Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[Mickb]

Love your cheerful and positive attitude to what must in some ways be a disappointing experience. I am a great great believer that ‘any cruise is a good cruise and must be better than the UK in January’ but there do seem to be an ongoing string of annoying incidents. - noisy cabin, table in MDR, weather, recalcitrant Captain, dodgy lifts, etc etc ……. An earlier poster wished that it would be a cruise of 2 halves for you and I sincerely hope this is the case!

Thank you for the time you take on the blog.

[Selbourne]

 

Day 26 - Sunday 28th January - At Sea

 

We woke earlier than usual (no particular reason - seas were calm) so made it to breakfast earlier than usual. This enabled us to attend the 0930 Whale & Dolphin Talk in the Playhouse, looking at the threats that these majestic creatures face. 

 

We then sat on our balcony for a while watching the flying fish leaping out of the water. I had no idea how far they could fly! Thankfully the weather appears to have taken a turn for the better, and we’ve now had a couple of decent days. Today’s high was 27 degrees and mostly sunny, so the sun worshippers were out in force. On the navigation map we appeared to be cruising close to Cuba, but land wasn’t visible other than some distant glimpses late afternoon. 

 

At 1130 it was the Cartagena port talk in the theatre. I was contemplating cancelling my tour there, but the old city seems to be a bit difficult to DIY (other than cabs which would cost as much) so I’m going to keep the booking and then take my wife ashore after lunch. The aviary / zoo just outside the cruise port is apparently very good. 

 

We had lunch in the Glasshouse, which serves my two favourite meals on the ship - the 6oz fillet steak surf & turf with peppercorn sauce and Lime and Corainder Asian Sea Bass baked in banana leaf with a shrimp and coconut broth. I have had the latter in all Glasshouse restaurants across the P&O fleet ever since it was introduced and it’s always been excellent, but I had it on Ventura at the end of last year and it was really disappointing, as it was very watered down and lacked the usual intensity of flavour. I’m delighted to report that this seems to be a one-off problem on Ventura as it was as good as ever on Aurora and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I washed it down with a large glass of Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc (as per the recommendation) and that was equally good. My wife had the fillet steak and asked for it to be cooked medium, but it was more medium-well, so we will ask for medium-rare next time (I had a medium last time we visited and it was perfect, so it’s a bit hit and miss). 

 

After that a bit of a siesta was required, so we retreated to our cabin and balcony. On deck 12 this morning we noticed all the reserved sunbeds (which you aren’t supposed to reserve?) and were very relieved that we have our own private outdoor space. 

 

Mid afternoon I decided to get my daily exercise on the promenade deck. I prefer to do it later when it’s cooler, but I have got fed up with all the irritating deck closures that make it difficult to do laps, so by going earlier I would avoid them. Wrong! The front section of the promenade deck was closed yet again 😡

 

At 5pm we went to the Playhouse for the first performance of our latest classical artist. She is a classical harpist and singer called Eloise Irving. She had a few tuning issues with her harp and whilst the song choices weren’t particularly to our taste, the harp is a beautiful sounding instrument and Eloise has an equally beautiful voice. She can hit any note perfectly. Oddly, the thing that struck me the most was how well she spoke. These days where, even on the BBC, the norm is now strong regional accents or ‘street’ dialect, it’s rare to hear someone speak English so nicely - innit 😂 

 

We have done our damndest to give a wide berth to all the people with coughs on the ship (of which there are many), but sometimes it can’t be avoided, especially as we have to use lifts all the time, and a few times we have been in a lift with people who were coughing 🙄. I now have a bit of a dry tickle in my throat so we went to Raffles for an ice cold drink after the classical recital. I hope that it doesn’t develop into anything just as we approach the section of the cruise that we have been most looking forward to. 

 

At 7pm we thought that we’d give Pulse a second go, having not been too impressed by their first performance that we had seen a few weeks back. It was their ‘I believe in a thing called Rock’ performance. The male singer’s OK but the female one isn’t, so we left after 15 minutes. We clearly weren’t alone. As we got in the lift another couple got in and the lady said “I love that song, but she’s murdering it” 😂 

 

We had our second dinner booked in Sindhu and were at this point realising that we’d been daft having lunch in the Glasshouse! Still, needs must! Sindhu was much busier than our first visit - in fact it was full. As a combination of this, and the inconsistent air conditioning around the ship, it was unpleasantly warm. Service was painfully slow. We’d been seated for half an hour before we were even given the mini popadoms that you get before the starter - and that was only after I’d chased them. Very quickly after that the starters arrived. We then had another prolonged delay of over half an hour until the mains arrived. In reality, as we weren’t hungry this wasn’t a major issue, but we had to forego a pudding in order to see the 10pm show (not that we needed one). I didn’t enjoy my meal, but I rarely do in Sindhu, so don’t read anything into that. My wife enjoyed hers. 

 

Thankfully we managed to get one of the only two seats in the theatre where a wheelchair user can sit alongside their partner. This was for Steve Hollington’s Elton John Tribute. This was much better than the previous nights show. Having seen the real Elton John live for 3 hours and been as close to the stage as we were here, we were braced for this not being good, but he put on a good show. He can’t sing the higher notes (so either changed them or got the audience to sing them) but his voice was otherwise quite Elton like and he is also a very good pianist. An enjoyable way to end the day. 

 

Tomorrow is our last of 3 sea days before we start an intensive run of 6 consecutive days of port calls, staring with Puerto Rico. 

 

 

[lindyloo22]

Great read, hope the weather stay nice for you and the cough just stays a tickle.

look forward to reading more of your adventure as you go along.

[Eddie99]

Morning Selbourne

You’re teasing me with that Sea Bass on a banana leaf again.  I was looking forward to trying it but the menu never changed in the Iona Glasshouse.  Front page of tapas, second & third pages ‘mains’, comprising three dishes each, on the beef, chicken, pork, fish and vegan themes.  Nary a banana leaf

I hope your dry throat is just that - something aggravated by the a/c.  Are you taking any C* precautions?  You’d probably laugh and/or roll your eyes if I told you how we tried to avoid the bugs.  However, it’s our third day back and all seems well 🤞

Enjoy Cartagena - be prepared for it to be very, very hot.  It is a sleepy place in the morning - Spanish influence showing.  The aviary at the dock is, indeed, a nice facility to simply enjoy viewing.  I hope Lady S enjoys it

[July morning]

Hi Selbourne, The zoo/aviary at Cartagena is a nice way to pass time with a drink or coffee we went there after DIY was going to be hard work but the next time we went on an excursion and prefered the aviary 😂 hopefully you'll enjoy both

 

[Eddie99]

More memories of Cartagena -

Are you a coffee drinker?  Have a cup at the on site coffee shop and maybe buy some beans to bring home?  Stunning!

We enjoyed the biggest G&Ts we’ve ever had somewhere around the complex

Also - fish cerviche from a cart (possibly the same one as the G&Ts, and possibly the downing of the giant G&Ts gave us Dutch courage for the fish 🤣). Ohmygoodness it was good.  And we lived to tell the tale! They can’t really afford to poison the tourists

There were a pair of delinquent red parrots walking round, undoing peoples’ rucksacks and investigating the contents, chewing the wood supporting the seating, and reacting badly if challenged 😱

Have I mentioned that it was very, very, hot?

Enjoy!

[Fionboard]

27 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

More memories of Cartagena -

Are you a coffee drinker?  Have a cup at the on site coffee shop and maybe buy some beans to bring home?  Stunning!

We enjoyed the biggest G&Ts we’ve ever had somewhere around the complex

Also - fish cerviche from a cart (possibly the same one as the G&Ts, and possibly the downing of the giant G&Ts gave us Dutch courage for the fish 🤣). Ohmygoodness it was good.  And we lived to tell the tale! They can’t really afford to poison the tourists

There were a pair of delinquent red parrots walking round, undoing peoples’ rucksacks and investigating the contents, chewing the wood supporting the seating, and reacting badly if challenged 😱

Have I mentioned that it was very, very, hot?

Enjoy!

That is the most entertaining terminal. Watched some macaws trying to undo zips on rucksacks and naughty monkeys stealing drinks from people. Hilarious. It is a destination in itself. The city tour was excellent. Very interesting. 

[Gettingwarmer]

2 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

Enjoy Cartagena - be prepared for it to be very, very hot.  

When we went on our city tour we ended our visit at the Naval Museum. Wonderful air conditioning. 

[TigerB]

3 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

Morning Selbourne

You’re teasing me with that Sea Bass on a banana leaf again.  I was looking forward to trying it but the menu never changed in the Iona Glasshouse.  Front page of tapas, second & third pages ‘mains’, comprising three dishes each, on the beef, chicken, pork, fish and vegan themes.  Nary a banana leaf

That's the thing with Glasshouse on Iona and Arvia, they have those daft three dish options and none of the mains that are available on the other ships.  I really do hope they relent and start offering more choice, but I fear they won't.

 

2 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

There were a pair of delinquent red parrots walking round, undoing peoples’ rucksacks and investigating the contents, chewing the wood supporting the seating, and reacting badly if challenged 

And in the shadows was a Bill Sykes type character making sure his charges got a good haul.🤭

[TigerB]

Thanks for the update, @Selbourne. It's good to hear that the weather is getting better.

You didn't say but, unlike last time, I hope you had the real deal with the sea bass, in a proper banana leaf.

 

We too bemoan the dumbing down and Americanisation of the Queen's (or King's, as it is now) on the BBC, and everywhere else for that matter.  No dear news reader, the year is NOT twenny twenny four!🤬

[Selbourne]

Just now, TigerB said:

You didn't say but, unlike last time, I hope you had the real deal with the sea bass, in a proper banana leaf.

Yes I did. We seem to have taken on board some banana leaves in the US 😂 

[Selbourne]

Today’s MDR menus

[AndyMichelle]

3 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Today’s MDR menus

Enjoying the menus Selbourne, thank you. 

We are choosing what we would have each day. 

Have to say, I am finding more I would really enjoy on the limited lunch menu rather then dinner, but can always find something. 

Andy 

[Selbourne]

Just now, AndyMichelle said:

Enjoying the menus Selbourne, thank you. 

We are choosing what we would have each day. 

Have to say, I am finding more I would really enjoy on the limited lunch menu rather then dinner, but can always find something. 

Andy 

We can almost always find something that we like the sound of Andy but, as mentioned, sometimes the reality of what you get falls short of the glamorous description 😂 

[Harry Peterson]

3 hours ago, TigerB said:

We too bemoan the dumbing down and Americanisation of the Queen's (or King's, as it is now) on the BBC, and everywhere else for that matter.  No dear news reader, the year is NOT twenny twenny four!

There’s a wonderful local accent not so far from you. My daughter was teaching there a while back:

 

End of school.

 

“Where’s your Mum?”

”Me mam’s gone to vert.”

”Vert?”

”Aye, vert. Dahn at the Perling Station.”

 

Personally, it’s the ubiquitous ‘haitch’ that I find most annoying.

But it’s a changing language, and if it weren’t we’d all be using Chaucerian English, or something rather older.

 

 

 

[lincslady]

I loathe 'haitch', but have heard it used on TV by someone with a degree - unfortunately doing a stint at being the temporary Rachel Riley on Countdown!  It is said that some schools now teach it as the way to pronounce 'aitch'.

[Harry Peterson]

2 minutes ago, lincslady said:

I loathe 'haitch', but have heard it used on TV by someone with a degree - unfortunately doing a stint at being the temporary Rachel Riley on Countdown!  It is said that some schools now teach it as the way to pronounce 'aitch'.

So do I. With a passion. But it’s pretty much standard English now, even amongst otherwise respectable BBC presenters etc, and I suspect that within 10 years or the original ‘aitch’ will be seen as archaic.

[SeaJane]

18 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

So do I. With a passion. But it’s pretty much standard English now, even amongst otherwise respectable BBC presenters etc, and I suspect that within 10 years or the original ‘aitch’ will be seen as archaic.

Me too! It drives me mad and I’ve been told that it is now often not only allowed, but taught in schools. 
I accept that language changes and adapts through time, but “haitch” is just wrong! 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

There’s a wonderful local accent not so far from you. My daughter was teaching there a while back:

 

End of school.

 

“Where’s your Mum?”

”Me mam’s gone to vert.”

”Vert?”

”Aye, vert. Dahn at the Perling Station.”

 

Personally, it’s the ubiquitous ‘haitch’ that I find most annoying.

But it’s a changing language, and if it weren’t we’d all be using Chaucerian English, or something rather older.

 

 

 

I am not too bothered about news and current affairs programmes  since even the Beeb seems to recognise the benefit of having presenters who enunciate correctly.

Unfortunately when it comes to drama, then the broader the accent  and the unintelligible the conversation, seems to be the current vogue, along with background music that soars to be foreground music at crucial points, makes it well nigh impossible for me to follow without subtitles.

Edited January 29 by terrierjohn

[Harry Peterson]

9 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I am not too bothered about news and current affairs programmes  since even the Beeb seems to recognise the benefit of having presenters who enunciate correctly.

Unfortunately when it comes to drama, then the broader the accent  and the unintelligible the conversation, seems to be the current vogue, along with background music that soars to be foreground music at crucial points, makes it well nigh impossible for me to follow without subtitles.

I suspect, John, that if we polled members of this forum we'd find a surprisingly high percentage using subtitles either all of or some of the time. Including us.

 

Apparently it's really common among younger people too (I'm talking Gens Y and Z) - because, it seems, it helps them to multitask:

 

"Among the many replies DG received were lots of teenagers and people in their early 20s who said they liked using subtitles because it allowed them to multitask."

 

Multitask?  How?

[Selbourne]

Day 27 - Monday 29th January - At Sea

 

After 3 weeks of mostly quite disappointing weather, we have thankfully now had a decent run and today was probably the best day yet, with calm seas, plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s. 

 

In spite of yet another clock change (forward another hour - now 4 hours behind the UK) we were up and about fairly early, so were able to have a light breakfast in the MDR prior to Margaret Gilmore’s second talk at 0930, this time on her covering the 7/7 attacks in London as a BBC journalist. 

 

Afterwards we did a partial lap of the promenade deck - partial because the forward section is still closed 🙄. We then retreated to our cabin and balcony until lunchtime. We had a window seat for lunch and my wife managed to see some more flying fish, which look a lot bigger from deck 6 than they do from our deck 11 balcony!

 

At 2pm the Headliners Theatre Company put on a 2 hour Alan Ayckbourn play called ‘Relatively Speaking’ in the theatre. This was a very welcome addition to their usual song and dance shows. Considering that the performers are primarily dancers or singers, rather than actors, they did a really good job. Well done them. 

 

Another partial lap of the promenade deck as the front section continues to remain roped off, which is incredibly frustrating and really messing up my attempts to try to counter some of the cruise calories. It’s such a shame that IMO Aurora has the best promenade deck in the P&O fleet yet, for quite some days now, it’s not been fully usable. 

 

The 7pm show in Carmens was comedian William Caulfield and, as mentioned before, we almost never find cruise ship comedians to be funny, so we skipped it. We didn’t bother with a pre dinner drink either. The Crows Nest always seems too hot and Anderson’s, which we used to love, doesn’t serve the drinks that my wife likes (the cocktail lists in most bars are a shadow of their former selves). 

 

We were back in the MDR for dinner at 8pm, hoping that our waiter will be in one of his better moods. Thankfully he was! One of the better dinners I’ve had in the MDR. Crab soufflé with a really nice shellfish sauce, chicken Kiev main and rhubarb and ginger crumble to finish, to which I added some ‘Honey Combe’ (sic) ice cream 😂 

 

The 10pm theatre show was the Polish violinist Isabella Zebrowska, who my wife hadn’t seen a few nights previously. Another exuberant performance although, as with many of the live performers, she was done no favours by the Aurora orchestra. The brass player isn’t good and the drums are too loud and overpowering on some tracks. Two tracks that I particularly enjoyed were the Summer storm sequence from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the Pitates of the Caribbean theme music. 

 

Tomorrow we reach landfall at last with our first of 6 consecutive port days. San Juan in Puerto Rico is our first stop. I’m doing a tour in the morning and then we will both be exploring old San Juan in the afternoon. 

[P&O SUE]

So pleased the weather has improved! Onwards and upwards!

[Eddie99]

I suddenly feel the urge to sing from West Side Story

 🎶 I think I'll go back to San Juan
I know a boat you can get on 🎶 

[Cathygh]

6 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Day 27 - Monday 29th January - At Sea

 

After 3 weeks of mostly quite disappointing weather, we have thankfully now had a decent run and today was probably the best day yet, with calm seas, plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s. 

 

In spite of yet another clock change (forward another hour - now 4 hours behind the UK) we were up and about fairly early, so were able to have a light breakfast in the MDR prior to Margaret Gilmore’s second talk at 0930, this time on her covering the 7/7 attacks in London as a BBC journalist. 

 

Afterwards we did a partial lap of the promenade deck - partial because the forward section is still closed 🙄. We then retreated to our cabin and balcony until lunchtime. We had a window seat for lunch and my wife managed to see some more flying fish, which look a lot bigger from deck 6 than they do from our deck 11 balcony!

 

At 2pm the Headliners Theatre Company put on a 2 hour Alan Ayckbourn play called ‘Relatively Speaking’ in the theatre. This was a very welcome addition to their usual song and dance shows. Considering that the performers are primarily dancers or singers, rather than actors, they did a really good job. Well done them. 

 

Another partial lap of the promenade deck as the front section continues to remain roped off, which is incredibly frustrating and really messing up my attempts to try to counter some of the cruise calories. It’s such a shame that IMO Aurora has the best promenade deck in the P&O fleet yet, for quite some days now, it’s not been fully usable. 

 

The 7pm show in Carmens was comedian William Caulfield and, as mentioned before, we almost never find cruise ship comedians to be funny, so we skipped it. We didn’t bother with a pre dinner drink either. The Crows Nest always seems too hot and Anderson’s, which we used to love, doesn’t serve the drinks that my wife likes (the cocktail lists in most bars are a shadow of their former selves). 

 

We were back in the MDR for dinner at 8pm, hoping that our waiter will be in one of his better moods. Thankfully he was! One of the better dinners I’ve had in the MDR. Crab soufflé with a really nice shellfish sauce, chicken Kiev main and rhubarb and ginger crumble to finish, to which I added some ‘Honey Combe’ (sic) ice cream 😂 

 

The 10pm theatre show was the Polish violinist Isabella Zebrowska, who my wife hadn’t seen a few nights previously. Another exuberant performance although, as with many of the live performers, she was done no favours by the Aurora orchestra. The brass player isn’t good and the drums are too loud and overpowering on some tracks. Two tracks that I particularly enjoyed were the Summer storm sequence from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the Pitates of the Caribbean theme music. 

 

Tomorrow we reach landfall at last with our first of 6 consecutive port days. San Juan in Puerto Rico is our first stop. I’m doing a tour in the morning and then we will both be exploring old San Juan in the afternoon. 

I've noticed the orchestra issues on other ships. On a behind the scenes tour I discovered that it's handled by the sound mixer and I think it is all preprogrammed in Southampton. Probably by the same person who makes the girls with nice voices screech instead of singing.

[CarlaMarie]

So pleased the weather has finally started to improve for you, and I hope it continues! Looking forward to hearing about your ports over the next 6 days. 

 

The play which they put on for you sounds like a great idea, and can imagine it was very much welcomed.