Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[Selbourne]

Just now, Bin man said:

Aurora 2001 chocoholics with a chocolate Eagle and ice sculpture our first cruise 

Yes, that’s what I meant about not being as grand as it used to be. No chocolate or ice sculptures, but still a welcome addition that I thought had been consigned to history. 

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. I thought it was to do with MPW, yet still no mention of him on the menus??

You're learning lots on this trip. Launderette expert no less.🤣

[Selbourne]

Just now, zap99 said:

You're learning lots on this trip. Launderette expert no less.🤣

Still some way short of an expert Zap 😂 I’m only trusting myself with underwear and small items. Anything that will require ironing will be going to the paid for laundry service - offers or no offers!

[Selbourne]

Today’s MDR menus. Also, I forgot to post a photo of the rather nice branded set of commemorative postcards (many Art Deco style) that we had as a welcome gift. 

[jeanlyon]

They obviously don't change the menus very often.  That is exactly the same as last October!

[Clodia]

Trifle Wally Lad is identical to my elderly mother's home made Trifle recipe. Hence we have it every Christmas. Had it on Iona recently and it's the same as the one I make.

Really enjoying your detailed and interesting posts Selbourne. 

 

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Today’s MDR menus. Also, I forgot to post a photo of the rather nice branded set of commemorative postcards (many Art Deco style) that we had as a welcome gift. 

8 mains for dinner on Aurora compared to 5 on Queen Victoria this week, and 2 of the 5 were vegetarian options. 
This is the only photo that I took

 

 

 

 

[Selbourne]

Just now, jeanlyon said:

They obviously don't change the menus very often.  That is exactly the same as last October!

Hardly any surprise in that though Jean. For what is effectively a mass catering environment, we feel that the choice is pretty good. We anticipate that the menus will start to repeat in a few weeks time, but rarely has there been a menu where there was only one thing that we would have been happy to order, so we can still achieve variety. Even if we order the same thing as last time, we are still getting far more variety than we have at home!

[Angel57]

@Selbourne - I love seeing them as I decide what I would eat (today’s choice would be the chicken starter and the goan curry for mains) and I then sadly realise I only have soup to heat up for my tea! 🤣

[Selbourne]

Display boards from todays “The Story Begins” event, depicting the whole route and then split into named segments. 

 

 

 

Edited January 12 by Selbourne

[posford]

Trifle Wally Ladd Oceana 2011

[TigerB]

Good to see that you're embracing the laundry, but why no ironing? You can't beat standing and pressing a few shirts and lady garments while catching up on the ship gossip.😉  

 

Looking at the menus you've posted, there's several dishes that I would enjoy from each menu and, when they start repeating them, there's a good chance of having something different.

I also like the sea bass in banana leaves, and it a pity they don't offer that and some of the other dishes on the two biggest ships; I really don't like the trio selections for the main course.

 

I hope guest services are able to help that fella with getting online to sort his ESTAs; these days, so long as you use the official government website, they reckon you can do it up to a day before arrival.  We once had them confirmed within half an hour.  Having said that, you would think that if you were going on a 65 night cruise that included stepping on US soil, you would include ESTAs in the long list of things that you needed to check way before you left home.🙄

 

Anyway, how far behind GMT are you now, four hours?

 

[Selbourne]

Just now, TigerB said:

Good to see that you're embracing the laundry, but why no ironing? You can't beat standing and pressing a few shirts and lady garments while catching up on the ship gossip.😉  

 

Looking at the menus you've posted, there's several dishes that I would enjoy from each menu and, when they start repeating them, there's a good chance of having something different.

I also like the sea bass in banana leaves, and it a pity they don't offer that and some of the other dishes on the two biggest ships; I really don't like the trio selections for the main course.

 

I hope guest services are able to help that fella with getting online to sort his ESTAs; these days, so long as you use the official government website, they reckon you can do it up to a day before arrival.  We once had them confirmed within half an hour.  Having said that, you would think that if you were going on a 65 night cruise that included stepping on US soil, you would include ESTAs in the long list of things that you needed to check way before you left home.🙄

 

Anyway, how far behind GMT are you now, four hours?

 

I know that the laundrette is the social hub of a ship, but as I spend my life doing absolutely everything at home, this holiday needs to be a break for me as well, so I’m just going to suffer the cost of having it done by someone else. I can live with 10 items for £32 (less loyalty discount) to cover shirts and trousers, but I draw the line paying for underwear!
 

Re the ESTA, the chap had an approved one before the cruise. They wouldn’t let people board the ship without one. A problem seems to have arisen with his whilst he’s been on the cruise. I’ve read elsewhere that this happened to someone else just days before the cruise. 
 

We are currently 3 hours behind the UK. We go back another hour tonight as Bermuda is 4 hours behind. Then we will lose another hour before the USA. 

Edited January 12 by Selbourne

[jh1809]

2 hours ago, Angel57 said:

@Selbourne - I love seeing them as I decide what I would eat (today’s choice would be the chicken starter and the goan curry for mains) and I then sadly realise I only have soup to heat up for my tea! 🤣

I noticed that on the menu there was one chicken breast starter and two chicken breast mains, which seems a bit excessive. I wonder what happens to all the chicken legs (which some think are the best bit). Presumably the crew gets to eat those.

[Angel57]

21 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

I noticed that on the menu there was one chicken breast starter and two chicken breast mains, which seems a bit excessive. I wonder what happens to all the chicken legs (which some think are the best bit). Presumably the crew gets to eat those.

I’m sure they will appear on a lunch menu….!

[Bill Y]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Hardly any surprise in that though Jean. For what is effectively a mass catering environment, we feel that the choice is pretty good. We anticipate that the menus will start to repeat in a few weeks time, but rarely has there been a menu where there was only one thing that we would have been happy to order, so we can still achieve variety. Even if we order the same thing as last time, we are still getting far more variety than we have at home!

On longer cruises the MDR menus used to repeat every 14 days before covid.

[Selbourne]

Day 10 - Friday 12th January - At Sea

 

Our last sea day prior to our first new port of the cruise (Bermuda) and thankfully we woke to much calmer seas. It was nice to be able to shower without having to periodically grab hold of the rail to steady yourself! The flip side is that whilst the sea is calmer, the sunny weather of the last few days has been replaced with a dull and cloudy sky and wind. Our dinner companions have done the transatlantic crossing to the Caribbean 5 or 6 times and say that it’s usually much calmer, and this has been their worst crossing. Just our luck 😂. I suspect the fact that our first stop is in Bermuda has a lot to do with it, as we are taking a more northerly track and therefore caught the southern end of the bad weather system. Hopefully Ventura, whose first stop is in the Caribbean (so has been taking a more southerly track), will have had a much smoother crossing without such heavy swells. 

 

The Medina MDR was busy again for breakfast but our pager for a table for two sounded within far less than 5 minutes. They really are super efficient at turning tables around on this ship, and you don’t get the annoying and inefficient table ‘down time’ that we’ve noticed on the ships that use the app.

 

At 11am we attended Dick Taylor’s last talk entitled “The Way we Were”, which was a nostalgic and amusing look back at the 60s, 70s and 80s, mostly the through the lens of TV ads. Whilst we are a fair bit younger than the average passenger on this cruise, we still recognised almost all of the ads!  I hope that our future guest lecturers will be as engaging as him and that the subject matter is as good as the subjects he chose. 

 

During the middle part of the day there was an event called “The Story Begins” on deck 12 which was advertised as showcasing the numerous countries that we are visiting on this Grand Tour. The atrium had also been adorned with all the different flags, which really brings home what a great itinerary this cruise has. In essence, it was nothing more than some tables selling ships services, a singer, plus a very busy deck barbeque. We skipped this as my wife hates crowds (being low down in a wheelchair) and went to the MDR for lunch. I wish that we hadn’t, as it was my worst meal of the cruise by far. I’m afraid that I didn’t enjoy a single course. You can’t win ‘em all!

 

At 2.15pm we attended actor John Lyon’s final talk on his career, which included an interesting story where Reggie Kray virtually saved his life! He gets off in Bermuda and flys to Fort Lauderdale, where he joins Arcadia at Port Everglades on 16th. 

 

Still in the theatre, there was the talk on our 4th port of call, Port Canaveral. I didn’t glean much of interest, other than the fact that there’s a free shuttle to Cocoa Beach, but I’m sorted there as I’m doing the transfer to the Kennedy Space Centre and I don’t think that there will be enough time to do Cocoa Beech when I get back, especially as my wife won’t have cleared US immigration. 

 

After that we went for a coffee in Raffles, during which time the Captain announced that the large detour that he took to avoid the worst of the mid Atlantic storm would result in a 3 to 4 hour delay getting in to Bermuda. I guess that’s a small price to pay for what would have been a most unpleasant experience. Strangely, we’ve been running slower than Auroras designed operating speed, which would have easily got us there on time even with the detour, but I guess there’s a balance to be struck between maintaining timings on the one side, versus passenger comfort and fuel cost on the other.  Thankfully we are overnight in Bermuda so it hopefully won’t impact on our visit too much, but I’m rather glad now that, on the spur of the moment two days ago, I booked a full island tour on the basis that I’ll only ever visit once and it’s a place I’ve always wanted to go to. I won’t now have the stress of trying to adapt DIY plans to suit the revised timings. We are berthing at the dockyard and my wife says that she’s not worried about going into Hamilton and is content with just looking around the dockyard area when I return. I’m told it’s quite nice and there’s a bit to see. I just hope that things will still be open when I get back from my tour. I’d be tempted to have dinner ashore (if there’s anywhere suitable in the dockyard area) but apparently Bermuda is ridiculously expensive. 

 

I attempted to do my daily exercise on the promenade deck but annoyingly the whole of the port side (where the sun was - ish) was closed “for operational reasons”. I know that we all laugh at P&Os constant use of that expression to justify unpopular things, but the sign really did say that (unfortunately I didn’t have my phone on me to take a photo). I gave up after what must have been the equivalent of 4 or 5 laps as it was boring and windy just going up and down on the shady side!

 

At 7pm the Everly Beyond tribute were performing again, but this time in Carmens. We went along and I enjoyed it, but the best I could get out of my wife was that it was better than the first performance 🙄. Whilst the music is from our parents generation, I knew all but one of the timeless classics! I was surprised to hear that the two performances that we saw were their first ever performances on any cruise ship. I think they will be keepers and will become a regular act with P&O. 

 

After dinner we went to Neil Lockwoods second show. It’s challenging enough to find a spot with a wheelchair in the theatre on Aurora as it is, as only two spaces (one each side) allow the companion to sit alongside and are often occupied by those who aren’t wheelchair companions, but now we have an added irritant. A female passenger, whose husband is in a wheelchair, talks incessantly to him through every theatre performance, much to the annoyance of those around her. It drives me mad, so now we have to make sure that we sit the opposite side of the theatre to them otherwise we are within earshot. We still get the late arrivals standing behind us, who also think it’s acceptable to comment on every aspect of the show (once they’ve discussed at full volume whether there are any seats they can get to). What is it with these people? Rant over 😂. 

 

Another hugely impressive performance by Neil Lockwood. His singing voice is pretty good but it is as a guitarist and, in particular as a pianist, where he excels. He did a rapid fire classical melody based on Rimsky-Korsakovs ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ that was just sensational. His talking voice is amusing as, like many ‘artists’ he has a mid-Atlantic drawl. If you close your eyes you’d think you were listening to Eddie Izzard 😂 He also disembarks tomorrow, so we have a 100% change in speakers and artists. If the next batch are as good as the first then we shall be very lucky. Tomorrow Bermuda. 

[carlanthony24]

If you are lucky you may see Arcadia starboard side 

[Cruising Nomads]

Selbourne not sure what you mean about your call into port canaveral and your wife not been through us customs on your return from your tour. As you will be aware from your previous cruise to the usa all passengers and crew go through us customs at the first usa port of call. Also be aware that if you leave the ship and try and return before the custom clearance is complete your return could be barred. Obviously i am not aware if special arrangements have been made for wheel chair users but this is just a general way things are organised.

[Purdey16]

Selbourne I’m pleased that the sea has calmed down for you now but a shame the sun has decided to take a break until you get to Bermuda which I’m sure will be back out beaming again, enjoy your 2 days there.

I like the display boards of the trip and if they were in miniature form would be a great momentum to take home .

[BouncingWheel]

Thanks for the review of Neil Lockwood. I have never seen him but he is leaving you to join us on Iona so will definitely go and see him.

[zap99]

19 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

They obviously don't change the menus very often.  That is exactly the same as last October!

A bit like most large restaurant chains.Change the menu a couple of times a year. Nothing wrong with that.

[zap99]

18 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Hardly any surprise in that though Jean. For what is effectively a mass catering environment, we feel that the choice is pretty good. We anticipate that the menus will start to repeat in a few weeks time, but rarely has there been a menu where there was only one thing that we would have been happy to order, so we can still achieve variety. Even if we order the same thing as last time, we are still getting far more variety than we have at home!

We are off to pizza express for a late lunch. I think I will have a pizza. When they, or most restaurants launch their exiting new menu, the price goes up.🤣

[TigerB]

Thanks for the update.🙂

I feel your pain with the theatre situation. I do hope your good lady doesn't also have folk standing behind behind her that think it is okay the hold on to the back of her wheelchair, something that our lass has experienced before.  That is so rude, and always receives an appropriate response from one or both of us.

The mischievous in me, if we had to deal with folk who have no legitimate reason to sit in a wheelchair companion's seat, thus meaning I had nowhere to sit, would be to get our lass to position her chair next to the seat with just enough space for me to stand between her and the offender, in their personal space.  If I was feeling really mischievous I may even be tempted to let one go!🤭

 

Enjoy your time in Bermuda.

[Selbourne]

Just now, Cruising Nomads said:

Selbourne not sure what you mean about your call into port canaveral and your wife not been through us customs on your return from your tour. As you will be aware from your previous cruise to the usa all passengers and crew go through us customs at the first usa port of call. Also be aware that if you leave the ship and try and return before the custom clearance is complete your return could be barred. Obviously i am not aware if special arrangements have been made for wheel chair users but this is just a general way things are organised.

I’ll try to explain what I meant. I am going on a tour that leaves the ship fairly soon after we arrive. As a result, those of us on early tours will be the first to go through US border control. My wife is remaining in the ship in the cabin, so will not have done this. 
 

When I return from the tour, there will only be a few hours left before the ship leaves. I am assuming that, at this stage, I will need to take my wife through US border control, but as this may take some time (although, being late in the day I’d hope that queues would be minimal) we will probably only have time to do that and nothing else, so won’t have time to leave the ship (or the terminal, if border control is there). 
 

My wife would be unable to get her US entry clearance done whilst I am off the ship, as she has a manual wheelchair and needs my assistance. She would also be unable to wait in long queues, hence my thought that I’d assist her to get this done when I return to the ship and it’s much quieter. I will check with reception prior to our arrival in Port Canaveral that this plan will work.