Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[Selbourne]

Just now, TigerB said:

 

Ah, but have you come across any pineapples yet?😉

Other than the one on our door, no 😂 

[zap99]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Other than the one on our door, no 😂 

You can thank your fellow cc members. For the next 60 days you will inadvertently be on the look out for plastic ducks and pineapples.  🤣

[pete14]

30 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Other than the one on our door, no 😂 

Perhaps it is the one we left behind in November.

[indiana123]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Other than the one on our door, no 😂 

 

 

Thank you Selbourne and Pete14.  That made me laugh out loud, which is something really needed this morning.  Really made us laugh out loud.  Good old CC  x

[Selbourne]

Todays MDR menus

[Selbourne]

US Immigration Update

 

I have spoken to a lovely lady on the shore excursions desk this morning, who was far more empathetic towards my wife’s potential difficulties (dealing with US immigration whilst I am on an all day tour) than the two staff on reception were. She is going to speak to the Customer Service Manager and will get back to me. I shall provide another update in due course. 

[Mollag]

2 hours ago, pete14 said:

Perhaps it is the one we left behind in November.

You didn’t happen to leave a 42D bra as well did you a passenger on another forum found one hidden in their cabin 🤦‍♂️😂

[Grandad John]

1 hour ago, Mollag said:

You didn’t happen to leave a 42D bra as well did you a passenger on another forum found one hidden in their cabin 🤦‍♂️😂

Didn’t realise Dolly Parton was a P&O patron.

[MellyMoo1989]

Thank you so much Selbourne (and Mrs Selbourne!) for taking the time out from your holidays to provide us with such detailed reviews.. I'm getting excited for my holiday now, even if it's still 18 months away! Loving the sound of the menus, I assume it'll be typically the same fleet-wide (I'll be abord the Britannia).. although I am a bit concerned about their obsession to fling mushrooms on/in pretty much everything! Chicken Nuggets & Chips in the buffet for me, I guess..  😂😉

[david63]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

US Immigration Update

 

I have spoken to a lovely lady on the shore excursions desk this morning, who was far more empathetic towards my wife’s potential difficulties (dealing with US immigration whilst I am on an all day tour) than the two staff on reception were. She is going to speak to the Customer Service Manager and will get back to me. I shall provide another update in due course. 

At least that is somewhat more proactive - although I suspect there may be ulterior motives in that they do not want a tour cancellation.

[pete14]

4 hours ago, Mollag said:

You didn’t happen to leave a 42D bra as well did you a passenger on another forum found one hidden in their cabin 🤦‍♂️😂

Not mine I’m afraid. I don’t tend to need to wear one of any size. 

[indiana123]

4 hours ago, Grandad John said:

Didn’t realise Dolly Parton was a P&O patron.

 

 

No their not Dollys.. she's more like a 36 JJ or more!

[Selbourne]

Day 12 - Sunday 14th January - Sea Day

 

It was a little misty when we left Bermuda at around 7.30am but thankfully the seas were calm and it feels quite a pleasant temperature. We have 3 sea days between Bermuda and the Bahamas, which is a day longer than is really required, so we have spent the day plodding along at around 10-11 knots. Sadly for the sun worshippers, the sun is remaining very evasive. 

 

Having praised the entertainment programme on all the sea days so far this cruise, I’m afraid that today was as bad as we’ve had on the other P&O ships last year. No guest lecturer, no music recitals and no ‘audience with’ style of shows. I hope that this won’t be the case for all 3 of our sea days to the Bahamas, but I fear that it might (Edit - Since writing this I’ve seen Mondays Horizon and I’m pleased to see that normal service will resume tomorrow). The sole thing of interest during the day was the port lecture on Miami. 

 

After breakfast we called at the excursion desk to explain our concern about US border control. For those who haven’t read my updates, Port Canaveral is our first US port on Friday. I am due to go on a transfer to the Kennedy Space Centre at 0830 which, unfortunately my wife cannot join me on as it’s not accessible. I will be fast tracked through border control but my wife will still be on the ship, and would be unable to deal with her clearance until I get back late afternoon which, apparently, might be too late. I asked for advice at reception but they were most unsympathetic and unhelpful. Thankfully the lady on the excursion desk was ten times better and completely understood our difficulties. She has promised to speak to the Customer Service Manager and get back to us. I want to get this nailed well before we arrive so as to avoid major problems on the day. 

 

Whilst the entertainment today is dire, we thankfully had a diversion at lunchtime with a wine tasting and nibbles session, organised by the Glasshouse but held in the Alexandria MDR. We struck lucky joining a table of dining companions who share a table at dinner. They were great fun. We all agreed that the English Bacchus wine was truly awful, the two reds were drinkable but unimpressive and the Peller Ice Cuvée and Blandys Malmsy Madeira were both very nice indeed!

 

As the wine was only accompanied by small cubes of cheese, we decided to go the the Glasshouse for a proper lunch afterwards. We both had a 6oz fillet steak with prawns and both agreed that it was the best meal that we have had on this ship since we joined 12 days ago - by some margin. Absolutely superb and cooked beautifully (we both wanted Medium so asked for Medium Rare in the knowledge that it would be Medium). Of course, we washed this down with a large glass each of the recommended red wine. 

 

Having finished that we decided to go to Raffles for a hot drink, and one of the couples who we’d sat with at the wine tasting came up and we enjoyed a half hour chat with them. 

 

Having drunk more alcohol today than we have any other day of the cruise, a pre dinner rest (nap) in the cabin was in order. Sometimes it’s best not to fight these things 😂 

 

MDR dinner was an average affair again. The evening entertainment was a comedian. We really don’t like cruise ship comedians, so that was a no for us. When Horizon arrived we were pleased to see that that tomorrow’s entertainment is much better and includes guest speaker Christopher Biggins. I suspect that he will be fun. 

[lincslady]

I think Biggins will be great fun.

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 hour ago, lincslady said:

I think Biggins will be great fun.

I suspect he will be amazingly fun

[Eddie99]

I hope you get the US immigration sorted out Selbourne - it will be a shame if your wife loses out

Another word of thanks for your reports.  It’s a little bit of a bind doing them, isn’t it, though still quite fun, as it acts as a personal journal and memory jogger?

Enjoy today

[Snow Hill]

Having never been to the US either on a cruise why do you need to clear customs and immigration if you are not planning to get off ship at that port? 

[Waju]

6 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Having never been to the US either on a cruise why do you need to clear customs and immigration if you are not planning to get off ship at that port? 

I don't know why either I'm afraid but I know you have to - they will call and call your name till the whole ship is done and that includes staff from my memory of doing it a few years ago!

[david63]

42 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Having never been to the US either on a cruise why do you need to clear customs and immigration if you are not planning to get off ship at that port? 

Because that is the rules that US Immigration have - and apart from a few essential crew members the whole ship (crew as well as passengers) has to disembark and go through immigration on the first visit. Not only that the ship is inspected from top to bottom which is why there will be some frantic cleaning taking place over the next few days.

5 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I will be fast tracked through border control

Border Control do not have the word "fast" in their dictionary - they only have one speed slowwwwwwwwwww😉

[Waju]

10 minutes ago, david63 said:

Because that is the rules that US Immigration have - and apart from a few essential crew members the whole ship (crew as well as passengers) has to disembark and go through immigration on the first visit. Not only that the ship is inspected from top to bottom which is why there will be some frantic cleaning taking place over the next few days.

Border Control do not have the word "fast" in their dictionary - they only have one speed slowwwwwwwwwww😉

Not sure you have to go ashore? - US immigration came aboard Aurora in 2018 and did ours

[Sonyar]

Hi Selbourne, a question please. I imagine on a long cruise with many sea days a lot of people will have bought WiFi. We're planning on getting the basic package. Can I ask how you're finding the WiFi?

Thanks for a most interesting and informative blog. Hope you both continue to have a great holiday.

Edited January 15 by Sonyar

[FangedRose]

1 hour ago, Waju said:

Not sure you have to go ashore? - US immigration came aboard Aurora in 2018 and did ours

Same here in 2019

[arlowood]

1 hour ago, Waju said:

Not sure you have to go ashore? - US immigration came aboard Aurora in 2018 and did ours

That was our experience also in August 2017 on Aurora. Our first port of call was Boston and we had heard many scare stories about spending hours queueing to clear immigration. However the day before docking we were told that the immigration staff would come aboard and set up their desks in the Glasshouse if I remember correctly. We were then given colour coded tickets and time slots to go and have our documents checked. I think there were about 5 or 6 Immigration Agents and the process was quite slick and relatively painless. From memory it took only about 15 or 20 minutes including queueing time.

Hopefully you'll have a similar experience in Port Canaveral

[david63]

Having gone into the US several times on various P&O ships over the years I have never experienced US Immigration coming on board to do their checks - the last time being 2020

[Gettingwarmer]

50 minutes ago, david63 said:

Having gone into the US several times on various P&O ships over the years I have never experienced US Immigration coming on board to do their checks - the last time being 2020

At Boston they came on board, at New Orleans it was onshore.