Cheap prices on Aurora!

[MrsTW]

12 hours ago, wowzz said:

We have booked a Princess cruise to the Baltic this year (July). Both Copenhagen and Stockholm are included. Looks to be a far better itinerary than any offered by P&O.

The Baltics itinerary on Aurora this July is brilliant! Why we have chosen it. Princess was far more expensive. 

[MrsTW]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Just been reading elsewhere that there are no themed buffets any more on Aurora?  Used to love Indian night and also Italian.  Anyone confirm.  Sad if it's true.

I don’t think they are on any P&O ship. Who knows if they’ll come back. Like you we thoroughly enjoyed them. More emphasis now on the fee paying restaurants it seems.  

[wowzz]

14 minutes ago, MrsTW said:

The Baltics itinerary on Aurora this July is brilliant! Why we have chosen it. Princess was far more expensive. 

Not much in it currently. Cheapest balcony on Princess is £3800, £4178 on Aurora. Taking the 2 extra days on the Aurora cruise,  I guess that makes Aurora cheaper, but not significantly.

Aurora does become significantly more expensive when you go to higher grade cabins, I guess because there are fewer available.

 

[MrsTW]

42 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Not much in it currently. Cheapest balcony on Princess is £3800, £4178 on Aurora. Taking the 2 extra days on the Aurora cruise,  I guess that makes Aurora cheaper, but not significantly.

Aurora does become significantly more expensive when you go to higher grade cabins, I guess because there are fewer available.

 

We find Princess costs on board far more than P&O which have to be considered as well. Have sailed with Princess once from the U.K. but many times from the US. 
Hope you have a great time. Love the Baltics. Not been for a number of years so time to revisit! 

[jeanlyon]

1 hour ago, MrsTW said:

I don’t think they are on any P&O ship. Who knows if they’ll come back. Like you we thoroughly enjoyed them. More emphasis now on the fee paying restaurants it seems.  

Such a shame.  I don't bother with the paying restaurants.  

[wowzz]

11 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Such a shame.  I don't bother with the paying restaurants.  

Unfortunately Jean, there is no profit for cruise lines in the free restaurants.

[jeanlyon]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Unfortunately Jean, there is no profit for cruise lines in the free restaurants.

Agree, still a shame though.  I'm not keen on any of the offerings in the paid for ones.  Certainly not the Beach Hut.  Wish they would do an Italian one perhaps.

[Britboys]

4 hours ago, MrsTW said:

No this year. 
Not sure what your itinerary is but ours is super. Due to St Petersburg obviously being dropped, Riga and Skagen have been added. 

They are both very nice places.

[Fionboard]

13 minutes ago, Britboys said:

They are both very nice places.

Loved Riga. Like Tallinn on a grander scale. Skagen is lovely too. Wish they would do Frederica more. It is wonderful.

[Britboys]

4 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Loved Riga. Like Tallinn on a grander scale. Skagen is lovely too. Wish they would do Frederica more. It is wonderful.

I loved the contrast in Riga, with the medieval old town and the newer art nouveau quarter.

[jh1809]

7 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Just been reading elsewhere that there are no themed buffets any more on Aurora?  Used to love Indian night and also Italian.  Anyone confirm.  Sad if it's true.

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

[jh1809]

4 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Such a shame.  I don't bother with the paying restaurants.  

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.

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

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.

I liked the old P&O themed curry nights, very tasty and enjoyable, but I find Sindhu is far less flavoursome.

[tring]

On 3/3/2023 at 6:26 PM, jh1809 said:

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.

 

That 2024 cruise is an excellent itinerary, I agree too many cruises call at the capital cities, especially Copenhagen and Oslo.  We have not been to Kiel, Warnemunde and Aarhus and are very happy to re visit the other ports, so looked at availability regards booking it.  We pulled back though once we realised there are loads of available cabins.  The price is good for the itinerary IMO, but not as cheap as the one for this May, which is what someone said she had booked, so will keep an eye on it for a while but are hoping the itinerary is not changed because of lack of sales.

 

All this is very worrying for poor Aurora though, which is the only appealing ship in the fleet for us.  We cannot understand how such a good itinerary is not already heavily booked.

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by tring

[jeanlyon]

44 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I liked the old P&O themed curry nights, very tasty and enjoyable, but I find Sindhu is far less flavoursome.

So I've heard, so why bother.

[Britboys]

38 minutes ago, tring said:

 

That 2024 cruise is an excellent itinerary, I agree too many cruises call at the capital cities, especially Copenhagen and Oslo.  We have not been to Kiel, Warnemunde and Aarhus and are very happy to re visit the other ports, so looked at availability regards booking it.  We pulled back though once we realised there are loads of available cabins.  The price is good for the itinerary IMO, but not as cheap as the one for this May, which is what someone said she had booked, so will keep an eye on it for a while but are hoping the itinerary is not changed because of lack of sales.

 

All this is very worrying for poor Aurora though, which is the only appealing ship in the fleet for us.  We cannot understand how such a good itinerary is not already heavily booked.

 

It could partly be that a number of people booked for St Petersburg before Putin invaded Ukraine. They may have transferred to other cruises.

[tring]

34 minutes ago, Britboys said:

It could partly be that a number of people booked for St Petersburg before Putin invaded Ukraine. They may have transferred to other cruises.

 

Yes I assumed that will be the case, but shame IMO that P&O have not advertised those new Baltic cruises as they are good compared to many other cruise lines offer and I am sure more bookings could be gained with some publicity, especially as the 16 nights allow for more ports compared to the time spent getting there and back.  Also a great advantage for people who have to travel a distance to Southampton and spend a night in a hotel - no point doing that for a short cruise.  They are much better itineraries then those run of the mill Med cruises.

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by tring

[Scorpio41]

45 minutes ago, Britboys said:

It could partly be that a number of people booked for St Petersburg before Putin invaded Ukraine. They may have transferred to other cruises.

We booked this as our pre covid cancelled cruise deposit was about to expire. After the Russian invasion we stuck with the cruise as we no longer get off in St Petersburg. We just stay on and enjoy a very quiet ship.

 

As you say many  possibly moved to alternative cruises.

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, tring said:

We pulled back though once we realised there are loads of available cabins. 

Strange decision if I may say so. 

Many people are not booking too far ahead due to economic issues. 

People are reluctant to book too far ahead. If you can afford to put a deposit down on a 2024 cruise, why not ?

Are you only going to book cruises where only a handful of cabins are available ?

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I liked the old P&O themed curry nights, very tasty and enjoyable, but I find Sindhu is far less flavoursome.

But Sindhu is an Indian fusion restaurant.  It is not your typical Vindaloo and lager sort of place.

As such, I think it is an excellent experience.

But, I have no experience of the themed curry nights,  so can't comment on the comparison.

 

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Britboys said:

It could partly be that a number of people booked for St Petersburg before Putin invaded Ukraine. They may have transferred to other cruises.

I booked a Baltic cruise, our 3rd,  even though I didn't really fancy having to spend 2 days in SPB. So I was reasonably happy to see it cancelled, but less happy that it wasn't replaced with at least one other port, but Stockholm and Copenhagen were to become 2 day ports instead, leaving only 5 ports in total. So I was not unhappy that P&O cancelled the cruise, and we accepted the refunded deposit, and managed to book a Princess Baltic cruise with 9 ports, 4 of them new to us.

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

Yes I assumed that will be the case, but shame IMO that P&O have not advertised those new Baltic cruises as they are good compared to many other cruise lines offer and I am sure more bookings could be gained with some publicity, especially as the 16 nights allow for more ports compared to the time spent getting there and back.  Also a great advantage for people who have to travel a distance to Southampton and spend a night in a hotel - no point doing that for a short cruise.  They are much better itineraries then those run of the mill Med cruises.

 

As you may have gathered,  we are on  Princess cruise to the Baltic this July. Nine ports in a fourteen day cruise,  and, it would appear that the cruise is virtually sold out.

I agree that P&O may not be pushing these cruises enough. But, many of the passengers on our cruise are Americans,  which may explain the high occupancy rate.

A slight thread drift, but why does P&O make it difficult for Americans,  Canadians,  Australians  etc to book with them, whereas Princess accept bookings from everyone ?

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I booked a Baltic cruise, our 3rd,  even though I didn't really fancy having to spend 2 days in SPB. So I was reasonably happy to see it cancelled, but less happy that it wasn't replaced with at least one other port, but Stockholm and Copenhagen were to become 2 day ports instead, leaving only 5 ports in total. So I was not unhappy that P&O cancelled the cruise, and we accepted the refunded deposit, and managed to book a Princess Baltic cruise with 9 ports, 4 of them new to us.

Lets face it John, you knew I was on the same Princess cruise, so you knew you had to book it !

[terrierjohn]

8 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But Sindhu is an Indian fusion restaurant.  It is not your typical Vindaloo and lager sort of place.

As such, I think it is an excellent experience.

But, I have no experience of the themed curry nights,  so can't comment on the comparison.

 

I am not a hot curry and lager lover either, but I do expect a speciality restaurant to excite my taste buds, which both Sindhu and Epicurean have failed lamentably on our last 3 cruises. Had it not been for the ridiculously high OBC we enjoyed on this cruise, then we probably would not have bothered with either.  However the Beach House and Olive grove, as well as several of the MDR meals were tasty and enjoyable

[terrierjohn]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Lets face it John, you knew I was on the same Princess cruise, so you knew you had to book it !

Come come Wowzz, you know that you only booked after me, and after I told you what an excellent itinerary it had.