Selbourne

Hardly any surprise in that though Jean. For what is effectively a mass catering environment, we feel that the choice is pretty good. We anticipate that the menus will start to repeat in a few weeks time, but rarely has there been a menu where there was only one thing that we would have been happy to order, so we can still achieve variety. Even if we order the same thing as last time, we are still getting far more variety than we have at home!

Today’s MDR menus. Also, I forgot to post a photo of the rather nice branded set of commemorative postcards (many Art Deco style) that we had as a welcome gift.

Still some way short of an expert Zap 😂 I’m only trusting myself with underwear and small items. Anything that will require ironing will be going to the paid for laundry service - offers or no offers!

Yes, that’s what I meant about not being as grand as it used to be. No chocolate or ice sculptures, but still a welcome addition that I thought had been consigned to history.

Thanks. I thought it was to do with MPW, yet still no mention of him on the menus??

Day 9 - Thursday 11th January - At Sea Today is day 4 of our run of 5 sea days to Bermuda. We had hoped that we would have cleared the low pressure system and awake to a smoother ride, but there were still heavy swells and, as a result, plenty of movement. Now please brace yourselves for a shock. Are you sitting down? For the first time in 28 years of cruising, I have (drumroll) used the laundrette 😂. An 8am reconnaissance visit first, to suss out how it all works (to avoid public shame) was followed by the real thing 15 minutes later. Unfortunately, by the time I returned there were a lot more people there to witness my amateur efforts, but I managed to get a load going and then scarpered to the MDR for breakfast! There was a huge mass of people waiting outside the restaurant with pagers and when we got to the front of the queue I realised that pagers were even being issued to those prepared to share. So we took a pager for a table for 2 and found a seat in the excursions area expecting a 20-30 minute wait. In less than 5 minutes the pager went off and we were in with a nice table for 2. Ask no questions! After breakfast we returned to the laundrette to find that the wash had finished. However, I couldn’t open the ruddy door - even tugging it very hard. I then had to do the useless bloke thing of asking if there was a knack to this and one lady who was ironing said “give it a whack”. She didn’t say whack, but a similar word that I couldn’t quite catch. I thought she might be joking but then she kindly came over and did just that and, hey presto, the door opened! Next challenge the tumble drier. Far too many options for someone with a simple brain like mine and I wasn’t sure that I’d even turned it on as, unlike the washing machines, there’s no porthole to see inside 😂 (note to anyone else who’s as dim as me, you press the dial in to start 🙄). Thankfully the laundrette is near our cabin so I was able to pop back to check and after 30-40 minutes it was all done. Result! I was talking to a couple in the laundrette who mentioned that on Arcadias World Cruise there was an offer for “as much as you can fit in a laundry bag for £10”. I like a bargain and don’t intend to return home with 65 days of washing and ironing to do, so will keep my eyes peeled for that or something similar. I was surprised that there was no port talk today. With 27 more ports left on this cruise, and only 19 sea days before we leave the Caribbean, I would have assumed that they want to cover off one or two ports on every sea day to keep ahead. As the MDR menu didn’t appeal for lunch, we decided to go to the Glasshouse and we had a really lovely lunch. No starters, my wife just had one small plate of hummus (such a lightweight) and I ordered my favourite Glasshouse dish, sea bass wrapped in banana leaf, with prawns in a curried broth and rice. On Ventura it was very different to usual. It was very pale and watery and had none of the usual intense flavour. I’m delighted to say that, on Aurora, it was as good as usual (albeit they had no banana leaves and the fish was tiny). What a relief. I washed it down with a large glass of the recommended Greywacke Sauvignon Blank and my wife had a Peller Ice cuvée Rose’. Afterwards we shared a cheese board and that was gorgeous. I was going to have a glass of Madeira with it as they had no Port, but then decided on a large Jam Shed Shiraz instead. Very nice indeed! We had a brief chat with the couple that we had shared the priority boarders lunch with, and when I asked how things were going the reply was that it had ‘gone downhill since we last saw them’. Whether that was a reference to the weather or other issues I don’t know. I didn’t ask. However, he has been called by reception to say that his ESTA has been declined, so I don’t know what happens now. Another shock was that at 3pm there was a Chocaholics Tea in the Alexandria MDR, another thing that we thought had succumbed to the cutbacks! Lady S wasn’t remotely interested (“we’ve only just had lunch”) but purely in the interests of market research (and this blog) I forced myself to attend. It wasn’t as grand an affair as it used to be, and there was no free walk through of the galley afterwards (as they used to do),but it was still a nice diversion on (yet another) sea day 👍. There was some discussion at the table that a lot of people who booked Select and opted for first sitting are unhappy that first sitting is now at 6pm, which is too early, especially when in port. Some have changed to Freedom as a result. I’m very relieved that we were allocated 2nd sitting and we are quite happy with the slightly earlier 8pm slot. At 4pm I attended a talk in the Playhouse entitled “Wacky Weapons of WW2”. Dick Taylor is an engaging speaker and I’ve enjoyed all his talks (although the two large glasses of wine and lunch combined were making it a challenge to stay awake) 😂 Deciding that I needed to wake myself up, I forced myself to do 10 laps of the promenade deck. The chap with the long camera lens was out there again and said he’d seen a couple of whale blows earlier. He was pointing out flying fish leaping out of the water at the front of the ship, but I only managed to glimpse one. Hopefully this will become a regular sight later in the cruise. We had a pre dinner drink in the Crows Nest prior to attending the second black tie dinner of the cruise. My wife and I. Or had exactly the same 3 courses - smoked and poached salmon, beef wellington and sherry trifle Wally Ladd (whatever the hell that means). An excellent meal all round, although I could have eaten double the size of beef wellington that I was served. Finally we went to the second Headliners show of the cruise - Fantasy. We’ve seen this show countless times and the story line is utterly naff and the songs aren’t the best, but I can’t give a critique on how good this particular Headliners troupe were as I nodded through most of it. My wife said that it was good though, if that helps! Tomorrow is our last sea day before landfall in Bermuda!

Thank you. That means a lot.

The ones into the cabin from the corridor are automated, but the doors into the bathroom are manually operated.

Thanks Jane. Much appreciated. The lunch menu isn’t doing much for us, but dinner looks fab. I just hope that it all tastes as nice as it sounds, as there can sometimes be a disconnect in that regard 😂

Thanks Michelle. I’m pleased that people are enjoying them as they take time to do (thankfully I can type very fast 😂) but after all the comments I’ve had from the last few live blogs I felt a pressure to attempt another this time. I might struggle a bit when we have runs of port days, but will at the very least post photos. I assume that the balcony doors on Arvia will be the same as on Iona in which case, if you use an accessible cabin they open and close electrically, which is brilliant. You just tug the handle and they start to operate. The basins are also height adjustable and my wife says that the grab rails were at better heights than on Aurora. Accessibility was excellent on Iona, with the sole but significant exception of the lifts, which were far too small. The lifts on Aurora are huge in comparison to those on Iona and we’ve yet to have an issue.

Today’s MDR menus. No mention of Marco Pierre White so far?

It certainly wasn’t bad and we will definitely go again. The service was very good and my wife enjoyed her meal more than me, so I will just choose differently next time. As you say, dining choices are quite restricted on the small ships, but the daytime activities are far better and they have far better itineraries so, on balance, win out for us. That being said, I wish that we had the accessible cabin that we had on Iona. My wife cannot open the balcony door in here and the ramp from the cabin to the balcony is too steep and her footrests jam against it, so I have to tilt her back and push her out. That’s a shame when I go on an excursion and she stays on board (thankfully the ramp back in is shallower and she can manage that one). BTW I’ve thought of you at breakfast each morning as I recall that you were very concerned about the jam and marmalade pots on Ventura that we saw being recycled between tables and clearly had evidence of being topped up. You will be pleased to know that on Aurora, at every single breakfast so far, they have been brand new ones. I’m wondering if they’ve issued guidelines on this, as the pots now have very little in them, which makes a lot of sense as it reduces waste and avoids any temptation to move them around or top up.

Thanks John. We hoped that we’d be through it by now, but there’s still a lot of motion this morning. Fingers crossed that it will ease as the day progresses.

I’ve learned that they seem to cook steaks ‘one up’ from what you ask for, so as I like mine medium I now ask for medium rare and every time since I’ve had a perfect medium steak 😂 Having tried all 3 courses, whilst I didn’t rate the starter or dessert I’d order the main again, even at the £9.95 supplement.

Anticipating the potential noise issue I’d asked for a table furthest from the atrium, which they gave us. We went at 8pm, which If assume is peak time, and we were one of only 5 couples dining (obviously with a longer cruise people can pace themselves). There was a pianist the deck below in Charlie’s who started half way through the meal, which meant that the Sindhu staff had to turn off their own background music. I didn’t mind the pianist but my wife wasn’t so keen. Oddly he played most songs too fast 🤔😂 We have always enjoyed the Tiffin lunches more than dinner in Sindhu, hence booking the only one that’s been advertised so far. When we arrived there was also a little card advertising a 5 course tasting dinner. First we’d heard of it but it’s sold out.

Day 8 - Wednesday 10th January - At Sea It had been a bit of a bumpy night, but nowhere near as bad as we had feared given the forecast. Perhaps the worst was yet to come? Another pager to get a table for 2 for breakfast but we were called within around 3 minutes! After breakfast we went to the theatre to hear John Lyon’s second talk, this time on the series that he is most known for “A Touch of Frost”. He has a lovely speaking voice and for a guy of 80 did incredibly well to do the talk standing, given all the movement at the front of the ship! As he was wobbling around he joked that he was like Lionel Blair 😂 We returned to the theatre soon after for the second port talk, this time on Nassau (Bahamas). There was a little less generic info about the port before the excursions part this time, compared to the Bermuda talk. Lunch in Medina was interesting with the roar of the waves and high spray, now that the sea state had increased to force 7. Thankfully the Stugeron that we both took first thing had stopped us feeling queasy from the motion. The sea doesn’t look that rough but the swells are very large. Lunch today marked an important milestone because, as confirmed by the noon announcement, we are now exactly half way across the Atlantic between Madeira and Bermuda which (I think) are both 1,350 miles from us. I had lamb moussaka for lunch, which was truly dreadful. A little pot of watery goo with no texture and little flavour. Thankfully I’d ordered a side of ratatouille which, although small, was delicious. During the afternoon I attended two events in the Playhouse, neither of which appealed to my wife. The first was a talk on the Mercury 7 astronauts, during which there was an almighty bang and judder as if we had hit something! Later, in the same venue (now cooled with the air con working) it was the final classical concert with James Brown and Simon Kelly. They disembark in Bermuda and are flying home via Atlanta. In between the two I attempted some laps of the promenade deck, but it was just too difficult with all the movement. With all the movement, the creaking in our cabin is constant and damned irritating. Technicians came a few days ago when we weren’t in the cabin and added the usual felt pads, but all that’s done is change the pitch of the creaking rather than stop it. Hopefully after today we will have a long run of calmer seas and get some respite from both the noise and the movement, which has now become tiresome. I’m fed up being whacked by the wardrobe doors swinging back and forth at great velocity when I’m using them and a couple of times the bathroom door has flung open with such force I’ve been concerned that it might break the hinges! Having now completed the first full week of our cruise it was time for our first speciality restaurant dinner in Sindhu, which we had booked before we left home. Prior to dinner we went to the Crows Nest via the library. I think this was just to make us feel better about the fact that there are a few parts of the ship that are even more bumpy than our cabin. Needless to say, both were virtually deserted. My wife had a Plum Gimlet, which the waiter managed to partially spill over my foot as the ship lunged to one side. He seemed mortified and apologised, but I wasn’t bothered. Given it’s such a small drink to start with, I was a little surprised that he didn’t offer to get another one though, but he didn’t. I had a Maple Mocha Irish Coffee cocktail. I’ve not liked Sindhu since P&O parted company with Atul Kocher and the one on Aurora is my least favourite Sindhu of all, due to its poor location at the top of the atrium and its open adjacency to the coffee shop, but over 65 nights we need some variety, so I’d pre-booked 4 nights in Sindhu and 4 in the Beach House. Since boarding I also managed to book the first Tiffin lunch, which is due on Tuesday 16th. When we were seated I ordered an East Indian Punch cocktail and later n had a Cobra beer. To start we had a few mini poppadoms which came with 3 different pickes or chutneys - but as with other Sindhus across the fleet, there was less than a teaspoonful of each!. My wife had the scallops starter which she enjoyed. I had the beef flatbread. These used to be gorgeous but are now a shadow of their former selves. 4/10. For mains, I had the signature plate of 3 different curries (prawn, chicken and lamb) and my wife had chicken korma. Of the extra accompaniments (which I rarely like) the vegetable one was very nice. My wife like the daal that looked like gruel 😂 We both had kulfi for desert and they kindly replaced the chocolate one that we aren’t soo keen on with extra of the other two flavours. After that we were given the odd petit fours that I remember from pre Covid (tiny bit of cake, shortbread, jelly and sweet flavoured seeds). Theses were absent on Britannia, Iona and Ventura. Overall 6/10. The 10pm theatre show was singer Laura Magaan, but this didn’t really appeal to either of us, so we returned to the cabin. Tomorrow is the 4th of the 5 transatlantic sea days and is a formal night.

She already had that prior to me buying her the Kindle. I’ve had a play around with the Kindle today and whilst I couldn’t find the menu that @SarahHben kindly posted, I managed to get it connected to the WiFi and I think I’ve managed to download the ebooks that my wife had chosen for the cruise on her iPad but hadn’t yet been downloaded to her Kindle. It wouldn’t let me access the Kindle store on Amazon though. I’m sure it’s all easy when you know what you are doing, but it’s not the most intuitive user interface. Anyway, Lady S is now happy that she has a load more books to read, so thanks everyone for your help. Back on topic, it’s a bumpy ride at present. Very big swells and lots of movement as a result. Tried to do my daily laps of the promenade deck, but too much like hard work trying to walk in a straight line. The sun is out and it’s 23 degrees though.

Todays menus

It’s definitely worse in our cabin (deck 11 forward) as we notice each time we return, but it’s still very noticeable everywhere on the ship, including the promenade deck (below all balcony cabins). Plenty of people walking around the ship with one hand on a rail. Those who aren’t noticing it must be very hardy sailors! So far this morning it’s nowhere near as bad as we feared given the warnings, but we may not be in the worst of it yet.

Probably. We’ll take a look. Thanks

Thanks Sarah. My wife has Kindle Unlimited on a free 3 month trial, so we will give this a go later. If we are able to connect the Kindle directly to the ships WiFi and if we are then able to download books (possibly two big ‘ifs’) then we might be OK. My wife said that she thought that she tried to do something similar but wasn’t able to download direct to the Kindle, only her iPad and then the issue was that she couldn’t then zap it over to the Kindle as both devices couldn’t be on WiFi at the same time. I’ll have a look as my wife is even less IT savvy than me 😂

Day 7 - Tuesday 9th January - At Sea The second of many one hour clock changes resulted in us waking early again, but we were able to watch the sunrise from bed. We sleep with the curtains open and it’s lovely to see the moonlight on the water and Venus shining very brightly just above the moon. As with yesterday, a calm looking sea but still quite a bit of motion due to the swells, probably not helped by the fact that we are on deck 11 and slightly forward. As everyone is up and about very early (due to the clocks going back again) we had to be issued with a pager for a table for 2 in Medina for breakfast for the first time, but the wait was well under 10 minutes, so no issue. They even have a bank of seats outside the MDR for anyone waiting, which is a good idea as there’s nowhere else to sit and wait on deck 6. As the toast is always served thin and cold I asked for a thick piece, which I’ve tried on other ships but was always the other extreme (too thick). It’s the same on here. You need an extra flexible jaw to eat it 😂 It was nice and warm though. I had eggs Benedict but asked for some smoked salmon with it. I’m always impressed that you can ask for these little extras and it’s never a problem. In fact our waiters at dinner encourage it! We could see the big swells out the window and the horizon going up and down. We also spotted our first ship in 2 days! At 1030 guest speaker Chris Walker was giving a talk on Irving Berlin in the theatre, but I will catch up on that on the TV at some stage. At 1130 I was very surprised to see a port talk on Bermuda in the theatre. I was delighted to see this, as I thought that port talks had succumbed to the cutbacks. There certainly weren’t any on Britannia, Iona or Ventura last year. As these are always a brief outline of the port followed by a sales pitch for the excursions, I can only assume that they might be doing them because there is still availability for 95% of the excursions on this cruise. In fairness to the very enthusiastic presenter, it was well over 20 minutes of useful information before the listing of all the excursions started, and a steady stream of people then started leaving. It sounds as though there will be presentations on all the ports, which will be great. One of our daughters phoned us via WhatsApp and I’m impressed that we can do that (and video calls) on the basic internet package. Incidentally, the WiFi has been fine, including in the cabin. It’s a bit of a faff switching between devices, involving a lot of clicks, but I can’t see any point in paying for multiple devices. We had lunch in Medina and I’ve started noticing items appearing on the lunch or dinner menus that were on the other menu the day before. Today at lunch there was Summer Pudding that had also been on the dinner menu last night. Waste not, want not, I guess. My wife joked that the 3rd shot might be the buffet? I haven’t dwelt too much on the food in this blog as it hasn’t really been an issue. Other than breakfast, which is always excellent IMHO, our general feeling is that the MDR food at lunch and dinner hasn’t been quite as good as the other P&O ships that we’ve been on over the past 6 months. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it hasn’t really excited us much. Sauces and gravy’s in particular seem to lack any depth of flavour. No complaints, just a tad underwhelming. After lunch I managed another 10 laps of the promenade deck prior to attending guest lecturer Dick Taylor’s 3pm talk in the Playhouse on the history of the Victoria Cross. I’m pleased to hear that he’s going to do a space related talk before my visit to the Kennedy Space Centre. We both then went for a drink in Raffles (Costa) where we bumped in to our dinner companions and had a chat. We decided against the 7pm Pulse 80s themed session in Carmens and went to Anderson’s for pre dinner drinks. It was incredibly busy, even though the pre dinner canapés are now a thing of the past. The ambiance is like a (busy) country hotel - so much nicer than the clinical soulless space on Iona that carries the same name. Our new table companions joined us again (so we obviously hadn’t scared them off the previous night). The 10pm theatre show was Neil Lockwood, the former lead singer of ELO Part 2. I love the original ELO with Jeff Lynne, so wondered what to expect, but had read on this forum that his shows were very good. It was indeed a very enjoyable show. He’s an excellent musician on both guitar and piano and I’ve never seen anyone play the piano whilst laid underneath it! There was a degree of pre recorded soundtrack and the final piece in the jigsaw was the live accompaniment of the Aurora orchestra. In my humble opinion, this was the slight weak point in the performance but, in their defence, they didn’t have a hope of coming anywhere near to the quality of sound that the 80 piece orchestra that accompanied ELO on live tours (or albums) did. Another enjoyable performance in what’s turning out to be one of the better cruises that we have done when it comes to entertainment. The Horizon schedule for tomorrow (Wednesday) warns us that the inclement weather that the Captain had warned us about when leaving Madeira is now due to hit us and will manifest itself with increasing swells. Stugeron at the ready!

Thank you. That’s extremely kind of you. My wife seems to think that she has to download ebooks on her Amazon account on her iPad first and then, once she’s done that, it will update on her Kindle, but the problem is that she can’t have them both on WiFi at the same time as we can only have one device connected at a time. If there is a way to connect her Kindle directly via the P&O WiFi and download directly to the Kindle that would seem to be much easier.

I was saying just that at lunchtime with my pork vindaloo (that was more korma) 😂 Still nice though

One of our table mates last night asked for two of the 5oz steaks and they didn’t bat an eyelid. I have a big appetite but when it came it looked too much for me 😂 The lunchtime curries in the MDR are nice.