GOQ

My cabin was in the bow on Arvia but was in the stern on Aurora, but I must comment that  in a stormy creaking banging environment Aurora was more quiet.

I have been across the Bay of Biscay in Ventura, Iona, Arvia and Aurora, all in stormy conditions and in my opinion Aurora was the most wobbly.

Iona and Arvia are the most stable but they tend to creak a lot.

Ships have a little paddle painted on their side which seems to indicate the position of a stabiliser, I have not noticed this on Aurora although fellow passengers have told me she does have stabilisers. 

Never mine, I love the whole bunch of them.

37 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

Oh dear, it appears to be going backwards compared to May. Do they know that you are Priority? There was a lady walking up the queue shouting priority in May she told us go straight to the departures door where the doorman saw our boarding pass with "priority" on it and opened the door for us that was at 11:45 but I imagine on your cruise there is a high number priority boarders.

 

I too can recommend the Space Centre, DW also enjoyed it. Being the USA a wheelchairs will be catered for,

Yes I can confirm in US they tend to look after disabled passengers. The transfer bus from the Kennedy Space centre to the Apollo Launch site has wheelchair spaces.    

I have just checked your itinerary, I notice on 19th January you are in Port Canaveral. 

Really, please do the trip to "The Kennedy  Space Centre" , you will really enjoy it.

And even if you don't just take a look around the port as you are entering/exiting Port Canaveral, you will probably see a used Space X Falcon 9 booster on the dockside or a Falcon 9 recovery barge alongside your ship.

23 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

And they will have a staff member sat at a desk just past where you scan you card as you get onboard to declare and hand over any alcohol - but the staff member will be sat there twiddling their thumbs as nobody has handed over anything at all all day.

 

Even when they have the security xray conducted on the ship and the crew can see bottles in bags nothing is handed over.

On initially boarding the cruise either at Southampton or Barbados etc I usually have my 1 litre of whisky in my back pack, nobody has every checked my bag so I could have had 2 litres in it, I suppose.

On my last cruise in December, Aurora to the Canaries, an announcement was made over the ships PA system that any alcohol brought onboard in the Canaries was to be declared on boarding. 

However on our last port of call (Lisbon, so not the Canaries) I noticed many people boarding with large bags of bottles which were not being checked. Then I found 1 lire bottles of Bells whisky for 10 Euros a bottle, so of course, I bought 3 bottles. Again nobody attempted to check them.

But this was the last port of call.

I will be looking forward to reading of your experience of a 65 night cruise.

So far I have worked up to doing about five 14 night cruises a year, my 12 year old dog seems to be able to cope with that. However when I loose poor dog, life will be a bit more lonely, so I have started making plans for much longer cruises. And reading the experiences of long distance cruisers like yourself will be of much help in my decision making/planning.

Specifically how will you be planning your days/activities and doings. So far my longest so far was 16 nights on Aurora and after a week I started to feel a little bit bored, but I thought to myself, this is much much better than being at home.

I will be following your progress daily on CruiseMapper.

Enjoy yourselves

6 hours ago, Red Ray said:

Not a library as such just 2 or 3 glass cases where pax can help themselves to books. Not much but better han the pathetic offering on Arvia.

I don't agree with that, unless things have changed since 2022. 

The Arvia library is a joke but, in early 2022 at least, the Iona library was quite well stocked.

3 hours ago, david63 said:

 

 

I believe that you need a Visitor visa for Australia (https://www.australia.com/en-gb/facts-and-planning/visa-and-customs/australia-visa-and-entry-requirements-faqs.html)

Thank you for the visa advice and web link.

The Sydney to Hong Kong segment I am considering also visits Indonesia, Philippines and of course Hong Kong.

Can anyone offer advice on visas for these locations, or will P&O sort this stuff out for me.

Thanks

Paul

The photo my be deceiving, there are bedside tables and adequate space between the bed and  window on one side and the wall on the other side.

The room is bigger than it looks on the photo.

Photo of E71 cabin bed layout.

Yes , the left side of my bed was alongside the window.

Thanks for the replies.

I have flown to Hawaii and Shanghai before, although I was a lot younger then, so think I can cope with the long flights and time difference.

I would probably just stick with what P&O offer in terms of flights and transfers. What airlines do P&O use , flying from which airports for Australia ?

I occupied cabin E71, the bed was side on to the window and I had a view between the lifeboats.

I was a bit startled one morning on a port day when opening my curtains I found a crew member outside the window with a pot of grease oiling the runners on the lifeboat. But that didn't happen every day . 

I was quite happy with the cabin, the only problem I had was with the temperature controls on the shower. The Cabin also had a bath.

Hello

P&O World Cruise segments which include Australia

My late wife and I travelled the world from Hawaii in the west to China in the east and our intent was to visit Australia, but sadly she never made it.

I have now done 20 cruises by myself and I feel I really need to try and do that last trip to Australia.

One good option seems to be a segment of a P&O world cruise, the Sydney or Brisbane to Hong Kong segments of the Arcadia world cruises look very appealing.

Can anyone who has done P&O world cruises or segments of please give me any advice or comments on your experiences. In particular:

1. From which airports do you fly from/to.

2. How long are the flights and how do you cope.

3. Do you need to apply for any visas.

4. Any other advise gathered from your experience.

5. Or any other helpful advise.

Thanks

Paul

On Arcadia in 2021 they started putting up the Christmas stuff the first week in December.

I've received this Christmas email as well, Aurora 1st December to the canaries.  

Looking forward to it, can't complain if it's a bit early.

I've arthritic knees and problems with my balance so I would very probably need someone to steady me while descending stairs in an emergency. 

So I have requested assistance, completed and emailed the form back to P&O but I still had this email which included the paragraph :

"Recently, some guests have arrived at the terminal with specific on board needs that they did not make us aware of prior to their holiday. Unfortunately, to ensure we have sufficient capability to support all our guests at all times, this meant those guests were unable to board the ship. "

A couple of cruises back I sent a completed request for assistance form back to P&O only to find when I asked for assisted boarding at Southampton they had no record of my request. However while on board they did seem to have my request on file and I was asked to attend an assessment to determine if I was capable of using the ships tender to disembark.

So while boarding they had no record of my  request, then while onboard they did have my request.

A bit worrying. 

There is a small beach about 20 minutes walk from the ship. Walk straight out from the ship, through the tourist trap, and you will see a car park on your right hand side. Walk around the car park, 2 right turns, and you will find a small beach, just about big enough for a swim. Further on there is a rocky foreshore which I think leads to another small beach. 

12 hours ago, Selbourne said:

My wife and I have booked the 65 night ‘Aurora’s America & Caribbean Discovery’ departing 3rd Jan. We haven’t been to any of the ports before (other than Miami and Key West, but that wasn’t on a cruise). We try to just look around the ports independently (from the ship or the shuttle drop off point, if there is one) rather than do excursions, as my wife is a wheelchair user and can’t use a coach.
 

I suspect that some ports are good for DIY and are nice places, whereas others may not be. Some places may not even be safe to walk around independently? We’re not beach people, but a promenade is always nice. We mainly like to see the towns and any significant sights that are ideally accessible without the need to travel from the port. However, if the port itself is completely naff, I’d rather know and get some ideas where we might be able to get to easily, perhaps by taxi? Also any ‘must see’ places, but keeping in mind the wheelchair!

 

I realise that this is a big ask and I don’t expect anyone to go through the whole list (although that would be absolutely fantastic if they did 😂), so any and all tips would be sincerely appreciated. The full list of ports is;

 

Hamilton - Bermuda

Nassau - Bahamas

Port Canaveral 

Miami 

Key West - (Possible Tender)

New Orleans 

San Juan - Puerto Rico

St Maarten

Dominica

Kingstown - St Vincent

Bridgetown - Barbados

Fort de France - Martinique

Curaçao

Oranjestad - Aruba

Cartagena - Colombia

Colon - Panama

Panama Canal (Partial Transit)

Puerto Limon - Costa Rica

Roatan - Honduras (Possible Tender)

Belize (Tender)

Costa Maya - Mexico

Cozumel - Mexico (Possible Tender)

Georgetown - Cayman Islands (Tender)

Ocho Rios - Jamaica (Possible Tender)

Tortola - British Virgin Islands

Basseterre- St Kitts & Nevis

Antigua

Praia da Vitoria - Azores

 

 

Nassau - The town is accessible from the ship, mostly flat with the local beach about 30 minutes walk away.

Port  Canaveral - Everything is quite away from the port, you will really need an Uber, Taxi or take a coach trip. If the coaches have wheelchair facilities I would recommend the Kennedy Space Centre, it's flat and everywhere is accessible, the transfer busses to the Saturn 5 Rocket has wheel chair spaces.

Miami - Again, Everything is quite away from the port, you will really need an Uber, Taxi or take a coach trip.

St Maarten - I bit of a walk to the town, but there is a footpath along side the road, but it gets busy.

Dominica - A bit scruffy with potholes in the pavements.

Bridgetown - A good walk into town but quite nice and accessible.

Fort de France - This was quite a time ago, but I don't recall having any problems, I walk with a stick.

Curacao - Flat everything nearby.

Oranjestad - Flat everything nearby.

Roatan - an enclosed Tourist facility near the ship with a beach, if you want to go outside the port you will need a coach trip or taxi.

Belize - As Roatan, the town itself is walkable but a bit scruffy with heavy traffic. Really need a coach trip.

Basseterre - Town nearby, walkable.

Antigua - Town nearby, walkable.

Hope this helps

Paul

57 minutes ago, MidShip45 said:

Totally agree with what you said and would go further and say that the ship is very old and there are many issues that need fixing. 99% of the people on board are over 65. Food is mediocre to say the least, but it depends what you are used to.

I don't care, I do my own cooking so it's an improvement ☺️,I am in my 70s and I quite liked this ship.

My outside cabin on F deck (F150) also had a big square window.

19 hours ago, Jim The Scot said:

We,re on that cruise in four weeks and just completed passport entry data yesterday

 

Zip code for PC is 32920

Thanks Jim

Sorry I think I got my yes/no responses confused, and think I've figured it out.

Travel Information: Is your travel to the US occurring in transit to another country:

In transit:

Yes, I will be in transit. Discovery is in Port for 1 day then departing to Dominican Republic. Just supply an emergency contact.

No,  Not staying in US but visiting US/New York etc later in cruise.

Even the passport entry data in cruise control needs a US address and won't let you complete the entry unless all sections are completed.

Tried

MV Marella Discovery

Port Canaveral etc

now got to find out zips codes etc.

I am on Sunshine States /American Dream cruises later this year and am currently filling my ESTA application form.

How do I answer the following questions?

Travel Information: Is your travel to the US occurring in transit to another country:

Yes: What do I enter for US point of contact information Name, Address, Phone number, email address.

Or No: Emergency contact.

It’s confusing.

The advantage of holidaying on a ship is (theoretically) however hot it is outside the interior of the ship is comfortably air conditioned.

Also (hopefully) there might be a cooling sea breeze while outside when on deck, but be careful of sunburn. It's always cooler at sea than on land.

I have done the TA crossing three times. From East to west, Southampton outbound to Barbados flying back to Gatwick homeward bound. And from West to East flying out from Gatwick to Barbados returning home to Southampton.

Fairly easy to do for me from South Wales, National Express coach to Gatwick and train or Intercruises coach back to Porthcawl.

The Westbound crossing travels down first to Tenerife then across the Atlantic. The trip across the Bay of Biscay was a bit rough but the TA itself was smooth with the weather becoming progressively warmer.

The Eastbound crossing travels Northwest to the Azores so the weather becomes increasingly colder and more cloudy as you get closer to the UK. But again, the TA was smooth.