Goosebear Mum

Aurora had no issues in the Caribbean a few years ago at Christmas, but this was a longer holiday, round trip from Southampton. Nor has she on the colder ‘more cultural’ Scandinavian city Christmas cruises we’ve been on. Sadly, the larger ships, at cheaper prices, attract the party boozers, and I will be staying away from these. We’ve been looking at alternatives now to P&O, due to their new marketing attracting the booze drunk party brigade. We have one more cruise booked with P&O on Aurora, in May, and depending on how it goes, it may be our last.

edit… My answer is for P&O as that is where this thread originated. Other cruise lines may differ …… We were at Steinwerder on a Christmas markets cruise, just before covid, but I can’t see it will have changed much. Transfers were frequent and no queuing once the initial rush had left the ship. For the initial ‘rush’ they were filling coaches and leaving immediately. I hope someone who has been this year can reply, as hopefully coaches are still frequent, with post covid reduced staffing… Yes, ‘Select fare’ gives you free shuttles throughout the day (they scan your cruise card) Once we got into Hamburg (sorry, forgotten exactly where they dropped us, but somewhere near the ‘Rathaus - Town Hall’) it was a stroll to Wunderland, I think 10 or so minutes. You may be slower with your children, and their speed/willingness to walk My tip is to always take the shuttle into town, so you know where to pick it up! We once did not, and walked (into Copenhagen) as it was a lovely sunny December day… we then spent ages finding the actual pick-up point and coach back!!! I now use a mapping app on my phone, and put a POI on the place the shuttle drops us off. We loved it at MW, it was an amazing place. We started at the top of the building at worked downwards. It really is remarkable. They are enormous displays, with lighting on a rotation of day/night. Also one enormous winter (Alpine if I remember correctly) scene over multiple ‘floors’.

I was going to ask if Amazon had those, or equivalent, in America. Then thought, of course they will! I use those a lot when going on holiday. But I would be cautious if you won’t be in LA for long, in case Amazon cannot deliver to the locker. In the UK the lockers can be notoriously full and the delivery can be 1-2 days late. May not be such an issue in America.

Agree, I saw read their blog, and was surprised, as I couldn’t see them listed on banned items for luggage forward, or flights. I would question LF, if that had been me 😞 I rely on my magnets when I go on a cruise! If you can reorder, to be safe, I would!

Thanks for your (and everyone’s) blogs. I loved Friday’s, and the Viking Daily suggested ’seaworthy’ books, I have found most of them (free) on Project Gutenberg, which is brilliant. Downloaded to my kindle. Thanks. I love following the WC along with everyone. One day (when I can finally retire) I will pay the kindness of everyone back 🙂 I hope Wintergarden gradually calms down, and you can get a seat. As you say, the ‘novelty of afternoon tea’ may wear as the unlimited food creeps onto stomachs! p.s., yes different colour highlighters are essential cruise items! I now take highlighter pencils ✏️ (rather than pens) with me. Enjoy Cozumel 🙂

Oh my , disappointing, esp as Orion had already done the same route in the ‘other direction’, so I wonder when the snails arrived, if it passed a previous inspection? Adelaide and area are lovely too.

Thanks for running this thread. Enjoy your holiday, and thanks for including us virtually 🙂

I am sorry to read this MegaBear; flights were out of P&O hands, but life on board does seem to be changing for the worse too 😞 We have one more P&O cruise booked (Aurora) but are already looking at alternatives. I hope your cruise improves considerably. Thanks for posting updates xx.

South Georgia is the best for wildlife. I went in 2008 on an icebreaker, and if I’m lucky enough to be able to go back to Antarctica again, South Georgia would be on my ‘must list’. It really does have the wow moments. Many Antarctic cruises do the Falklands, but few do SG, so I can understand passenger ‘disappointment’. I’d not have got off, but would have accepted the ‘compensation’.

Agree, having been down in that area many years ago, and on zodiacs; to me it sounded like something hitting the bottom of the zodiac hard, it could also explain the ‘buckling’ which was described, that everyone was sent ‘upwards’ and the fact the zodiac remained watertight. A predator chasing the penguins could hit a boat hard, if it came up underneath.

Thanks for all the posts. I really appreciated them all. Safe travels home.

Me too, Aurora is our favourite ship 🙂 We’ve already started investigating alternative cruise lines for when P&O (finally) get rid of her and go over only to the big ships 😞

Interesting, as everything online points at Aurora’s dry dock being earlier this year. E.g. her dry dock was in June 22 https://www.cruiseandferry.net/articles/harland-wolff-to-drydock-for-po-cruises-and-cunard-1 and her refit was earlier in March 22

I wonder what will happen re: our Aurora R307 in May? For Aurora, there are a lot of empty cabins, which is highly unusual. I think the lack of Russia/St P on the agenda has put off a lot of the foreign bookings

Hi. There is a very active friendly roll call for this world cruise (308 pages long so far!) and a small one for the first leg https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2887245-viking-neptune-12222022-01082023-panama-canal-coastal-holiday-fort-lauderdale-to-los-angeles/?do=getNewComment I think many on the first leg join in with the full roll call info. I believe there are only two ‘legs’ of the WC - The FL to LA and then LA to London

I think they’ve given themselves that as their username, then for some reason used that for the thread name too. Maybe by accident?

Flights from Ushuaia are not ‘normal’ schedule. Even in 2008 when I went to Antarctica I realised this was an ‘expedition’ not a package holiday for the masses. They are small planes and flight times change frequently.

Only had a day there as a stop over, but the cemetery where Eva Peron is buried is fascinating, well it was to us as Brits, where we have no cemeteries like it. It’s amazing, a mini city of the most impressive tombs. We walked around BA and I loved it.

It’s so sad to read this post. We’re not on our first Viking cruise yet, but hoped after many years of P&O, when we move to Viking, we’d see the end of hogs 🐖 reserving sun beds, etc. The sun bed is not for your sole use, it’s to share. If you’re not on it, it should be available for anyone.

Not on Viking (yet!) but did a TA in Dec/Jan and the weather for us from cold Winter UK was warm enough to be outside on sun beds from the Azores to the Caribbean, both directions. The closer we got to the Caribbean the higher in the 20s (centigrade) it got, to the point of being very hot (for us) for a couple of days either side of the Caribbean. The weather can be anything; we had calm and a storm and everything in between! We’d happily do one again when work holidays or retirement allows… As you’re from FL you may find it quite chilly from Barcelona to about 1-2 days beyond the Azores (depending on your route) Pack sun weather and jumpers. Pack cold weather in case it’s cold in the Med/Barcelona.

Thanks, great to read a review with a uk person perspective. (Wardrobe space on Viking does look small compared to P&O Aurora, etc!) We’ve always been with P&O, and have one booked for May… but with all the cost cutting, selling of small ships, etc, I’ve subsequently been reading multiple Viking reviews / forums over the last 6+ months, I think we may be transferring our loyalty… P&O have the ‘cruise with no flight’ factor, but not that much else now. Viking ships look amazing on videos, photos, etc.