Selbourne

Yes that’s fine

Todays lunch and dinner menus

Thanks. To be clear, the poor buffet lunch that I referred to was the priority boarders lunch (Caribbean and above loyalty plus Suite passengers) as we joined in Southampton. I fully expect the mid cruise loyalty lunch to be the usual good quality affair, but as the majority of passengers on this cruise seem to be high loyalty tier I also expect it to be split over multiple days!

Indeed, but our last two cruises have both been in the ‘greater extent’ category 😂 Whilst annoying, this one isn’t half as bad as the one we had on Ventura, which was deafening.

DAY 3 - Friday 5th March I had a better nights sleep than the night before. The sea was still rough, but I’m getting accustomed to the creaking noise, although it’s still damned annoying. I usually jump to the defence of the maintenance teams on P&O ships when people criticise maintenance issues, but they’ve let me down this time. I have reported the creaking 4 times now - twice to the steward, once to the deck manager and once at reception. As of yet, not a soul has been to look at it or, if they have and couldn’t fix it, nobody has told us. Very poor. We went to breakfast in the Medina Restaurant. I cant remember if I’ve mentioned this yet, but the lovely host, Rachael, recognised us from Ventura and even remembered our name without even looking us up. How on earth they can do that whilst dealing with thousands of different passengers every few weeks is completely beyond me. Anyway, Rachel knows that we like a table for two for breakfast, so we don’t even have to ask, and she usually gives us a four top for the two of us. Even though there was still a lot of movement, I didn’t feel sick (having taken a Stugeron) so I managed a bowl of Bircher Muesli, some diddy croissants, a smoothie and toast. Nothing cooked yet. The only minor gripe is the same as @mrsgoggins is experiencing on Ventura - they don’t top up the hot drinks enough. After breakfast we had a wander, read the Britain Today paper and caught up with emails before going to the Playhouse for the second of the talks about U-Boats. I managed to keep awake for 90% of it this time and personally felt that the presenters delivery was good. As we were close to the Glasshouse we paid our first visit and each had a glass of Peller Ice Cuvée (I had the white, my wife the rose’). We decided not to stay for lunch but went to the MDR. We don’t mind sharing at lunchtime so joined a table of 8 and, yet again, enjoyed some nice company. Food was OK, but nothing special. I know that this will sound terribly snobbish, but I’ll just say it as it is. We seem to have a nice class of cruisers on this ship 😂 Everyone that we have interacted with so far has been lovely. It’s far more like the P&O of yesteryear. There’s an awful lot of conversations about falling standards with P&O, but that’s been done to death on this forum and, as I have often said, most of the cutbacks haven’t really affected us that much and I guess can’t have affected those raising the issues too much or they wouldn’t have booked a 65 night cruise 😂 One couple had an even worse embarkation experience than we did, taking them 2 hours from arrival to boarding. It seems as though having so called ‘Priority Boarding’ was a distinct disadvantage on this cruise. I don’t know if this is true, but someone reckoned that 1,000 of us had priority boarding, hence the utter chaos (which, of course, P&O should have foreseen and forewarned Intercruise and CPS about). By contrast, our dinner companions arrived at 3.30pm and were on the ship within minutes. With hindsight, and especially as the priority boarders lunch was so poor, we would have been far better to have ignored priority boarding and arrived much later. Another interesting conversation over lunch was with a couple who had been on Saga. They had multiple problems which I won’t go into on here (but some involved disability issues being handled appallingly). The more I hear about Saga the more I am put off them. P&O is far from perfect, but at their current prices I don’t expect perfection. Paying Saga prices my expectations would be sky high. Interestingly, quite a few people have mentioned Ambassador Cruises favourably. As the rocking and rolling had calmed down a bit (now force 6), after a brief rest in the cabin I decided to do some laps of the promenade deck. I hoped to do 10 laps but chickened out at 7 as it was ruddy cold and still impossible to walk in a straight line 😂 This time I wasn’t on my own. There were probably 30 of us trying to get some exercise. I was shamed by a couple that I’d say were at least 10 years older than me that lapped me 😩 Returning to the cabin there was a lot of crashing, banging and drilling going on from the next door cabin, so the maintenance guys obviously do exist. I hoped that they might come into us when they finished but sadly no, we are still being ignored. Tonight was the first Black Tie night and the Celebration night. This was preceded by the welcome aboard drinks which was split into four different sessions - 5.15pm and 7.15pm in the Crows Nest and 5.30pm and 7.30pm in Carmens. We went to the 7.30pm one in Carmens. We were saying to each other that we have increasingly noticed that the officers don’t seem to like mingling with the passengers anymore and prefer to talk to each other, or just stand around looking like security, when a lovely lady from the HR department came up to chat to us. I asked how many of the 800 crew were on their first contract with P&O and was surprised to hear that it was 100. She said that they now recruit from far more countries than they used to. The Captain confirmed that there are 1,674 passengers on the cruise but didn’t give any more interesting stats that I can share (I’d like to know the average age of passengers - my guess is mid 70s, as is usual for Aurora). Dinner was very good. It was a different Marco Pierre White menu to the two that we usually have. We both had the fillet of beef with garlic prawns. Having learned on our other cruises that they tend to overcook steak, I asked for medium rare in the hope I’d get medium. The plan worked! The cheese plate was most definitely not as described. A very fancy sounding biscuit had been replaced by a Jacob’s Cracker, Digestive and Ritz biscuit. I pointed this out to our waiter who kindly appeared 5 minutes later with the advertised ones (which were very nice). We then had a rush to get to the theatre for the second (and final) performance of The Privateers. As with the first show, thoroughly enjoyable and a real step up from the usual P&O offerings. As we retired to the cabin there is still some noticeable movement (and creaking) but it's not as bad as the last 48 hours. Hopefully we will have our first calm day tomorrow, which is our last sea day before Madeira.

I’m delighted to report that the talks have now appeared on the TV, so I managed to catch up on the one that I’d slept through 😂 Day 3 report to follow…..

We booked four nights each in Sindhu and Beach House before we came, just to break up the cruise a bit and having heard that the MDR menus repeat every 3 weeks.

Dinner menus from last night and tonight, plus yesterdays MDR lunch menu

Brilliant 😂 That reminds me of the sketch on ‘Not the 9 o’clock News’ when the Swedish guy goes into a chemist and asks for some deodorant. The chemist asks “ball or aerosol?” to which the customer, in a thick accent, replies “Neither. It is to put under my armpits” 🤣

They described it as a wine tasting with nibbles, rather than a proper food and wine tasting. 5 different wines apparently. I’ve no idea what the cost is. They didn’t mention it and I didn’t think to ask!

I suspect that Avomine is available as it was on Ventura, but we still have Stugeron left and that’s the only medication that has a 100% success rate for me. Will try to get Cinarizina in Funchal if that’s the same.

Yes that does help. Thank you. I asked in a pharmacists in Portugal on our last cruise and they said that Stugeron is used for something else over there and in a much stronger dosage, but they didn’t show me that one. I’ll try to get some in Funchal as the novelty of these rough seas has already well and truly worn off and I don’t fancy another 8 days of it 🤢

🤣 Since we left Southampton I haven’t had a single alcoholic drink, as there’s been far too much swaying about just from Mother Nature, without any man made enhancements! It’s still rocking around a lot this morning. I’m beginning to wonder if they aren’t deploying the stabilisers in order to save fuel costs 🤢

DAY 2 - Thursday 4th March - Sea Day Our first stop is Madeira, and we seem to be having a repeat of the rough crossing that we endured all the way there (and back) on Ventura a couple of months ago. I’d had a poor nights sleep as a combined result of the movement and the creaking from the ceiling above the bed. When we unpacked we realised that we had only bought 30 Stugeron tablets (I was convinced we had more), so as my wife had felt poorly one day on Ventura and I’d been fine, I decided to ration them and let her take two the night before and I’d take my chances. Mistake. As soon as I got up and was trying to keep my balance showering and shaving I started feeling nauseous. My wife felt OK. By the time we were both ready for breakfast I was feeling that I was going to be ill, but it passed and we headed to the main dining room. All I could manage was one spoonful of Bircher muesli and one piece of toast! The odd thing is that the sea isn’t half as rough as our last crossing, but there’s a noticeable swell and that seems to be what’s affecting me. We didn’t do much during the morning other than read and do emails, but we found a spot in Charlie’s with a comfortable chair (for me - my wife has to stay in her wheelchair) that was reasonably low down and midships. I did a lap of the promenade deck before lunch and at one point was nearly blown off my feet 😂. We went back to the MDR and I managed a light lunch as I was feeling better. We shared with 3 other couples and all enjoyed a nice chat. One lady was (unintentionally) very amusing with her descriptions of experiences on other ships. Let’s just say that the descriptions wouldn’t have passed the political correctness squad. One other chap was struggling to eat his meal as a combination of shock and amusement 😂 During the afternoon we had a guest lecturer talking about U-Boats. I was looking forward to this but I was really cross with myself as the combination of just having had lunch, a dark and warm theatre and a lot of motion, I nodded through at least half of it. Our dinner companions felt that he didn’t have the best delivery, but I didn’t see enough to comment! Annoyingly I can find it on the TV (they often film the presentations and show them on TV, but I can’t seem to find a channel for that). Incidentally, the TV is even worse than I remember it. Apart from being tiny, the picture quality is dire and even the sound is fuzzy on some channels. It’s bordering on unwatchable. After the talk we went back to the cabin for another nap! The captain had said that the sea conditions would ease as the day went on but they didn’t. If anything, they got worse. Spray was hitting our balcony door and we are up high on deck 11 😱 At 5pm I attended a classical recital (flute and piano) with Kelly and Brown in The Playhouse. I’m so glad that they have retained these and they’ve not succumbed to the cutbacks, as it does add a bit of class to the usual daytime fodder 😂 Sadly, only around 20 other passengers joined me! Afterwards I swung by the Glasshouse to check if they have any events on and they have a wine tasting session one sea day, so I booked us on to that. I asked about the Captains Table events (not the buffet dinner on the new ships, but an officer hosted private dining even for around 15-20 guests) that we used to enjoy on Aurora. Apparently they are ‘considering’ reintroducing them and it may be during this cruise. We shall see. The head wine waiter (who I recall from previous Aurora cruises) has noted our interest. Dinner at 8pm was just the four of us again on our table of 8. I have found out why the dinner sittings are 6pm and 8pm. First sitting was over subscribed so they brought the times forward so that second sitting wasn’t as late for those who were unsuccessful. Although we wanted second sitting, in all honesty this earlier time is fine, especially as the shows are now 8pm and 10pm (more chance of staying awake)! The show was ventriloquist Gareth Oliver, who seems to be on every single cruise we have been on. As with all the other cruises, it didn’t appeal so we went to bed to be rocked to sleep as it’s still damned rough!

Yes I have done that. Still need to log back in due to inactivity, but at least you don’t have to enter all the details again - just reactivate guest WiFi then several clicks in different screens to get back on. Bit of a faff compared to being at home, but all do-able!

Brilliant review @mrsgoggins Keep them coming. Yes it’s a bit rough isn’t it and despite assurances from our Captain (on Aurora a couple of hours ahead of you) it’s not getting any better. I felt a bit ill this morning (first time in years) and am willing it to ease. Hopefully, having seen the original UB40 band ‘live’ back in the 80s, the tribute band come onto Aurora at some stage. We currently have the Privateers who are the best group we’ve had on a P&O ship for years.

Yes I am but just the basic one. Haven’t used it for much yet other than this blog but seems fine. Logging on all the time due to it dropping due to inactivity is a bit of a faff, but once on it’s pretty good.

Anyway, on to more cheerful things. Here are some shots of the fireworks from our balcony. Really enjoyed them.

We used CPS on Iona in August John when there were 5750 passengers and they were brilliant. It was so quick from arrival to check in I felt giddy! Just 1650 on here yet the experiences were chalk and cheese. The difference was that they had enough staff to cope with Iona.

Used them loads of times and they are usually brilliant. Yesterday was a one off but they simply did not have enough staff booking in cars and the traffic Marshalls (who, to be fair, may not be CPS staff) were not dealing with cars in order of arrival. That was infuriating if, like us, you were trapped in a holding pen for ages watching much later arrivals go straight through.

Interesting. Our steward didn’t seem keen on storing the cases elsewhere but the Deck Manager offered and has asked the steward to remove them.

Yes Mayflower. Usually brilliant and the only time that we’ve had a delay remotely approaching that length before was when the air bridge broke. CPS were excellent on our 3 previous cruises last year - lightening quick. The only time we’ve ever been in a holding queue before was when Britannia was new, but at least we were called forward in strict arrival order then. Fascinating that you had exactly the same experience as us and yes it’s infuriating watching car after car arrive and them being sent directly to the check-in lanes when you are trapped in a holding pen. Like you, I deduced that they didn’t want to block the road.

I wonder if that’s the standard bed heights and the accessible ones are a bit lower? Deck manager has just been. They can’t raise the bed. My wife’s going to try to get used to it as she agrees with some that two mattresses may present another issue if the bed becomes too soft. She managed to get out of the bed this morning on about the 5th attempt. She needs to be comfortable with doing it on her own before I do my first morning excursion, but that’s a way off.

It surprised us too, as I had read that Aurora had the nice waiter served lunch. I suspect that your assessment is correct.

When we eventually got inside, we were directed to the assistance area so bypassed a long queue. I couldn’t see beyond the queue to tell if anyone was seated, but my sense was no. It did seem packed though.