pete14

On Aurora at the moment. The lunch was a sit down meal and the quality was very good. Lots of free wine as well

After the beautiful Glasshouse lunch, we had pre booked the Beach house this evening so were duty bound to go there despite not being hungry. I have to say I had the best cooked 10 ounce fillet steak whilst having the facility to keep the chips etc hot as well. Pete junior had the same (which he cooked all on his own) whilst Mrs Pete chose a sizzler with giant prawns. As Pete junior had to attend a teams meeting at 7:30, we had no choice but to sit in the Crows Nest so we didn’t disturb him. Either that or a local group from Tromso in the theatre or Mission Impossible in the cinema. No contest. For Junior’s teams meeting, he had to tether his computer to his phone because the ship’s internet seems to be down again. We have already had a day refunded because it wasn’t useable, maybe another visit to reception will be in order tomorrow. There is so much good about this cruise for the few niggles to spoil but it is frustrating that they do not seem to be able to rectify them. The internet was sold to us as being something it is not, hopefully when starlink is introduced, the problem will disappear but it shouldn’t have been advertised as a much better service before they can offer it. We leave for Alta at about 1:00 am after the Northern Lights chasers get back.

I think shortest day is Dec 21. If not, someone will correct me. We are only one hour ahead although on a cruise, it hardly matters. P&O could invent Pando time on a 18 hour day of 75 minutes in an hour and it wouldn’t matter.

According to Horizon, today in Tromso, sunrise was 9:56 am and sunset 13:01 pm.

For autocorrect, read even though you don’t want it to, it will change it to how you don’t want it to be.

The peas were beneath the fish. Whole ones, which I prefer, not masquerading as guacamole as a certain politician once said. As for photos, I take no lessons from anyone, which is why they generally don’t work, although the ones above seem OK. The problem was that the plates weren’t all round, especially those not made in the Potteries.

Who doesn’t like food pictures? These are Fromm the Glasshouse this lunch time

Sadly, this was in a bar on the quayside in downtown Tromso that didn’t recognise the drinks package. The receipt below is for 2 40cl glasses of local brew.

In Andalsnes, you come off the ship and you are in the town. In Tromso, you will almost certainly dock in the commercial dock so to go into the centre, you will need the shuttle bus. It takes about 10-15 minutes and drops outside the Radisson Blu hotel nearly on the quayside. I will let you know about Alta tomorrow but I am pretty sure a shuttle is needed. We are in Haugesund in a few days but I would be surprised if a shuttle was required.

When in Tromso do what the Tromsonians would probably never do on a Monday morning.

I do agree with you about smartphones and lack of port guides. I have a smartphone but the guides were helpful while being pretty useless at the same time.

Please feel free to add your experiences on this thread if you wish. We are a deck above you on deck 10.

MDR experience was much better because the member of our group with dietary needs has decided not to choose what they want the night before in order for galley to prepare it appropriately but to have what they want ‘as it comes’ and eat what they can, which with sensible choice is pretty much everything. Hence the fish they had last night was nicely cooked. Lights last night were best seen as photos but Pete junior was able to take some excellent ones. Hopefully now we are in Tromso, they will be better visible to the naked eye. I will try to post them later.

I was told at reception that Aurora would be early next year but I am not sure how much faith to put in what he said.

A late night last night because the Northern Lights made an appearance. They were neither bright nor colourful but they were definitely there. Pete junior managed to take some photos of them that accentuated the green colour which was less visible to the naked eye. Hopefully, we will see them more clearly over the next few nights. The sky tonight is very clear again so we may be lucky. I am sitting here with my coat on just in case there is a message from the bridge to tell us to look outside. Gervase Phinn did Christmas today in the form of anecdotes about Nativity activities and plays he has encountered. He also read a couple of quite poignant poems he has written. The books he brought along to sell have all sold out, even though he has three talks left. We had the loyalty club lunch today which was very pleasant. Although there were no officer hosts on each table, several of them greeted us as we entered and the captain visited each table. A pod of orcas was spotted by some earlier. Mrs Pete thinks she saw them but sadly I was elsewhere. It is hardly the weather for sitting outside gazing at the sea in the off chance of seeing marine life. After copious amounts of wine was dispensed and consumed at lunchtime, a lazy afternoon was required. Many of the stewards and waiters are sulking a little due to Australia. beating India in the cricket World Cup final. An announcement has just come from the bridge that the lights are visible so ta- ra until tomorrow

This was written last night but the internet has been down for 24 hours so I couldn’t post it. It is not the new Elon Musk starlink internet on Aurora so the fact we had no internet was not a reaction to his latest rocket exploding. An excellent day today and the Northern Lights have made an appearance!😊 We spent the day in Andalsnes, a small town at the end of a fjord. Snow on the tops of the mountains and frost on the ground. Apologies if the pictures are upside down. After a hearty breakfast, we ‘did Andalsnes’ in around half an hour, we didn’t fancy the cable car to the top of the mountain, and definitely not at more than £40 return. Even a baby ship such as Aurora dwarfed the town, but not the mountains. For lunch we braved the buffet which seemed quite calm and orderly with a good assortment of food. I chose crispy beef with chilli which whilst being perfectly acceptable was neither crispy nor laden with chilli. Pete junior had pizza from the grill which he enjoyed. We spent a calm afternoon in the Crows Nest reading and getting value from the drinks package whilst Mrs Pete got her nails and hands done in the spa. The Aurora trio played a few jazz style tunes (piano, electric bass and drums). They were perfectly competent if a little loud for the space. Sindhu was our choice for evening meal, a good choice after last night’s trials and tribulations. Everything about it was first class. Really tasty food, well cooked and with excellent service as you would expect. I know select dining is not cheap but it really is much better than the offerings in the MDR, which are actually quite good unless you have special dietary needs when they can be less than satisfactory as they were last night. We had not been back in our cabin for more than a few minutes when a message from the bridge was broadcast on the TV telling us that the Northern Lights were visible. We watched from our balcony and tried to take some photos. The lights were not particularly strong or vivid in colour but they were definitely there. Pete junior’s photos were positive proof of that, mine were just black. Hopefully when we are further North in Alta and Tromso, they will be more extensive and vivid but at least we can say we have seen them (unlike the last time we did this cruise in March 2019). Even I may manage photographic proof. I think it was Selbourne who asked about tiffin boxes at lunchtime in Sindhu. They are doing them on two lunchtimes (sea days). We have booked them both so will let you know how good they were. Also for Selbourne, today was a port day and breakfast in medina restaurant was 8:00 until 9:30 and the buffet 7:00 until 11:00. Another sea day tomorrow as we travel North up the coastline. They said top temperature today was about 1 degree Celsius, which in a couple of days time may seem pretty tropical compared with the minus temperatures we may encounter in the far North. As I finish, there has been another announcement about the Lights being visible so I will leave it at that.

If you buy drinks package, internet, excursions and speciality dining in advance of a cruise, possibly with a loyalty discount which you don’t get with OBC, there is not a great deal to spend OBC on so a large amount of it isn’t necessarily worth having.

A beautifully clear starry, starry night, perfect for the Northern Lights but they seem to be having a night in drinking Norwegian wine in front of the telly. The only cloud is caused by Aurora’s chimney. I guess we are not far enough North but when we get there, I doubt we have such a perfect night sky.

No herons visible at present. They do have a lot to answer for though.

Guilty as charged but I think we all stand by my original post of yesterday. 🥴😵‍💫 At least we haven’t got a cat with us. The bear is very special and would be upset if we left him behind and travelled with us for many years. His brother lives in our caravan.

Another lazy but good day with a disappointing conclusion. The sea has remained quite calm although the forecast is for the wind speed and sea state to increase a little tonight. Skies are clear though and the captain has made a broadcast to all cabins to tell us that there is the possibility of seeing the Northern lights tonight and that he will use a dedicated TV channel to let us know if and when they are spotted from the bridge. Nothing yet though. I managed to have a brief chat with Gervase Phinn before today’s talk and told him that I am writing this report and that several people are disappointed not to be with us to listen to what he has to say. He seemed genuinely touched to be told this. Again, his talk was excellent. The theatre was almost full and I suspect as word continues to spread, it will become completely full before his final talk. There is another guest speaker doing the ‘afternoon slot’. He is a celebrity photographer talking about some of the famous people he has photographed. Today, it was Larry Adler but as I am not greatly interested in him, I gave it a miss, preferring an afternoon in the Crow’s Nest with my kindle with the Norway coast and snow covered mountains in view. Little else happened until our evening meal. Two main courses were fine, although I am still unsure whether the veal was in fact pork (perhaps veal substitute for the Fawlty Towers fans). One of us has special dietary needs that means meals must be low in fat. The paupiette of lemon sole with gnocchi, seafood ragout and courgettes consisted of a fillet of fish which was so over cooked it could be mashed with one stroke of a fork, partially cooked potatoes and vegetables with a pot of tasteless white liquid. We informed the waiter that it was inedible and far removed from what it should be and when he summoned the head waiter, we told him the same. He was asked to provide us with a replacement that was the same as others had ordered from the menu but the replacement he brought was exactly the same as the first one. He was asked to take it away and just leave it. Five minutes later, when others had finished he came up with a third similar plate of food, overcooked fish with gnocchi and courgettes replaced with undercooked potatoes and vegetables. That also went back. I know different dietary requirements can be a nuisance but they ask to be told in advance (which we did) and say they will take the order the previous night to check it is suitable and tweak it accordingly. All this happened but the result was unsatisfactory. Never mind, tomorrow is another day and we have already pre booked Sindhu for our evening meal.

Thanks for saving me a job Selbourne. As you can see, there are cheaper wines but I am quite partial to Velvet Devil .

There was a card (Folded A4 size approx) on the table when we arrived.

As far as I am aware, the Glasshouse did not open until after we had set sail. At least you had the forethought to take some wine with you.

He seems to do talks on quite a lot of cruises, including Saga. His new novel is called ‘The Captain’s Table’ (or similar) which is apparently based on some people he has met on cruises. I think one of his future talks on this cruise will feature it, rather than his experiences in schools, and of course he will be selling signed copies.