Selbourne

Yes we said exactly the same. A transit through the new locks wouldn’t be a fraction of the experience IMO.

Having visited the new locks the previous day (and watch HAL’s Rotterdam transit through them) I would have been so disappointed if we had gone through those. You have no ‘mules’ either side, just one tug in front and one behind, and it’s a single lane (I believe that they change direction every 6 hours). For me, the interest was watching the mules doing their very clever work and seeing the entire operation of the ships coming in the opposite direction. In the new locks you would get neither of those experiences.

They are the things I am hoping to forget - along with the cr@p air conditioning 😂

Day 41 - Monday 12th February - Panama Canal (Partial Transit) After our day in Colon we were already within sight of our next days destination - the Panama Canal. Presumably to save on port fees had we remained at the cruise terminal overnight (or even waited in the large estuary where all the other ships waiting to transit the canal wait), we headed out to sea. This was a great shame, as it was as rough as hell. Movement was considerable and disturbed our sleep. Just to illustrate how rough it was, I have taken to closing our balcony door but not locking it. Bizarrely, the door handle rattles when it’s locked but doesn’t otherwise. The lunging around was so great at one stage that our heavy balcony door flew completely open and then immediately swung closed with an almighty crash. Needless to say I had to get out of bed and lock it. I’m amazed that nothing fell off any shelves! It obviously calmed down, as we managed to get rocked back to sleep and woke to calmer waters as we were back in Colon. We then slowly passed under the Atlantic bridge (widest span of any bridge in Central or South America) and, accompanied by tugs, started lining up for our approach to the Panama Canal. Although only a partial transit, this was a major factor in booking this cruise. A World cruise (which you have to do in order to do a full transit - we can’t fly so a ‘sector’ isn’t possible) doesn’t remotely appeal to either of us, so this was a bucket list activity. Having visited the new canal locks yesterday and seen a cruise ship go through them, I was really hoping that we would transit through the original Gatun locks with the assistance of the electric ‘mule’ locomotives and, thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. I know that there are many who are happy to cruise in inside cabins, but we were so so glad that we had our own balcony to watch everything. Because we had booked a late Saver and only one accessible balcony cabin was available, we couldn't choose which side to be on. However, we have been lucky almost all cruise to have been on the port side (as we’ve had better outlooks in ports) but today we struck gold. We passed through the locks on the right hand channel which meant that the ships traversing the locks in the opposite direction were facing us. This meant that we could clearly see how the whole operation worked by watching the locks operate, the ships rise or drop and the clever mules busily doing their thing. Prior to entering the first lock I dashed up on to deck 13 and 14 to get some shots of us passing under the Atlantic bridge, passing the original (but aborted) French attempt at a Panama Canal, and forward facing photos of the locks ahead of us. The total rise is only 85 feet, but when you see a ship ahead of you in the highest lock it seems several times that! Once I’d done that we could see everything in comfort from our balcony. I’m pleased to say that it was every bit as interesting and thrilling as I had anticipated and will no doubt be the thing that I will remember most about this cruise (well, hopefully 😂 🤞). It’s such a clever operation and it’s amazing that it’s over 100 years old, as we were reminded with the ‘Gatun 1913’ inscription on the central building. There has been a comparative drought in Panama over the winter and water levels in Gatun Lake are still 5 feet below normal (hence all the exposed tree stumps that are usually submerged). In order to conserve water, in addition to water passing downwards between chambers, water is now diverted to the opposite direction chamber, so one ship falling helps the one opposite to rise. This makes the operation a little longer than usual. Two massive tankers passed us heading ‘down’ the locks (Makra and Vega Sea) as we were heading ‘up’. Apparently there was 2 ft clearance either side of us, but looking down from our balcony it looked more like 2 inches! There was quite a big bump and judder at one stage, but hopefully no damage was done! We anticipated up to 90 minutes in Gatan Lake before our transit back down, but the Pilot said that we had to join the next convoy back down, so we basically turned around and headed straight back down! Coming the other way was another tanker and then, after that, a small cruise ship called Le Dumont D’urville which, because it didn’t fill the chamber, was accompanied by 3 small yachts following behind it. By 1.15pm, some 4 hours after we commenced our upward approach, we were back down at the level of the Atlantic, bucket list well and truly ticked. We had lunch in the MDR and then both had an afternoon siesta following all the excitement of the morning (and the disturbed nights sleep). It also doesn’t help that our cabin air con is rubbish - something I’ve had to admit defeat on, but would make me wary of booking Aurora for a warm weather cruise again. Having stirred from our slumbers we went for an afternoon brew in Raffles but we were too late for the cakes (probably just as well with Sindhu booked for later). For dinner we had booked Sindhu. One of 4 bookings for the restaurant that we had made pre cruise. Pre booking is beneficial as you get 20% discount, plus loyalty discount and the pre booking charge is then deducted from your final bill. However, it gets better in that because you’ve pre booked you also then get a further 20% discount off your final food bill which is then further subject to loyalty discount. It’s a great offer that P&O don’t really promote. As mentioned last time we went, I’m not a huge fan of Sindhu, least of all on Aurora, but this was the best of the 3 meals we’ve had there so far this cruise. The 10pm theatre show was Headliners Destination Dance. I remember this from previous cruises as being quite poor, so I wasn’t too keen on going but my wife was. As is so often the case, the performance was slightly marred by the audience members with verbal diarrhoea who simply cannot watch any show without having the need to pass comment to their partner at frequent intervals, but two guys in particular drove us both mad. They stood at the side and just kept talking at full volume. A frosty stare from me failed to stop them and then, much to my amazement, my wife ‘shushed’ them, which I’ve never known her do before, so I then felt empowered to follow that with a less polite instruction for them to “shut up”. Thankfully they both left soon after. As for the show, top marks to the Headliners. This show is all about dancing and all cast members, including the singers, are required to do a lot of often quite complex and fast paced dancing (Riverdance etc). We both thought that they all did extremely well. Tomorrow is a sea day prior to us continuing our exploration of Central America with Costa Rica on Wednesday.

The cheese goldfish weren’t included. I bought those to have with my lager 😂. The box had a small packet of Pringle type snacks, some lemony flavoured biscuits, tiny box of raisins and possibly one or two other small things that I can’t remember. It was free and they give you a very small free coffee as well.

Yes as soon as we got into Lake Gatun we turned around and went straight back down again. To be fair to the Captain, that call was made by the canal authorities. Can’t help about the orange chairs!

Todays MDR menus

Yes they’ve mentioned that. Apparently water levels in Lake Gatun are still 5ft lower than they should be, hence all the tree stumps that are visible. I’m still bemused that with the water issues they have that they don’t constantly have 3 ships going up and 3 going down . Seems daft to have so many empty chambers when so many ships are waiting. The chap announcing also said that he always sees crocodiles during these transits, presumably in Lake Gatan. Can’t see how as you are so far from the shore?

Live from our balcony. We are going through the original locks 👍

I’m confident that it’s nothing like that. My voice hasn’t been affected and I haven’t had much of a daytime cough, certainly compared to countless other passengers. I don’t want to tempt fate by saying this, but since daytime yesterday it’s stopped hurting when I swallow. Even this morning the symptoms have lessened. Fingers crossed it’s on its way out at last. Unfortunately, on the trip yesterday there were two women on the coach with hacking coughs and Sod’s Law one of them was sat right behind me. She must have coughed forcefully 100 times in my direction during the day, so I just hope that having hopefully turned the corner with one infection I now don’t contract another! Re the water levels, yes the guide mentioned it. In Lake Gatan and the surrounding area there was a sea of tree stumps protruding from the water that presumably would normally be covered. I didn’t catch everything that he said as I was outside on the viewing platform some of the time but I think that water levels were still fairly low. He mentioned that, at its worst, ships had to offload some of their containers in Colon and have them taken by rail to Panama to be re-loaded, so that the ship would displace less water when transiting the canal.

Day 40 - Sunday 11th February - Colon, Panama Well I have had a fascinating day in Panama and very much enjoyed seeing a bit of the Panama Canal in operation. I was booked on the Panama Railroad Experience - Dome Car excursion, so first made sure that in addition to sun cream I had sprayed myself with the obnoxious smelling Jungle Formula. Leaving the ship I had to go through immigration and, unlike the US, actually had my passport stamped! The coach left 5 or 10 minutes late (minus 2 no-shows) and our first stop was the Agua Clara visitor centre which, for me, was actually the best part of the day. This modern centre is at the mouth of Lake Gatun and directly overlooks the 3 locks on the new widened section of the canal that brings the larger ships up from the Atlantic (Caribbean) side to Lake Gatun. Cruise ship Rotterdam (Holland America Line) was in the middle of the 3 locks as we arrived and we were there long enough to see it complete its transit. As this is the new canal, there were no ‘mule’ locomotives, just a tug at the front and a tug at the back. We couldn’t even see the original canal but I’m keeping everything crossed that we go through the original canal tomorrow as that will be far more interesting. The chap who has been doing the presentations on the Panama Canal says it’s almost certain that we will. I sincerely hope that he’s right, as I’ll be bitterly disappointed if we don’t, as we saw none of the original canal today. There was a short 10 minute film describing the need for the new canal and showing some of the history. Colon itself is very third world in places and frankly, in parts, looks poverty stricken. The social housing areas look near derelict yet are occupied. The prison was even worse - most of the roof is missing and no windows - just openings - where you could see inmates milling around. I’m betting it must feature on one of those “Worlds worst prisons’ programmes. Either that or Ross Kemp will have been there 😂 I had managed to book the Dome Car for the Panama Railroad and was glad that I had. It was very well air conditioned and, having read a review, I nabbed a seat in the lower bar area which was more comfortable and spacious than the raised section, yet still had a great view. It was an enjoyable experience travelling between Colon and (almost) Panama City, through the jungle and alongside Lake Gatun, although there was no sight whatsoever of any wildlife (monkeys, Toucans and crocodiles are all mentioned in the blurb). A little snack box and small cup of coffee were provided free of charge which, having had no breakfast, were much appreciated. There were brief glimpses of the actual canal sections, but not many. Aside from the end of the Gatun Locks (which we’d already seen) there was a brief glimpse of Pedro Miguel lock, but we couldn’t see Miraflores locks at all from the train. I asked the guide about that as we alighted the train and he said we’d see Miraflores locks shortly, but we didn’t. Rather than show us the Miraflores Locks, we were then deposited at an indoor market for 25 minutes which, for me, was an utter waste of time. This wasn’t listed on the excursion itinerary and is without doubt one of those places where the tour guides get a back hander for any purchases (we were issued with numbered stickers as we entered, which would have served no other purpose than that). To be fair, the Miraflores locks weren’t listed on the itinerary either, but in the time we were at the market (which was extremely close to the locks) we could have seen them instead. If I’ve travelled over 4,000 miles to see the Panama Canal I’d rather see as much of it as possible rather than wasting time shopping for tat, but maybe that’s just me. Things then improved as we were driven through the outskirts of Panama City and taken to a breakwater where we had great views across the water towards all the skyscrapers (all built since 2000 apparently) and towards the Bridge of the Americas, which is the Pacific end of the canal and the height of which is now the main limiting factor determining ship size for the new enlarged canal. We then had an hour or so drive back to Colon and the ship. In spite of the wasted time at the indoor market when we could have seen more of the canal, it was a very enjoyable trip. However, I would say to anyone visiting here in the future who, like me, primarily wants to see the canal, that a better excursion would probably have been the one that doesn’t do the railroad, but takes a tourist boat down through the Miraflores Locks. You would see far more of the canal and its workings than you do on the train. Returning to the ship my wife hadn’t had anything to eat all day so we went to Raffles for a drink and snack. I offered to take her ashore to the port shopping area but she wasn’t interested. We decided to go for a pre dinner drink in Carmens and chance the 7pm act - Duo Yalba (Multi-Instrumental Duo). Two older guys walked out, one with what looked like a big recorder and I thought ‘oh dear, this is going to be 45 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back’. Anyway, they were absolutely brilliant. They had a huge array of obscure instruments from around the world and played a load of tunes from places as diverse as Bolivia, Ireland and Venezuela - all at break neck speed with each of them switching between countless instruments within each track. They are going to be performing in the theatre next time and we shall be sure to go and see them again. Dinner was OK, nothing special, and as we’d enjoyed Duo Yalba so much we thought we’d quit whilst we were ahead and skip the 10pm theatre show, which was Harrison Treble (Piano Vocalist). Tomorrow is the Panama Canal partial transit which, as long as we use the original canal, will most likely be the highlight of the cruise for me.

Yep, getting through plenty of those as well John!

Our assistant waiter brings me a glass of hot water with lemon and a little pot of honey every night at the end of dinner. It’s not made a blind bit of difference (nor have all the other remedies I’ve tried - hanging up a wet towel at night, brandy etc) but I appreciate everyone’s thoughts!

@terrierjohn is completely correct. The TV’s in the accessible cabins are still way too small. They were ‘upgraded’ very slightly a year or two pre Covid, so are a tiny bit bigger than the ones we had before, but they are still not as big as the new wall mounted ones in the standard balcony cabins. Then you have the issue of picture and sound quality, both of which are absolutely dire. It’s so bad that most channels are unwatchable. We spend a lot of time in our cabin and I like having the news on, but it’s so bad (dreadful picture and sound quality plus terribly unstable reception) that I’ve pretty much given up. I'd be surprised if the non-accessible cabins don’t have similar issues (albeit with a bigger screen) but can’t comment as we don’t use them, but the ones that we have had on Aurora on all 8 cruises on her simply aren’t fit for purpose

That’s pretty much what we were told, although I was surprised to hear our waiter say that he was going ashore in Colon. He said that his brother had warned him to stay in a group of 4 or 5, but it didn’t sound as though they’d been given the same warnings as the passengers, so I urged him to be very careful. There is also the added problem that Colon is in a Yellow Fever hotspot. I’ve been vaccinated but my wife had an exemption which, of course, means that she has zero protection against it. I am doing an excursion but my wife is sensibly staying on the ship.

It’s been pronounced as it reads by the Captain and I think the port presenter confirmed that as well. It just feels uncomfortable for us to say it 😂 The Panama Canal was one of the major reasons for booking this cruise. A world cruise doesn’t appeal, so a partial transit is the best we can do. At least we can enjoy most of the transit from the balcony - one side going up and the other side coming back - without having to fight for space on the public decks. ! I’m doing the railway trip today and we have the partial transit tomorrow.

Day 39 - Saturday 10th February - At Sea We awoke to quite a bit of movement - the first really noticeable movement that we’ve had since entering the Caribbean. When I was on the tour in Cartagena yesterday, the guide had mentioned that the sea looked quite rough and that this was almost never the case there. We were up and about earlier than usual, so were able to have breakfast in the MDR and the movement was noticeable there as well, even though it’s down on deck 6 midships. Having picked up our Britain Yesterday papers (p.s. if the lady who named it this reads this blog, I hope you don’t mind me adopting it, as it is so true) we returned to the cabin prior to attending John Laverick’s second talk, this time on the Panama Canal Expansion. We have another new guest speaker who is giving the first of 6 talks on chocolate. 6 talks on chocolate? Come on. Now if each talk was an accompanied with free samples then maybe, but 6 x 45 min talks on the history of chocolate? Nah. The next port talk followed at 11.30, this time Belize which is unfortunately a tender port so my wife won’t be able to get off. We then had a rest for an hour prior to lunch. Often in reviews people mention receiving food that is not up to temperature. Luckily we hardly ever experience this, but I think I have spotted why this happens. Increasingly, waiters tend to bring out starters and mains at the same time. This means that whilst the main is on a warm plate and has a cover over it, it is essentially losing temperature whilst you eat your starter. My wife tends not to have a starter at lunch, but I fancied the Parma Ham and melon with Parmesan cheese. My wife was given her main at the same time as my starter. I’m not a slow eater, but by the time I’d eaten the starter, my main course (chicken Korma) which had been sitting at the waiter station, was tepid. Coupled with the fact the chicken was overcooked, I left most of it, which I never do. We had profiteroles for dessert and both agreed that the chocolate sauce was watery and tasteless. Whether it’s the MDRs, the buffet or even the speciality restaurants, we have always felt that desserts are, more often than not, P&Os weak point when it comes to food. During the afternoon we had a good read - my wife on the balcony and me in the cabin (it’s too hot for me outside) prior to attending the first performance of our new classical recital artists - Welsh baritone singer Jeremy Huw Williams & pianist Giordano Ferla. We both agreed that it wasn’t really our thing, but Giordano is a young and extremely handsome Italian, so I’m sure that once word gets out the performances will be full houses 😂. I’ve been pretty much avoiding alcohol since I’ve had my sore throat, but as that’s dragging on with no sign of easing, and I was feeling guilty that my wife is missing out as a result, we went to the Crows Nest for a pre dinner cocktail. I decided to have a salted caramel espresso Martini and, rather than numb my throat, it made it ten times worse! Ruddy agony in fact. Remembering what someone on here had said, I ordered a brandy and that took it back to just being uncomfortable! On a positive side, the Crows Nest was a decent temperature (having apparently had some air con diverted to it from elsewhere). Dinner was a Black Tie affair and, thankfully, was accompanied by a Celebration menu. As with lunch, the starter (Chinese New Year mixed platter) was better than the main (roast chicken) which wasn’t good. They just cannot make flavoursome gravy on this ship. What I would give for a jar of Bisto gravy! The seasonal greens were just green beans. If these are ‘seasonal’ can someone tell me when they are out of season, and I will ensure that our next P&O cruise is then 😂. The sesame seed tuiles were missing from my dessert and had been substituted with a wafer. We’ve never picked up on this issue of missing components to meals before but we’ve noticed it quite a few times this cruise. Could it be that they run out of things for second sitting? The theatre show at 10pm was Elias Hendricks, a singer. We went primarily because the theatre is one of the few areas of the ship that is nice and cool. Our cabin is struggling to reach a decent temperature yet again. The lift down to the theatre was absolutely stifling and everyone comments on how hot parts of the ship are. I’ve said it before, but Aurora is really showing her age now. I’d go so far as to say that if they cannot do a major overhaul of her air conditioning whilst in service, and sort out the issues that we’ve been blighted with for the past five and a half weeks, then serious questions should be asked about whether she should be taken out of service for a period to bring these issues up to standard. Back to the show, we left after 15 minutes. We wanted to see a singer perform, not attend a karaoke session, so when he kept encouraging people to sing along there was only so much out of key singing from those behind that we could suffer! Tomorrow is Colon in Panama. We weren’t due to dock until around 8am but we unfortunately have a poorly passenger and the captain has been advised to make haste to our next stop, so we will now arrive at 2am. Keeping everything crossed that they will be OK.

Sorry. Visited Curacao a few days ago on Aurora and forgot to report back. No form filling whatsoever. Just a normal port. Incidentally, Curacao has been one of our favourite ports so far. It’s a fabulous place and I’m sure that you will thoroughly enjoy your visit.

The Captain has just announced that due to a medical emergency we have picked up speed (currently 18.8 knots) and will now be docking in Colon at 2am, some six and a half hours early. I guess this is when the slack schedules and planned slow cruising speeds have a benefit. Hoping that our fellow passenger will be OK.

We’ve seen it advertised in at least 2 ports so far. It’s meant to be good for my wife’s condition, but that might have taken some explaining to the ships security team when we attempted to bring it on board 😂

The tour guide mentioned Colombia’s top 3 exports and failed to mention drugs, so I’m guessing he was only referring to the ‘official’ exports 😂

Todays MDR menus. Black Tie tonight and thankfully a Celebration menu.

I haven’t posted any copies of Horizon, but as I have mentioned throughout the blog we have had; Guest lecturers (at times two) and most subjects have been interesting. Port lectures. I thought these had been culled as we haven’t had them on any other P&O ships since Covid. Daytime Classical recitals (flautist, pianist and harpist so far - singer and pianist from today) As a result, we haven’t found sea days to be boring which, for us, is a big bonus.

As I have said quite a few times, we are both enjoying the cruise very much (apart from my persistent and irritating sore throat, now into it’s 12th day). I was clear from the outset that, as with all the other ‘live from’s’ I have done, I would cover all of our experiences - good, bad and indifferent. Hopefully I’m honouring that commitment. We have enjoyed most of the ports, the weather has been good since we entered the Caribbean, daytime schedules on sea days have been the best we’ve had in years and I have not missed cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, gardening etc or the worst of the British winter! We also mustn’t lose sight of the fact that we got this cruise for a bargain price and so, even with the things that haven’t been as good, it’s still been phenomenal value for money. Would we book a cruise of this length at the normal Select fare? No. Are we glad that we managed to get on this one for the price we paid? Absolutely.

That would make sense. It wasn’t a problem, if anything it’s all part of the adventure, but I do feel that telling us the actual reason why we were 3 hours late would have been common courtesy. Like many others, I find the lack of information from this Captain to be baffling. It’s as if the passengers are incidental to the whole experience and only need to be told the bare minimum.