jh1809

A week or two back I booked a 2024 cruise on Aurora to the Baltic, though I noticed that P&O now call it "Scandinavia and Northern Europe", presumably to avoid frightening potential passengers who are geographically ignorant. As others have said, Estonia is in NATO and I believe that following the attack on Ukraine Finland have applied to join. The unexpected stalemate in Ukraine, when I suspect that Putin was confident of conquering the country in a matter of weeks, probably has discouraged him from trying his luck somewhere else. And with so much of their army tied down in Ukraine, Russia probably don't have the forces necessary to mount another invasion.

No, they won't. But if passengers have been put in quarantine then word normally spreads very quickly. I think it 's much more likely that you will hear rumours of outbreaks that haven't actually occurred than not hear of ones that have occurred.

When I was on Aurora in Nov/Dec about 25% of the crew were still wearing masks and 5% of the passengers. I didn't hear of any Covid cases on board.

I went on Arcadia pre-Covid and quite liked her, though not as much as I like Aurora. However I was surprised someone mentioned the "dedicated cinema" as a plus, as when I was on her it was just a tiny alcove off the library for which pre-booking was essential if you wanted a seat.

On Aurora's cruise to the Caribbean in Nov/Dec, Sindhu opened for "tiffin" lunches on some sea days towards the latter end of the cruise. It might be different on Iona, of course.

Though you don't need to put luggage labels on your hand luggage, it might be a good idea to do so. Then if you do leave a bag somewhere during embarkation in a moment of forgetfulness, it's more likely to find its way back to you.

I imagine the bigger the ship the more likely wind is to be a problem, simply because the bigger the ship the more sea-room it will need in which to manoeuvre and so the smaller the margin for error.

Ah yes, that's another change post-Covid: no more specialist wine waiters.

Whilst I agree with his importance, I've never been on a cruise where the Chief Engineer made an announcement.

As something of an introvert, I confess that the free coffee was the main attraction for me.🙂

Oh, one other change is that there are no longer any port presentations in the theatre, though I believe there are still recording on your cabin TV. They also no longer leave leaflets for all the ports of call in your cabin.

One thought. It may be that the short segments only go on sale later, if P&O have found that they cannot fill the ship with people taking either the whole cruise or the longer segments. Just a guess, so it might be wide of the mark.

At least you didn't have to share the fizz!

I've never been on a P&O ship on my birthday, but I was the victim of HB once on another ship even though I hadn't let on to anyone that it was my birthday. I think the cruise company must have had a member of staff checking everyone's passport info to see if their birthday would fall during their cruise!

They didn't on Aurora when I was on her in Nov/Dec.

I don't think anyone has answered your first two questions yet. 1. There haven't been any radical changes to Aurora's fixtures and fittings in the last couple of years that come to mind. To my eyes she still looks it pretty good nick, though I'm not the most observant person. 2. Probably the biggest change post-Covid is that - in common with the rest of the fleet - there's no longer an evening "turn-down" of the cabins. I think that's so that the cabin stewards can be given other tasks such as waitering or cleaning in the evenings, thus saving money. When I was on her last Nov/Dec, pretty much all of the Covid restrictions had been done away with, the main exception being that there still weren't any cocktail parties - neither the captain's welcoming one for everybody nor the ones for the higher Peninsular Club tiers. I suppose those were viewed as potential "super-spreader" events. 3. Yes, the ship has the app. Its main use now is for booking tables in the speciality restaurants, though you can still do so by phone or by turning up at the restaurant and talking to them. I think it can be used for freedom dining in the Medina restaurant too, but as I always go for Club dining in the Alexandria restaurant I'm not au fait with that.

And by Nov/Dec, when I was o9n board, with the relaxation in Covid protocols on-board, they had stopped taking your cabin number.

Yes, it's sent by email now. It's a relief not to be expected to fill one in at the end of the cruise, when there's so much else going on. The downside is that my memory is so atrocious now that, by the time I get home and get around to filling in the survey, when rating the entertainment I struggle to remember which name goes with which act!

Since from your earlier post it sounds like you enjoy Indian food, you really should try Sindhu. Considering the quality and quantity of the food, it's very cheap - only a fraction of the price that you'd pay for as good a meal in any land-based Indian restaurant in this country.

There weren't any on my Caribbean cruise in Nov/Dec.

I've been to Stockholm and Copenhagen before, though, and the 2024 Aurora cruise includes quite a few ports that will be new to me, as well as the old regulars Helsinki and Tallinn (and Tallinn is so lovely that I'd happily keep on going back there).

I've cruised with both Noble Caledonia and Saga and, while both are very good, you're paying for that. I've decided that on the whole I'd rather have two or three cruises with P&O than one with NC or Saga. One advantage that they do have over P&O, that isn't mentioned in that table, is that they tend to have more interesting itineraries.

If that cruise on Aurora to the Baltic is the one in 2024, then I've just booked on it too. I've been on one |Baltic cruise previously, but this one has quite a few ports that are new to me too. It's not calling at either Copenhagen or Stockholm *unless my memory is going), which slightly surprised me.

I think the trouble with the bow is that if the ship is in motion there's likely to be a strong wind from dead ahead. I suppose they could put up a big wall all round the edge of the deck as a windbreak, but it would spoil the look of the most elegant ship in the fleet.

It doesn't have to be Gib. I've been on a couple of cruises that called at Ceuta instead, which made a pleasant change.