sidekick180

We are going on 21st of June to Spain and Guernsey. We are also booked on her in December this year, so will be able to see both sides of the refurbishment. We have been on Britannia, which we loved, but are really looking forward to a smaller ship.

If we do go ahead and book the cruise on Aurora that we are thinking of, You will be getting on as we are getting off. Our possible cruise is to France, Spain and Guernsey from 14th to 21st June. Hope you really enjoy both your cruises.

We are on Aurora in June, 49 and 53, seems a lot of people around our age are booking her, despite the cynics telling us nobody under 80 will be onboard. It is not a SAGA holiday and plenty of people who still have life in them are excited that she is becoming adults only. We are not anti kids, but just looking forward to not have to pretend we are happy sharing a lift with a screamer pressing every button!!!

Thanks for your reply. We would also prefer not to feel as though we are happy to be surrounded by screaming or unruly kids, but more so, the kids whose parents don't seem to give a damn.

If you don't mind me asking, which cruise in June are you booked on?

There is already a current thread (titled Aurora) that will answer your questions about the ship. If you read my post on that thread I have listed the positive and negative points which, in summary, lead us to feel that Aurora is our favourite P&O ship (and we have been on all of them).

 

As for age, you will have no issues. Britboys sums it up perfectly. My wife and I are in between the ages of you and your girlfriend and find that the passenger profile suits us. It’s fair to say that the majority of fellow cruisers will be retired but, at the risk of sounding terribly snobbish (and I do say this with a tiny bit of tongue in cheek) you do get a ‘better class of cruiser’ on her than on the larger ships! We always share a table at dinner (Freedom Dining) and have met some incredibly interesting and very entertaining fellow guests as a result. During the course of a cruise on her we feel that we have made a lot of friends. There will be plenty of other cruisers in their forties.

 

On the other thread a comment is made that the entertainment on Aurora is geared to the over 50’s. I would say that the entertainment on all P&O ships is geared to the over 70’s - it’s not a P&O strength in my view - but Aurora has a lovely ‘Playhouse’ which is a cinema that doubles up as an intimate venue for music recitals etc again befitting the passenger profile.

 

The conversion to Adult only is another positive as far as we are concerned. We have nothing against children, but have a problem with poor parents. When our children were young, if one cried or started to create a lot of noise, we would take them out of a restaurant until they calmed down so as not to spoil the experience for other diners. We also never allowed our children to get out of their chair and wander around the table getting in the way of waiters and disturbing neighbouring diners. Sadly, this is not always the case these days and it’s a distraction that we will not miss. Also, some parents allow small children to run around the dance floor in the show lounge in front of live performers, which is very distracting for the audience and incredibly discourteous to the performers. Again, we will not miss that.

 

So, in summary, I would give Aurora a try. I don’t think that you will be disappointed.

Hi,

Thanks for your helpful reply. I don't think I have seen the thread titled Aurora, so I will try to find it and have a good read.

I totally agree about the children. I have two children and two stepchildren myself and I would never allow them to behave the way some children do.

When we were on Ventura in May and on the rare occasion that i was able to use the pool, there were 3 quite obese kids around the gae of 10, jumping in and out of the pool, throwing balls from one end to the other (one of those hit me on the head. then later on they were all sat in one of the spa pools drinking mocktails in glasses and eating pringles. I was quite disgusted but more so because when they eventually got out of the pool and left, I then realised that their parents were not even anywhere to be seen. I think they must have gone back to their cabin on their own.

I really don't mind kids at all, in fact I'm a karate instructor and during the course of a week I teach about 50 kids. To be honest, I think all children should be put into a martial arts class. Perhaps then, they would learn some discipline.

Anyway, enough about kids, I will go and do some more research and see if I can talk my other half into letting us book on Aurora for June next year. Thanks again for your input.

I'm booked on 2 cruises on her. As we love Oriana, I am sure we will like her too.

Thanks for your reply. We have only been on one cruise so far and that was on Ventura this May, so we have not tried any of the other P&O ships. Which cruises are you booked for on Aurora, if you don't mind me asking?

I was thinking of booking a cruise on Azura for next year but since I posted my last thread, I am now looking at Aurora for June 2019.

I have just researched this ship and found out that it will be in for a refurb in April 2019 and will then become and adult only ship. Not sure if this will be a good move for us to cruise in June or not. We don't have any kids joining us so that wont matter but I also don't want to be on a ship where nearly all the other passengers are much older than me. No disrespect to the elderly but obviously it would be nice to have a few others on board of similar age or younger than myself and girlfriend. She is in her late forties and I am late fifties.

Hope that if we do book on her, we will still have a great time regardless of the demographics.

I have cruised a fair bit over the years and I hate to say it but the Azura was the one ship that made me really sea sick :-( The Aurora is really nice. Since you have done the Ventura perhaps worth trying something different? Also I made the decision a few years back that sea day equal sea sick tablet and never looked back. All you need is one in the morning and they last all day. Enjoy your cruise wherever you end up going.

Thank you for your reply.

You are the second person that has replied to my post saying that the Aurora is better than Azura or Ventura. Guess i will need to start looking at cruises Aurora is doing next year. I didn't suffer with sea sickness on our cruise but I think my girlfriend would have if she hadn't taken a tablet each day. not sure which tablet she took but a lot of people are suggesting Stugeron. I haven't heard of that one before now but will see if we can get some if I eventually manage to talk the other half onto going on another cruise. Thanks

Hi. We have sailed on Azura and her sister ship Ventura many times. We always book a cabin on P deck midship and have never had a problem. On saying that I do take stugeron just in case!

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, we also went for a midships cabin on our last cruise but it didn't seem to make a lot of difference and the motion was still pretty bad. Neither of us actually suffered with sea sickness, although my girlfriend was taking a tablet each day after the first day. it was just the constant motion and creaking of our cabin that made us feel uncomfortable. I assume that when you went on Ventura and Azura, you didn't feel a lot of motion?

We have experienced a severe storm when on Azura and I have to say it was the only time in 15 Cruises that we have ever felt quite scared. It was overnight and the ship would go up, hold for a second, then come down with loud creaking and grinding noises that made you wonder how it was staying in one piece! We were in bed but were really being thrown around. Apparently, many passengers had unilaterally decided to assemble in their muster stations. Frankly, with the sea as it was, I would have rather gone down with the ship than enter the water in a tender!

 

The next morning a number of passengers disembarked and asked to be flown home! We knew it was a one off and the rest of the cruise was like a mill pond. Bizarrely, this all happened in the Med!

 

Ships like Azura and Ventura are more susceptible to movement than the older ships, which are more liner like. The very high sides act like a sail and the wind makes a massive difference. We swear by Stugeron tablets which, having discovered them thanks to this forum, means that we have never suffered any sea sickness since.

 

 

We don’t particularly like Azura and Ventura, but if you have been on Ventura and liked her you will like Azura. Azura was always our least favourite ship until we went on Arcadia recently! Aurora is our favourite (and copes with poor weather much better than the bigger ships) but our favourite big ship is Britannia.

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. I definitely wont let my girlfriend read your reply to my post as I think it will scare her off completely, especially when you said you were being thrown around in your bed, but thank you for your input. After what you said about the ships high sides, it does make quite a bit of sense and I will have a look at the Aurora to see what cruises she will be doing around the same time. I assume that Aurora is smaller than Ventura and Azura? I will have a look at the stats.

To be honest, I think we were under the misconception that it would be better to go on a bigger ship as it would be more stable. Obviously this is not always the case. Why did you say that your least favourite ship is now Arcadia. Did you have a bad experience on that one? I had better start doing some more research and try to find a different cruise, maybe on Aurora. thanks

Azura is a lovely ship and virtually identical to Ventura. I have a soft spot for as she was the first ship I went on.

As for your concerns about the movement, I went on Ventura in June and I can honestly say I felt no movement at all so I think the technical issues you mentioned must have been the reason for your problems.

Where is the ship going in May ? On my Ventura Cruise we went through the bay of Biscay which has a bad reputation but as I said very calm in early June. ( I have had a rough crossing in June before)

 

 

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Hi Sue,

Thank you very much for your reply. If we do go on Azura in May, we will be travelling to France, Spain and Guernsey so we will be going across the Bay of Biscay. We already knew before we went this year that BoB can be notorious for choppy seas etc. but unfortunately all the movement we felt was pretty much most days. Don't quote me on this but I think out of the 7 nights we were on the ship, the pools were only open 3 days. The rest of the time they were covered because the water was sloshing about so much. I did notice from reading lots of reviews and looking at videos and pictures of Azura, she is almost identical to Ventura. I am just hoping that the stability will be a bit better. Neither of us actually suffered with sea sickness, although my girlfriend did end up taking a tablet each day after the first day. It was just the constant movement of the ship and the creaking of our cabin at night that made us feel uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong, it didn't ruin the holiday because there was so much of it that we enjoyed, it was just one of those niggles that we would have preferred not to be happening.

I am looking at the possibility of booking a cruise on Azura for 4th May 2019 and I would like to ask what you seasoned cruisers think of this ship.

We went on Ventura this year (4th May 2018). It was our very first cruise and I have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed pretty much all of it. The only couple of negatives were the fact that there were some technical issues as soon as we set sail and this meant that we had to miss out on one port. The other negative was the amount of days that all the pools were closed due to the amount of rolling and pitching of the ship. As this was our first cruise we didn't know whether this was normal or not, but since getting home, we found out from people that had cruised a lot, that the amount of movement was quite severe considering the seas were so calm. I filmed the sea showing how calm it was and then the swimming pools, which were sloshing about from one end to the other, splashing water up quite high at the end of each pool. A few people asked me if they had wave machines in the pools. Everyone of the seasoned cruisers I spoke to, said that unless there were heavy seas, none of them had ever seen the pools closed during the day.

My other half suffered quite badly from the motion of the ship and initially it put her off ever cruising again. I am now trying to convince her that the next cruise might not be so bad. Obviously if we hit bad weather, we would expect a lot of movement but at least it wouldn't be every day.

I know that Azura is a similar size to Ventura and nobody can say that we wouldn't feel that much motion again but I am hoping that the technical issues on Ventura might have been the cause of the heavy motion.

I am hoping to find someone on here that has cruised on both these ships, to perhaps let me know how they have got on and whether the Azura is a nice ship to cruise on.

As I said at the beginning of this post, We really did enjoy most of our trip on Ventura. The entertainment, brilliant, the service, superb and the food excellent. Not sure if we were spoiled on that cruise b ut I would like to think that the Azura would be at least on par with Ventura. What do you think cruisers?

Thank you for your input in advance!

We had a cruise on Ventura 4th to 11th May, which was at the time of the problems with the Engine (we were told). We had to miss out on docking at Oporto and this was a real shame. We also felt that there was a lot of movement on the ship. Lots of rolling and pitching, but more rolling. From what we have been told, it was an unusual amount of movement considering the sea was so calm. The pools were closed many times due to the movement. We can only assume that the excess movement may have been caused by the 'Technical fault'. Being our first ever cruise we didn't have anything to compare it to but it has put my other half off and she says that she doesn't want to cruise again. I'm hoping to change her mind. On the plus side, the entertainment was superb. the headliners always put on a fantastic show. The two visiting comedians were brilliant as were the Aretha Franklin and Freddie Mercury tribute acts. There was also a resident band from jamaica and another band with a solo singer. Could not fault the entertainment, the service or the food. Loved all of it, just not the movement and missing a port.

I am considering booking a 7 night cruise in May or June 2019 and wondered if anyone could give me a rough idea of the age ranges on both ships. I know that Arcadia is an adult only ship but I believe the Aurora will also be an adult only ship after May 2019.

I am 58 and my girlfriend will be 47. We mix well with older people but also younger ones. Just don't reallly want to be totally swamped by too many of the older generation. Nothing against the elderly, it's purely that my girlfriend would feel more comfortable if there was a good mix af age groups, especially a few of her own age. I'm also a very young and active 58 year old so I do enjoy a bit of a boogie with a younger crowd.

I am considering booking a cruise for myself and my girlfriend in May 2019 on Royal Carribean, Independence of the seas. I was hoping that people on here could give me some advice on what to expect on this ship. We had our very first cruise on P&O Ventura 4th to 11th May 2018 and although we could not fault the entertainment, the service or the food, we did find the trip very wobbly, even though the seas were really calm. Apparently the ship had a technical fault, which possibly could have had something to do with the amount of rolling and pitching. It was definitely the cause for a change of itinerary and us missing one of the port of calls (Oporto).

I am hoping that there wont be quite so much movement on our next cruise but obviously rough seas would change that.

Any information on the Independence of the seas would be much appreciated. I.e. what is the ship like, what's the food, service and entertainment like etc.etc.

I have read through lots of reviews and there are quite a few poor reviews but also lots of positive ones. Very difficult to actually get a proper feel for what this ship is actually like. The cruise I am considering is a 7 night cruise and will be going from Southampton to Hamburg, Oslo and Bruges, then back to Southampton.

I am considering booking a cruise for myself and my girlfriend in May 2019 on Royal Carribean, Independence of the seas. I was hoping that people on here could give me some advice on what to expect on this ship. We had our very first cruise on P&O Ventura 4th to 11th May 2018 and although we could not fault the entertainment, the service or the food, we did find the trip very wobbly, even though the seas were really calm. Apparently the ship had a technical fault, which possibly could have had something to do with the amount of rolling and pitching. It was definitely the cause for a change of itinerary and us missing one of the port of calls (Oporto).

I am hoping that there wont be quite so much movement on our next cruise but obviously rough seas would change that.

Any information on the Independence of the seas would be much appreciated. I.e. what is the ship like, what's the food, service and entertainment like etc.etc.

I have read through lots of reviews and there are quite a few poor reviews but also lots of positive ones. Very difficult to actually get a proper feel for what this ship is actually like. The cruise I am considering is a 7 night cruise and will be going from Southampton to Hamburg, Oslo and Bruges, then back to Southampton.

Yes, there's been quite a lot of discussion about your particular cruise on social media; I read that the technical fault caused discomfort and about the missing port.

Ventura is a Grand Class ship, which is used by Princess for many ships; they all seem to be very stable in average seas. V had her dry dock in December, and returned to do two Transatlantic cruises soon after, with no reports of trouble, so it does seem that the reported fault was the cause of your discomfort.

We've sailed on that very ship for many days, including across the Atlantic without any problems.

 

Have a look on the P&O UK page on this site, as you may find others commenting about your particular cruise; as I say, we were all hearing about it from passengers on social media.

EDIT: I've just looked on P&O UK on Cruise Critic, and there's 2 posts about this cruise, and the next cruise, when Ventura didn't leave Southampton until late evening. They are presently on page 2 of that site.

Hi Jo,

Thank you for your input. Yes I did see the review posts on this site and feel reallly sorry for the ladt that decided to fly back home from the first port they visited. I don't think our cruise was anywhere near that bad. Certainly not bad enough for us to consider flying home cutting the cruise short.

I would be very interested to see what people have been saying on the social media sites. Which sites did you see those comments on and how can I get on them to see what people have been saying. Just really curious to see other peoples feedback from our cruise and the one after. thanks

You can get unlucky on any cruise with technical faults/crazy weather or a mix of both.

 

However, the newer larger ships will handle any bad waves the best. Since you are from the UK and have sailed out of Southampton may I suggest a Independence of the seas Med cruise?

 

This will allow you to be on a huge, generally stable ship (that has was more to it than P&O) an the Med is less open ocean so will generally have better weather/waves.

 

Any area near open ocean (like your cruise) has a higher risk of being rocky...areas than are surrounded by land are a better bet (Med or Baltic). There is a never a guarantee but thats the nature of cruising.

 

There will be cruisers here (like myself) who have been on many ships in different areas and not had any seasickness. Give it another go!

Thank you Velvet for all your advice and input. Based on everything I have been reading lately and the advice of people like yourself, I think it is definitely worth considering a Med cruise on a bigger ship. As I mentioned once before, I would have no hesitation going on another cruise. I just need to try and convince my girlfriend to give it another go. I keep showing her all the posts on here and she seems to be coming round to the idea of maybe trying again somewhere else on another ship.

As Jo's post, the basic ship design of Ventura is the same as Azura and a number of Princess ships, and other than steering / propulsion not a lot different to a great many cruise ships. She's certainly no less stable than most.

 

And although BoB has a reputation it's calm more often than rough.

 

The number of times that particular cruise and the subsequent one, and "mechanical issues", have been discussed rather suggests a particular problem with the ship, hopefully short-term before it's fixed.

 

So don't let that unfortunate experience put you off.

Yes, the Caribbean is almost always calm in the winter, which is out of hurricane season & when P&O operate there. Just once in a dozen Caribbean cruises have we experienced any movement at all and that was on a Thomson ship - some folk struggled with it, tho it was only a slight swell.

Main thing about the Caribbean is that each island is worth a day but few are worth longer, which makes it ideal for cruising. Both P&O and Thomson (now called Marella) offer fly-cruises direct from regional U.K. Airports with seamless transfers.

Give that some consideration - I think Ventura's problem was a one-off

 

JB :)

Hi John,

Thank you for your input. It does sound as though the Ventura is going through a few problems at the moment. Just a shame that they don't seem to be able to find enough time to fix the problems but I guess that as it never seems to be in port for longer than a day, it doesn't give them a great deal of time to get it sorted out.

We definitely would not go on Ventura again, partly because of the experience we recently had but also because we have now cruised on that one.

I am seriously considering the possibility of a med cruise next based on what most people have been saying. Just need to try and convince the girlfriend to give it another go.

Hi again Sidekick......I feel so bad for your girlfriend, there is no more miserable feeling in the world than constant motion sickness. I was scared to take my 1st cruise because of it. I just got off my 19th so have learned a few things. I second the opinion of Allure of the Seas...my favorite cruise to date. Any RC Oasis class would be good. Time of year is very important too, as is the area cruising. For the Caribbean I like the southern route best. We just got off the Norwegian Epic from Barcelona for our 1st Med. cruise and felt no motion at all. Hope you give it another try. If you are from Europe, the Epic or RC Symphony would be great choices. Good luck..Patti

Hi, thnak you again for your input and nice to connect with people who offer positive hints and tips. From all the reponses I have had, it's now making me think seriously about going for a Med cruise next on one of the bigger ships. Might get lost on the ship for a few days but hey ho, that could be exciting in itself.

I don't think it has been discussed yet. For those quite sensitive to motion cabin location can make a difference. Ship movement is more noticeable as one nears the bow and stern. Picking a cabin nearer the middle reduces this feeling. Similarly, cabins on upper decks tend to have more noticeable side to side movement. Although given the physics, the differences are quite small.

Hi broberts,

Thanks for that. when I did my research initially I did find out that the best cabins were midships and that is exactly what we went for. I booked an inside cabin almost dead centre of the ship from front to back and top to bottom. Forgive my ignorance of the correct terminology but I'm sure you know what I mean.

This reminds me of my first time on Royal's Allure of the Seas, the Oasis class (big) We stayed on the ship in Nassau, and were by the pool relaxing, I thought to myself, shouldn't we have left by now? I got up and saw we were already about 5 miles out of port. I never felt motion on that ship. 2 years later same ship, they talked about 15ft waves, we barely felt it in our deck 12 aft cabin.

Hi BillOh,

Maybe I should have got in touch with you before we booked our first cruise. You have obviously got a vast amount of cruising experience and perhaps you could have pointed us in the right direction of which cruise ship to book and where to go.

maybe if we decide to go on another cruise I will pick your brains. Good luck on your next cruise and I hope you have a fantastic time, which I am sure you will.

Thank you everyone for your very informative replies. Obviously many of you are seasoned cruisers with lots of experience and as this was our very first cruise, we know nothing.

Having said that, some replies came across as very defensive. Almost as though I was trying to say that cruising was horrible and the ship was rubbish. This could not be further from the truth, I was simply asking for people with lots of cruise experience to give us some advice and helpful tips, which many of you kindly did and thank you for that.

I do not want to get into any arguments with anyone about cruising, I just wanted to have some discussions about it so I can try to convince my girlfriend to give it another go at some stage.

So going back to my point about the movement we experienced. We both fully understand that the sea can be deceiving and looking down from above is not the best way to judge how big the waves are. The main word there is 'WAVES'. There were no waves most of the time only the swell from the ship (I think it's called swell but I'm sure someone will correct me).

I was also aware from research I did prior to our cruise, that the Bay of Biscay can be rough and we could experience some heavy movement. The problem was, we didn't notice any difference going through the bay compared to the rest of the journey. The movement was pretty much the same, every day and every night. I also need to point out that we did speak to quite a few people on board that had done a number of cruises before and each one said that they thought it was an unusual amount of movement.

I noticed that another person has posted a review today, stating that she set sail on the Ventura the day after we left and before they set sail, an announcement was made that the ship had a technical fault (still) and she again mentioned that the movement was really bad and lots of people on the cruise were suffering from sea sickness. so maybe the 'Technical fault' that they still hadn't fixed really had a lot to do with the movement.

By the way, when I mentioned about the ship being unstable, I wasn't saying that I thought it was going to sink, it was just a word I used to describe what it felt like. A bit like if your wheels on your pushbike were buckled, it would feel unstable. is that perhaps a better way to explain it?

Thank you again for all the tips and advice, please keep it coming as it may well help to get us back on board another ship.

Finally, I received a call from P&O today in response to the email I sent them. They were very apologetic about the missed port and explained in detail the reasons for the decision to change the itinerary. The lady also confirmed that, based on the weather reports from the ship, the amount of times the pools were closed, and the movement we experienced, she felt that it was very unusual and could have been due partially to the fault with the engine etc.

Thanks for that info Pattycake.

I did read a lot of reviews about motion sickness at sea because I knew my girlfriend would suffer if it was bad but nearly every review said we would hardly notice it on the bigger ships, unless of course the sea was rough. P&O ventura is a huge ship and carries about 3,200 passengers and about 1,800 crew. I think it is something like 17 decks high. Not sure how that compares to the ships you have been on but I thought it was plenty big enough to avoid such movement on the calm seas that we had.

I even took some video footage of the very calm sea and then panned round to the pool, which was closed and sloshing about quite badly. I am still convinced that there must have been something wrong with the ships stabilizers. A review has just been posted on Cruise critic by a passenger that boarded the ship for the next sailing the day after we got off. They also said the movement was really bad as soon as they set sail. Apparently they got a flight home from the first port of call becasue they couldn't deal with it. That sounds pretty bad.

My girlfriend and I have recently returned from a cruise on the P&O Ventura (May 4th to May 11th). We were due to visit Vigo, Lisbon, Oporto and Guernsey. We were informed of issues with the ship on the second day (5th May). Due to the technical issues of the ship?? we would not be visiting Oporto, very disappointing. However, for nearly the whole of the cruise, we felt as if we were on a rollercoaster ride. The ship seemed to be really unstable, to the point where the swimming pools were closed on many occasions due to the movement. I have never been on a cruise before but I certainly didn't expect this amount of movement on such a big ship and with relatively calm seas. I am hoping to convince my girlfriend to do another cruise but she was quite seasick and said she would never do it again. I could possibly convince her to give it another go if someone could tell us whether all cruise ships move a lot on calm seas. If they generally don't have this much movement then perhaps it was something to do with the technical fault they had with the ship. I don't know what the fault was because nobody would tell us. Any help would be great. Thanks