Selbourne

The bed on here is lower than we had on Iona, Britannia and Ventura. We know that, as we had no problems fitting the suitcases under the bed on those ships! On a positive front, there is a guest speaker this afternoon that appeals to me, talking about U-Boats.

Mentioned it this morning. He told me it’s because the ship is moving. I know that but also know that the excellent maintenance teams can often fix it, as they did on Ventura. Not possible. We are in the highest grade accessible cabin. Not after anything other than to be made comfortable and quiet enough that I can sleep through any noise! I wouldn’t be happy doing that. A review is only worthwhile if reporting a normal passenger experience. That’s why I don’t take notice of reviews by those who do professional cruise blogs and use their real names, as they almost certainly get preferential treatment.

I only showed the official yellow fever exemption for my wife and they accepted it. As I had predicted, the GP letter that every single pre-cruise communication had insisted that we needed, and cost us £30 to obtain, was not required!

Day 1 - Wednesday 3rd January - Embarkation I decided to leave my first update until today, as our embarkation experience was poor and that, along with a couple of other things, didn’t get the cruise off to the best start, so I wanted to wait until I had some positives to balance things out, otherwise it would have put a real damper on my first post from the ship. We had a very easy run down to Southampton with no traffic issues at all during any stage of the journey. As priority boarders our boarding time was 12.30pm, but it was obvious to us that with a long cruise of this nature there would be a lot of other priority boarders, so we aimed to arrive a bit early anticipating that it would be busier than usual. Sadly, it clearly hadn’t been as obvious to CPS, Intercruises and, presumably, P&O as what followed was our worst embarkation experience in many years. Last year we had priority embarkation on Britannia, Iona and Ventura and with all 3 ships, even Iona with 5,750 passengers, from arrival in the CPS drop off lane to boarding the ship was around 20 minutes. The problem started the second we arrived, at just after midday. For the first time ever on Aurora (and unlike on the other 3 ships where we were checked in by CPS almost immediately), we were directed into one of three ‘holding lanes’. I could have lived with this had there been an efficient system, but there wasn’t. When the 3 holding lanes became full, the next 100 or so cars to arrive, as they couldn’t fit in the holding lanes, were directed straight past us to the vehicle handover lanes. We sat there for at least 20 minutes watching car after car arrive after us and jump ahead of us. Only when there was a slight pause in the stream of arrivals did they let any cars out of the holding lanes, but not in the order that they had arrived. We were in the outer of the 3 lanes, the middle lane filled up after we had arrived and yet were called forward before our lane! When we were eventually called forward to the handover lanes, the usual sea of yellow high viz CPS staff that check in the vehicles were nowhere to be seen. We were told to wait in our car and not remove any luggage until the car had been checked. Well we waited and waited and in the end the folk in the cars ahead of us got fed up and started unloading. Eventually 3 CPS staff appeared at the far end of our lane and started working their way along the row. Whilst there were minibuses arriving with CPS drivers to take the cars away, these 3 people were the only staff checking in the cars - hence the long waits. On our 3 cruises last year there had been loads more staff doing this. Having eventually got the car handed over we then walked over to the terminal entrance to find two queues. One for the early arrivers and one for those who were on time. At this point we were late, but there wasn’t a queue for that! However, even the on time arrivals queue wasn’t moving - at all. We had told the chap marshalling the queue that we were priority boarders and should have been on the ship by now, but were just told to wait in the queue as nobody was going in. We then proceeded to wait in the cold outside for at least 20 minutes, with not a soul entering the terminal and nobody coming along the queue to tell us what the problem was. Eventually, when the queue started moving, we still didn’t get in (there were too many ahead of us, so they stopped access again) but we eventually got close enough to a member of Intercruises staff to ask what the problem was. “The terminal is full”. Thankfully she asked if we’d booked assistance (we had) so she opened a barrier and let us cut through. At assistance I said that I would push my wife on to the ship myself as we’d had enough waiting around, so we checked in and were eventually on the ship almost one and a half hours after we had arrived at the terminal. The next disappointment was the priority boarders lunch. Unlike on Britannia and Ventura, where it had been a lovely waiter served lunch, it was a buffet. So having taken all that time queueing to get on the ship, no sooner had I sat down, I had to get up and join another slow moving queue to get food. The priority boarders lunch on Iona was also a buffet, but a very decent one that was a big step up from the priority boarders buffets of old. Sadly, on Aurora it was the old style buffet, so very unappealing. I had to ask a waiter to assist me as I couldn’t hold and serve onto two plates with nowhere to rest them. Wish we hadn’t bothered but, thankfully, we joined a table with another couple who were also equally unimpressed with the whole arrival experience so far, but having got that off our chests we moved on and ended up having a nice chat with them. After lunch we went to our cabin. Although the corridor and lift areas were full of cases, none of ours was to be seen. Our steward Antonio arrived to introduce himself and said he would look out for our cases. We were starting to get ever so slightly anxious when 5pm came and we still hadn’t had a single one of our cases (I kept checking outside) but thankfully they then started arriving and, like buses, all then turned up in quick succession! I unpacked everything and managed to get most of what we wanted to be hung in the wardrobes, thanks to some wire hangers from Antonio. We have an issue with the cabin in that, like Premier Inn hotels, someone in their infinite wisdom has decided that disabled people need low beds. My wife is going to really struggle getting out of the bed and transferring to her wheelchair without my help, as she cannot pull herself up easily. I asked our steward if they had some blocks to go under the legs to raise the bed, but he spoke to the deck manager who said that it couldn’t be done, but to speak to reception? The added problem of the low bed is that our larger suitcases won’t go underneath it! By this point, I am a somewhat fed up and not in the best of moods, so it was nice to have a firework display from the quayside as we left. I hadn’t expected much given comments that I’d read about them, but we thought that they were really good and a nice gesture. We then went to Anderson’s for a quick drink before dinner. Luckily we have been allocated second sitting Club dining but, for some odd reason, on this cruise first and second sitting are at 6pm and 8pm, rather than the usual 6.30pm and 8.30pm. No idea why. We are on a table for 8 but only one of the other three couples turned up. Thankfully we got on really well with the one couple that did turn up and dinner itself was fine. After dinner we went to the 10pm show (again, odd times, the shows are 8pm and 10pm, not the usual 8.30pm and 10.30pm). It was The Privateers, who we haven’t seen before and their performance was superb. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. After that I deposited my wife back to the cabin and did just over 3 laps of the promenade deck (1 mile). I was the only person out there! The promenade deck on Aurora is exactly as one should be. Very wide, fully covered so that it can be used in all weathers, and with none of the high glass screens that surrounded the promenade deck on Iona. Having thought that the negatives were now behind us, when I returned to the cabin, with the ship now moving a bit, we have a very loud creaking coming from the ceiling above the bed. Not again, I thought. We were plagued with this on Ventura. I shall have to report that tomorrow as well, as it’s going to keep me awake. Not sure that WD40 will cure it this time!

Well I’d love to start with a positive, but it’s disorganised chaos at Mayflower. Arrived at 12pm with 12.30pm priority boarding. Still stood outside in the cold at 1pm. More later….

Thanks. Might have to look him up if we are allocated first sitting and can’t change it easily!

Pre-Departure Introduction Well here we go again, although now it’s time for something completely different! Tomorrow we embark Aurora for the longest cruise that we have ever done - 65 nights to America and the Caribbean. It’s a port intensive cruise (which we like) with 28 different destinations, which is as many as some much longer World Cruises achieve. This will be our 9th cruise on Aurora (our most cruised on ship), but our last cruise on her was back in November 2019, just before ‘you know what’ turned the World upside down, so it will be interesting to see what, if anything, has changed. Over the past 6 months we have cruised on Britannia, Iona and Ventura and there were big differences between the ships when it came to things like passenger profile and the usage (or not) of the MyHoliday app, so we shall see what Aurora brings. With a cruise of this length, I suspect that the vast majority of passengers will be retired and, of course, Aurora is an adult only ship. Whilst excited about the cruise, we are also quite apprehensive. Being away from family and home for 65 days is one hell of a commitment, and with our longest cruise to date being 24 days we might be climbing the walls half way through! Will it be too long and too much for us? Only time (and lots of it) will tell. We aren’t fans of long runs of sea days, but it’s unavoidable when it comes to ex-U.K. round trips to the Caribbean. At least with a cruise of this length the long outward and return runs are almost a couple of months apart. Fingers crossed for a calm crossing (the last few weeks haven’t been!) and some decent guest lecturers (our recent P&O cruises were poor in this regard). We stop at Madeira and Bermuda on the way out and the Azores on the way back. In the intervening period we have an intensive programme visiting the USA, Central America, a tiny bit of South America and many Caribbean islands. 24 ports will be completely new to us, which will be a novelty given that we struggle to find an ex-U.K. cruise now that has more than one new port! In fact, of the handful of places that we have been to before, only one (Madeira) has been on a cruise ship. The others were by air and many years ago, so will hopefully still feel like new experiences. We only booked this cruise in mid October, at a price that was simply too good to miss, because it was a Late Saver priced at less than half the Select fare. We’ve always booked Select in the past, but frankly we wouldn’t have even remotely considered this cruise at the Select fare. We were lucky that somebody had cancelled a booking for their accessible balcony cabin at balance due date, so we snapped it up. We were told which cabin we would have prior to paying (and it’s a cabin we have used before), so by far the biggest risk of a Saver (poor cabin location) was completely negated. Having to pay for shuttles isn’t an issue, as there are only a tiny number of ports on this cruise where shuttles are needed or provided. CPS parking was only £160 for the 65 nights, which was an absolute bargain. The sole risk with the late saver is that we might be allocated a dining arrangement that doesn’t suit us. We will be fine with Freedom Dining or, depending on table size and (potential) dining companions, second sitting Club Dining but, for a multitude of reasons, we really don’t want first sitting. I believe that first sitting is usually the most popular choice for those who book Select , so I am hopeful that we won’t be allocated it, but if we are unlucky I shall be trying to change it on board. Watch this space for an update tomorrow🤞 I can’t promise as detailed a blog as I’ve done with our previous cruises, especially as we have a lot of port days, but I’ll do my best. For the first time ever, and primarily due to the length of time that we are away from home, I have bought an internet plan for the whole cruise. Due to various promotions and discounts combining, I’ve got this for just over £6 a day, which seems very reasonable. Finally, a health warning. I know that there are one or two regulars on this forum who consider the mention of things that aren’t right, or that could be improved, as being ‘nit picking’. Those folk would be well advised not to follow this blog. I’m certainly not setting out to find faults or problems, but where I come across them they will be mentioned. Equally, praise will be given where praise is due. I have always held the view that reviews have to be completely balanced to be of any use to others and that’s the approach that I always take. It’s also important to stress that, as always, any views expressed are my own (and my wife’s). Others on the same cruise may enjoy something that we don’t, or hate something that we love. Neither is right or wrong, but both are equally valid opinions. Our embarkation time is 12.30pm and as Southampton is only a couple of hours from us we shall be leaving home at around 9am, so as to allow time for delays and a loo stop. First update tomorrow from the ship!

We were on Oriana in 1996, the first cruise after the propellers were changed to eliminate the vibration. It didn’t work. The Captain announced the first night that we were going up to full speed to test them. We were having dinner and everything started vibrating like mad. She lasted a good few years after that though 😂

My Mum is 84 this year. She has a smart phone, uses Facebook, WhatsApp and some proper apps. However, it doesn’t take much to send her into a kerfuffle and the issues with the ‘app that isn’t an app’ that needs switching between modes, drops out and needs logging back in all the time was also frustrating for me as well as you, so would be well beyond my Mum. She is cruising with P&O later this year and looking forward to it. I haven’t told her about the app 😂

We go to the 10.30pm performances. When we were on Iona we wandered along to the theatre a few nights. We couldn’t get in, but it wasn’t an issue as we were ambivalent about the shows so hadn’t booked. However, there were plenty of people who had booked complaining that they couldn’t get in. As I said, making a booking doesn’t guarantee you a seat, so what’s the point? Might as well revert to first come, first served, which doesn’t need any staff policing it and if you can’t get in it’s simply because you left it too late!

I don’t think it’s about affordability, but there are a lot of particularly elderly people who find smartphone technology to be bewildering. For your idea to work, P&O would have to provide a solution for these people that doesn’t include allowing walk-ups.

I thought that your comment that a small but vocal minority complain about changes was unfair. Change is good and to be welcomed when it’s positive. However, whilst the app booking system for MDRs is a good idea in theory, it doesn’t work well in practice, especially on the ships with a lot of experienced cruisers who know how to circumvent it and, as a result, those of us who use it fall to the bottom of the list. I’d love it if the use of it was 100% compulsory, with no work arounds possible, as I think it would work really well. However, as not everyone has a smart phone, P&O would have to issue devices to those who don’t have one.

I do hope so, but they have a history of saying that about ships and then selling them 6 months later 😂 I think that the main reason that Aurora will thankfully be around for some years to come is that, post Covid, the demand for old cruise ships has almost vanished.

That’s unfair. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that your unbridled enthusiasm for the app bookings system is based upon your experiences on Iona and Arvia only? Also, you mostly dine very early rather than at peak times. As mentioned earlier in the thread, when we were on Iona we also felt that the app booking system worked well (for the restaurants only). I believe that this was because the vast and overwhelming majority of passengers used it (being new to cruising, most did not know that there were alternative methods). Like you, I would much rather sit in a bar with a drink and have a notification that our table is ready than go to the MDR and potentially be given a pager, then having to hang around until a table is ready. So I am all for change and agree with @terrierjohn that if this was the only way of getting in to an MDR then it would all work brilliantly. However, Arvia and Iona are completely different beasts, and with very different passenger profiles, to the other ships in the fleet, and that’s where the problems start. To illustrate the point, I will contrast our experience on Iona (where, in spite of the ship feeling very crowded, the dining aspect of the app worked well) with our experiences on Britannia and Ventura. When we were on Britannia, which was our first cruise since the new system was introduced (but our fourth cruise on that ship) I was determined to use the app, for the reason given earlier. This was not a good experience. We like to have breakfast in the MDR and usually go within the last 15 minutes. On all three previous cruises, where it was first come first served and nothing else, we just walked in or, at most, had just a couple of minutes wait for a table for two (not long enough to need a pager). By contrast, we found that now the app always showed the MDR as ‘Queue Full’ for the last 15 minutes of breakfast service, so we either had to get in the queue earlier than we wanted, or go down and take our chances with those who had booked earlier. Lunch in the MDR, especially on sea days, was a nightmare. Again, on our previous cruises on Britannia (first come, first served) we had no issues and walked straight in. With the app system, we could wait up to an hour for a table and one time, when it just showed ‘Queue full’ had to get a pager and we didn’t get called until 20 minutes after entry to lunch was meant to finish. Dinner was equally problematic, especially on formal nights. On our previous cruises the longest we ever waited for a table at a peak time was 45 minutes and I only recall that once. Most of the time it was 15 minutes or less. This time, the app showed ‘Queue Full’ for 45 minutes at peak times and then when we could eventually join the queue we had waits of 45-90 minutes. As I say, we stuck with the app because the theory of how it should work appealed, but talking to other passengers they thought we were mad. They ignored it completely, did walk ups and got seated immediately. The reason? Because the restaurant staff simply cannot cope with 3 different systems (app, direct walk ins and pagers) so something had to give, and that was the app. Far easier to switch the app to ‘Queue Full’ than have to have endless face to face conversations with disgruntled passengers wanting a table. Fast forward a few months to Ventura and the app system wasn’t used for dining and we had none of these issues. First come, first served worked really well for breakfast and lunch. I can’t comment about dinner as, following our experience on Britannia, we switched to Club (fixed) dining so that we didn’t have all the hassle. Finally, as we have discussed before, the app system for the theatre is also daft and doesn’t work. You continually claim that it allows you to ‘reserve a seat’ (it doesn’t) and you can stay in the bar until 5 minutes before show time and just wander down and take your seat. That isn't reality, even on Iona. Those who had pre-booked and adopted your approach were finding that at best they were stood at the back or, at worst, couldn’t even get in, as 5-10 minutes before ‘walk-ups’ were allowed in to fill empty seats. On Britannia, half the time they didn’t even bother to check who had booked and who hadn’t. By contrast, Ventura was first come first served and we had no issues getting in 5-10 minutes before a performance, even needing a wheelchair space. Doubtless you will dismiss my experiences as just complaining about changes, but I’m all for change and, in particular, the use of technology - when it works. Unfortunately, there are very large numbers of P&O passengers who don’t share that view and refuse to use it, or can’t (as they don’t have a smartphone). P&O allow work arounds for these passengers and that’s where it falls over as multiple systems don’t work in tandem. I will admit, however, that I do like a prawn cocktail 😉

Exactly this. Couldn’t have put it better myself. The stumbling point, of course, is that there’s a not insignificant minority who can’t (or refuse to) use the virtual queuing system, which is where it all falls over. If they could find a way around that, other than allowing walk-ups to jump the queue, then it would be great.

Nonsense isn’t it. The system will only work as intended if it is the only way to gain access to the MDR. For as long as they allow walk-ups and/or pagers it throws the whole system. As I said, when we were on Iona it seemed to work pretty well, but 70% of passengers on our cruise were first timers so didn’t question it and just used the app. By contrast, on Britannia the vast majority of passengers were seasoned cruisers who wouldn’t or couldn’t use the app. We did, but got frustrated as the restaurant staff kept giving up on the app system and setting it to ‘Queue Full’ whilst immediately seating those who were just walking up. Far easier to ignore someone in the virtual world than when they are stood in front of you!

Hmm. That’s interesting. The app worked well on Iona (when everyone used it) but not on Britannia (where only a proportion used it, and walk-ups were getting seated quicker). As a result of our experience on Britannia we opted for Club (fixed) dining on Ventura and it was great. Sounds like we made the right call. Edit - just realised you were on Iona. I’m between two threads and the other is about Ventura 🙄😂

Did you happen to find out how many passengers were on board? The quoted passenger capacity (5,200) is only lower berths. The ship can actually carry up to around 6,000 passengers.

We have never felt that a ship was too large. In a way, the larger the ship, the greater the choice of dining and other venues. We cruised on Iona in August school holidays. There were a lot of children on board but in all honesty they weren’t a problem. If anything, the ones that we saw or interacted with were extremely well behaved. There were an awful lot of babies on the cruise and maybe we were just unlucky, but many were crying or creating a lot of noise in restaurants etc and their parents weren’t taking them out until they calmed down (as we did when our kids were that young). There were 5,750 passengers on our cruise and the ship felt very crowded and, in places, uncomfortably so. I suspect that in early December you will have at least 10% less passengers and, of course, far less children and quite a few less babies (if they have school age siblings), although there seems to be an increasing trend of people taking their kids on holiday in term time as it’s cheaper. That being said, I think you would find it a far less crowded experience than we did, given that we were on Iona in one of her busiest weeks.

Thanks. Wind speeds also predicted to be calming for our run down to Madeira (first stop). Hope that’s right, as we had a very bumpy ride down there (and back) on Ventura a couple of months ago. Also hoping that our transatlantic from there to Bermuda will be calmer than our previous transatlantic (New York) as we had force 10 all the way there and all the way back (tail end of various hurricanes) which was extremely tiresome 🤢

Thanks. Apparently we have some fireworks on departure as it’s a ‘Grand Voyage’ 👍

Have boarding times been put back 2 hours again? We embark Aurora the same day but haven’t heard anything about our times changing.

Are you tempted Jean? 😱😂

Interesting. So we weren’t imagining it then. It’s at times like this that I think we have done too many cruises with P&O, as we seem to notice every single change, however slight 🙄😂

We have always found the P&O beds to be supremely comfortable and we have always slept incredibly well on them. However, this year we didn’t find them to be quite as good, and wondered if they’d changed them? Could just be us though, with a few more things creaking and groaning than pre-Covid 😂