Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[zap99]

12 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Todays MDR me us

I like trout .🤣

[terrierjohn]

7 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I like trout .🤣

I am always worried it will be full of bones, so I could never enjoy eating trout.

[jh1809]

12 hours ago, bbtablet said:

or "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" (Camp Granada Song)?

I remember that in that song, when at the end it finally stops raining the protagonist suddenly feels a whole lot happier. Hopefully it will be the same for Selbourne.

[jh1809]

32 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I like trout .🤣

Me too, so long as it's filleted, as I see this was. So I'd have the tandoori for lunch and the trout and lasagne for dinner, and would no doubt be very full but very happy.

[TigerB]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I am always worried it will be full of bones, so I could never enjoy eating trout.

 

Me too, but I've had it about three times onboard and they've always been filleted properly.

[P&O SUE]

How lovely to see blue skies in your photos Selbourne. Good thing Lady S wasn’t on that bone shaking bus with you!

 

I hope your cold doesn’t get any worse and you’re soon back to full health.

[Mollag]

On 1/31/2024 at 1:04 PM, Malcolm142 said:

With plenty of port days coming up can you make sure you get the prom deck welding workers on it PDQ !!

Now the Crow's Nest A/Con we are less concerned about.

We are on Aurora on 12th March (R403N) to Norway, not sure we'll need the A/C at the North Cape 😄

To the serious issue of cutting out the cakes and sandwiches in Raffles....... can you and Selbourne stop eating them all and leave some for us LOL

Sorry to upset you but they hope to have the A/C diverted from the forward stairwell to the Crows Nest imminently only taken them a month🤦‍♂️, the welding works on the prom deck are done, even got the freezers working by the Lido grill for the ice cream things are looking up 😂

[Selbourne]

Todays dinner menu (apologies- missed the lunch one)

[Selbourne]

 

Day 30 - Thursday 1st February - Roseau, Dominica 

 

Well we’ve made it to day 30 and February. We have now been on Aurora for almost a week longer than we’ve ever been on a cruise before and still haven’t murdered each other (although with some of the towns that we’ve struggled around with the wheelchair, my wife may feel as though I’ve come close to killing her)! 

 

Another early alarm call preceded by another poor nights sleep, with my head cold not feeling as though it has passed it’s peak yet. There was no chance of getting to sleep early as, after many months (if not years?) they have managed to get the glass roof on the pool deck to open. This has been accompanied by a live band and ‘Music under the stars’ thumping out loud music until 10.45pm. I’ve no idea how popular this is on a ship of mostly retirees, but it’s not terribly welcome for those of us who, up until now, had enjoyed fairly quiet cabins and balconies. 

 

There were 3 ships in Dominica today and, quite rightly, Aurora secured pole position at the end of the pier in the middle of town. Mein Schiff 4, being a whopper, was relegated to the commercial port some way out and Seabourn Ovation dropped anchor and had to resort to tenders.    

 

I was booked on the 0830 Whale and Dolphin Exploration. Over the years we’ve seen loads of dolphins, pilot whales, beluga whales and some distant blows from sei whales, but I’ve always wanted to see some big whales up close. I walked to the tour boat, which was just a few hundred yards from where we were berthed. There were around 30 of us and we set off out to sea to look for whales. We first stopped around 6 miles out to sea and dropped a hydrophone to try to pick up a location. This indicated that we should move other 3 miles in a different direction which we did, but still no sign of anything. One of the young crew climbed on to the roof and shouted that there was activity a mile ahead, so off we went again. We had been travelling and searching for well over an hour at this stage. 

 

As we approached I could clearly see frequent ‘blows’ and then as we drew near there were three large Sperm Whales resting on the surface between feeding dives. We could see their backs and fins and frequent blows and then, after a few minutes, their backs arched, followed by their tales coming fully out of the water as they commenced their next deep sea dive looking for giant squid, which can last as long as 90 minutes. We were all delighted and then another, even larger, sperm whale was spotted nearby so we raced over to see that one. Much to my surprise, a small boat was by the whale with a number of people in the water with scuba gear on. You aren’t meant to go within 160 feet of them. Anyway, that one soon dived as well.

 

We then commenced a high speed run back to Roseau, accompanied by a couple of brown boobies who were keeping up with our (approx) 30 knots effortlessly and were watching for the flying fish that we disturbed. Quite a sight and an amusing end to what was another bucket list item ticked off. 

 

We had lunch on the ship before I took my wife off the ship to look at Roseau. Other than the market stalls, this isn’t as commercialised (or as modern ) as many of the Caribbean ports so appears quite authentic. Put another way, very third world.  Buildings in a very poor state of repair (and dubious construction) and dreadful infrastructure. As for ease of access with a wheelchair, forget it. We managed along the front but the rest of the town required wheeling my wife along the road with the cars. The pavements were poor and had very high kerbs but what made them impossible was the wide and steeply angled rain drains that ran along the sides of the road adjacent to the pavement. You couldn’t bridge all of that with a wheelchair. It was a scary and unpleasant experience for my wife so she couldn’t get back on the ship quickly enough!

 

The heat was energy sapping but I wanted to see more of the place, so I dropped my wife back in the cabin and went straight off again. I wanted to see the botanical gardens and, in particular, the school bus that was crushed under the baobab tree in 2008 by hurricane David. It’s still there. Thankfully nobody had been killed when the tree crushed it. 

 

I weaved my way back to the ship with a good hour or so to spare before departure. As always we sat on our balcony for the sailaway and the noise from the band on deck 12 rather ruined the tranquil experience that it usually is. Thankfully it stopped after a while. 

 

Prior to dinner I glanced in the laundrette and it was surprisingly quiet, so I got a couple of loads of mostly underwear on which I managed to get into the driers just before we left for dinner. I’m still waiting on a repeat of the service laundry offer before I put a load of clothes their way. The first load that I’d paid £32 less loyalty discount for (10 items) came back beautifully cleaned and pressed, so I don't intend to be taking tons of washing home with me. 

 

Dinner in the MDR (which was fairly good) was followed by the 10pm Headliners show - New Romantics. As I know all these songs by heart, I could unfortunately spot every bit where they had either ‘cruiseified’ the original or hit bum notes. Far too many of both for me to say that I enjoyed it but it was high energy and the dancing was better than the singing. Tomorrow is St Vincent. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2 by Selbourne

[Eddie99]

Thanks Selbourne.  What a great day you had!

The pics show it as a very authentic location - but plenty of sunshine

I don’t know if you have plans for St Vincent but I don’t think you and Lady S will find life easy outside the terminal.  High kerbs, deep gutters and stalls which narrow the roads and pavements 

Enjoy the sun

[Selbourne]

Just now, Eddie99 said:

Thanks Selbourne.  What a great day you had!

The pics show it as a very authentic location - but plenty of sunshine

I don’t know if you have plans for St Vincent but I don’t think you and Lady S will find life easy outside the terminal.  High kerbs, deep gutters and stalls which narrow the roads and pavements 

Enjoy the sun

Thanks. My research suggested that St Vincent was likely to be the worst place for a wheelchair. I’m doing a tour this morning so will assess the situation before subjecting my wife to it. I have a feeling that she might want to stay on  the ship today

[Fionboard]

St Vincent town is awful, but the cruise terminal is good, so your wife should enjoy that. 

[TigerB]

We've not been, but our daughter visited Dominica in November and her comments said it all: "nice people, interesting buildings, but dirt poor and definitely no good for you, mother".

 

I notice from one of your photos that the pavements themselves also have the drainage gulleys running from the property line to the kerbside; yet another obstacle for a wheelchair, and not exclusive to the Caribbean, previously having to contend with them in some European towns.

 

 

I would certainly agree with @Fionboard about Kingstown; to the best of my recollection, the pavements were so bad that we spent most of our time on the roads. Not a pleasant experience at all. Furthermore, Kingstown itself is not at all picturesque. St Vincent is a place where you need to do a tour to experience the wider beauty of the island but, as you know, that is impossible for our better halves.

[Purdey16]

What a colourful port Dominica was , I’m pleased you got to tick off the whale trip , that’s one of my bucket list to see in Alaska at end of May and get some good pictures of whales .

Hope the next port isn’t too bad for the wheel chair.

[Presto2]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. My research suggested that St Vincent was likely to be the worst place for a wheelchair. I’m doing a tour this morning so will assess the situation before subjecting my wife to it. I have a feeling that she might want to stay on  the ship today

The cruise terminal area is worth getting off the ship for on its own. We loved the atmosphere there ... it was our favourite day. We did an excursion though which was amazing but like someone has said the terminal area is fun. We envy you..:-)

[Thedonkeycentrehalf]

16 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Todays dinner menu (apologies- missed the lunch one)

I know you have been away for some time now but surely it is still either too early or late for Christmas dinner on that MDR menu?

[Selbourne]

Todays MDR menus

[Slugsta]

Selbourne, I am really enjoying your reports and am so glad that you were able to see the whales.

[david63]

I have to say, for me, I am finding the menus somewhat underwhelming!

[terrierjohn]

7 minutes ago, david63 said:

I have to say, for me, I am finding the menus somewhat underwhelming!

The choice is rather poor, maybe they could alternate the always available chicken with Salmon fillet.

[Selbourne]

 

Edited February 2 by Selbourne

[Purdey16]

Thank you selbourne that was perfect duo tails at the end together, couldn’t get any better than that so happy for you to experience it .

[TigerB]

Great footage.👍🏻  Just how far away were you? They look quite close.

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

 

 

Lovely flukes. Was this an ordinary boat or a RIB boat. 

[Selbourne]

Just now, TigerB said:

Great footage.👍🏻  Just how far away were you? They look quite close.

I think you aren’t supposed to go within 160 feet of them. I’m not a great judge of distance but would say we were a bit closer than that. In the clip you see the group of 3 preparing to dive and then two diving simultaneously with the third a few seconds later.
 

We then moved to a sole one that was massive (it looked like a submarine 😂) so probably a male. There were scuba divers surrounding that one. I didn’t film it but caught a snap of the tail as it dived. You can just make out the head of a scuba diver for scale.