Selbourne ‘Live’ from Aurora’s 2024 Grand Tour

[Mollag]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I looked into it once and the best / quickest / cheapest way is with the RAF from Brize Norton. They have a couple of flights a week primarily for military use, but they take a certain number of members of the public as fare paying passengers as well. 
 

UPDATE - We are now on a ‘float’ rather than a cruise. We seem to have stopped but according to the navigation channel we are doing 2.5 knots. Amazing what happens when there is so much time to kill 🤔

I don’t think we’ve been told the full story Selbourne, I was walking the prom deck earlier and there was a lot of activity forward where the crew deck is, lots of crew with fire hoses and what looked like pumps to me, also I don’t think we’d just be lying here dead ship if they were trying to save fuel as we’ll have to speed up when we eventually move again the 2.5 knots showing is just the drift rate with the little breeze that’s blowing. 
The wind in Key West has been a steady 14-16 it’s with occasional gusts to 22kts I’m not familiar with the port layout there but that doesn’t seem too bad. I’m with you on the Captain never had so little information. I’m thinking whatever we’re lying here stopped for is the reason we didn’t get to Key West but we’ll never be told the true reason 

[carlanthony24]

Apparently you are due into New Orleans 20:30LT tomorrow.

[Bill Y]

2 hours ago, brian1 said:

Just make sure you don't have to HALO out the back with a bunch of SAS blokes.They used to midair refuel with passengers onboard not too sure they still do that

In 2018 we were told that they used to stop for refuelling at Ascension Island but they were having problems there so were temporary refuelling at Cape Verde. However they are still appear to be refuelling there.

 

https://www.falklandislands.com/plan-your-trip/getting-here

[galeforce9]

6 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I would love to visit the Falklands, but as we have bad luck with missed ports I wouldn’t risk chancing it on a cruise. Besides, I’d want a few days there. 

 

Up until yesterday I’d say that we were still enjoying it, in spite of the poor weather. The cancellation of Key West, along with the poor way with which the Captain announced it, has put a bit of a downer on things today. We cruise for ports and not sea days. The latter are just a means to an end to get to the ports. Four sea days in a row at this stage is not what we want or expected especially having woken to quite calm seas this morning.
 

In fairness, the daytime entertainment during sea days on this cruise has been by far the best of our four post Covid cruises and, if anything, is back to what we enjoyed many years ago (today won’t be, as it’s an unplanned sea day). By tomorrow we will have had only 5 ports in 22 days and one of those (Port Canaveral) was a waste of time due to my visit to the Kennedy Space Centre having to be cancelled. 
 

Thankfully we aren’t sun worshippers, but those who do are getting fed up with the weather. It’s become the main topic of conversation around the ship (that and the uncommunicative Captain). 
 

We are due to have 11 black tie nights over nine and a half weeks. If they could manage 11 enhanced menus then I’d live with that, but as it appears that they can’t  then even that’s too many. As I say, a black tie night with a bog standard menu is completely pointless IMO. 

We’ve visited the Falklands once on a cruise but before that twice using BA to BA then LAN ( now part of LATAM) from BA-Santiago-Punta Arenas-MPA (Falklands).  Not for the feint hearted!   The beauty of the Falklands is island hopping on the small FIGAS planes, the friendly locals and fantastic wildlife.  

[galeforce9]

22 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

In 2018 we were told that they used to stop for refuelling at Ascension Island but they were having problems there so were temporary refuelling at Cape Verde. However they are still appear to be refuelling there.

 

https://www.falklandislands.com/plan-your-trip/getting-here

Very often the air bridge as the flight is known can be cancelled/diverted. It’s also expensive and a really long flight on what used to be old equipment.  

[galeforce9]

3 hours ago, brian1 said:

Funny enough I did a dummy booking today.LATAM Airlines do flights from LHR with a few changes avoiding Argentina of course,culminating with a 2 hr flight from Punta Arenas to Mount Pleasant.1500 quid one way.Round about 48 hrs with layovers.

Hi Brian.  Don’t want to overtake Selbourne’s excellent thread but we’ve done this twice.  See post 

[Selbourne]

Just now, Mollag said:

I don’t think we’ve been told the full story Selbourne, I was walking the prom deck earlier and there was a lot of activity forward where the crew deck is, lots of crew with fire hoses and what looked like pumps to me, also I don’t think we’d just be lying here dead ship if they were trying to save fuel as we’ll have to speed up when we eventually move again the 2.5 knots showing is just the drift rate with the little breeze that’s blowing. 
The wind in Key West has been a steady 14-16 it’s with occasional gusts to 22kts I’m not familiar with the port layout there but that doesn’t seem too bad. I’m with you on the Captain never had so little information. I’m thinking whatever we’re lying here stopped for is the reason we didn’t get to Key West but we’ll never be told the true reason 

That’s extremely interesting. We also had the incident on the way to Port Canaveral  when there was a prolonged really loud noise at the back of the ship and smoke started rising and we stopped. Only those of us ‘pacing the deck’ at the time were aware of the noise and smoke, but we all stopped to look and couldn’t work out what the issue was. 

 

I’m also struggling to accept that we couldn’t have got into Key West today. Weather has been no issue whatsoever all day today. We are a small ship (without the high sides that causes issues with bigger ships) and were going to be berthing. Of course, the lack of a fulsome explanation from captain doesn’t help the speculation. 
 

I’m interested to hear that you feel the same way about the Captain. I tend to chat to people around the ship and on deck and I have lost count of how many people have mentioned this. He really does just give out the absolute bare minimum of information (in fact, I’d say even less than that) and seems to do absolutely nothing whatsoever to enhance the enjoyment of the cruise for passengers, as all the good ones do. 
 

I tend to recall that we have a change of Captain at some stage during the cruise. I can’t recall when it is, but hope that the next one treats us with a little more respect. We do pay their wages after all!

[Selbourne]

Just now, carlanthony24 said:

Apparently you are due into New Orleans 20:30LT tomorrow.

If true this would be fantastic news. I’ve not been there before but understand that the transit in along the Mississippi Delta, from the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans can take something like 7 hours? We were due to arrive at 6am Thursday and depart at 5pm Friday, so would have been doing all of the transit in and the vast majority of the transit out in darkness. If we arrive at 2030 tomorrow we will al least have the first few hours of the inbound transit in daylight, which would be appreciated by many of us. 

[crompton21]

2 hours ago, Mollag said:

I don’t think we’ve been told the full story Selbourne, I was walking the prom deck earlier and there was a lot of activity forward where the crew deck is, lots of crew with fire hoses and what looked like pumps to me, also I don’t think we’d just be lying here dead ship if they were trying to save fuel as we’ll have to speed up when we eventually move again the 2.5 knots showing is just the drift rate with the little breeze that’s blowing. 
The wind in Key West has been a steady 14-16 it’s with occasional gusts to 22kts I’m not familiar with the port layout there but that doesn’t seem too bad. I’m with you on the Captain never had so little information. I’m thinking whatever we’re lying here stopped for is the reason we didn’t get to Key West but we’ll never be told the true reason 

In December I managed to look through the open door into to that area, it appeared to be housing some shipping type containers that were being used for food storage.  Crew were wheeling away trollies filled with food stuff that had come from them.  I am fairly sure that I noticed that at least some of the containers had generators attached as I remember thinking that it seemed a strange arrangement.

[carlanthony24]

12 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

If true this would be fantastic news. I’ve not been there before but understand that the transit in along the Mississippi Delta, from the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans can take something like 7 hours? We were due to arrive at 6am Thursday and depart at 5pm Friday, so would have been doing all of the transit in and the vast majority of the transit out in darkness. If we arrive at 2030 tomorrow we will al least have the first few hours of the inbound transit in daylight, which would be appreciated by many of us. 

 

[Mollag]

33 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s extremely interesting. We also had the incident on the way to Port Canaveral  when there was a prolonged really loud noise at the back of the ship and smoke started rising and we stopped. Only those of us ‘pacing the deck’ at the time were aware of the noise and smoke, but we all stopped to look and couldn’t work out what the issue was. 

 

I’m also struggling to accept that we couldn’t have got into Key West today. Weather has been no issue whatsoever all day today. We are a small ship (without the high sides that causes issues with bigger ships) and were going to be berthing. Of course, the lack of a fulsome explanation from captain doesn’t help the speculation. 
 

I’m interested to hear that you feel the same way about the Captain. I tend to chat to people around the ship and on deck and I have lost count of how many people have mentioned this. He really does just give out the absolute bare minimum of information (in fact, I’d say even less than that) and seems to do absolutely nothing whatsoever to enhance the enjoyment of the cruise for passengers, as all the good ones do. 
 

I tend to recall that we have a change of Captain at some stage during the cruise. I can’t recall when it is, but hope that the next one treats us with a little more respect. We do pay their wages after all!

Didn’t know about the incident you mentioned, Simon Love is supposedly joining in Antigua but have heard several variations on this we’ll just have to wait and see, he’s the complete opposite of Robson always on the PA and visible around the ship although he doesn’t come across as very confident in his announcements but will always stop and talk to you on his rounds. Just been looking at the weather for NO and looks like heavy rain both days for there at least we got a couple of hours of sun today. Things can only get better🤞😂

[brian1]

22 minutes ago, crompton21 said:

In December I managed to look through the open door into to that area, it appeared to be housing some shipping type containers that were being used for food storage.  Crew were wheeling away trollies filled with food stuff that had come from them.  I am fairly sure that I noticed that at least some of the containers had generators attached as I remember thinking that it seemed a strange arrangement.

Did you see the present captain attached to one of them.Do you think he might be from another world.

[sogne]

50 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

If true this would be fantastic news. I’ve not been there before but understand that the transit in along the Mississippi Delta, from the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans can take something like 7 hours? We were due to arrive at 6am Thursday and depart at 5pm Friday, so would have been doing all of the transit in and the vast majority of the transit out in darkness. If we arrive at 2030 tomorrow we will al least have the first few hours of the inbound transit in daylight, which would be appreciated by many of us. 

AIS arrival times are usually (but not always) to  the port pilot station, in this at the delta.

[Selbourne]

Just now, Mollag said:

Things can only get better🤞😂

I’ve been saying that to my wife for almost 3 weeks now 😂 

[Selbourne]

Just now, sogne said:

AIS arrival times are usually (but not always) to  the port pilot station, in this at the delta.

 

Oh right. In which case the transit in would still all be in the dark 😔 

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

 

Oh right. In which case the transit in would still all be in the dark 😔 

Yes our transits were both in the dark, same as our transits to Quebec. I really like to see more of the river scenery when travelling up the river. The sail away from Stockholm was great going through the islands in daylight. 

[Selbourne]

Day 21 - Tuesday 23rd January - At Sea (Key West cancelled)

 

After the bitter disappointment at the cancellation of Key West as our 6th port of call, we ended up with a wasted day just bobbing around (quite literally) in the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 

After breakfast we attended the one thing of interest that was on during the whole day, a talk by William Joyce on volcanoes, which he kindly pulled together overnight. We then killed time in the cabin until lunch. 

 

As there was absolutely nothing of interest on during the afternoon we decided to have a leisurely lunch in the Glasshouse. I accompanied this with a large Jam Shed Shiraz and my wife had a Pazo La Maza Albariño, which she enjoyed as much as The Lane Pinot Gris that she’d had a few days earlier. Another excellent meal (it’s my favourite place to eat on the ship) and exemplary service, as always, from the sensational Dennis Reyes. 

 

I went for a cuppa in Raffles before steeling myself to do half a dozen laps of the promenade deck, partly to help the cruise calories and partly to cure the boredom. It was weird walking around with the ship at sea but motionless. It just drove home what a waste of a day this had been. Usual radio silence from the Captain, other than his brief announcement first thing this morning. 

 

Tomorrow we will have been on the ship for 3 whole weeks and, in all honesty, we have only had one port so far (Miami) where we have both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves from start to finish. 

 

Madeira was OK first thing but we got caught in a downpour and my island tour was shrouded in mist. Bermuda was very windy and by the time I returned from my tour everything in the dockyard area that the ship was berthed in overnight was closed. In Nassau it was a nightmare with the wheelchair and we both got absolutely drowned in the torrential rain. In Port Canaveral I had to cancel my eagerly anticipated tour to the Kennedy Space Centre as the Customer Service Manager wouldn’t engage with me on how to process my wife through immigration. Then, to top it all, our Key West call was cancelled for what seems like quite spurious reasons, given that wind and sea conditions were both fine all day.

 

Of course, we mustn’t forget that we also had rough seas for the first week after leaving Southampton and the weather has, on the whole, been disappointing! 

 

Thank goodness that we had a thoroughly enjoyable day in Miami and also that we managed to get this cruise at a cheap price. Had we paid the Select price I’d be far more downhearted! There are only so many times that I can keep saying to my wife “it can only get better” or “it’s worse at home as it’s cold and stormy” 😂 

 

At 5.30pm, having had a day completely motionless, the engines fired up and we started moving at long last, albeit fairly slowly. Needless to say, the sky was grey and it had started raining!

 

Having imbibed at lunchtime we decided against a pre dinner drink and just stayed in the cabin until dinner. Our Philippine waiters seem to have taken a shine to us and like to have a chat with us, which is both amusing and challenging as their English isn’t great, so it involves lots of smiling and nodding at what we think are the appropriate moments 😂. 

 

The 10pm show was Wayne Denton’s second performance, this time as Neil Diamond. Unlike John Denver, I know exactly how Neil Diamond’s voice sounds and really like a lot of his songs, so I went along with some trepidation. He managed to cruiseify a number of the tracks by changing certain notes and skipping pauses that are in the original songs but, leaving that and the cheesy elements aside, I thought that his voice was pretty damned close to Neil Diamonds. The talk in the lift afterwards, which always amuses me, was that he sounded the same as when he performed as John Denver, but I think that’s unfair. As I said yesterday, I’m not as familiar with John Denver’s voice but I didnt think yesterday that “he sounds like Neil Diamond”. All in all, very cruise ship entertainment but perfectly passable. 

 

As you can probably tell from my earlier comments, today has been the low point of the cruise so far, so we hope that our spirits will be lifted tomorrow on our 4th sea day in a row, at the end of which we will (hopefully) be entering the Mississippi Delta for our approach to New Orleans. 

 

P.S. Can anyone who has done the transit in and out of New Orleans, and watched it, please tell me if the whole journey is interesting with things to see (bearing in mind it’s dark) or is it mostly just fields etc?

[Eddie99]

Oh Selbourne, we’re currently sailing along the Tagus river about to dock in Lisbon.  It’s 7.36 local time, almost fully light and we’re nearly at the bridge.  It’s so lovely

I’m sad for you that the fates, and your miserable captain have conspired against you, to put a mighty damper on the majority of the first part of your cruise.  You’re right - things can only get better.  You have missed extreme cold and 2 winter storms at home.  You’re not having to do any meal planning, shopping, cooking or cleaning.  That’s all good 

 

Thanks for your continued interesting reports.  🤞 that New Orleans will knock your socks off

 

[Snow Hill]

I suspect the bad weather you had in Bermuda and Bahamas, may have well been the storms Isha and Jocelyn that we have endured over the last few days. 

[Goosebear Mum]

Hi. FYI, Key West is now very very anti cruise ship, they’ve banned all bar the smallest cruise ships, and many cruise companies have stopped going there, even ones with smaller ships than Aurora. I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘weather’ was an excuse for Aurora to not dock. Disappointing for you, I really hope ‘it does get better’, but it really is horrible here in the UK, weather wise!  

[david63]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

He managed to cruiseify a number of the tracks by changing certain notes and skipping pauses that are in the original songs

Why is it that some "artists" think that they can improve on perfection?

[Gettingwarmer]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

 

 

P.S. Can anyone who has done the transit in and out of New Orleans, and watched it, please tell me if the whole journey is interesting with things to see (bearing in mind it’s dark) or is it mostly just fields etc?

We watched in the dark on leaving New Orleans and, as I remember, after the city there was very little to see as the river and delta are very wide and in the night just black. 

[pennib]

Selbourne, you say you have not been to NO before. We have been twice, both times from Azura. By all means, have a tour but if possible try to get to Fritzells bar (I think it’s on Bourbon Street), in the evening (get a cab from the ship to the bar) for real jazz and amazing atmosphere. Even if the place is full they will get you a seat. When we went half the ship was already in. The pianist was remarkable, and people kept coming in and taking off their coats and then joining in with the music on their own instrument. Then after a while they, left but the in house band didn’t bat an eyelid. We will never forget that experience.  No charge to get in but you can get beers etc.

For the river transit, ours have always been in the dark which was a shame. I do remember passing the oil and gas platforms near the river entrance as they are all lit up.

[pennib]

PS. time for transit is about 7 hours as NO is 90 odd miles from the Gulf.

[Beckett]

@Selbourne Importantly, continued thanks for your still very interesting daily news. You're very good to put as positive a spin on daily events as you do.  After yesterday I'd have been inclined to write "nothing happened" and leave it there! Such a shame you've ended up with Captain Disengaged. I've been on cruises where the passengers actually looked forward to the Captain's daily musings, and where a roar of laughter could be heard on the open decks when he gave his daily address. This guy sounds like he needs a personality transplant!

 

I really hope things improve for you both and yesterday was the turning point. Best wishes. Jane xx