever do a cruise like this again, primarily due to my wife’s worsening condition but, even if we were able to, I think this experience would make me think twice. Much as we love cruises, I am in absolutely in no doubt whatsoever that the chances of getting something like this and it lasting for such a long time are far greater on a cruise ship than elsewhere. Today was a tender port so unfortunately my wife could not get off the ship. We had a leisurely breakfast and killed time until I had to leave to go ashore for my booked excursion - Cayman Highlights & Turtle Farm. I mentioned the other day that I hate tender ports and today’s experience is a classic example of why. My tour was booked for 12.30pm departure with a request to meet ashore at 12.15pm. Announcements had said that there were no longer queues for tenders and people could proceed ashore at will, so at 11.30am I left the cabin and headed down to board the tender. There was a short queue on deck 5 as there was no tender alongside. We waited and waited and eventually a tender arrived, as evidenced by the exceptionally slow trickle of people getting off it, no doubt delayed embarking the ship due to the security screening. Eventually, at about midday, they let us board the tender, except that once on board we sat there bobbing around for another 15-20 minutes whilst a slow trickle of passengers boarded. When we eventually got going the crossing took just 5-10 minutes but by this stage it was 12.25. As I got off the tender and approached the shore excursion lady I was taken to one of those dreadful Toyota minibuses that they use in the Caribbean to find that I was the last to arrive. They really pack people in those things like sardines and there was just one seat remaining. The chap in front of me asked me if I’d got lost, so I explained that it had taken me just under an hour to get there from the ship. I am guessing that the other passengers had either been ashore earlier looking around the town or a tender had left at around 11.30am just minutes before I arrived. Very embarrassing but not my fault. When returning to the ship I made a point of sitting on the tender in a place where I would be one of the first off (my plan worked) and I went straight to the excursions desk to cancel my tour at our final tender port. It’s a 9am tour departure and with all the faffing about that’s going to mean having to leave the cabin by 8am latest, possibly earlier, which means having to get my wife out of bed at around 6.30 am so that I can help her get ready, only to leave her sat in her wheelchair. That’s not fair. The whole thing today reminded me why we try to avoid cruises with tender ports, and that’s even without the experience of feeling sick as a dog if the seas are choppy and the tender takes ages to leave the ship or is held at sea waiting for a slot to get people back on the ship, as has happened enough times to be ingrained on my memory. As for the tour itself it was a bit of a mixed bag. The tour guide / driver was excellent. The first stop was a small factory & shop where they made rum cake and sold it at absolutely extortionate prices. Next we went to Hell, quite literally. Hell is basically an area of spikey black coral where there are some gift shops, a post office (where you can send a postcard from Hell) and lots of free roaming chickens. In fact, that’s the case with the whole island. Chickens roaming about everywhere! Finally we went to the Turtle centre. Quite a big place with hundreds of turtles of varying sizes, many of them huge. Our guide gave us a quick tour around and then we had free time. Questions from my fellow passengers were all around conservation, rescuing them etc etc. I think I was the only one who was aware that it’s also a farm where they breed them for meat, a fact that it is not mentioned but I’d read about and was confirmed by the guide when I quietly asked him! Back in the ship I took my wife to Raffles where we had a cuppa and a snack as we hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in 7 hours (a record on a cruise ship 😂). We then just relaxed until dinner, which was in the Beach House. My Nachos starter was good, but I think they were running low on chorizo, as I had shavings of it rather than the usual chunks. My wife had the pork scratching starter that is her favourite there. For mains my wife had the sticky chicken which didn’t look great when it came but she really enjoyed. I had the burger. It needed more binding ingredients, as it was crumbly like mince beef. I could only eat half of it. For puds my wife had Key Lime Sundae which she liked (once she’d scraped the cream off it) and I had the apple and pecan pie which is in fact a miniscule tart, but I was very full so that was fine. We were both too tired and full to enjoy the Simply Whitney show by Taryn Charles, so we called it a night. Tomorrow Ocho Rio’s in Jamaica.

I think it was probably a man made beach. Firm and impacted until you got to about 10 yards from the water.

Nothing to that scale, but I’ve had damage to two different cars when parked with CPS. The first time (dent in door) I noticed before we drove away, so they paid for the repair. Last year I incurred a nasty scratch on the bonnet which unfortunately I didn’t notice until we got home, by which time it was too late to hold them accountable.

CPS are not always ‘faff free’. We have had a few occasions, including our current cruise, where we had to wait an age in holding lanes before we could be checked in. I’m sure that P4C would have been far quicker in those instances. Thats why we book the cheapest of the two for each cruise.

We have returned to different terminals with CPS and the car has always been moved there.

Todays MDR menus

Day 50 - Wednesday 21st February - Sea Day Well here we are. Day 50. That’s more than double the length of time that we have ever been on a cruise before and we still haven’t murdered each other 😂 I had a much better nights sleep without the pressure of an early start and even managed to get a couple of loads of washing in the laundrette before we went to breakfast. Breakfast was a little hurried as I wanted to get both loads out of the washing machine and into the tumble driers in time to attend the first talk of our new guest lecturer, Paul Stickler at 10am. I got my wife in situ in the theatre and then whizzed back to the laundrette, sorted it all out and made it back to the theatre just a minute or two after he’d started. Well I am delighted. I really like true crime and that’s the subject of all his talks. My wife said that he had mentioned that he was on board until the end of the cruise and would give a talk each sea day, so that’s a big relief for me to have something to look forward to on the long drag home. Today’s talk was titled ‘The Porthole Murder’ about a murder on a cruise ship in 1947 that he has investigated. It was very refreshing to hear about a case that I’d never read about and his presentation style was very good. I did some more washing and some emails before we headed to lunch at 1pm in the Glasshouse. Having had at least half a dozen meals in there this cruise, I can say with some confidence that it is the best place to eat on Aurora. Every meal there has been superb and the service is always exemplary. We were planning on attending the 3pm ‘Audience with the Headliners’ in the theatre, but lunch had dragged on a bit (the second large glass of Jam Shed Shiraz was to blame) so we returned to our cabin for a rest and a read and ended up remaining there until dinner. The 10pm show was the act Duo Esencias with their performance called ‘The Dream’. We saw this on Britannia and didn’t feel the need to see it a second time. Tomorrow Georgetown, Grand Cayman, which is a tender port.

We are currently on day 50 of a 65 night cruise, having never done a cruise longer than 24 nights previously. If you’d asked me a year ago I’d have said that it would have been way too long for us, but it’s been fine. Like you, flying isn’t an option, and we fancied seeing the Caribbean. We don’t like sea days (we cruise for the ports) but have coped with them so far (we have the long run home to come though). If you want to see lots of different places, the Ventura 35 nighters are much better IMO, as they tend to do a lot more ports. Iona (and Arvia) cruises tend to be a little ‘port lite’ as they have less ports and more sea days compared to identical length cruises on other ships. The flip side is that in return for fewer ports and more sea days, prices are cheaper. We’d rather pay more and have more ports (there are 28 ports on our 65 night cruise) but as you like sea days your priorities might be different. I’m sure that you will both have a fabulous time. Don’t be phased by the 35 days. You’ll be surprised how quickly it goes!

Good call. Hubby can drop you all and your luggage off first, and then you can wait whilst he checks the car in and walks back. Often quicker than CPS, especially if they are using holding lanes.

An excellent blog as always. Makes mine look cursory. BTW I am also just a 2 finger typist but can still do it at almost talking speed 😉

Whilst there have been a few changes to which ports we are (or aren’t) using a tender, Grand Cayman was unfortunately listed as a tender port from the outset and we have been told it still is (assuming that it’s not aborted). There are 3 other ships due there tomorrow, as well as us, which I assume is the reason?

As I’ve said, we will never be told the full story, and partial info leaves voids to be filled, but that info is certainly interesting for context. Thanks.

We’ve used both CPS and Parking4Cruises and, if paying, would go for whichever of those is cheapest. Personally I wouldn’t chance any other operator.

The letters are factually correct though so there couldn’t be any accusations of wrong doing. The ship may indeed have been unable to make the port(s) due to the manoeuvrability limitations / wind, exactly as they state. However, the letter is never going to say “we could have potentially got around that by paying for a tug, but weren’t prepared to do so” - so, as is often the case, the issue is not what has been said (which is true), but what hasn’t! Legally, I think that P&O (and us in claiming) are on safe ground. Somebody told me yesterday that there have been a few aborted calls in Grand Cayman in recent days so, like you, I’m holding my breath - especially as it’s a tender port 🤢