Any Aurora questions?

[alija1960]

Thanks a lot  DamianG this looks a very useful guide I shall take a good look at it

[AndyMichelle]

15 hours ago, DamianG said:

 

These days we tailor our visits to Vigo around our son so we take a short taxi or bus ride to the beach Praia de Samil. We also enjoy having a seafood lunch in Calle de las Ostras (Oyster Street).

Many cruisers write-off Vigo as a "rubbish" port and now that the port area has been redeveloped with bars, restaurants and a shopping mall lots of passengers will just get off the ship and go no further than that.

There are lots of guides online, this one is as good as any:

http://savvyguides.com/the-med/vigo/

 

Andy

Sorry for slightly hijacking your thread, I'm a big fan of Galicia and I hope you don't mind! I'm enjoying your postings and observations, Santander sounds lovely and I hope to visit there one day.

Have a great cruise!

All the best

Damian

Don't be silly Damian, I'm glad you could be of assistance where I couldn't.

That is what this site should be for.

Andy

[AndyMichelle]

Well, I thought the rain in Spain fell mainly on the plane(plain)... I am not on a plane and it is still raining...

It is tipping it down in LaCoruna.

Fantastic show in the Curzon last night, destination dance by the headliners. Not usually my sort of thing, but really enjoyed it. 

Great Soul singers on here also, Soul kinda wonderful, they put on a great show.

Going to brave the rain now, brolly up, Kagool on, let's do this...

Andy

[groovechick]

On 6/15/2019 at 6:23 PM, alija1960 said:

Hi are you calling at Vigo tomorrow and if so what do you plan to do there?  Only asking because we are on Aurora in August and stopping there but not too sure about the port and what to do as yet.  Thanks

If you haven't been to Vigo before, it's a very pleasant place to just wander round. The walk up to the castle is quite steep.

There are Segway tours that go from the quayside, are very popular and the company gets very good reviews. Can't remember the name, just Google Segway tours Vigo. There is also a company called Vigo Tours/Tours for Cruisers who do a very good and reasonably priced bus tour and have now added wine-tasting tours (hurray!). The guides all speak excellent English and are very knowledgeable. The tours start at a point just a short (5-10 mins) walk from the dock.  http://tours4cruisers.com/en/vigo-tour/

[alija1960]

Thanks a lot  Groovechick  for all the information this looks really good

[AndyMichelle]

Leaving Spain shortly, day at sea then hopefully Guernsey. What's our chances of getting in?

If not, I will just eat until I explode...

Great cruise so far, just a shame about the weather. Who do I speak to about compensation!! 😀

Andy

[Eglesbrech]

8 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Leaving Spain shortly, day at sea then hopefully Guernsey. What's our chances of getting in?

If not, I will just eat until I explode...

Great cruise so far, just a shame about the weather. Who do I speak to about compensation!! 😀

Andy

You joke, people do think that cruise lines and holiday companies should deploy their good weather machines.☀️

 

Hope you get in to Guernsey.

[Selbourne]

Quick note of clarification regarding the new large screen TV’s mentioned earlier in this thread, so as to avoid potential disappointment. They have NOT been installed in all cabins. They were not fitted to any inside, outside (no balcony) or accessible balcony cabins. These cabins received new TV’s but they were only marginally bigger than the ones they replaced and are still very small. Picture and sound quality remains dire. All standard balcony cabins and above received new wall mounted large screen TV’s that are at least twice the size (if not more) than those in the other cabins. 

[Hols4]

Hols4

The large new tv's picture quality is still poor, I think it is more to do with the signal the ship receives rather than the tv itself. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Hols4 said:

Hols4

The large new tv's picture quality is still poor, I think it is more to do with the signal the ship receives rather than the tv itself. 

I think its more likely the transmission quality around the ship, definitely not HD quality and quite a bit inferior to the SD on our home TV.  The signal comes via satellite just like Sky TV and it could be Utra HD if the ships systems were of an equal standard to even budget hotels in the UK.

[Sir Cumference]

Are the TV's interactive?

[terrierjohn]

12 minutes ago, Sir Cumference said:

Are the TV's interactive?

No.

[AndyMichelle]

Picture quality on the new larger TVs has been ok,  just the channels available are still rubbish and not interactive.

We are in a standard balcony cabin.

Good news though, we are anchored outside Guernsey, bad news is the tenders have been suspended due to the swell, although the waters seem calm.

Hopefully will get off soon.

Andy

[Cruising Nomads]

The new large screen tv's might not have been fitted to all cabins due to a lack of space in the area where the old tv was. It is not always easy to fit them to a wall bracket due to the logistics of the aerial cable and power sockets.

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Cruising Nomads said:

The new large screen tv's might not have been fitted to all cabins due to a lack of space in the area where the old tv was. It is not always easy to fit them to a wall bracket due to the logistics of the aerial cable and power sockets.

Have P&O's contractors never heard of cable trunking?

[AndyMichelle]

That horrible time now, docked in Southampton, had mdr breakfast, not too busy, seated straight away, got about an hours wait to disembark.

We had a fantastic time despite the weather. Ship is lovely, still dated despite the refit. Crew were very efficient and polite. 

Food has been great in the mdr and the buffet has plenty of choice although we only used it sparingly for the odd lunch and breakfast.

It seemed a happy ship in general, both crew and passengers.

Some of the entertainment was excellent, the only problem being the poor organisation/timing of shows left many missing shows completely. They were not planned sensibly around dining times, so often overcrowded for one showing with many not getting in and the second showing being practically empty.

Overall, still love Aurora despite missing things that are standard on the newer/larger ships.

Andy

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

That horrible time now, docked in Southampton, had mdr breakfast, not too busy, seated straight away, got about an hours wait to disembark.

We had a fantastic time despite the weather. Ship is lovely, still dated despite the refit. Crew were very efficient and polite. 

Food has been great in the mdr and the buffet has plenty of choice although we only used it sparingly for the odd lunch and breakfast.

It seemed a happy ship in general, both crew and passengers.

Some of the entertainment was excellent, the only problem being the poor organisation/timing of shows left many missing shows completely. They were not planned sensibly around dining times, so often overcrowded for one showing with many not getting in and the second showing being practically empty.

Overall, still love Aurora despite missing things that are standard on the newer/larger ships.

Andy

Thanks for all your posts Andy, it has been enjoyable reading. So glad that you both had a good cruise, safe home.

[tom_uk]

Many thanks for posting these, Andy, and for answering questions. We'll be on her for 18 nights next year - we were attracted to the itinerary (some new and smaller ports) and also the fact that, much as we do like the newer, larger ships, Aurora is now the last classic ship in the fleet and we wanted to enjoy her.

[AndyMichelle]

24 minutes ago, tom_uk said:

Many thanks for posting these, Andy, and for answering questions. We'll be on her for 18 nights next year - we were attracted to the itinerary (some new and smaller ports) and also the fact that, much as we do like the newer, larger ships, Aurora is now the last classic ship in the fleet and we wanted to enjoy her.

My pleasure Tom.

I am sure you will have a fantastic time, although it does take me a few days to settle in to Aurora.

Everything was easy apart from some tender issues in Guernsey which can't be helped.

Michelle is already looking for the next one, despite already having 2 booked, so might see you aboard the 18 nighter...

I think I need to hide the credit card....

Andy

[AndyMichelle]

43 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Thanks for all your posts Andy, it has been enjoyable reading. So glad that you both had a good cruise, safe home.

My pleasure.

Home now, washing machine on...

Andy

[Bennybluehat]

Sorry to drag you away from the washing! We are back on Aurora in November & have cruised on her twice as a family ship which we enjoyed. We also cruised on Oriana which was adults only as Aurora is now. On Oriana we found the entertainment was only orientated towards the very senior cruisers, nothing more up to date than the 60s. Did you find this was the case on your cruise or have they kept it a little more up to date like Aurora used to be?

[Angel57]

Thanks for your posts Andy. So pleased you had a good cruise. I am looking forward to going on her again in a few months time (always feel I'm going to my 2nd home when I step on board and I can pay no greater compliment than that). Have fun choosing the next cruises!

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, Bennybluehat said:

Sorry to drag you away from the washing! We are back on Aurora in November & have cruised on her twice as a family ship which we enjoyed. We also cruised on Oriana which was adults only as Aurora is now. On Oriana we found the entertainment was only orientated towards the very senior cruisers, nothing more up to date than the 60s. Did you find this was the case on your cruise or have they kept it a little more up to date like Aurora used to be?

Surprisingly, the entertainment was fantastic, something for everyone.

The headliners destination dance was really good plus their Queen tribute. They also did songs from the shows which was not for us.

We saw a good comedian, Phil Melbourne twice, both different shows and very funny.

Soul Kinda Wonderful were brilliant as were the Base Tones.

There was plenty going on for the 'oldies', classical concerts etc, but plenty of options if not your thing.

The only real disappointment was the house band, boy can they kill a tune.

Timings of shows was an issue and some of the entertainment team didn't seem that interested. The DJ was reading her kindle and sighed every time someone made a request.

Overall, much better than our last cruise on Aurora in December.

In addition, forget the horror stories about it being full of oldies now adults only. I know this was only 7 nights and it will differ on longer cruises, but there was a very good mix of ages. The eight on our dining table were 45/55 and there were plenty of other similar.

Quite a few younger and plenty older, but definitely not overrun.

There was a great vibe on the ship.

Andy

 

[AndyMichelle]

34 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

Thanks for your posts Andy. So pleased you had a good cruise. I am looking forward to going on her again in a few months time (always feel I'm going to my 2nd home when I step on board and I can pay no greater compliment than that). Have fun choosing the next cruises!

Michelle also says it feels like home as soon as she steps on board where it takes me a few days to get used to not having a watchable telly...

Andy

[jh1809]

Thanks from me too.

 

"It seemed a happy ship in general, both crew and passengers."

That was the impression I gained when I was on her a month or two ago. I suspect that a lot of credit for the happy crew goes to the senior crew members: the captain, of course, but also the hotel manager (is that what they're called nowadays?) and restaurant manager. And I imagine that a happy crew works better and goes a long way towards ensuring that the passengers are happy.