Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[Purdey16]

Selbourne have a wonderful cruise and hopefully good weather and enjoy captain Simon Love a very nice captain.

[Selbourne]

8 minutes ago, mercury7289 said:

recommend you say hi to Ben, Hotel and Catering manager

Thanks. Might have to look him up if we are allocated first sitting and can’t change it easily!

[happy v]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. Might have to look him up if we are allocated first sitting and can’t change it easily!

I hope you both have a wonderful time. I don't know if I will be able to follow it all, but will definitely look in when I can 

[Harry Peterson]

Sounds like an incredible cruise - made even better by its being an incredible bargain!  I hope you get some good speakers (we share a common interest in that, along with a dislike of potentially boring sea days without them) and the dining arrangements you're hoping for - with some interesting dining companions too if sharing a table.

 

Have a really great holiday!

[Peanut006]

Hope you both have a wonderful time. I will be following your posts which are always interesting 

 

Michelle

[SarahHben]

11 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Pre-Departure Introduction

 

Well here we go again, although now it’s time for something completely different! Tomorrow we embark Aurora for the longest cruise that we have ever done - 65 nights to America and the Caribbean. It’s a port intensive cruise (which we like) with 28 different destinations, which is as many as some much longer World Cruises achieve. This will be our 9th cruise on Aurora (our most cruised on ship), but our last cruise on her was back in November 2019, just before ‘you know what’ turned the World upside down, so it will be interesting to see what, if anything, has changed. Over the past 6 months we have cruised on Britannia, Iona and Ventura and there were big differences between the ships when it came to things like passenger profile and the usage (or not) of the MyHoliday app, so we shall see what Aurora brings. With a cruise of this length, I suspect that the vast majority of passengers will be retired and, of course, Aurora is an adult only ship. 

 

Whilst excited about the cruise, we are also quite apprehensive. Being away from family and home for 65 days is one hell of a commitment, and with our longest cruise to date being 24 days we might be climbing the walls half way through! Will it be too long and too much for us? Only time (and lots of it) will tell. We aren’t fans of long runs of sea days, but it’s unavoidable when it comes to ex-U.K. round trips to the Caribbean. At least with a cruise of this length the long outward and return runs are almost a couple of months apart. Fingers crossed for a calm crossing (the last few weeks haven’t been!) and some decent guest lecturers (our recent P&O cruises were poor in this regard). We stop at Madeira and Bermuda on the way out and the Azores on the way back. In the intervening period we have an intensive programme visiting the USA, Central America, a tiny bit of South America and many Caribbean islands. 24 ports will be completely new to us, which will be a novelty given that we struggle to find an ex-U.K. cruise now that has more than one new port! In fact, of the handful of places that we have been to before, only one (Madeira) has been on a cruise ship. The others were by air and many years ago, so will hopefully still feel like new experiences.

 

We only booked this cruise in mid October, at a price that was simply too good to miss, because it was a Late Saver priced at less than half the Select fare. We’ve always booked Select in the past, but frankly we wouldn’t have even remotely considered this cruise at the Select fare. We were lucky that somebody had cancelled a booking for their accessible balcony cabin at balance due date, so we snapped it up. We were told which cabin we would have prior to paying (and it’s a cabin we have used before), so by far the biggest risk of a Saver (poor cabin location) was completely negated. Having to pay for shuttles isn’t an issue, as there are only a tiny number of ports on this cruise where shuttles are needed or provided. CPS parking was only £160 for the 65 nights, which was an absolute bargain. The sole risk with the late saver is that we might be allocated a dining arrangement that doesn’t suit us. We will be fine with Freedom Dining or, depending on table size and (potential) dining companions, second sitting Club Dining but, for a multitude of reasons, we really don’t want first sitting. I believe that first sitting is usually the most popular choice for those who book Select , so I am hopeful that we won’t be allocated it, but if we are unlucky I shall be trying to change it on board. Watch this space for an update tomorrow🤞

 

I can’t promise as detailed a blog as I’ve done with our previous cruises, especially as we have a lot of port days, but I’ll do my best. For the first time ever, and primarily due to the length of time that we are away from home, I have bought an internet plan for the whole cruise. Due to various promotions and discounts combining, I’ve got this for just over £6 a day, which seems very reasonable. 

 

Finally, a health warning. I know that there are one or two regulars on this forum who consider the mention of things that aren’t right, or that could be improved, as being ‘nit picking’. Those folk would be well advised not to follow this blog. I’m certainly not setting out to find faults or problems, but where I come across them they will be mentioned. Equally, praise will be given where praise is due. I have always held the view that reviews have to be completely balanced to be of any use to others and that’s the approach that I always take. It’s also important to stress that, as always, any views expressed are my own (and my wife’s). Others on the same cruise may enjoy something that we don’t, or hate something that we love. Neither is right or wrong, but both are equally valid opinions. 

 

Our embarkation time is 12.30pm and as Southampton is only a couple of hours from us we shall be leaving home at around 9am, so as to allow time for delays and a loo stop. First update tomorrow from the ship!

Have an amazing time!

[Interestedcruisefan]

I predict you are going to have an amazing time

 

Where else would you rather be for the next 65 days?

 

 

[CaptainPedantic]

Hope you have an amazing time, looking forward to reading all about it 🙂 

[Son of Anarchy]

Have a fantastic adventure!

[purplesea]

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and calm seas.

Look forward to reading all about your experiences.

Enjoy.

[GOQ]

I will be looking forward to reading of your experience of a 65 night cruise.

 

So far I have worked up to doing about five 14 night cruises a year, my 12 year old dog seems to be able to cope with that. However when I loose poor dog, life will be a bit more lonely, so I have started making plans for much longer cruises. And reading the experiences of long distance cruisers like yourself will be of much help in my decision making/planning.

 

Specifically how will you be planning your days/activities and doings. So far my longest so far was 16 nights on Aurora and after a week I started to feel a little bit bored, but I thought to myself, this is much much better than being at home.

 

I will be following your progress daily on CruiseMapper.

 

Enjoy yourselves

Edited January 3 by GOQ

[indiana123]

 

I enjoyed your last honest and fair 'log' Selborne.  I am going to try to resist reading it every day and read en bloc every few days or so.  Looking forward to them.

 

Best wishes to you and Lady Selborne for an amazing trip.

[TigerB]

Wishing you and Lady S a very enjoyable, safe and trouble free cruise. As always, I will look forward to your reports.  I would like to make an appeal though ....more food pics please!  I know there a few on here that love them.

 

@mrsgoggins, also wishing you a very enjoyable, safe and trouble free cruise. As you also have t'internet, can we expect some live reporting from you? If so, don't forget the food porn! It would be interesting to see the differences or similarities in the menus from both ships.

[Caullkhead]

Have a fantastic time, thank you for taking us along with you! 

[mrsgoggins]

9 minutes ago, TigerB said:

Wishing you and Lady S a very enjoyable, safe and trouble free cruise. As always, I will look forward to your reports.  I would like to make an appeal though ....more food pics please!  I know there a few on here that love them.

 

@mrsgoggins, also wishing you a very enjoyable, safe and trouble free cruise. As you also have t'internet, can we expect some live reporting from you? If so, don't forget the food porn! It would be interesting to see the differences or similarities in the menus from both ships.

 

I may give it a go, but expect upside down pictures if I do manage it 😁. I've often felt I owe it to @grapau27 (and others) to join in with the food pics as I always enjoy them, but I'll have to swat up how to do it! 🥴

[daiB]

@Selbourne Perhaps you could wave as you sail past us. I do believe we are in Funchal at the same time. We may see you wandering about.

 

Gan Canny

 

Dai

[GOQ]

I have just checked your itinerary, I notice on 19th January you are in Port Canaveral. 

Really, please do the trip to "The Kennedy  Space Centre" , you will really enjoy it.

 

And even if you don't just take a look around the port as you are entering/exiting Port Canaveral, you will probably see a used Space X Falcon 9 booster on the dockside or a Falcon 9 recovery barge alongside your ship.

  

Edited January 3 by GOQ

[Selbourne]

Well I’d love to start with a positive, but it’s disorganised chaos at Mayflower. Arrived at 12pm with 12.30pm priority boarding. Still stood outside in the cold at 1pm. More later….

[Interestedcruisefan]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’d love to start with a positive, but it’s disorganised chaos at Mayflower. Arrived at 12pm with 12.30pm priority boarding. Still stood outside in the cold at 1pm. More later….

It will just be a minor blip in the bigger picture

 

I hope........

[Angel57]

6 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’d love to start with a positive, but it’s disorganised chaos at Mayflower. Arrived at 12pm with 12.30pm priority boarding. Still stood outside in the cold at 1pm. More later….

Oh dear. A friend is also meant to be boarding at 1230……😢

[Bill Y]

9 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’d love to start with a positive, but it’s disorganised chaos at Mayflower. Arrived at 12pm with 12.30pm priority boarding. Still stood outside in the cold at 1pm. More later….

Oh dear, it appears to be going backwards compared to May. Do they know that you are Priority? There was a lady walking up the queue shouting priority in May she told us go straight to the departures door where the doorman saw our boarding pass with "priority" on it and opened the door for us that was at 11:45 but I imagine on your cruise there is a high number priority boarders.

 

I too can recommend the Space Centre, DW also enjoyed it. Being the USA a wheelchairs will be catered for,

[david63]

33 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’d love to start with a positive, but it’s disorganised chaos at Mayflower. Arrived at 12pm with 12.30pm priority boarding. Still stood outside in the cold at 1pm. More later….

No doubt it is due to "operational reasons"😀

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, david63 said:

No doubt it is due to "operational reasons"😀

Perhaps due to cleaning up the mess from the flooding caused by the bad weather on the trip home to Southampton.

[Beckett]

@Selbourne and Lady S.  I hope you have a wonderful cruise and this "disorganised chaos" is, as ICF says, just a blip.

 

Happy days, good speakers and calm seas are wished to you both. Best wishes. Jane xxx

[gsmt47471015]

From personal experience the 65 nights will fly by , agree completely regarding the space centre , amazing place, We wont be able to keep up with your updates too much as we don't use the ships internet unless its absolutely necessary and we are sailing for 99 nights , I don't think we cross paths on either of our voyages but wish you both the best of times, even though I understand boarding has had a bit of a hiccup 😃