AdeAfloat

Machu Picchu. Just picked up on this one and wanted to say that yes, it's a pricey tour from P&O's South American trip but it was very good value and an excellent tour. I recall it was £2500 pp for which you can probably do a two week holiday from the UK but not in the style that P&O did it. But it is odd going on holiday - from a holiday! We left the ship early after our arrival in Lima and flew to Cusco. The first day was spent checking into the Monasteria hotel in the centre of town - a Belmond hotel converted from an old monastery. All rooms had supplementary oxygen pumped into them 24/7 and there was even a magnificent chapel in the hotel. We were then split into small groups with our own guide and minibus and the afternoon was spent touring local Inca sights. The quality of our guide was excellent throughout - in our group no one suffered from altitude sickness though some did. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to who would be affected. My wife is asthmatic but didn't suffer at all. A superb evening meal in the main (El Tupay) restaurant complete with fine wines and opera singer!

Day 2 was the long one. A long drive to join the train at Ollantaytambo and the railhead for journeys to Machu Picchu. We had seats on the IncaRail Pullman train which fed us and entertained us throughout the spectacular journey. A little more upmarket than the PeruRail trains that provide the main rail services. A hair raising bus ride up to Machu Picchu itself - then a dramatic entrance into the site for a superb experience. We got 'home' very late but then a third  busy day afterwards looking at the main sights of Cusco itself.

The flight to Quito for an overnight in the capital of Ecuador and the long coach journey to re-join Aurora in Manta filled the last days and fortunately there were then a couple of sea days in which to recover!

The price/value equation is a personal one but we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The ship's Tours Manager escorted us throughout and we discussed the cost. She said that we could have done it for maybe £800-£1000 pp less but it would have been a very much more down-market experience and we agreed. If you going to do something like that it must be a bucket-list trip and therefore worth doing in style! Others with us had done the Iguazu falls tour earlier in the cruise too so they obviously felt the same.

If anyone cares to read my review of the whole cruise it is under the Aurora ship reviews as 

Aurora Cruise Ship: Review, Photos & Departure Ports on Cruise Critic

I'm impressed with the number of level headed views being expressed on the subject of the new P&O alcohol policy. I think its quite true that those of us who have been cruising for a few years may not really be aware of the way the market is changing - and the cruise lines have to change with it. You only have to look at the increasing size of ships capable of delivering greater economies of scale to see this. I recall a Celebrity manager hosting us around one of their ships on a Southampton visit a while ago reminding us that "As long as our passengers want a cruise for £999, we'll have to keep trimming our offering all the time"'. Many of our cruises are long distance (50 days plus) to escape the British winter and they are very different to the usual one or two weeks (which we also enjoy). On the latter the passengers are usually younger, more energetic and liberal with their cash whilst on the former, the passengers are often older, more well-travelled ("We won't go ashore today Deidre, we've been here 10 times") and more cost conscious. That's not to say we haven't made lifelong friends and had great times - that's why we do it. The impact of the new P&O alcohol policy will be on the cabin 'party culture' which is a characteristic of longer cruises. Many evenings we are hosting friends in our cabin or drinking with others and the ability to bring cheaper drink aboard for this purpose is a real advantage. P&O have hitherto encouraged this by often issuing vouchers for passengers to buy a litre of spirits for in-cabin consumption in the shops every three weeks or so. None of this stops us drinking in the bars. But the world is changing and I'm not surprised that the policy is being tightened up. What I am rather annoyed about is the haphazard way it is being introduced. Usually such a policy would be introduced at the end of a cruise after a particular date as I think happened with smoking on balconies a few years ago. Starting a new policy on 1 February, which is halfway through a long cruise starting on 3 January, leaves too much room for confusion. No doubt some people will push their luck by trying to bring on gallons of alcohol at Southampton which may end in confrontation and angry scenes. Not a great start to anyone's holiday. And if they succeed - well, one characteristic of the regular P&O passenger is that they hate someone getting something more than they are! Maybe other things need attention , like rewarding loyalty for the money spent on the cruise rather than the number of nights aboard which can raise huge anomalies. I'm sure we'll happily cruise with P&O in the new circumstances but we will continue to cruise with companies who offer a more inclusive package - only if they spend more time at sea!!

Whilst commiserating with the need to evacuate the cabin in the stern of the ship we were given a sensible explanation when it happened to us on a recent cruise to Iceland in Arcadia. Having been on Fred Olsen ships in the past when helivacs occurred, I was always surprised that a large flying machine, usually with hundreds of litres of high octane fuel aboard, was allowed to hover over dozens of gawping passengers. The thought of what might happen in the event of it crashing on the ship was appalling. Thankfully P&O, and no doubt Fred, now ensure that the implications of this happening are minimised by evacuation.