magpieman

A short video of the Christmas decorations on our recent cruise to the Canaries on Ventura in December. If you were on this cruise you may see yourself.

My video of our Balcony Cabin on Ventura, it might be of interest to people who are having a balcony cabin to give them a taster.

Please don't listen to the negative post, you will love Oceana, have a look at our video, you will notice that the same person has commented on the video with exactly the same comments about pong and odour, they obviously have an agenda.

If you are going on an Oceana cruise in the near future here is a taster, I took this video on our recent cruise to the Canaries, I hope you like it.

Just returned from he Oceana Canaries cruise and am wondering what others thought?

 

We were on her in March and thoroughly enjoyed it but found this time a different experience.

 

The food was much better in March, more variety and tastier.

 

The ship continually "rolled" even when the sea looked calm

 

There was a lot of repair work going on. I know that maintenance has to be done, but is it fair to rip up half the area around the pool and why were bits of the promenade deck continually cordoned off? I think I only managed to do a whole lap of the ship once. I heard one passenger saying it was just like a building site!

 

The production shows and the guest artists were excellent, but the entertainment in other areas were patchy, to say the least.

 

A lot of the daytime events seemed to be aimed at selling something :rolleyes:

 

Good points - Reception were very helpful, our cabin was kept very well by our steward and the trip we did in Lisbon was very good. I had to visit the doctor and was prescribed antibiotics for a water infection, so couldn't go on the trip that day but was refunded the money with no quibbles.

 

Just my opinion, wondered what others thought

Hi Linda

We were on the same cruise and our experience was really good, to be honest I didn't notice any "rolling" there was a little movement from time to time but nothing to upset me and I'm not a good sailor.

The food we thought was very good, as good as our previous cruises, there was some work going on relaying carpets etc., but it didn't really affect us, we could always get a sunbed and we managed to get in the pool on several occasions. So all told we were very pleased with the cruise.

With regard to the staff we found the waiters, cabin staff etc., very courteous and they couldn't do enough to make our holiday really enjoyable. However we didn't find the British staff as good, the reception failed to respond to our questions on two occasions and one question I asked was laughed at by the reception staff as I walked away I could hear them s******ing at my "silly" question.

On another occasion we were walking through the photography department when a member of staff remarked that she was "having a sh*t day", in a loud voice, not very professional. We do think the British staff could do with a bit more training.

We didn't let any of this spoil our cruise however, we had a brilliant time.

You can walk into Amsterdam from the port it is very easy, we did the same cruise last year on Aurora. I did a review if you are interested http://www.productreviewhelp.co.uk/Holidays/pando-cruises-short-break-cruise-aurora.html

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I never thought in a million years I would wear a tuxedo in a posh restaurant but I bought one from Asda for around £50 got a clip on tie and got a formal shirt from a charity shop. My wife and I enjoyed it immensely it's only 3 or 4 nights on a 12 night cruise but really good and I certainly didn't feel out of place.

For the smart casual nights I wore a smart polo shirt and slacks, smart enough but comfortable.

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We always take a box of red, a box of white, a bottle of gin and some tonic. The cabin steward will supply you with ice and lemon every day in an ice bucket.

Have a great cruise.

We went on the Aurora in January shortly after its refit and we loved it, we had a short cruise to Bruges and Amsterdam. I have done a review of the ship and the cruise and there are a couple of links to videos that I did whilst on the ship, including a video tour of the ship which is at the bottom of the review.

http://www.productreviewhelp.co.uk/Holidays/pando-cruises-short-break-cruise-aurora.html

Enjoy your holiday, its a lovely ship.

You can also ask your Steward for slices of lemon if you want them. Good idea to keep the ice bucket in the fridge as it stays colder longer. Our Steward used to bring a refilled ice bucket plus lemon slices before lunch time each day. We found the ice stayed reasonably frozen even for evening drinks pre-dinner.

Yes we found the same, we just asked our steward once and he brought ice bucket and lemon slices every day.

We were on the Aurora in January and they were offering the deal above, I wish I had taken it but couldn't commit to another cruise within 12 months but when we got back home we couldn't resist looking at the cruises and booked another one for November!

Our last cruise was aboard the Aurora in January and we got there around 11.30, the checking in time was noticeably quicker than we have previously experienced we were onboard and having lunch just after 12.

If anyone is interested you can read my review of this cruise onboard Aurora here http://www.productreviewhelp.co.uk/Holidays/pando-cruises-short-break-cruise-aurora.html

Great video, magpieman. She is looking lovely. We were on her in November just before her re-fit and it was great to see the refurbishment. Thanks so much. You should send that to P&O - it is a great promotion of the Aurora!

Thanks for the comment Scriv and everyone, glad you like it although I suspect P&O have their own people who do a lot better more professional videos than an amateur like me. I like videoing when we cruise it's great to look back on in the dark winter days when the cruise is just a distant happy memory. :)

Just viewed your video. Absolutely fabulous. Thanks very much for sharing that with us. .The ship looks in good shape now. The menu for Sindhu looks good. Did you use the restaurant? We will be on board in a few weeks and really looking forward to it.

Yes we had a meal in Sindhu it cost £20 per person and worth every penny. The biryani was excellent.

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Excellent video, thank you for sharing it with us. Do you have any video coverage of the new library or the new restaurant where the library used to be?

Funny you should say that, I have just uploaded a video tour of the complete ship. I think the library is about 7 minutes in.

[YOUTUBE]mhr1m7funso[/YOUTUBE]I took this video on our recent trip to Amsterdam and Bruges, the ship is lovely now it's been refurbished.

Thanks, I had forgotten how compact standard inside cabins are, there really is no space between the bed, the sofa, the bedside cabinets etc

It was fairly compact but we found it perfectly adequate, especially as we didn't spend a lot of time in there, too much to do and see. Glad you liked the video. :)

I thought people who are going on Aurora in future might like to see the refurbished cabins. This video was taken on our recent 4 night cruise.

If it's the 4 night cruise to Bruges and Amsterdam it's fully booked, we are on it.

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When you get on board there will be "Port talks" held which will give you lots of tips about excursions and doing it yourself, we found these very helpful, we were onboard Azura the port talks were also on the interactive TV in the cabin. Just pick your favourite and book on board.

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We were on the Azura in September we had to wait for a table for two about 3 times out of 17, each time we had a pager and waited around 30 mins for a table, we didn't have to queue at all. We normally went to eat around 6.30-7.00pm

See my review http://www.productreviewhelp.co.uk/Holidays/pando-cruises-mediterranean-cruise-azura.html

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My review of this cruise we enjoyed aboard the Azura in September.

http://www.productreviewhelp.co.uk/Holidays/pando-cruises-mediterranean-cruise-azura.html

On our recent cruise we always asked for a table for two in the freedom dining restaurant, we noticed that on this cruise as opposed to others we had to wait quite a few times and other times we were put on a larger table by ourselves.

We noticed lots of other couples preferring tables for two, hence the waiting time, I have also noted on threads on this forum people saying they prefer tables for two.

With this in mind my question is do you think P&O should put more tables for two in the restaurant and less group tables?

Hi Skoozie

Yes, the Ventura followed us into Venice so you would be on the ship.

80 Euros sounds about right, we paid 90 I think for the two of us but that included the water from and back to the ship and a tour guide who pointed out some places of interest and made sure we didn't get lost. We had to share our gondola with 4 other people though.