So we are on the way for our next adventure. 12 Days Norway with the ms Aurora of P&O cruises. She was the last P&O ship on our list that we had not sailed with before, and suddenly the opportunity popped up. Lesley managed a very good price so we are in one of the suites, called the Sunda Suite.  As is normal, we drove yesterday from Cromer down to Southampton, with the roads being unusually calm. Even the M25, the ring road around Greater London, had less mayhem than normal. Her Ladyship is moaning about the petrol prices which have gone up 30 pence since Trump started meddling in the Middle East, and with each hiccup announced around the Strait of Hormuz the petrol price goes up much faster than  it comes down.  But it will not stop us from cruising though.  This time no Cricket matches in the planning so all was quiet around the Hilton Hotel. It was irritating that a large Mercedes Maybach had blocked 3 car park spaces, while  with the Golf Club nearby parking spaces are always at a premium.  But as somebody left, I could slip in.

Today, we arrived at the time advised to us at one of the smaller cruise terminals in Southampton port. After lining up outside for about 15 minutes, we were let into the terminal for check in. P&O operates a priority system for their “Penininsula Club Members”,  which does not applies to us as we are in the lowest tier, but as we have a cabin in the one-but top cabin category it does applies to us again. So the flow through was very quick. Because you get your cabin -key-ID cards only at your cabin we had to go through 5 Boarding pass checks to get to the gangway.  Cabins were not available until 13.30 hrs., this also applied to the top cabin category, so  we had to wait in the public lounges or go for lunch. This is always irritating as everybody leaves their hand held luggage / trolleys all over the place. and in the walking paths. With some company’s you can go to the cabin to drop of your hand luggage and then go for lunch. Not with P&O, they had closed all the Fire screen doors in the cabin corridors. But we could do boat drill as its the same as with other company’s.  You go to your Assembly station, ours is in the Movie Theatre and then get checked off. Then watch the safety video in the cabin later and all is well in the world. So we had a little walk around and a drink in the Raffles Bar.

Note: For the rest of  the cruise you will come across a lot of names which are related to the history of P&O, either names of old company ships or lounge names after the founding fathers of P&O back in the 1830’s.   Raffles of course refers to Singapore, either to Mr. Raffles, the founder of Singapore or the Raffles Hotel which rose to fame in the days of the Raj.

The ms Aurora of P&O Cruises.  To appeal to the British market the bow sports the British Flag since 2014, but the rising sun logo on the is still there at the very pointy end. That rising sun logo is repeated  on the blue funnel. (Photo courtesy P&O)

The ms Aurora is a cruise ship that came into service in April 2000 and has a size of 76,152 Brt. and a guest capacity of   1878 in 939  cabins. This gives a space ratio of 40, which makes it comparable to the Vista Class of Holland America. She is one of the faster cruise ships still out there, with a service speed of 24 knots and a top speed of 29 knots. I do not think that the cruises nowadays are designed with that speed but to get to Norway from Southampton she will have to make 21 knots.  The ship being from 2000 makes her the oldest unit in the P&O fleet, and the reason that we wanted to get on board as I expect that she might be sold  in the future as P&O is concentrating on much larger ships. Her near sister Oriana, (of which the Aurora is an improved version) was sold of in 2019 to China (it is now called Piano Land) when the bigger ships came on line. At the moment her cruises are planned into 2028, so she might be here for a while.

Sitting area of our suite.

We have cabin B226 on Deck 10 this cruise which consists of a double cabin size, with a sitting area, dining area , bedroom area and then a bathroom with bath, separate shower and two wash basins. Very well laid out and with plenty of storage space and a walk-in wardrobe. Which is large enough for a long cruise but with not enough coat hangers, so we had to ask for more and were given extra metal laundry hangers as there were no more extra wooden hangers on board. Not something that really goes with a request from a top suite.  Apart from a cabin number, it cabin also has a name “Sunda” named after an old P&O ship which in turn was named after an island in the Indonesian Archipelago.

Then the deck has a number but also a name (we are Britannia Deck), so altogether is can be a sure recipe for a lot of confusion. The cabin numbers on Deck 11, also start with letters and are then in the 100 series.   So if you go somewhere, you have to give the letter and the cabin number otherwise they do not know if you are on Deck 11 ( with the letter A) or on Deck 10 (with the letter B)

Dining area of our cabin.

By the time we made it to the cabin, our luggage was waiting and shortly after the butler (Mr. Anoob) and the cabin stewardess (Miss Rachel) popped up, for introduction and explanation.  It is going to be interesting to see what the Butler function exactly entails as the P&O information is not very pertinent, but big on “could” or “might” instead of “should”.  Apart from a large cabin, there are not that many extra perks that go with a suite.  There is no Concierge Lounge but Breakfast can be taken in the Sindhu restaurant if you like,  and that other Room service menus are included, while for the other cabin categories you have to pay for it.  Toiletries in the Bathroom are by the White Company but you are warned not to the take the bottles/ left over contents home at the end of the cruise. You do get a hair conditioner and body lotion as a gift to take home though.

Our section of the dining room. The ship has 2 of them, the Medina and the Alexandria and we are in the latter. Apart from that there is the Lido (called the Horizon Restaurant) and the speciality restaurants, Sindhu (Indian), The Glass House (a sort of English Tapas lounge) and the Beach House, which is really part of the Lido, but has a separate menu with a cover charge.

The Medina Restaurant is the “As you wish” restaurant, and you get a beeper, or follow your line in the queue on “The App”. The  Alexandria has fixed sittings, with first sitting at 18.15 hrs. and the 2nd sitting at 20.15 hrs.  We had asked for a table for 2 or a table for 6 in the dining room. As, expected we got a table for 2 as it is more or less connected to having a suite. Tables for 6 can also be nice as you can meet a lot of interesting people. We saw during the first dinner, that the tables for 6 were not more than half full, so a table for 2 worked out better. So either the ship is not full or guests decided to go somewhere else, We will find out tomorrow night, which is formal night and the British tend to go regular dining then.

With the cabin came a welcome bottle of champagne, the real stuff and not chateau “Plonk” so with the canape’s it was time to have cocktails in the cabin. The Aurora departed from Southampton at 16.00 hrs. as it is a tight schedule to get to Norway on time. It was just too chilly to sit on the balcony (double size) but the full size windows still showed Southampton waters in full view, while having a glass of bubbly.

The ship has 3 lounges for shows, and the two main dining rooms. Then there is a plethora of bars and drinking area’s.  So we decided to go to the Crowsnest, overseeing the bow and thus similar to Holland America or Cunard.

The middle part of the Crows nest with the Bar at the back. The Lady in the center was busy laying out Arts and Crafts materials.

This Bar & Lounge is  very well laid out and comes with a small bandstand in the middle and a bar at the far end. To our utter amazement it was very quiet, maybe because it was a first night, but very unusual for a British Ship. But they had Craft beer on Tap, so I was a happy camper. So was her Ladyship as there was a large range of Gin brands to choose from.

The Crowsnest Bar. I have not yet figured out if the bar has a name but this is a “Half Model of the P&O passenger ship, the  ss Straithard, one of the three sister ships, which  maintained a regular intermediate service to Australia from Tilbury / London.

We have fixed sitting dinner this cruise, starting at 20.15 hrs. as this time makes it almost certain we will make the 2nd show at 22.15 hrs.  As not un-expected on a first night, First Sitting had run late and there was a long queue meandering through the Sports Bar, Casino and into the corridor. But once the doors opened, it went very fast. And so was the service. I hope that the waiters slow down a little bit in the coming days because this was not dining, it was just “Lunch break” eating. Three courses and Coffee/Tea and it was all over in  1 hrs. including the waiting time outside. The food came piping hot out of the kitchen, so there they must also there been working at a frantic space.

But it gave us time to back to the cabin to brush our teeth and then walk to the “Curzon” theatre in the bow of the ship. I estimate that it can take about 700 guests and was almost full when the show started. A very good revue show with a cast of 8 dancers and four dancers/singers.  The Cruise Director popped up to advise us that there was an hour forward and a sea-day tomorrow. We already knew that from the Daily Program and the card in the cabin but he confirmed it. With these sorts of announcements I understand that some company’s do not have the Cruise Director putting on & taking off the shows as it does not add anything to the evening.

So tomorrow we are at sea, heading full speed to Norway. Haagesund is going to be the first port and there is a chance that we have to tender. Weather looks very nice. Smooth seas, sunny and temperatures around 16oC / 61oF.