My view of Aurora 22/6/23 - 7 nights

[Angel57]

My personal thoughts on my 7 day cruise on Aurora 22/6-29/6

 

Arrived at 1140 for 1230 boarding. Waited in a queue outside Ocean Terminal where people had times ranging between 1200 and 1400. We were not segregated and so it was a complete mess when time slot was called and there were a couple of stroppy stewards. However once inside the terminal building, embarkation was quick and efficient and if I had arrived at 1230 all would have been fine, but for once the roads were clear and no queue at CPS.

 

Cabin C181 (balcony) - very comfortable, quiet, new upholstery, excellent cabin steward. Only negative was the balcony is very tired and the patio doors externally are literally falling apart, altho the new balcony chairs are very comfortable.

 

MDR - only ate twice as menus did not inspire. No issues though with Freedom dining in getting a table either then or at breakfast. Parade of Chefs back on final night.

 

Sindhu - lovely. Booked to eat there for the first night on day of boarding. It was fully booked by day 2 for the whole cruise.

 

Beach House - Delicious food. I thought the £9.50 cover charge was fair, but to then change on top for certain dishes it made it a little costly (eg - it was an additional £7 or £7.50 for the steak). This again was mostly fully booked by day 2.

 

Glasshouse - no booking required. Always turned up around 6.15/6.30 and got a table. Very enjoyable.

 

Horizon buffet - only had lunch here twice. IMO it was all rather boring and samey.

 

I had no complaints about the quality of the food at dinner. The beef wellington in particular was fabulous and it just melted in the mouth.

 

We only went to two shows - Applause (excellent) and The Lavelles doing Motown (very well received but poor imo). The theatre was full by 8.25 for Applause - booking not being used.

 

A friend was poorly whilst on board and the medical team were beyond amazing. They could not be faulted.

 

Dress code was pretty well adhered to (altho there are always a few…..🙄🤣).

I witnessed a couple of instances in the Crows Nest (on formal nights) when the waiting staff discretely reminded passengers of the dress code and that they would not be served. I also saw a man in shorts be told at 5.30, when dress code was evening casual, that they would not be served after 6pm.

 

Very few irritating issues - altho we did have a nearly 2 hr wait for a tender over to St. Peter Port in Guernsey so gave up. No apology issued for the delay.

 

So, a great cruise on Aurora and the experience was closer to pre 2020 than I thought it would be. 

 

 

 

[pete14]

Thanks for that. We will be on Aurora in November for our first post ‘you know what’ cruise and it is good to know that, at least last week, it was a good experience. 

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Angel57 said:

My personal thoughts on my 7 day cruise on Aurora 22/6-29/6

 

Arrived at 1140 for 1230 boarding. Waited in a queue outside Ocean Terminal where people had times ranging between 1200 and 1400. We were not segregated and so it was a complete mess when time slot was called and there were a couple of stroppy stewards. However once inside the terminal building, embarkation was quick and efficient and if I had arrived at 1230 all would have been fine, but for once the roads were clear and no queue at CPS.

 

Cabin C181 (balcony) - very comfortable, quiet, new upholstery, excellent cabin steward. Only negative was the balcony is very tired and the patio doors externally are literally falling apart, altho the new balcony chairs are very comfortable.

 

MDR - only ate twice as menus did not inspire. No issues though with Freedom dining in getting a table either then or at breakfast. Parade of Chefs back on final night.

 

Sindhu - lovely. Booked to eat there for the first night on day of boarding. It was fully booked by day 2 for the whole cruise.

 

Beach House - Delicious food. I thought the £9.50 cover charge was fair, but to then change on top for certain dishes it made it a little costly (eg - it was an additional £7 or £7.50 for the steak). This again was mostly fully booked by day 2.

 

Glasshouse - no booking required. Always turned up around 6.15/6.30 and got a table. Very enjoyable.

 

Horizon buffet - only had lunch here twice. IMO it was all rather boring and samey.

 

I had no complaints about the quality of the food at dinner. The beef wellington in particular was fabulous and it just melted in the mouth.

 

We only went to two shows - Applause (excellent) and The Lavelles doing Motown (very well received but poor imo). The theatre was full by 8.25 for Applause - booking not being used.

 

A friend was poorly whilst on board and the medical team were beyond amazing. They could not be faulted.

 

Dress code was pretty well adhered to (altho there are always a few…..🙄🤣).

I witnessed a couple of instances in the Crows Nest (on formal nights) when the waiting staff discretely reminded passengers of the dress code and that they would not be served. I also saw a man in shorts be told at 5.30, when dress code was evening casual, that they would not be served after 6pm.

 

Very few irritating issues - altho we did have a nearly 2 hr wait for a tender over to St. Peter Port in Guernsey so gave up. No apology issued for the delay.

 

So, a great cruise on Aurora and the experience was closer to pre 2020 than I thought it would be. 

 

 

 

Thank you for your personal thoughts on your Aurora cruise Gill.

I'm pleased you had a lovely cruise and it is good to get the opinion of a trusted experienced cruiser.

Sorry to hear a friend was poorly while on board and it was reassuring your friend was well looked after by medical staff.

I hope your friend is okay now.

Graham x 

 

[AndyMichelle]

Glad you had a good time Gill, thank you for reporting back. 

Andy 

[Son of Anarchy]

Thank you Gill for posting your views.  Looking forward to our return to Aurora in September.  Haven't been on Aurora for over five years, so good to read what she is like now.

[kalos]

Glad to read you had an enjoyable cruise Gill ,I hope you have as much fun searching 

out your next cruise .

[purplesea]

Glad to hear you had a good cruise.

[P&O SUE]

Thanks for this Gill, I’m on Aurora for the first time next year- was going on her in 2014 and the cruise was cancelled!

[paulatsea]

On 6/30/2023 at 7:44 AM, Angel57 said:

My personal thoughts on my 7 day cruise on Aurora 22/6-29/6

 

Arrived at 1140 for 1230 boarding. Waited in a queue outside Ocean Terminal where people had times ranging between 1200 and 1400. We were not segregated and so it was a complete mess when time slot was called and there were a couple of stroppy stewards. However once inside the terminal building, embarkation was quick and efficient and if I had arrived at 1230 all would have been fine, but for once the roads were clear and no queue at CPS.

 

Cabin C181 (balcony) - very comfortable, quiet, new upholstery, excellent cabin steward. Only negative was the balcony is very tired and the patio doors externally are literally falling apart, altho the new balcony chairs are very comfortable.

 

MDR - only ate twice as menus did not inspire. No issues though with Freedom dining in getting a table either then or at breakfast. Parade of Chefs back on final night.

 

Sindhu - lovely. Booked to eat there for the first night on day of boarding. It was fully booked by day 2 for the whole cruise.

 

Beach House - Delicious food. I thought the £9.50 cover charge was fair, but to then change on top for certain dishes it made it a little costly (eg - it was an additional £7 or £7.50 for the steak). This again was mostly fully booked by day 2.

 

Glasshouse - no booking required. Always turned up around 6.15/6.30 and got a table. Very enjoyable.

 

Horizon buffet - only had lunch here twice. IMO it was all rather boring and samey.

 

I had no complaints about the quality of the food at dinner. The beef wellington in particular was fabulous and it just melted in the mouth.

 

We only went to two shows - Applause (excellent) and The Lavelles doing Motown (very well received but poor imo). The theatre was full by 8.25 for Applause - booking not being used.

 

A friend was poorly whilst on board and the medical team were beyond amazing. They could not be faulted.

 

Dress code was pretty well adhered to (altho there are always a few…..🙄🤣).

I witnessed a couple of instances in the Crows Nest (on formal nights) when the waiting staff discretely reminded passengers of the dress code and that they would not be served. I also saw a man in shorts be told at 5.30, when dress code was evening casual, that they would not be served after 6pm.

 

Very few irritating issues - altho we did have a nearly 2 hr wait for a tender over to St. Peter Port in Guernsey so gave up. No apology issued for the delay.

 

So, a great cruise on Aurora and the experience was closer to pre 2020 than I thought it would be. 

 

 

 

Thanks very much for your report - nice to know that it all seems pretty good and like it used to be.

 

I am on Aurora at the end of August and then again in December.

Very much looking forward to it.

 

Was your tender part of an organised tour and if so did you get a refund ?

 

Thanks

 

 

[Britboys]

I had missed your original post so pleased I've now seen it and that you had a good time on the lovely Aurora. Also, always good to see that others don't find the current mdr menus very inspiring either. Nice to know it isn't just me.

[Astrajet]

On 6/30/2023 at 7:44 AM, Angel57 said:

My personal thoughts on my 7 day cruise on Aurora 22/6-29/6

We disembarked from Aurora yesterday having had an excellent cruise to the Norwegian Fjords and agree with your thoughts on this ship.  We booked both Sindhu x 2 and Beach House when we got on board.  The food was very good in both venues, especially the lobster dish in Sindhu and ribs in the Beach House. Mid-cruise we joined a virtual queue on My Holiday at 8pm for the Glasshouse and had a table within 15mins.  We found staff around the ship were great. The Headliners were very good and one show they did had virtually the whole audience on their feet at the end. Other entertainment was also very good.

 

Now looking forward to being back on Aurora in October.

[jeanlyon]

1 hour ago, Astrajet said:

We disembarked from Aurora yesterday having had an excellent cruise to the Norwegian Fjords and agree with your thoughts on this ship.  We booked both Sindhu x 2 and Beach House when we got on board.  The food was very good in both venues, especially the lobster dish in Sindhu and ribs in the Beach House. Mid-cruise we joined a virtual queue on My Holiday at 8pm for the Glasshouse and had a table within 15mins.  We found staff around the ship were great. The Headliners were very good and one show they did had virtually the whole audience on their feet at the end. Other entertainment was also very good.

 

Now looking forward to being back on Aurora in October.

See you on board if it's R319?

[Astrajet]

1 minute ago, jeanlyon said:

See you on board if it's R319?

It is indeed!  See you on board.

[Angel57]

2 hours ago, paulatsea said:

Thanks very much for your report - nice to know that it all seems pretty good and like it used to be.

 

I am on Aurora at the end of August and then again in December.

Very much looking forward to it.

 

Was your tender part of an organised tour and if so did you get a refund ?

 

Thanks

 

 

No we were going ashore independently. I think the morning tours got away ok, but there were a few anxious afternoon tour people pacing up and down!

 

[Angel57]

3 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

Thanks for this Gill, I’m on Aurora for the first time next year- was going on her in 2014 and the cruise was cancelled!

You will love her Sue. She is a bit old and certainly more traditional which makes her rather special in my opinion.

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, Angel57 said:

You will love her Sue. She is a bit old and certainly more traditional which makes her rather special in my opinion.

l’ve been on Oriana once and loved her. Especially the lovely stern which, of course Aurora has!

[jeanlyon]

Yes I just love that tiered stern.  Sit there often.

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, P&O SUE said:

l’ve been on Oriana once and loved her. Especially the lovely stern which, of course Aurora has!

If you loved Oriana, I'm sure you will like Aurora. She has a lot of similarities to Oriana.

[jeanlyon]

22 minutes ago, Britboys said:

If you loved Oriana, I'm sure you will like Aurora. She has a lot of similarities to Oriana.

Very similar.  Agree.

[tring]

3 hours ago, Angel57 said:

No we were going ashore independently. I think the morning tours got away ok, but there were a few anxious afternoon tour people pacing up and down!

 

 

Thank you for your comments on the ship which we will be on for 37 nights from the 27th of August and have been hoping it will be as good as the Caribbean cruise we did on her last November. 

 

Our first week is Spain, Portugal and St Peter Port, so a bit concerned about the tender operation, especially as we have other tender ports over in N. America for the following b2b cruise.  Can I ask if they were giving out tender tickets, which you can collect when ready to go ashore, or if not, how is the use of tenders arranged?  Also, can I ask what time of day you were hoping to actually go ashore and was there anything which made the tender operation particularly slow, such as sea conditions at that time.

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by tring

[Angel57]

8 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thank you for your comments on the ship which we will be on for 37 nights from the 27th of August and have been hoping it will be as good as the Caribbean cruise we did on her last November. 

 

Our first week is Spain, Portugal and St Peter Port, so a bit concerned about the tender operation, especially as we have other tender ports over in N. America for the following b2b cruise.  Can I ask if they were giving out tender tickets, which you can collect when ready to go ashore, or if not, how is the use of tenders arranged?  Also, can I ask what time of day you were hoping to actually go ashore and was there anything which made the tender operation particularly slow, such as sea conditions at that time.

 

Hi Tring,

The request was those going ashore independently in Guernsey either went before 0830 (and the tours) or after 1000 (after the tours). 
So, we duly collected our tender tickets around 1020 from Anderson’s and waited. They appeared to be only using two tenders so the process was slow. Because we thought there may be a similar wait to return we abandoned our trip at 1200. We noted our tickets were called at 1210.

However, since posting I have since learnt that the ferry from St Peter Port was quite possibly taken out of service at that time due to a medical situation. Now that is entirely understandable and if P&O had bothered to give any sort of update rather than just calling 80 ticket numbers every 25 mins, then we would have been more inclined to not give up.

People returning said the waiting time was reasonably short due to the ferry transporting once passengers again.

No issue with sea conditions.

 

[tring]

2 hours ago, Angel57 said:

Hi Tring,

The request was those going ashore independently in Guernsey either went before 0830 (and the tours) or after 1000 (after the tours). 
So, we duly collected our tender tickets around 1020 from Anderson’s and waited. They appeared to be only using two tenders so the process was slow. Because we thought there may be a similar wait to return we abandoned our trip at 1200. We noted our tickets were called at 1210.

However, since posting I have since learnt that the ferry from St Peter Port was quite possibly taken out of service at that time due to a medical situation. Now that is entirely understandable and if P&O had bothered to give any sort of update rather than just calling 80 ticket numbers every 25 mins, then we would have been more inclined to not give up.

People returning said the waiting time was reasonably short due to the ferry transporting once passengers again.

No issue with sea conditions.

 

 

Thank you very much for the reply, which is much appreciated.  It does sound like there may have been an issue beyond the ship's tendering itself, but agree that information should have been given.  Sorry to hear you missed a day in St Peter Port because of it.  

 

On our recent Arcadia cruise we were very frustrated that information was not given at times over the PA system at times, yet if they wanted to wake us up with trivial things, that was no problem at all.  In theory the sound did not come through to the cabins, yet it was so loud in the corridor that we could hear it all perfectly clearly and at a pretty high volume and our door was not that near to the corridor speaker.  One day we were woken at 8.30am by the captain just deciding to talk at length about a bridge (the long Danish one), then soon after, he came back, talking at length about a naval ship which was passing - it was not even one of ours.  Virtually every morning we got announcements soon after 9am as well - sales adverts basically, which could be anything from shore tours, to stuff being sold in the shops.  Then there was the entertainment announcement listing things which were on and were, of course, clearly mentioned in the daily sheet we had received the previous night, so totally unnecessary.  We enjoyed that cruise a lot, but I could have done with a lie in on the sea days.

Edited July 13, 2023 by tring

[gsmt47471015]

On 6/30/2023 at 7:44 AM, Angel57 said:

My personal thoughts on my 7 day cruise on Aurora 22/6-29/6

 

Arrived at 1140 for 1230 boarding. Waited in a queue outside Ocean Terminal where people had times ranging between 1200 and 1400. We were not segregated and so it was a complete mess when time slot was called and there were a couple of stroppy stewards. However once inside the terminal building, embarkation was quick and efficient and if I had arrived at 1230 all would have been fine, but for once the roads were clear and no queue at CPS.

 

Cabin C181 (balcony) - very comfortable, quiet, new upholstery, excellent cabin steward. Only negative was the balcony is very tired and the patio doors externally are literally falling apart, altho the new balcony chairs are very comfortable.

 

MDR - only ate twice as menus did not inspire. No issues though with Freedom dining in getting a table either then or at breakfast. Parade of Chefs back on final night.

 

Sindhu - lovely. Booked to eat there for the first night on day of boarding. It was fully booked by day 2 for the whole cruise.

 

Beach House - Delicious food. I thought the £9.50 cover charge was fair, but to then change on top for certain dishes it made it a little costly (eg - it was an additional £7 or £7.50 for the steak). This again was mostly fully booked by day 2.

 

Glasshouse - no booking required. Always turned up around 6.15/6.30 and got a table. Very enjoyable.

 

Horizon buffet - only had lunch here twice. IMO it was all rather boring and samey.

 

I had no complaints about the quality of the food at dinner. The beef wellington in particular was fabulous and it just melted in the mouth.

 

We only went to two shows - Applause (excellent) and The Lavelles doing Motown (very well received but poor imo). The theatre was full by 8.25 for Applause - booking not being used.

 

A friend was poorly whilst on board and the medical team were beyond amazing. They could not be faulted.

 

Dress code was pretty well adhered to (altho there are always a few…..🙄🤣).

I witnessed a couple of instances in the Crows Nest (on formal nights) when the waiting staff discretely reminded passengers of the dress code and that they would not be served. I also saw a man in shorts be told at 5.30, when dress code was evening casual, that they would not be served after 6pm.

 

Very few irritating issues - altho we did have a nearly 2 hr wait for a tender over to St. Peter Port in Guernsey so gave up. No apology issued for the delay.

 

So, a great cruise on Aurora and the experience was closer to pre 2020 than I thought it would be. 

 

 

 

Would agree with the charges in the beach house ,this is what happened with Sindhu , prices were raised and choices reduced , we have not used it since the changes , do still enjoy the beach house however some of the popular deserts have been removed. The only other slight problem we have with Aurora is the bed frame makes it very difficult to slide suitcases under it, we noticed in lots of cabins suitcases were stacked at the side of the beds or in front of wardrobes , we overcame this hindrance by lifting the whole bed and not zipping up the cases and they just, only just went under, other than that loved the whole ship

[Angel57]

1 minute ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Would agree with the charges in the beach house ,this is what happened with Sindhu , prices were raised and choices reduced , we have not used it since the changes , do still enjoy the beach house however some of the popular deserts have been removed. The only other slight problem we have with Aurora is the bed frame makes it very difficult to slide suitcases under it, we noticed in lots of cabins suitcases were stacked at the side of the beds or in front of wardrobes , we overcame this hindrance by lifting the whole bed and not zipping up the cases and they just, only just went under, other than that loved the whole ship

Ha ha. Yes, I agree about cases under the bed and did the same thing!

[tring]

2 hours ago, Angel57 said:

Hi Tring,

The request was those going ashore independently in Guernsey either went before 0830 (and the tours) or after 1000 (after the tours). 
So, we duly collected our tender tickets around 1020 from Anderson’s and waited. They appeared to be only using two tenders so the process was slow. Because we thought there may be a similar wait to return we abandoned our trip at 1200. We noted our tickets were called at 1210.

However, since posting I have since learnt that the ferry from St Peter Port was quite possibly taken out of service at that time due to a medical situation. Now that is entirely understandable and if P&O had bothered to give any sort of update rather than just calling 80 ticket numbers every 25 mins, then we would have been more inclined to not give up.

People returning said the waiting time was reasonably short due to the ferry transporting once passengers again.

No issue with sea conditions.

 

 

It is good to know that P&O are giving tender tickets though, rather than just asking people to queue, like they were doing for shuttle buses on our recent cruise.  We have been used to cruise lines which give out shuttle bus tickets in the same way as tender tickets.