Report on Aurora Northern lights cruise Nov 2023

[Gettingwarmer]

3 hours ago, pete14 said:

not one chair I sat in was uncomfortable

I do find that on a lot of the newer ships I am constantly moving chairs in order to find one that is comfortable. They seem to chose chairs for looks rather than adequate seating, everyone is looking for cushions so that they can sit without lolling all over the place. 

[pete14]

9 hours ago, Dorset cruise fan said:

We loved the cruise too, with highlights of reindeer, snowmobiling, northern lights, amazing ambulance crew and getting to know Haugesund casualty dept

I knew nothing of the problems in Haugesund but we cut short our exploring of the town due to the patches of black ice on the pavements. I remember predicting to Pete Junior that there would be some people needing medical attention for falls. Were you on the coach that had the ‘accident’ on the ice?

[Beckett]

@pete14. Thanks Pete for your final thoughts on your cruise.  You've managed to give us a fair and balanced opportunity to make up our own minds about Aurora and the Northern Lights. I have to admit I'm tempted. Have a good day and thanks again. Jane xx

[Dorset cruise fan]

55 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I knew nothing of the problems in Haugesund but we cut short our exploring of the town due to the patches of black ice on the pavements. I remember predicting to Pete Junior that there would be some people needing medical attention for falls. Were you on the coach that had the ‘accident’ on the ice?

No, on the RIB. Compression fracture of vertebrae and yes, he did follow the safety advice.

[Megabear2]

53 minutes ago, Dorset cruise fan said:

No, on the RIB. Compression fracture of vertebrae and yes, he did follow the safety advice.

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you are okay and nothing ongoing will cause problems.  I assume it was reported and P&O are investigating wat went wrong on this occasion.

 

I wish you a speedy recovery.

[Dorset cruise fan]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you are okay and nothing ongoing will cause problems.  I assume it was reported and P&O are investigating wat went wrong on this occasion.

 

I wish you a speedy recovery.

We had to fill in an accident form

[pete14]

4 hours ago, Dorset cruise fan said:

We had to fill in an accident form

I hope he recovers quickly. No doubt the accident form will be taken seriously in any investigation.

[cluedweasel]

On 11/26/2023 at 9:42 AM, pete14 said:

Sorry for no update yesterday, the internet was down again. As it was sold to us as new improved internet, I feel somewhat underwhelmed by it although most of the time it has been just about OK. For days when it isn’t working, and this was the second, so 20%, it seems as though you have to report it to reception in order to get the day refunded.

 

 

We found that our phones got decent 4G data almost the entire time the ship was in Norwegian waters, even in the fjord on the way into Alta. Roaming was included on our £6 Lebara plans. A lot cheaper than using the shipboard Internet.

[pete14]

1 hour ago, cluedweasel said:

We found that our phones got decent 4G data almost the entire time the ship was in Norwegian waters, even in the fjord on the way into Alta. Roaming was included on our £6 Lebara plans. A lot cheaper than using the shipboard Internet.

Mrs Pete and Pete Junior were also able to use their 4G data for free, mine costs over £2 a day fee to get data etc for free. Having paid for the internet, I was determined to use it and of course if the Wi-Fi did slip into the maritime network without me noticing, my bill may have become very large.

[Selbourne]

33 minutes ago, pete14 said:

Mrs Pete and Pete Junior were also able to use their 4G data for free, mine costs over £2 a day fee to get data etc for free. Having paid for the internet, I was determined to use it and of course if the Wi-Fi did slip into the maritime network without me noticing, my bill may have become very large.

Pete - the WiFi that you had problems with on Aurora, was it the basic (Essentials) package or the higher spec one (Ultimate?). 

[pete14]

13 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Pete - the WiFi that you had problems with on Aurora, was it the basic (Essentials) package or the higher spec one (Ultimate?). 

It was the higher spec (ultimate one). For 11 nights, discounted on the offer and by Peninsular Club discount, it cost around £160. The daily refund for the two days where it was unavailable for many hours was £14 a day, which was about right. The main problem was the outages. It did run fairly slowly compared to home broadband but I did not really test it out by using it to do more complex things that require greater speed. Had I known that it was not the Starlink, I may still have bought it but may have been more greatly discouraged by the cost. Around half of the days on this cruise were sea days when onshore 4G was not an option.

[Selbourne]

34 minutes ago, pete14 said:

It was the higher spec (ultimate one). For 11 nights, discounted on the offer and by Peninsular Club discount, it cost around £160. The daily refund for the two days where it was unavailable for many hours was £14 a day, which was about right. The main problem was the outages. It did run fairly slowly compared to home broadband but I did not really test it out by using it to do more complex things that require greater speed. Had I known that it was not the Starlink, I may still have bought it but may have been more greatly discouraged by the cost. Around half of the days on this cruise were sea days when onshore 4G was not an option.

I’ve just gone for the Essentials one as I will only use it for email, Snapchat and web browsing. Hopefully it’s OK for that!

[Stokiegolfer]

On 11/21/2023 at 5:36 PM, Educator69 said:

Thank you Stokiegolfer for the camera information. Really looking forward to joining you in the Christmas cruise. If anyone wants to look out for the northern lights via Alta’s webcam then this is the link https://weathercam.kystnor.no/port-of-alta

we saw them on there when you did Pete.

Hi Educator69 I downloaded a booklet on Northern Lights Photography...capturetheatlas.com

 

[Educator69]

Thank you for this. Might bump

into you from Sunday.

[Stokiegolfer]

Will be going on the northern lights trip in Tromso. Hopefully meet up. Will be driving down on Saturday.

[pete14]

I hope you enjoy your cruise and manage to see the lights as we did. 

[Stokiegolfer]

Drive to Southampton on Saturday ready to board on Sunday - yippee 

[TigerB]

After being away for a little while I have just caught up. Thank you @pete14 for the blog, and also @RJHNorthyorks for your input 👍🏻👍🏻

A northern lights cruise has been on our radar for a long time and we are even more keen to do one now, be it with P&O or another company.

[TigerB]

On 11/26/2023 at 12:06 PM, Selbourne said:

You’re welcome. There’s also a land train and a sightseeing bus (both extra cost) but I can’t comment on them as we haven’t used them (I don’t think that they are wheelchair accessible). 

 

On 11/26/2023 at 6:29 PM, Winifred 22 said:

Sorry Selbourne I just don’t remember. It was a proper coach not a bus.  They were running very frequently with very little wait time. They may have had an accessible coach alternating. It’s a shame if they don’t as I personally think  it was a good option as I remember the train and  the hop on hop off bus were quite expensive. 

 

On 11/26/2023 at 7:51 PM, pete14 said:

I’m sorry, I can’t really help with disabled access to the shuttle bus. I don’t recall seeing one waiting as we left but there was one there when we got back. It appeared to be an ordinary coach. 

 

Transport for wheelchair users is available at Haugesund; details as per this post

As written, it appeared the land choo-choo only catered for a small wheelchair