Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[TigerB]

Well, I haven't read anything on this thread since our lass was just a young lass of 59 years, so I've just had a binge session, and very enjoyable it was too.👍🏻

 

Thank you again young man for taking the time to post of your experiences, good, not so good, and once or twice downright ludicrous.  It can sometimes feel like a chore writing, editing and formatting photos, proof reading, then posting; and to commit to do it for 65 days is and enormous feat, and you should be applauded. But when you read the responses of folk who are genuinely grateful for the posts, and then share their own experiences, it really makes it worth it. 

I've been back four days and have still to edit and post days 11 to 15, so I really must get my @rse in gear!🤭  Not just yet though, as I am just about to snuggle up with our lass on the sofa, under our electric throws, and watch Napoleon.

 

 

[TigerB]

6 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I can well believe it. My wife had the hanging speciality seafood kebab in the Beach House last night. What did it come with? Yep. Green beans 🙄😂

 

Now, that is taking the proverbial!😯

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I can well believe it. My wife had the hanging speciality seafood kebab in the Beach House last night. What did it come with? Yep. Green beans 🙄😂

More like the hanging gardens.

[Selbourne]

Today’s MDR menus. Final Black Tie night. 

 

Edited March 6 by Selbourne

[Purdey16]

Pan fried tiger prawns for starters, fillet of beef and lobster for main.,raspberry soufflé, and then cheese plate please 😛😛

[Selbourne]

Just now, Purdey16 said:

Pan fried tiger prawns for starters, fillet of beef and lobster for main.,raspberry soufflé, and then cheese plate please 😛😛

I think that’s what I’m having, minus the cheese plate (I have the benefit of knowing what they’re like) 😂

[Purdey16]

But surely an improvement on a normal night ! Don’t you get Brie instead 😂😂

[happy v]

That's a lovely menu. I really hope it tastes as good as it looks for you

[TigerB]

1 hour ago, Purdey16 said:

Pan fried tiger prawns for starters, fillet of beef and lobster for main.,raspberry soufflé, and then cheese plate please 😛😛

 

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I think that’s what I’m having, minus the cheese plate (I have the benefit of knowing what they’re like) 😂

 

33 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

But surely an improvement on a normal night ! Don’t you get Brie instead 😂😂

 

That's almost the same menu we had on Iona, on our last formal night on the 29th. We didn't have the beef medallions and lobster claw on it, and we had lamb on instead of the venison. Also, probably being a ship with a lot of passengers who (he chooses his words carefully), if they were sailing with the White Star Line would be in steerage, we didn't have Taittinger Brut; it was substituted with Lambrini!🤭

 

I tell you what though, those prawn starters are really good, but are gone in two bites; I should have asked for two, or three!🐷🐯

 

Sometimes, the cheese plate just had a big slice of Brie on

 

 

 

Edited March 6 by TigerB

[jh1809]

Looks like the best dinner menu of the cruise. There are three main courses that really appeal to me.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, happy v said:

That's a lovely menu. I really hope it tastes as good as it looks for you

So do we 😂

[zap99]

7 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Today’s MDR menus. Final Black Tie night. 

 

That'll do nicely for me.

[Selbourne]

Day 64 - Wednesday 6th March - Sea day

 

We were pleased to wake to sea conditions that still hadn’t worsened. There was some noticeable movement at times but nothing to upset anyone. We’ve not needed to resort to Stugeron and our return transatlantic is certainly proving to be far less bumpy than our outward crossing. The added benefit of this is that our cabin hasn’t been creaking as it did on the southbound leg. Long may that continue. 

 

Paul Stickler’s morning talk was on the Kray twins, reminding people that the ‘lovable rogues’ image that some people had of them couldn’t have been further from the truth. After that we spent the rest of the morning in the cabin as I wanted to watch the budget, just in case there was anything that might result in me having to urgently change any plans. There wasn’t!

 

I’d warned my wife that we might have to miss lunch due to the Budget, but our final clock change doesn’t happen until tonight, so I was done with the budget in time for us to get to the MDR before it closed. We then had a short break before going to see the Aurora Vocalists (passenger choir) make their final performance in the theatre. 

 

This was followed with our afternoon visit to Raffles prior to attending Ben Kearsleys final classical guitar performance in the Playhouse. We are a bit confused as to why his final performance is today rather than tomorrow, given that he has been performing every other day and was only on yesterday. Perhaps they reckon that everyone will be packing at 5pm tomorrow. 

 

It was our final Black Tie dinner of the cruise. My dinner suit trousers were already ‘snug’ around the waist before the cruise and I had feared that from half way through the cruise we might have to opt out of black tie nights and eat in the speciality restaurants (where it’s always casual), but I can still do them up - just 😅. It was a Marco Pierre White branded menu but without his dishes highlighted 🤔. Having had plenty of meals on this cruise that sound great on paper but are underwhelming in reality, I’m pleased to say that it was very good indeed! We both had the tiger prawns starter and the beef and lobster mains. The lobster was tails (several of) in a cheese sauce. We’ve not had lobster before on this cruise so assume that they must have bought a batch of tails, as the rest of the lobsters are nowhere to be seen 😂. 

 

At 10pm we went to the theatre to see Cheryl Baker. Prior to the show there was a film shown on the screen with all the crew from this voyage waving goodbye to us. Nice touch. It’s a great shame that there won’t be a souvenir DVD for the cruise, but I guess that’s a negative aspect of not having  photographers onboard, as they used to do them. We had no preconceptions about what to expect with Cheryl Baker so had gone with an open mind. Oh dear. She started by singing ‘Baker Street’, which is a song which I love - when sung by Gerry Rafferty. She has a decent voice but decided to ask for the house lights to go up 3 times during the song so that she could walk off the stage and say hello to audience members and ask if they’d had a nice cruise 🙄. Once that was over she then proceeded to do a sort of slide show. Im sure that to a certain demographic it was all fine, but to us it was cringeworthy and after 10 minutes, during which time a few glances were exchanged between us, my wife said to me “do you really want to watch this”? My answer was a resounding ‘no’ so we left. Am I correct in thinking that she’s an act that people pay to see in the Limelight Club?

 

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the air con problems that have blighted the lift areas, the lifts themselves and certain areas of the ship (including the corridor outside our cabin) have all but disappeared now that we are back in cooler weather. I’m no air con expert, but I’m guessing that the system is unable to cool the incoming air more than so many degrees in these areas. If so, those cruising in areas with more ‘normal’ temperatures hopefully won’t have the issues that we’ve had on this cruise. 

 

The clocks go forward tonight to bring us back to UK time. It’s a long drag cruising transatlantic, but at least there’s no jet lag! Tomorrow is our final sea day and when I write tomorrow’s update we should be in the English Channel on the final run to Southampton. 

[jh1809]

"It was a Marco Pierre White branded menu but without his dishes highlighted"

 

Not being a fan of his choices, I would see that as a plus!

 

Wad this the Cheryl Baker who used to be part of Bucks Fizz? I was a fan back in the day, but I suppose that day was forty or so years ago.

[Selbourne]

8 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

"It was a Marco Pierre White branded menu but without his dishes highlighted"

 

Not being a fan of his choices, I would see that as a plus!

 

Wad this the Cheryl Baker who used to be part of Bucks Fizz? I was a fan back in the day, but I suppose that day was forty or so years ago.

I would agree with your MPW comment! Yes the same Cheryl Baker. She still has a good voice, but the patter and style of performance was absolutely dire in both our opinions. 

[Selbourne]

Well for those of you who have been enjoying playing ‘fantasy cruise dining’, I’m afraid that these are the MDR menus for our last day!

 

Edited March 7 by Selbourne

[TigerB]

11 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

 

 

On our Iona cruise at the back end of October we had an almost identical menu, but it was mid-cruise. Very disappointing it was too, with the only redeeming dish for me being the asparagus starter.

On the cruise we have just come off we had our 'last supper' in Beach House; just as well because the lad said the MDR menu looked very naff, and that's from someone who is practically a human dustbin.

[Megabear2]

9 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Am I correct in thinking that she’s an act that people pay to see in the Limelight Club?

Yes, and generally she is excellent.  Her husband Steve Stroud who was a guitarist with The Holies accompanies her (he plays with Cliff Richard at the moment!).

 

Her performances in The Limelight Club are not just singing, they are a mix of stories and events in her life and she actually is a very personable lady.  Even my husband enjoys seeing her although he grumbled like mad the first time.  We've seen her quite a few times on Britannia.  She is very much a people person and is very happy to speak to people outside of her performances.  Her charity work for head injury victims is something she talks about.

 

Incidentally she hates the song Makin' Your Mind Up but happily tells you it made her enough money to buy a nice semi detached house in the London suburbs!  

[FatBoy20]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Well for those of you who have been enjoying playing ‘fantasy cruise dining’, I’m afraid that these are the MDR menus for our last day!

 

Looks like the Chef is clearing out oddments from the Stores. Gammon & Mash yet again!.

[david63]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Well for those of you who have been enjoying playing ‘fantasy cruise dining’, I’m afraid that these are the MDR menus for our last day!

 

I'm surprised that there isnn't a green beam medly with a portion of green beams on the side - unless, of course, the chef has run out of green beans!

[david63]

3 hours ago, jh1809 said:

Not being a fan of his choices, I would see that as a plus!

I would tend to agree that his choces from the MDR menus sometimes leave a lot to be desired but if you ever get the opportunity to go to one of the Marco meals on Britannia in the cookery club then that is a totally different experience.

[Red Ray]

I can't see, hear or read about Cheryl Baker without rather unkindly chuckling to myself about her real name - Rita Crudgington.

[brian1]

12 minutes ago, david63 said:

I'm surprised that there isnn't a green beam medly with a portion of green beams on the side - unless, of course, the chef has run out of green beans!

No worries,guess what'll be in the biggest container on the dockside tomorrow.

[brian1]

1 minute ago, Red Ray said:

I can't see, hear or read about Cheryl Baker without rather unkindly chuckling to myself about her real name - Rita Crudgington.

She's a Bethnal Green girl like my mrs.

[Selbourne]

16 minutes ago, david63 said:

I'm surprised that there isnn't a green beam medly with a portion of green beams on the side - unless, of course, the chef has run out of green beans!

Our assistant waiter mentioned yesterday that there will be a Chefs paradise tonight. I asked him for a large bowl of green beans to throw at them. 65 days in and he’s still struggling with my sense of humour, although I blame the language barrier 😂