Selbourne

Notwithstanding what Tring has said, personally I wouldn’t pay the large extra premium for a deluxe cabin on Aurora. I’d maybe pay £500 more for one if it was a longer cruise, but not the substantial extra cost that is often asked. If you Google ‘Aurora deck plan’ you’ll get the P&O deck plan and you will see that there are plenty of standard balcony cabins that are not above or below potential sources of noise. We have had quite a few noise issues on Aurora, but it’s always been from other cabins (above or to the side of us) as the sound insulation is poor. I don’t believe that the deluxe cabins are significantly bigger, but if you call P&O they can tell you the exact square footage of every cabin. If you look at where the accessible balcony cabins are on Aurora (A and C deck mid-forward) we have stayed in most of them and never noticed any more movement than elsewhere and, as I say, we’ve never had noise other than from other cabins.

I think you will like Aurora. You really feel that you are on a cruise ship (rather than a floating hotel), she handles rough seas well, the passenger demographic is older and more traditional cruisers (which we like), it’s a friendly ship and, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t have some of the dining issues that Freedom dining / app can have on some of the larger ships. As for speciality dining you just have 3 options. Beach House (very good - not as noisy or crowded as on the bigger ships), Sindhu (we don’t particularly like Sindhu on Aurora as it’s adjacent to the coffee shop, isn’t themed as well as on some ships, and doesn’t feel like an intimate / dedicated space - but at least it’s there) and Glass House (which is excellent as it’s in a low flow area and doesn’t suffer from the noise and hustle and bustle of those that are adjacent to atriums). Sindhu sometimes does Tiffin lunches, which are very good. As for your ports; Stavanger - 5 mins walk from the ship along an attractive harbour side and you are in the centre. The old town is in fact immediately adjacent to where the ship berths. Olden - As with all fjord ports, tiny but beautiful. No shuttle needed! Alesund - the berth is 5 min walk from centre. There’s an old half and a new half. Not much to see in the old half and it’s quite hilly, but the new half affords good views of it and IMHO is nicer. Oslo - already covered. No shuttles but a short walk from the Opera House berth and a 15 minute fiat walk from the further out berth. Tram to the sculpture park is convenient. Skagen - A shuttle is provided but not really necessary. It’s a 15 min walk through a boring dock area to a nice little town (the architecture reminds me a bit of a designer shopping village 😂 ) Gydinia - Can’t recall the berth or port as we got a transfer to Gdańsk, which was lovely. Copenhagen - in the past, we always berthed at Langeline cruise terminal on Aurora and Oriana, which is a nice 20 minute walk along the waterfront to the centre, but they now seem to use the main Oceankaj cruise terminal which is a 20 minute shuttle journey (we got a cab back). Hamburg - As you probably know, a 20 minute shuttle ride to the centre.

I’m afraid that I’ve not used a sheltered balcony on QM2 so can’t really answer, but I think I’ve seen a photo of those and I don’t believe that the Aurora ones are as enclosed. Here’s a photo showing most of the full width of one we had on Aurora, but keep in mind that accessible balconies (which this one is) are almost twice the width of standard balcony cabins. I would also echo the comment that sound insulation between cabins on Aurora is poor. Britannia is better in that regard, although we were still disturbed by two kids in the next cabin who stomped around continuously. As we know, you can get this issue on any ship if you have inconsiderate neighbours (as we seem to have on the majority of cruises 🙄😂)

Thats a good approach, but when we boarded Iona in August I just flashed the first boarding pass (showing Priority Boarding) in my acetate sleeve with my documents and they insisted that I showed them the second boarding pass as well. Perhaps I just look shifty? 😂

I would agree with @Angel57 comments. Pros and cons with both ships. Aurora scores for two reasons. Firstly the adult only aspects. Secondly, there are two berths used in Oslo. They are both walkable to the main sights, but the one by the Opera house is a lot closer. When we went to Oslo on Aurora (and Oriana) we berthed in the closer terminal. When we went there on Britannia last year we were berthed in the terminal that is further out (as often happens with the larger ships). Britannia on the other hand has more modern cabins (the ones on Aurora are quite dated now) and there is a far better choice of specialty restaurants (which may be important if it’s a wedding anniversary, as Britannia has an Epicurean restaurant). If you go for Aurora, be aware that the B deck balconies offer a slightly better outlook than those on A and C deck. As you can see on the photo posted earlier, the A and C deck balconies are cut out of the hull, so have metal wrap arounds that slightly restrict the aperture. B deck are like balcony cabins on other ships. The deluxe balcony cabins on Aurora seem to carry a hefty price premium for essentially just the addition of an uncomfortable sofa. Ironically we have always had a sofa in our standard balcony cabins on Aurora, but that might be because we have adapted cabins, which are considerably bigger than the non-adapted standard balcony cabins. If swimming is important to you, Aurora will probably be better, certainly better than Britannia in school holidays. Age profile wise the two ships are massively different. Average age profile on Aurora is usually around 75 whereas, depending on the time of year, Britannia can be considerably younger (circa 45). In all honesty, we like both ships. They are our two favourites in the P&O fleet and we have enjoyed multiple cruises on both, but they are both very different. Hope that helps rather than confuses 😂

I hope that you aren’t making that decision based upon the comments that several of us have made about groups, because they can easily be avoided. I’ve never been on a booze cruise but having heard about them I don’t believe that anything on P&O comes close. We did a 4 night Amsterdam cruise on Ventura and I can only recall one individual who was drunk to the point where he was causing a nuisance. In that instance the person in question was being offensive to a bar singer who was getting distressed by his comments and I asked the staff to call security. They came and removed him. That could happen on any cruise. On the occasions on Aurora where we were bothered by large groups, it was just that they were very loud and ruining the ambiance of a bar for others, rather than drunken behaviour. We moved bars as a result, but never felt threatened. Unfortunately thoughtless people can be found wherever you go, not just on cruise ships. We really enjoyed our 4 night Amsterdam cruise. I particularly enjoyed travelling through the sea lock on the way there and the departure from Amsterdam was really interesting. The cruise terminal is also a short level walk from the heart of the city (assuming that P&O are going there again - there was a period when they were berthing some distance short of Amsterdam and doing bus transfers to save port fees).

Food looks fab. If they are open at lunchtimes we might give them a go next week!

Thanks for letting me know. Hope that you are enjoying your cruise and leave her in good order for us to board on Saturday 😂 How are you finding the food in the main dining room? Have you tried any of the supplementary cost items?

Not entirely, but you are likely to find quite a few large groups travelling together and they can tend to get very noisy and spoil the ambiance for others in whichever bar they end up in.

Our cruise personalisers for both our Ventura cruise next week and our Aurora cruise in January have very much been suggesting that the new Starlink system is already live (or at least will be on our cruises). However, all mention of it has now disappeared. Does anyone know if the roll out has been delayed? I was under the impression that it was due to be live on all ships by the end of this year?

If you booked some time ago then P&O will simply cite fluid pricing. Some people cancel and re-book if the saving is greater than the lost deposit. I have managed to get £2,000 back in the last week for a cruise that dropped by that amount less than 24 hours after I booked, but the circumstances were a bit different to a normal price change. None the less, I am very grateful to P&O, as I had agreed to book at the price quoted the previous day and as it was a late saver it was non-refundable and non-amendable. They could probably have said “tough” but, to their credit, they didn’t.

I’ve just checked the Cruise Personaliser for our January cruise and it still says that the 15% introductory offer ends 31st October.

Interesting and makes sense, so I wonder why the occupants of that suite weren’t denied boarding? As I say, it wasn’t an accessible suite and it was a large scooter so was never going to fit inside the cabin, which I thought was the requirement. This was only 3 months ago. Have these checks only started since then?

Excuse my complete ignorance about What’sApp, but can you use that on the essentials package?

In fairness it was an aft suite and the corridor in that area was around double the normal corridor width, so it wasn’t in anybody’s way, but it was the fire risk that crossed my mind. I appreciate that the chances of it igniting are probably minuscule, but had it done so I dare say that it would have trapped occupants inside several cabins.

When we were on Britannia in July, there was a suite a few doors down that had a mobility scooter parked outside of it whenever the occupants were there (including all night). I was quite surprised about that as I thought P&O made it clear that you had to keep them within the cabin. It was a large scooter and it wasn’t an accessible suite, so wouldn’t have fitted inside. I didn’t say anything but the fire risk did cross my mind.

I can let you into a secret. I know how they do it. First they roast them as anyone else would but, prior to serving, they sit them in a pan of water for an hour. It gives them that unique texture 😂

Thanks. Someone else mentioned WhatsApp to me. I’ve heard of it but know absolutely nothing about it. I might need to get our kids to up-skill me 😂

That’s interesting. Maybe it was a flop and they’ve ditched it already? Shame as I quite fancied trying it. All courses sounded very nice. Out of interest, how did you find the food in the MDR (apologies if you’ve already addressed this elsewhere)?

Thanks. As I say, I’ve never used the ships WiFi before, but am contemplating it for our 65 nighter on Aurora as I’m anxious about the length of time we are away (if anything happens at home) and the number of sea days (which I find boring 😂). With the longer cruise discount, the 15% introductory offer and my 10% loyalty discount (assuming you get that) it works out at £6.89 a day for the essential plan which, if it works well, would seem reasonable. I would only use it for email (which would be the main means of communication with home), web browsing and Cruise Critic 😂. It would also save me having to devote time in each cruise terminal or port to find and use free WiFi. Assuming that the new Starlink system is now live on all P&O ships, I thought about trying it for 24 hours on Ventura next week when we are at sea (I won’t need it for the whole cruise as I get free calls, texts and data in all European ports of call) and if it works well buy the discounted package for our Aurora cruise before the introductory offer expires.

If a Cruise Critic member wishes to organise one then P&O are happy to publicise it in Horizon. It won’t be Officer hosted, but a place can be allocated. We attended one years ago on Oriana in an area of the Crows Nest. It was very enjoyable. On a subsequent cruise that we were on somebody organised another one, but decided to open it up to Facebook as well. IMHO that was a mistake as virtually everyone (except me 😂) is on Facebook, so when we went to Anderson’s on the morning that it was being held the venue was rammed. We just walked on past as it seemed pointless! There was a funny moment at the one we attended on Oriana. A chap (who didn’t know what Cruise Critic was) turned up thinking that we were professional cruise critics. He had a long list of complaints about his cruise that he felt that we should know about. It was quickly explained to him what Cruise Critic actually was, but he wasn’t deterred and continued to heatedly outline his grievances to us 😂

Thank you. It’s taken 103 posts, but finally someone has answered the question 😂 We are on Ventura for two weeks from Saturday. We have booked far less speciality restaurant visits than usual, as we found them to be patchy on Britannia, whereas the MDR was very good. I shall be sure to try all the extra cost speciality items at least once (purely for research purposes you understand) and shall report back on how I find them.

I’ve never paid for WiFi on cruises, but those who have tell me that it’s poor. Has anyone who has previously paid for the old system tried the new Starlink system yet and, if so, did you find it to be significantly better?

Yes, it’s in one of the ships main dining rooms. On some ships it’s a buffet. On others it’s a waiter served lunch. It’s for suite passengers and Caribbean and above loyalty tiers. They should tell those who qualify about it when you board, but they often don’t. There may be a card in your cabin which you come across having already had lunch! If you know that you qualify, ask which dining room it’s in when you board. The restaurant host will know that you are eligible.

Well I’m staggered. I appreciate that they have to follow the policies, but this is a classic case of left hand, right hand. Also, a distinct lack of common sense. In all honesty, had it been me I would have printed off a copy of the email or kept my phone with me, anticipating that this could happen, but of course hindsight is a wonderful thing. I hope that you managed to enjoy your cruise in spite of the challenging start?