Selbourne

Day 29 - Wednesday 31st January - St Philipsburg, St Maarten There are 6 cruise ships in port today and we are the second smallest. That honour goes to Sea Dream 1. I was booked on a 9am tour to Marigot, capital of St Martin (the French half of the island). Unlike yesterday where we departed 15 minutes early, today was 20 minutes late. A proper coach this time thank goodness and no bone jarring suspension. Legroom was incredibly tight but I had a double seat to myself. One odd thing was that the coach didn’t have tinted glass. It had a tinted film fitted to the top half of all the glass. This film was wavy and you couldn’t see through it properly, so I spent the journey craning my neck to see out from the lower half of the glass 🙄 The driver / guide was quite amusing and gave a good commentary as we crossed the island. The French half looks a bit tidier, although it was disappointing to see litter in all the gully’s that line the roads, especially as there were Egrets in them. 45 minutes free time in Marigot was long enough to get a feel for the place, which had a market, small shopping centre, waterfront and a marina with a lot of superyachts. Looking down on all of this was a fort. On the way back we stopped at a viewpoint but the view was nothing special at all so I stayed on the coach. I managed to see and photograph a small lizard at Marigot but on the way back saw a very large male green iguana (I knew it was male as it had an orange mane to attract the females - some knowledge that our guide shared with us)! Back on the ship, having had no breakfast we went for lunch in the MDR prior to me taking my wife ashore. We were berthed at the far end of the pier, so we had to walk the length of two ships just to get to the cruise terminal, which was the nicest so far. Well spaced shops and bars in Caribbean colours and, when we returned, a steel band playing. It was quite a long walk to the main town and whilst we shouldn’t complain about the heat (especially having had rubbish weather for most of the first 3 weeks), mid to high 20s in strong sunshine and humidity is quite hard work pushing someone in a wheelchair. Miami was perfect (low to mid 20s) but over 25 degrees becomes hard work, especially with the humidity. By the time we got to the town I needed to sit in the shade for 10 minutes. We strolled along the promenade, went to Wathey square, the flea market and walked back along Front Street. By the time we got back on the ship we were both gasping for a drink and I know that alcohol is a bad idea for rehydration but we ordered a pint and a half of Birra Moretti and enjoyed it in air conditioned comfort. We had our first sail away of the cruise in the Caribbean Sea. No dolphins to greet us this time. None of the evening entertainment appealed so we just had a relaxed dinner in the MDR and then returned to our cabin. Tomorrow is Dominica.

Todays MDR me us

iPhone. Just point and shoot. Hopefully I have a reasonable eye for what makes an interesting photo?. Always amuses me on trips when people are snapping away at all sorts of rubbish through the windows of coaches, with all the associated reflections from the glass etc. As I remember when we paid a fortune for 36 prints, I still try to make each one count 😂

Yes, and add to that hilly and cobbles!

We really embraced Freedom Dining when it first came out and for many years used it without problem. However, we’ve gone right off it now as a result of it no longer operating as originally intended (i.e. first come, first served). The combination of allowing people to reserve tables (which now seems to happen on all ships, including currently on Aurora) and multiple ways to get a table (app, pager, walk ups) has made the whole thing, to use a technical expression, a buggers muddle! We have reverted to Club dining as a result.

Day 28 - Tuesday 30th January - San Juan, Puerto Rico For the first time this cruise I had set an alarm, but needn’t have bothered as I had a bad nights sleep. My sore throat has turned into a head cold. Unhealthy places these cruise ships! It was a nice sail into San Juan whilst it was still dark and we were the first of the 5 cruise ships due in today to arrive. No breakfast as I was on an early tour, the 0815 Rainforest Drive. As there were several busses doing this trip, mine left at 8am. Unlike the minibus used in Bermuda, this one had plenty of legroom and decent air conditioning. However, it was lacking in one key area. Suspension. Dear God, this thing crashed and banged over every imperfection in the road, of which there were many. Anyone with a back problem would have been in serious danger. We were flying along the main roads at some speed and then ‘bang’ and we would all be violently jolted. Being the rush hour, the traffic coming in to San Juan was nightmare but, thankfully, we were heading out so it was quite clear (in a way, I wish it had been busier as our driver wouldn’t have been able to go so fast and each bump would have been a little less violent)! Our first stop was a climb up to a pond in a lush tropical setting. There was also a restroom which was handy, given that the contents of our bladders had been shaken violently 😂. Next stop was a tower where, if you wanted to, you could climb 96 steps to get a panoramic view across the canopy of the rain forest and beyond to the sea. Thankfully the steps were wide with an up and down side, so no perilous passing on the narrow side as I’m sure we’ve all done at home in castles etc. The final stop was a river which, apart from some black fish swimming around in crystal clear water, seemed a bit pointless. On the return to the ship we hit a particularly bad bump on the main road that felt like it caused all my internal organs to clash together. I hadn’t expected such a thrill ride. I’m not sure that it was quite what I had expected, but at least I can now say that I’ve been in a rain forest! Note - talking to others back on the ship, I’d been unlucky with this bus and driver. Others on the same tour but on a different bus reported much better transportation (smooth ride etc), more stops and a more informative guide. Back on the ship I returned to the cabin to collect my wife for some lunch. We were both starving having had no breakfast and we didn’t fancy the MDR lunch menu, so we decided to go for a burger and fries at the Lido grill. It was peak lunch time and yes, you’ve guessed correctly, it was closed. Apparently on port days it doesn’t open until 3.30pm. What use is that? As with the buffet closure times, I am increasingly of the view that the opening times are those that suit the crew rotas and not the passengers 🤔. We had no choice but to go to my least favourite place (the buffet) where another odd assortment of random food items awaited. Just as we often stereotypically think of Indian people eating curry every meal, the Indian chefs on this ship must think that us Brits like nothing more on a day when it’s nearly 30 degrees and humid than….. a full roast with all the veg and trimmings - for lunch 🙄 After lunch we both went ashore with the intention of exploring the old town, but it soon became apparent that this was going to be nigh on impossible with the wheelchair. We took the decision that we’d just wander along the level waterfront and then I’d drop my wife back at the ship and I’d explore the old town on my own. Just as we got back to the pier, Celebrity Ascent was coming in to port for an afternoon and evening visit and, because it was berthing on the opposite side of the pier to Aurora, the decision had been taken to stop all Aurora passengers from embarking or disembarking until Celebrity Ascent was fully moored alongside. As a result we had to stand outside the pier gates for half an hour, which was really annoying and seemed like complete overkill. When I eventually got my wife back on board I immediately disembarked again to explore the old city of San Juan, which was a really lovely place - very colourful and attractive. We left San Juan at 6pm and, as always, watched the sail away from our balcony. After we had disembarked the pilot the light was fading when I glanced down into the water and thought I was looking at a shark. A quick as a flash three or four dolphins appeared, one did a quick leap and splash and then, as quick as they came, they were gone. At 7pm we went to Carmens for Elton & Friends with Steve Hollington. It wasn’t as good as his first show. Elton John impersonations are where he excels and him singing other artists songs didnt work as well. Dinner was fine and as the theatre show was the young chap who we didn’t enjoy the other night we gave it a miss. Tomorrow is St Maarten.

Some photos from my Rainforest Tour. Photos of San Juan itself will be with my daily update.

Todays MDR menus

P&O give a week or so grace after their balance due date, so it’s best to book just after that. We have nabbed two cruises now, one on Britannia and one on Aurora both less than 3 months out, and that’s even for accessible balcony cabins which are very difficult to come by.

Yet we booked a late saver for Aurora’s current 65 night Grand Voyage for less than half the Select fare. Quite a few folk on here saying they got their fingers burnt by booking at launch.

Not from my experience over the last 6 months or so. One week after balance due date is when the ultra cheap late savers can kick in. We also got a cheap Select fare a week after balance due date as well.

If you can be flexible and book late, 7 weeks before sailing there are still great bargains to be had, even on Aurora.

Day 27 - Monday 29th January - At Sea After 3 weeks of mostly quite disappointing weather, we have thankfully now had a decent run and today was probably the best day yet, with calm seas, plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s. In spite of yet another clock change (forward another hour - now 4 hours behind the UK) we were up and about fairly early, so were able to have a light breakfast in the MDR prior to Margaret Gilmore’s second talk at 0930, this time on her covering the 7/7 attacks in London as a BBC journalist. Afterwards we did a partial lap of the promenade deck - partial because the forward section is still closed 🙄. We then retreated to our cabin and balcony until lunchtime. We had a window seat for lunch and my wife managed to see some more flying fish, which look a lot bigger from deck 6 than they do from our deck 11 balcony! At 2pm the Headliners Theatre Company put on a 2 hour Alan Ayckbourn play called ‘Relatively Speaking’ in the theatre. This was a very welcome addition to their usual song and dance shows. Considering that the performers are primarily dancers or singers, rather than actors, they did a really good job. Well done them. Another partial lap of the promenade deck as the front section continues to remain roped off, which is incredibly frustrating and really messing up my attempts to try to counter some of the cruise calories. It’s such a shame that IMO Aurora has the best promenade deck in the P&O fleet yet, for quite some days now, it’s not been fully usable. The 7pm show in Carmens was comedian William Caulfield and, as mentioned before, we almost never find cruise ship comedians to be funny, so we skipped it. We didn’t bother with a pre dinner drink either. The Crows Nest always seems too hot and Anderson’s, which we used to love, doesn’t serve the drinks that my wife likes (the cocktail lists in most bars are a shadow of their former selves). We were back in the MDR for dinner at 8pm, hoping that our waiter will be in one of his better moods. Thankfully he was! One of the better dinners I’ve had in the MDR. Crab soufflé with a really nice shellfish sauce, chicken Kiev main and rhubarb and ginger crumble to finish, to which I added some ‘Honey Combe’ (sic) ice cream 😂 The 10pm theatre show was the Polish violinist Isabella Zebrowska, who my wife hadn’t seen a few nights previously. Another exuberant performance although, as with many of the live performers, she was done no favours by the Aurora orchestra. The brass player isn’t good and the drums are too loud and overpowering on some tracks. Two tracks that I particularly enjoyed were the Summer storm sequence from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the Pitates of the Caribbean theme music. Tomorrow we reach landfall at last with our first of 6 consecutive port days. San Juan in Puerto Rico is our first stop. I’m doing a tour in the morning and then we will both be exploring old San Juan in the afternoon.

We can almost always find something that we like the sound of Andy but, as mentioned, sometimes the reality of what you get falls short of the glamorous description 😂

I’d have the same challenge. Our daily spend, including drinks, speciality restaurants etc is way less than the cost of the drinks package alone, but if I had a drinks package I’d be determined to get value from it, which wouldn’t be a good thing 😂

Today’s MDR menus

Yes I did. We seem to have taken on board some banana leaves in the US 😂

Day 26 - Sunday 28th January - At Sea We woke earlier than usual (no particular reason - seas were calm) so made it to breakfast earlier than usual. This enabled us to attend the 0930 Whale & Dolphin Talk in the Playhouse, looking at the threats that these majestic creatures face. We then sat on our balcony for a while watching the flying fish leaping out of the water. I had no idea how far they could fly! Thankfully the weather appears to have taken a turn for the better, and we’ve now had a couple of decent days. Today’s high was 27 degrees and mostly sunny, so the sun worshippers were out in force. On the navigation map we appeared to be cruising close to Cuba, but land wasn’t visible other than some distant glimpses late afternoon. At 1130 it was the Cartagena port talk in the theatre. I was contemplating cancelling my tour there, but the old city seems to be a bit difficult to DIY (other than cabs which would cost as much) so I’m going to keep the booking and then take my wife ashore after lunch. The aviary / zoo just outside the cruise port is apparently very good. We had lunch in the Glasshouse, which serves my two favourite meals on the ship - the 6oz fillet steak surf & turf with peppercorn sauce and Lime and Corainder Asian Sea Bass baked in banana leaf with a shrimp and coconut broth. I have had the latter in all Glasshouse restaurants across the P&O fleet ever since it was introduced and it’s always been excellent, but I had it on Ventura at the end of last year and it was really disappointing, as it was very watered down and lacked the usual intensity of flavour. I’m delighted to report that this seems to be a one-off problem on Ventura as it was as good as ever on Aurora and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I washed it down with a large glass of Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc (as per the recommendation) and that was equally good. My wife had the fillet steak and asked for it to be cooked medium, but it was more medium-well, so we will ask for medium-rare next time (I had a medium last time we visited and it was perfect, so it’s a bit hit and miss). After that a bit of a siesta was required, so we retreated to our cabin and balcony. On deck 12 this morning we noticed all the reserved sunbeds (which you aren’t supposed to reserve?) and were very relieved that we have our own private outdoor space. Mid afternoon I decided to get my daily exercise on the promenade deck. I prefer to do it later when it’s cooler, but I have got fed up with all the irritating deck closures that make it difficult to do laps, so by going earlier I would avoid them. Wrong! The front section of the promenade deck was closed yet again 😡 At 5pm we went to the Playhouse for the first performance of our latest classical artist. She is a classical harpist and singer called Eloise Irving. She had a few tuning issues with her harp and whilst the song choices weren’t particularly to our taste, the harp is a beautiful sounding instrument and Eloise has an equally beautiful voice. She can hit any note perfectly. Oddly, the thing that struck me the most was how well she spoke. These days where, even on the BBC, the norm is now strong regional accents or ‘street’ dialect, it’s rare to hear someone speak English so nicely - innit 😂 We have done our damndest to give a wide berth to all the people with coughs on the ship (of which there are many), but sometimes it can’t be avoided, especially as we have to use lifts all the time, and a few times we have been in a lift with people who were coughing 🙄. I now have a bit of a dry tickle in my throat so we went to Raffles for an ice cold drink after the classical recital. I hope that it doesn’t develop into anything just as we approach the section of the cruise that we have been most looking forward to. At 7pm we thought that we’d give Pulse a second go, having not been too impressed by their first performance that we had seen a few weeks back. It was their ‘I believe in a thing called Rock’ performance. The male singer’s OK but the female one isn’t, so we left after 15 minutes. We clearly weren’t alone. As we got in the lift another couple got in and the lady said “I love that song, but she’s murdering it” 😂 We had our second dinner booked in Sindhu and were at this point realising that we’d been daft having lunch in the Glasshouse! Still, needs must! Sindhu was much busier than our first visit - in fact it was full. As a combination of this, and the inconsistent air conditioning around the ship, it was unpleasantly warm. Service was painfully slow. We’d been seated for half an hour before we were even given the mini popadoms that you get before the starter - and that was only after I’d chased them. Very quickly after that the starters arrived. We then had another prolonged delay of over half an hour until the mains arrived. In reality, as we weren’t hungry this wasn’t a major issue, but we had to forego a pudding in order to see the 10pm show (not that we needed one). I didn’t enjoy my meal, but I rarely do in Sindhu, so don’t read anything into that. My wife enjoyed hers. Thankfully we managed to get one of the only two seats in the theatre where a wheelchair user can sit alongside their partner. This was for Steve Hollington’s Elton John Tribute. This was much better than the previous nights show. Having seen the real Elton John live for 3 hours and been as close to the stage as we were here, we were braced for this not being good, but he put on a good show. He can’t sing the higher notes (so either changed them or got the audience to sing them) but his voice was otherwise quite Elton like and he is also a very good pianist. An enjoyable way to end the day. Tomorrow is our last of 3 sea days before we start an intensive run of 6 consecutive days of port calls, staring with Puerto Rico.

They seem to have the crew numbers on Aurora, but rather than just put cones around the little bit they are painting (or whatever) they now rope off a whole section and pull the tensator barriers across doors to the promenade deck as well. Infuriating and complete overkill IMHO. Health and safety gone mad! We had the same nonsense on Ventura.

That had crossed my mind as well. I don’t doubt that the US authorities may be being difficult, but after the bother that P&O got into over the crew jumping ship they might not wish to risk a repeat. The crew have been told that even though our next port (Puerto Rico) is US territory, it is anticipated that crew shore leave will be permitted.

Day 25 - Saturday 27th January - Sea Day The clocks went forward one hour overnight, but thankfully we managed to wake up in time for breakfast in the MDR. We are pleased to see that Orca (whale and dolphin experts) have joined us for 2 weeks and we were going to go to their 0930 talk, but as that was going to be a rush we decided to go to the 3pm repeat instead. Having had breakfast and collected the Britain Today paper, we decided to do a lap of the promenade deck. Yet again, a section was roped off. This is getting quite frustrating. Yesterday afternoon an aft section was roped off. Anyway, as we concluded our part lap we saw a member of Orca staff so I thought I’d ask if we were likely to see anything in the Gulf of Mexico today. Another couple were rather dominating her time with question after question, so it was some time before I could get to her. No sooner had I asked my question than Coral, one of the entertainment team, came tearing through the door and said “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Your talk was meant to start 10 minutes ago”. “No” says the girl from Orca. “My talk is at 0930 and it’s now 0840”. Oh dear, she hadn’t put her watch forward and was still on New Orleans time! As my wife reminded me, this exact same thing happened with another member of Orca on our previous transatlantic! You’d think that a member of the entertainment team might make contact with them the evening that a new person joins and make sure that they know about the clock change? At 1030 we went to the theatre for another new speaker, Margaret Gilmore, an ex BBC journalist and investigator. Her first talk was on Russian state sponsored assassinations on UK soil (Litvinenko, Salisbury etc). An interesting subject but, in spite of her mentioning that she still has sources in MI6, nothing that she said wasn’t already widely known from the various documentaries and dramas about these cases. It will be interesting to see what other subjects she talks about. We stayed in the theatre for the 1130 Port Talk on Curacao & Aruba. I do think it’s a shame that the noon announcement from the bridge doesn’t get piped into all venues and the presentations should be paused for them. I like to hear the announcements, but miss more of them than I hear. On a cruise with an elusive captain, who we almost never hear from, this announcement is likely to be the only bit of information that we receive all day about our progress. Talking of announcements, I’m pleased that the entertainment manager only makes announcements if there is a change to the schedule or an error in Horizon. I find the daily 9 or 10am announcements that you get on some ships to be far too ‘Hi di Hi’ and are utterly pointless as all the information that they give out is in Horizon anyway! One thing that I’ve forgotten to mention in this blog so far is the peculiarities with the lifts. Thankfully, the things that really matter to us (good sized lifts, all in service and good lift etiquette) are all great so far. However, you have to have your wits about you. Where do I start? Firstly, the display screens in each lift car are very frequently incorrect. They often tell you that you are on a completely different floor to the one that you are actually on. Sometimes they count down the floors as if you are going down, when in fact you are going up - and vice versa. Other times they tell you that you are at a floor that the lift you are in doesn’t even go to! In other lifts the screens are correct but the announcements are wrong. Getting out at the wrong floor is therefore a common occurrence. One or two lifts keep saying that the lift is overloaded when there are just one or two people in it (no sarcastic comments please - loads of people have mentioned this 😂 ). On another lift, the floor 11 button stays illuminated, but it won’t stop at floor 11 unless you press it again (as the button jams and stays illuminated, but isn’t active). I’m sure there’s more that I’ve missed, but you get the gist. It’s all a source of amusement to passengers and every lift journey is an adventure and a cause for an amusing conversation, but is possibly another sign of Aurora showing her age. At 3pm we attended the repeat Orca talk. The presenter was there well ahead of time! Orca are a great addition to any cruise. When we did our USA and Canada cruise in 2018 I would have missed the Beluga whales in the St Lawrence river had our eagle eyed Orca guide not spotted them. We are enjoying a daily cuppa at Raffles (Costa) which we haven’t bothered with much on previous cruises. The complimentary cake (or sandwich) with each drink is a nice touch. I then decided to go for my route march around the promenade deck but, yet again, it was roped off, this time in two different places. I really do feel that these persistent closures every time minor maintenance work is occurring is overkill. We decided to go to the Crows Nest for a pre dinner drink. It was back to being very warm in there again, no doubt in part due to the industrial dehumidifier working hard to dry out the wet carpet from the cordoned off area that got wet during the thunderstorm a few nights earlier. It was the 5th black tie night of the cruise but the first time that Marco Pierre White’s name had adorned the menu. And a rather nice menu it was, well, on paper at least. As a point of interest, there are no amuse bouche served on formal nights on Aurora, which seems very strange when she is arguably a more traditional / formal ship than Britannnia and Ventura, which both serve them, albeit they are now just little drinks, rather than something to eat, so fairly pointless. For starters we both had the Parma ham with shaved Manchego Parado cheese. Mine was lovely. My wife’s had no cheese. Not a shred, so I had to donate half of mine. As is often the case, the food didn’t necessarily live up to the glamorous description. I had the duck which was meant to have a ‘crushed raspberry and chocolate sauce’. Did it hell. It was a most bland and tasteless gravy with no trace of either. My wife had the duo of beef and lamb. She said that the lamb didn’t taste like lamb. I tried it and she was right. More like beef. The beef was overcooked. I haven’t mentioned the MDR food much during this blog, other than the couple of occasions when it’s been very good, but I’d summarise it as being adequate and nothing more. I appreciate that it’s mass catering and not fine dining, but the MDR food on Aurora is not as good as it was on Britannia, Iona or Ventura, all of which we cruised on last year. As it was a formal night and I hadn’t enjoyed my main course I asked for a desert and some cheese. This resulted in a bit of a pulled face from our waiter which, I have to say, really irritated me. Long time cruisers will recall that cheese was always an additional course after dessert anyway. Our previous waiters wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. I shall be keeping an eye on that as it will affect the tip I give at the end of the cruise. Our main waiter does seem rather moody and has good days and bad days. Thankfully our assistant waiter is great and we both really like him. Quite a cheeky chappy and far more consistent in his attitude. At 10pm we went to the theatre to see Dean Stansby, a singer and pianist. It is not often that my wife and I are both in complete agreement about a theatre performer, but we were as one with this one. We both thought he was dreadful. We didn’t like the pitch of his voice and, well, I won’t go on. Thankfully we were at the back and were able to slip out after the first 3 or 4 songs. Needless to say, we won’t be returning for his second show! In conclusion, I should add that today has been pretty good weather wise. No rain (that I’ve noticed), a pleasant temperature and even some sunshine. Some lucky folk even saw some dolphins! Another sea day tomorrow as we continue our voyage south.

Today’s MDR menus. Black tie night tonight and thankfully an enhanced menu, as it should be. If we are going to the trouble of dressing up then the chefs can at least bother to serve us up something decent! Interesting that Marco Pierre White is mentioned for the first time in 3 weeks. I was beginning to wonder if they had parted company with him!

It’s nowhere near as bad as that. It is true that we have been incredibly unlucky with the weather. 25 days in and the number of days where it’s been nice weather all day can probably still be counted on the fingers of one hand! We seem to be visiting ports on their worst day (weather wise) for the week either side of our call! Missing Key West was poor, especially as we sat motionless (in calm waters and with no wind) not far from there all day, but hopefully that won’t be an omen about what lies ahead. The issue with my Kennedy Space Centre tour having to be cancelled was specific to our situation (and the customer service manager not liaising with me, as had been promised) and won’t have affected anyone else. The dinner table that we weren’t happy with was eventually resolved and we are now happy with where we are. Service levels amongst the waiters and bar tenders are excellent. Problem resolution, where it involves needing to speak to an officer is very poor though. They just don’t seem to want to engage with those who pay their wages. I’m sorry to say that, given the remoteness of our captain, that attitude may be stemming from the top down. I am typing this in the coffee shop and half earwigging on a conversation between guests on a nearby table. I couldn’t make out what their issue was, but they have requested a meeting with an officer 3 or 4 times and heard nothing (which fits with my experience early cruise). They have given up now and are going to take it up with P&O when they get home. It really shouldn’t be like that. Most of the issues that we’ve had are now either resolved ( e.g. dining) or behind us (e.g. embarkation, Key West & US immigration) so won’t continue to affect our cruise. Whilst people understandably focus on the problems, I have also mentioned countless positives (daytime entertainment, some of the evening shows etc) that people don’t tend to focus on or comment about so much. Today equals the longest time that we have ever been on a cruise and, in spite of the issues we have had, we are enjoying it. We do need some better luck with the weather, no more missed ports and a Captain who appreciates that enhancing the cruise experience for his passengers (or giving more fulsome explanations when things go wrong - as they always will) isn’t just a nice thing to do, but part of his job.

Day 24 - Friday 26th January 2024 - New Orleans (2nd Day) Apparently there has been no crew shore leave permitted by US authorities since we entered US waters, due to the well publicised ‘jumping ship’ of a number of P&O crew members a few years back. This has been a source of frustration to them, but particularly disappointing for the new crew members for whom seeing the USA was one of their big motivations for signing up for a life on the ocean. I feel really sorry for them as they gaze ashore enviously from the top deck, but in fairness to them they are all being very professional about it. As yet another miserable day, weather wise, was forecast, we decided to limit our time ashore to the adjacent Riverside Outlet Mall. We are fed up getting drowned! We were a bit late for the MDR breakfast, due to it closing earlier on Aurora than the other ships, so we went to the buffet for breakfast for the first time. It didn’t take long to remind me why I dislike the buffet so much. I’m up and down like a blue arsed fly getting food and drinks because of the absolutely idiotic decision to ban trays. Needless to say we didn’t stay long. The adjacent Riverside Mall is supposed to be an ‘outlet’ centre, but prices didn’t seem cheap to us at all (probably because sterling is quite weak against foreign currencies these days) and then, of course, you have to factor in that they charge tax on top (whereas U.K. prices include VAT). There is a desk to claim back tax but a) you have to remember to ask for a specific form at each outlet you buy in, b) some outlets didn’t supply the forms, and c) there was a queue to get the tax back. As a combination of all of this we just browsed rather than purchased. As we hadn’t gone into Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter the previous day (which all the guide books recommend doing) we decided to end our visit with a coffee and beignet in their outlet within the centre. Here’s a top tip. The coffee and beignets that we had in Monty’s on the Square (on the corner of Jackson Square, opposite Cafe du Monde) the previous day were far superior. By a mile in fact. We both agreed that the coffee wasn’t as good in Cafe du Monde and the beignets were just plain, whereas the ones we had in Monty’s had a cinnamon filling that melted like chocolate, were a little less swamped with powdered sugar and also had ‘New Orleans Sprinkles’ on them! If you find yourself in New Orleans, go to Monty’s. The ambiance was far nicer as well. For the rest of the day we just chilled on the ship until the 5pm sail away. Whilst waiting for Aurora to pull off the berth we marvelled at the skill of the pelicans and other sea birds that could spot a fish in the brown waters of the Mississippi and nab it within a split second! I was able to take a few shots of the New Orleans skyline but, in a stroke of bad luck that just typifies the weather we have had, and continue to have, on this cruise, a huge cloud of mist engulfed the French Quarter as we cruised past. 100 yards beyond it and naturally it cleared 🙄. Transiting down the Mississippi sounds quite glamorous but the reality is somewhat different. The outlying areas of New Orleans are far from attractive. Sparse residential areas abut waste land and industrial areas. It was impossible to tell whether the area hasn’t recovered from Hurricane Katrina, is suffering from industrial decline or both. Either way, scenic it is not. Once clear of New Orleans it’s oil and gas refineries for mile after mile. As it was dark by now all we were seeing was lights. In an extremely rare informative announcement by our elusive Captain, he told us that there would be some more thunderstorms tomorrow but mid 20s temperature. So more of the same. He also said that our route to Puerto Rico would take us north of Cuba and Dominican Republic. This disappointment me for two reasons. Firstly we are on the port side, and I had anticipated that we would be passing them on our side of the ship (we may be too far from land anyway for all I know). Secondly (and could someone please correct me if I’m wrong here) but if we are north of Cuba and Dominican Republic, doesn’t that mean that we are still in the Atlantic and not the Caribbean? I had assumed that we would be in Caribbean waters in 48 hours time but now think it could still be some time away? At 7pm I popped down to Carmens to listen to Polish violinist Izabella Zebrowska. She gave a good show with a wide vareity of musical styles. Her English is poor (but far better than my Polish) so the patter between tunes was a bit painful. During dinner we had a continuing view of the lights of the oil and gas refineries as we continued down the Mississippi. The theatre show was comedian William Caulfield, but as neither of us find cruise ship comedians to be funny we called it a day. Tomorrow is the first of 3 sea days en route to Puerto Rico.

Todays MDR menus