Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[cushyb]

Thank you so much, what a pleasure 

reading your daily blog has been. I wish you and Lady S a  happy welcome  home.

[sagaris]

It looks like I will have to read the daily paper with my morning cuppa now😪, your blog was so much more entertaining😊.

Hope you had a pleasant journey home.

 

Molly

[Canberra forever !]

Welcome home and thank you for brightening every day during a dreary few months in Wales.

I've looked forward to reading your blog every evening... an unputdownable travel log 😊

Best wishes to you and Lady S. 

 

Jane

 

[Selbourne]

Day 66 - Friday 8th March - Disembarkation

 

Before I tell you about our disembarkation experience, can I start by thanking everyone for your very kind words about how much you have enjoyed the live blog. As many of you have acknowledged, it’s been a lot of work, but the feedback makes it worthwhile. I intend to tidy it up and keep it as a diary of our grand voyage, to accompany the 500+ photographs that I’ve taken. I will post our ‘Final Thoughts’ when I get chance, but here’s what happened today;

 

We picked up our pilot in the early hours (scheduled for 0245) and when I woke at around 0615 we were at Mayflower Cruise Terminal. We followed exactly the same disembarkation strategy that we have deployed on our last half a dozen cruises. Firstly, we aimed not to vacate the cabin until as late as possible. The request was to vacate cabins by 0800 and, knowing that our steward was working on a cabin along the corridor, we didn’t feel bad about vacating ours at 0810. Our steward Antonio had been absolutely brilliant, always ensuring that our cabin was serviced whilst we were having breakfast. We expressed our appreciation as we left.

 

MDR breakfast was available for entry until 0830. Getting a lift on disembarkation morning is always something that we dread with a wheelchair, as understandably everybody uses them with their hand luggage, so you can wait ages to get a lift with enough room in it. Seconds after we arrived at the lifts a couple with a scooter arrived. I pressed both up and down buttons thinking that we will get in the first lift in either direction that we can fit in. The first lift to arrive was completely empty, so all four of us managed to get in with the wheelchair and scooter. Having thought that we would get to breakfast by the skin of our teeth, our good fortune with the lift meant that we got there in bags of time. We got a table for 2 immediately (well, a 4 top just for 2). We had been told that disembarkation  would be a little later than usual due to the high volumes of luggage, so we wanted to have a leisurely breakfast. Unfortunately our waiter had a different idea and clearly wanted us in and out as quickly as possible. That wasn’t going to happen, so I made sure that we lasted out until 0900 as that was when general disembarkation was due to start, and I had no intention of going to a lounge or assisted disembarkation. Whilst we need assistance, witnessing how that service is abused incenses me, so I avoid it, push my wife off myself and find a porter to help me in the terminal. 

 

As we left breakfast on deck 6, I popped to the atrium to check if disembarkation had started, and it had. There was virtually no queue, so I called a lift and whilst there were others in it, we also managed to get in, so we dropped down to deck 5 and we walked straight off the ship. As we were walking along the air bridge we were struck by how cold it felt! When we got to the luggage hall there were no porters available and there was a queue for them, which we joined. We got a porter after around a 10 minute wait. The luggage seemed fairly well spaced, which surprised me. Either disembarkation had started early and a lot had already gone, or Aurora, being a small ship, doesn’t need all the space, even when everyone has significantly more luggage than usual. We were looking for 4 cases and I showed our porter the photo I’d taken of them. In the time it took me to find one case he’d found the other three! In no time at all we were heading out of the terminal. There were several customs staff checking people’s luggage but thankfully we weren’t stopped. 

 

Next stop CPS and, thankfully, other than rusty brake discs from not being used for 65 days, our car was absolutely fine. In fact, other than a few bird droppings, it didn’t look any dirtier than when we dropped it off on 3rd Jan. Our porter very kindly helped me load the car and we were off. The car drove as well as normal, there were no queues to get out of the car park or port and we got through Southampton and all the way home with no issues at all. We’ve never been away from home for several months before, so it was a big relief to find that the house was OK and that we weren’t going home to any nasty surprises. Within 2 hours I was fully unpacked and had the first load of washing in.  Later in the afternoon I even managed to mow the lawns, which filled one of the green wheelie bins, so it’s started growing already 🙄. So, in conclusion, I’m pleased to report that embarkation was excellent and all is well at Selbourne Towers. However, I am now cream crackered, so good night!

[TigerB]

6 hours ago, indiana123 said:

Selbourne,  did you realise your postings had such a following, with so many hanging on your every word????😀

.

Just wondered...

 

[Eglesbrech]

So @Selbourne I have all thoroughly enjoyed reading all about your adventures. I’m glad to hear you and Lady S are home safe and sound after whats sounds like an excellent cruise.

 

It’s a lot of time and effort to write a comprehensive blog like this one but much appreciated. 

 

The question now that everyone would like know of course is…..  when is your next cruise? 

 

 

[Eddie99]

So, that’s it, and you’re home with your memories and your washing?

 

The disembarkation sounds pretty near perfect, even allowing for an over-brisk breakfast waiter.  
I hope you both slept well last night

No mention of your throat, so fingers crossed that a couple of days of good, old fashioned, iffy, British spring weather and outside air will confirm that all is OK

 

It’s been a long time.  Several of us have taken fortnights holidays which are now but a distant memory.  MrsGoggins has sailed to the Caribbean and back for 35 nights.  There have been babies born and heart pacemakers fitted.  A cold snap, interminable rain, daffodils & primroses, a Budget (🙄) - you’ve been there every morning, with your unfailingly interesting reports, and have gone above and beyond with additional snippets and daily menu posts

 

Thank you 🎖 

 

[Ukulele girl]

Thank you so much for all your hard work, it has been a pleasure each morning to read about your trip. My sister was on the cruise and I will speak to her tomorrow to see if she feels the same about the holiday. It will be interesting to have a comparison.

 

You might like to think about making a photobook with your pictures and include your blog as pages. I made one for our 6 week NZ and Australia holiday and included our itinerary notes and emails to a group of friend. I still look at it at often with a smile and enjoy being reminded of the details.

 

I hope you are soon very well again and look forward to your next trip.

[Selbourne]

18 minutes ago, Ukulele girl said:

My sister was on the cruise and I will speak to her tomorrow to see if she feels the same about the holiday. It will be interesting to have a comparison.

You might want to spare her the 66 days of blogs and focus on the ‘final thoughts’ when I post them 😂. As we know, no two people ever have exactly the same experience on a cruise. So much is influenced by personal circumstances (in our case the challenges with a full time wheelchair user), likes and dislikes (one man’s meat is another man’s poison), expectations, past cruise comparisons, specific cabin issues, problems experienced (and resolution, or otherwise, of) etc etc.

 

Just as one example, I overheard a chap saying to someone that several people he’d spoken to thought that the food was dreadful, whereas he thought it was fine. In our case, we’d be somewhere in the middle, yet we were all on the same cruise eating the same food but, in our case, we were making comparisons to Britannia, Iona and Ventura, all of which we had been on quite recently. 

[P&O SUE]

13 hours ago, indiana123 said:

Selbourne,  did you realise your postings had such a following, with so many hanging on your every word????😀

.

Just wondered...

And so many posters who don’t normally post on this board!

[Selbourne]

Insurance Update

 

I forgot to mention in yesterdays update that when I came up for air yesterday I called U.K. Insurance, the current providers for Nationwide Flex Plus customers (I only opened the account for the travel insurance, following @terrierjohn recommendation). 
 

The chap couldn’t have been more helpful. By luck, he’d had another passenger from the cruise call earlier in the day, so he already knew what our two missed ports were. He confirmed immediately that we would receive £150 per person per missed port, so £600 in total. There is no excess. They don’t even require us to submit the letters that we were issued with.
 

Hugely impressive, as was the quotation stage when we set up the policy. I just hope that Aviva will be as good when they take over from U.K. Insurance as the Nationwide provider. The total cost of the annual policy, including the addition of my wife’s health condition, long holiday extension and cruise cover was just under £400. We have now had 150% of that back and the policy year will still cover us for our next two 14 night cruises with Cunard. Insurance companies often have a bad name for justifiable reasons, but I can’t praise U.K. Insurance enough in this instance. 

[Gettingwarmer]

16 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

The total cost of the annual policy, including the addition of my wife’s health condition, long holiday extension and cruise cover was just under £400. We have now had 150% of that back and the policy year will still cover us for our next two 14 night cruises with Cunard. Insurance companies often have a bad name for justifiable reasons, but I can’t praise U.K. Insurance enough in this instance. 

Really enjoyed your blog, so much information. 
With regards to Travel Insurance I can’t help but think the missed ports payouts have contributed in making Travel Insurance unprofitable for companies like U.K. Insurance and that is why they have left the market. I wonder what Aviva will charge per cruise in the future. Lucky for you the cover continues for your next two cruises. 

[terrierjohn]

Glad you are back safe and sound, and thank you for taking me along with you to enjoy your adventures, it was a most pleasurable experience.

[Fionboard]

Really liked your reports. I enjoyed all my cruises on Aurora last year. I am joining her again on Tuesday so  it will be interesting to see how my experience compares to yours. 

[Presto2]

Glad to read that you are both home safe and sound. Thank you for the many hours it must have taken to put this blog together each day to keep us all entertained. Though I'm not expecting such a long blog it will be interesting to see how your cruise on Cunard compares when you next sail. 

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Insurance Update

 

I forgot to mention in yesterdays update that when I came up for air yesterday I called U.K. Insurance, the current providers for Nationwide Flex Plus customers (I only opened the account for the travel insurance, following @terrierjohn recommendation). 
 

The chap couldn’t have been more helpful. By luck, he’d had another passenger from the cruise call earlier in the day, so he already knew what our two missed ports were. He confirmed immediately that we would receive £150 per person per missed port, so £600 in total. There is no excess. They don’t even require us to submit the letters that we were issued with.
 

Hugely impressive, as was the quotation stage when we set up the policy. I just hope that Aviva will be as good when they take over from U.K. Insurance as the Nationwide provider. The total cost of the annual policy, including the addition of my wife’s health condition, long holiday extension and cruise cover was just under £400. We have now had 150% of that back and the policy year will still cover us for our next two 14 night cruises with Cunard. Insurance companies often have a bad name for justifiable reasons, but I can’t praise U.K. Insurance enough in this instance. 

More importantly,  how's the throat now you're home.?.

[AndyMichelle]

Now this is disappointing... 

What are we going to choose for our 'virtual dinner' now...😂

 

Absolutely loved tagging along with you, thank you so much. 

 

You have got so many people in the mood for upcoming cruises, so mission accomplished, stand down..😊

 

Andy & Michelle 

[lancashire_cruisers]

I’ve absolutely loved following your adventures and it didn’t feel like you’d been away for so long! Welcome home Lord and Lady S.

[Bill Y]

Thanks for your reports @Selbourne we have enjoyed reading of your experiences and seeing your pictures. They brought back memories and made us look again at our pictures.

 

We cruise primary for new destinations as we normally feel that there is a certain magic on the first visit that’s seldom there on subsequent visits unless you wish to return for a specific reason. So it’s unlikely that we will return to most of the places that we have visited but it’s nice to be reminded of the places we have visited in the past and have an excuse to look at the pictures again. We appreciate the sheer amount effort and time you must put in to produce such detailed reports.

 

We are on Aurora at the end of April first time on her since 2018, so hopefully the talks etc on sea days will be better than last year on Ventura, What you have reported sounded positive but we have found previously on transatlantic crossing that P&O tend to pull  the stops out regarding daytime activities so we will see.

 

These longer cruises appeal to people who cannot or wish not to fly and often visit interesting places that do not warrant expensive stand alone trips. World cruises and segments we feel have lost their appeal as they now appear to just be a whistle stop race around the world with fewer stops and we personal feel their days are numbered. We hope that you will find future cruises that appeal to you.

 

We hope that your throat is finally recovering.

Edited March 9 by Bill Y

[V9vix]

What can I say? Absolutely fantastic posts, insightful, interesting & fascinating! My go to blog! Will miss reading & following your adventures, felt like I was cruising along with you both! Hope you are now in the best of health with no more irritating throat problems. Will especially miss your daily MDR menus, always enjoyed picking out what I would have! Adios for now & like many other posters have said before me, really hope you will do another blog on your next cruise! Welcome home! X

[Selbourne]

Final Thoughts

 

Once again, sincere thanks for all your feedback on my ramblings. I’m pleased that it has provided a source of both interest and amusement over the past few months! I know that I always enjoy reading others live blogs, but I had no idea when I started that this one would get so much interest. I am frankly staggered that this thread has now exceeded 200,000 views and over 1,700 posts 😱

 

Before I summarise our final thoughts, some quick answers to two questions that several people have asked since we’ve been back;

 

Health - my throat is no longer hurting when I swallow, but I’m avoiding alcohol as I know that aggravates it. It also kept coming and going on the ship, so I’m hoping that it won’t return in a few days time. I still have an irritating tickly cough but it’s very minor.

 

Next cruise - is in May on Cunard’s new ship Queen Anne. I am definitely NOT going to do a live blog, but am happy to share my thoughts on how it compares to the P&O ships when we get back.

 

So, what are our final thoughts? We had a lot of apprehension about going on a cruise of this duration. The longest cruise we’d had before was 24 days (USA & Canada) and we’d really struggled with the homecoming transatlantic, so this was a huge commitment. Well I’m pleased to say that we coped fine with it and didn’t have a single day when we would have preferred to be at home. We enjoyed the cruise and are really pleased that we did it. We have some great memories, which will be aided by the blog and the vast number of photos that I took. If we had to summarise the main likes and dislikes they would be as follows;

 

LIKES

 

Itinerary - we cruise for the ports, not the ship or sea days, so this cruise delivered that on steroids. 28 ports (although we ‘only’ made it to 26) of which over 20 were new to us. 

 

Value - we usually book Select fares but got this one on a late saver. It worked out at £73 per person per night for an accessible balcony cabin (£68 pppn after the £600 insurance refund for the 2 missed ports).

 

Money saved - as we were away and also on a full board basis, we saved a few thousand pounds against what we would have spent at home over the same period. In real terms, this took our ‘net’ extra cost of being on the cruise down to around £50 pppn, which is just incredible. 

 

Timing - missing two of the worst winter months in the U.K.  

 

Service - always a strength IMO but our cabin steward Antonio, assistant waiter Troy and Glasshouse wine host Dennis were all superstars. 

 

Daytime entertainment - we thought that the days of decent and interesting daytime activities had ended with P&O, but this cruise was as good as any we’ve had. Some great guest lecturers and classical recitals were highlights. 

 

Some of the performers - Headliners were very good (especially considering their inexperience) and we particularly enjoyed The Privateers, Neil Lockwood and the Annie Lennox tribute. 

 

Passenger Profile - mostly older seasoned cruisers with the behaviours to match. Exemplary lift etiquette. The polar opposite of what we experienced on Iona. 

 

 

DISLIKES

 

MDR Food - to be clear, it wasn’t awful but we felt that only around 20% of meals were very good, 60% were mediocre and 20% were poor. Lack of seasoning, bland flavourless sauces and gravies. Britannia, Iona and Ventura (all experienced in the second half of last year) were far better. 

 

Loyalty, what loyalty - being Caribbean tier counted for almost nothing on this cruise. Embarkation was the worst we’ve ever had and both CPS and Intercruises were woefully unprepared for over half the passengers having early boarding times. Very poor quality priority boarders buffet. Zero engagement from the Captain or senior officers at the Caribbean lunch.

 

Maintenance issues - Aurora is showing her age. The air con can’t cope in certain areas of the ship in warmer temperatures. The display screens and floor announcements in the lifts were wrong more than they were right. The exterior of the ship was looking very shabby with multiple rust and dirt patches. Wherever we went, we looked the poor relation up against the other gleaming ships. 

 

Captain Robson - we have never come across such a remote Captain. A good one can really enhance a cruise. Other than the departure announcements (which contained just the absolute bare minimum information) he did absolutely nothing to enhance the passenger experience. His explanations for the two missed ports were inadequate. 

 

Health issues - I had a sore throat for over half the cruise, including all our time in the Caribbean. I’m sure that this was caused by something on the ship (probably air con). An awful lot of passengers had coughs. Thankfully, even though it was a very long cruise, I think we were Norovirus and Covid free. 

 

Anything more would just be repeating the blog, but those are the main things. So, that’s it. I’m happy to answer any specific questions but, other than that, I’m done!

Edited March 9 by Selbourne

[mrsgoggins]

A really good summary. I was especially taken with your description of 'Passenger Profile' because although I don't believe I mentioned it in my 35 night (irregular) Caribbean Ventura blog, I could have written the same word for word. And we also sailed on Iona last year!

 

Maybe you would like to consider next year's 3 January Ventura 35 night sailing to the USA and the Caribbean? It does include New Orleans (well at least you'd know what to expect there) and also Miami (which you enjoyed), but I suspect the other ports would be new to you. You would miss January in the UK and save on heating and eating at home again. I'm thinking maybe we could 'crowd fund' to send you and your good lady on long journeys 😉. I'd chip in with the blog writing ......... 😁

[Clodia]

Just catching up with your blog as I've been away for a week with poor WiFi. As many others have said, it's  been a joy to read, completely honest and very engaging. The longest cruise I've  ever done is 21 days, I have another 21 on Britannia in May, but as I've  booked the world cruise on Arcadia for 2026, your excellent blog has given me a good idea of what to expect. I like sea days so it's just as well as the world cruise has only a couple more ports than you had and lots of sea days, so it's particularly good to know that P and O provides well for sea days on longer cruises.

Thank you for such an entertaining and well written blog. Don't know what I'm going to read when I've  finished the paper now!

[jh1809]

10 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Maintenance issues - Aurora is showing her age. The air con can’t cope in certain areas of the ship in warmer temperatures. The display screens and floor announcements in the lifts were wrong more than they were right. The exterior of the ship was looking very shabby with multiple rust and dirt patches. Wherever we went, we looked the poor relation up against the other gleaming ships. 

Thanks for the very informative summary. Regarding the maintenance issues, it sounds as though things may have gone downhill over the last year or so. When I did a Caribbean cruise on Aurora at the end of 2022, I didn't notice any temperature problems, and the lift display screens and floor announcements were hardly ever incorrect. Even then, though, there was some rust to be seen on the hull, even by someone as naturally unobservant as myself.

[indiana123]

I don't know why this suddenly came into my head but just wondered if Molechip has been reading this great thread, and also his thoughts on it.