Aurora Fjords 22nd June

[Mervyn and Trish]

A couple of nights ago the entire bank of forward lifts seemed to have gone completely bonkers. One was sat at deck 6 and refused to go anywhere. Another was just going 5 6 5 6 on and ignoring buttons. In the end we walked down three decks. Later they seemed okay. I think someone must have pressed control alt delete.

Another Headliners show last night. They really are the best troupe we've ever seen. Sadly for future cruises this is their last week before they go home. All the shows have been new to us too. We've also noticed that all the theatre acts have been musical so far. No duff comedians. I wonder if that will continue in the second half of the cruise?

We have one young entertainment host who is excellent. Better than the boss. They're the only two we've seen so far, but presumably there are others hosting quizzes etc, which are not our thing.

We went to a dancing session before dinner the other night, hosted by the dance instructors. They didn't seem in the same league as the couple who taught us on 2017 on Ventura. In fact in one of the sequence dances they were watching the passengers to see what to do!

We're noticing more dodgy interpretations of SMART casual as time goes on. One bloke had what looked like a donkey jacket in the theatre last night. And, I know this is snobby but....., some look like they haven't changed their clothes or washed since day 1. Maybe they have cheap cabins without bathrooms?

[Stephen]

We're noticing more dodgy interpretations of SMART casual as time goes on. One bloke had what looked like a donkey jacket in the theatre last night. And, I know this is snobby but....., some look like they haven't changed their clothes or washed since day 1. Maybe they have cheap cabins without bathrooms?

A Stowaway

[oldbluefox]

We saw a chap on Aurora who wore the same outfit every day and evening for the full two weeks. Probably the same chap Merv's seen.

[Mervyn and Trish]

A couple sharing our dining table may need one of Stephen's Compo forms. Their cabin is opposite a door marked Pool Equpment Room. Something in there leaked and water flowed out of the door and, due to a slight list on the ship while berthed, across the corridor and into their cabin, to a depth of 2 inches by the time it reached the balcony door. He woke from an afternoon nap to find himself paddling.

The good news is they now have a brand new carpet, but had to spend 24 hours in a lower grade cabin while theirs was dried out.

I have explained that Stephen offers a very simple No-Win-Large-Fee service. I'm sure they'll be in touch.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We saw a chap on Aurora who wore the same outfit every day and evening for the full two weeks. Probably the same chap Merv's seen.

We once saw an elderly woman in a tight fitting red leather cat suit for two weeks. Not a pretty sight. And can you imagine the pong by the end?

[Mervyn and Trish]

Another cut back we've noticed is you no longer get a paper receipt when you buy drinks. So you have to be pretty sharp checking your on board account each day to make sure nothing odd slips through. We've also had two instances on our dining table this week where the wrong size glass of wine was delivered.

Talking dining, we're not in any case fans of Freedom Dining and while I think it might work reasonably on the larger ships designed with it in mind I'm not convinced it works on Aurora. The ship was designed for two dining sittings, so on the assumption every, or at least most, tables are used twice during the evening. That capacity remains the same so once the first batch of early diners are seated in the Freedom restaurant, the Medina on Aurora, no one else is getting in for at least an hour. The result we've noticed is the queue for the 6 o'clock opening starts forming at 5.30, and is half way along the ship by the time the doors open. I really don't see the point.

[Mervyn and Trish]

What can I say? The Headliners show last night was brilliant. The last of their contract before they are replaced by a new troupe at the end of this cruise. Their performances were easily worthy of the West End, which is amazing considering that some were on their first professional engagement after training. They got a genuinely deserved and unanimous standing ovation. Not just the usual two people who leap to their feat automatically after every show. I hate that as it devalues the gesture. There were tears on stage and off last night.

As an aside, can anyone remember what the resident company used to be called before the Headliners?

[Mervyn and Trish]

Yesterday was a social whirl. First was the lunch for Caribbean and above loyalty members. The first we've been to since we qualified. Oddly as it is listed as Officer Hosted there were apologies in advance that no officers would be there. They can't have all been busy on the bridge surely! I did say to Trish that at least we are getting a free lunch, not like the rest of the passengers...... However it was definitely a cut above and free booze too.

Later we had another event. A drinks and canapés do for suite passengers, for which our mini suite qualified. More free booze and officers too. Had a nice chat to the Captain. He was a third officer on Oriana's Maiden Voyage and Master for her final cruise. I said that I understood she was becoming a little unreliable at the end. You could say that, he agreed! He did say that Aurora's future seems secure at the moment with a major Dry Dock refit in the pipeline.

[Ray B]

Loyalty lunches have not been hosted since Covid, and just maybe before although I may be wrong on the before.
Aurora does seem to have the best Headliners, we were amazed how professional they were on our last trip.

[Jan Rosser]

I’ve been to a few lunches since the pandemic Merv without officer hosts but it really is a lovely meal isn’t. Had some lovely “hosts” over the years all very good company. I remember being on a table years ago where the waiters kept topping up our glasses - we were the last table standing and I slept the rest of the afternoon

[Ranchi]

Curses…logged in & started to reply. Got distracted for a few minutes. Completed post, pressed submit only to get the dreaded ‘Need to sign in message’
And so…
A few random points:
Is the Capt. Simon Love?
Is it now fleet wide that Captain Speaking has been retired to be replaced by Captain Fred (or whoever.) Is that the US way?
We are just off Ventura and had booked fixed dining (as usual) but opted to change after 3 of the 4 couples on our table were affected by ‘the bug’ One of our table had a day off and then returned the following day only to manage soup and a dry roll. Not a good situation. We asked to be transferred to Freedom & I must admit it worked fine. We joined the queue whilst finishing dressing for dinner & (in all but one case) our table (2) was ready by the time we got to the MDR. There were people queuing but presumably they hadn’t booked. One improvement would be an audible notification that your table was ready.
Were ‘The Headliners’ previously known as ‘The Stadium Theatre Co.’?
Was their last show ‘Mr Tickerton’s’? We enjoyed that show.

Finally, at about 3pm the afternoon before sailing (we were already in Southampton) we received an e-Mail asking passengers who may have any symptoms of GI illness not to travel to Southampton . We were fine but it did make me wonder what the position would be regarding refunds if someone did pull out in good faith at that point. It does put a lot of responsibility onto the passenger to make a quick decision presumably without access to any medical support.

[Stephen]

We always just turn up and are happy to be just seated wherever, although we do specify a table for six which has never been a problem. Hardly ever have to queue either. Mind you, we do eat fairly early at 6 30.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The Captain is Russell Robson. Seems a nice guy. He's worked around a number of the Carnival brands including Princess, P&O Australia and Cunard, as well as P&O UK.

The Covid answer makes sense of the officers lying low, though less than it did a little while back. Seems to be the universal answer for any change anywhere in society. But yes the lunch was very good.

I do think Freedom works better on the bigger ships and using the App. We had no trouble on Iona but the queues on here from 5.30 don't look good!

I think you're right with Stadium. That sounds familiar. The last show was called Applause. Basically a songs from the shows show, but much more pacey than the very predictable and stale ones they used to do and included a substantial chunk from Les Mis brilliantly done.

Still no obvious signs of the dreaded Noro on here. Fingers crossed.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We did the Beach House on here a couple of nights back. Excellent and will certainly do it again in the future. We both fancied the Lava Rock steak but were worried about managing a 10 oz steak and two other courses (that essentially we'd already paid for). They very happily offered to cut one in half to have half each and only charge us the one supplement.

[Stephen]

The Beach house on Venturer we thought was dire. Food nothing special and the restaurant was hot as hell.

[oldbluefox]

For us there was just too much food. I had the steak and Mrs had the chicken. We lasted for two courses but had nothing left for a dessert. What we had was lovely but the portion sizes beat us. We would have been much happier with smaller portions rather than being over=faced and put off going again.
Good idea of Mr Mrs Merv to share the steak.

[Onelife]

For us there was just too much food. I had the steak and Mrs had the chicken. We lasted for two courses but had nothing left for a dessert. What we had was lovely but the portion sizes beat us. We would have been much happier with smaller portions rather than being over=faced and put off going again.
Good idea of Mr Mrs Merv to share the steak.

“Hobbins says. But there do seem to be changes to the stretchiness of your tummy that happen alongside aging that mistakenly tell the brain you're full when you're not, she says, leading some older folks to lose weight as they age”.

You need to give that brain of yours a good talking to Foxy….you could have got the pudding in

[Mervyn and Trish]

I could do with losing some by the time this cruise is finished!

Crisis tonight. Incoming theatre act luggage still at Amsterdam Airport. Ship at Kristiansand. Evening programme rejigged. I wonder if they'll get it back by Zeebrugge (that little known Norway port).

[Stephen]

Ask if they need any compo forms Merv. I’ll discuss rates.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I'll pass it on. For the usual commission.

Actually it's one of those balancing acrobatic acts and the Captain has said there is a front coming through tonight that'll make the ship move about a bit. So I reckon they've wimped out and hidden their luggage themselves.

[Mervyn and Trish]

A couple of final updates. The naff, in our view, comedian finally appeared. Maurice Grumbleweed. He wasn't as bad as we feared and others loved him. He was, however, very drunk when he went on and was very rude to one of our table companions who wanted to say hello but didn't want to buy his merchandise. We didn't bother with his second show.

And the reshuffle to cover for the acrobatic act's luggage not turning up resulted us in seeing the house band Pulse in Carmen's for the first time. Curate's egg. Instrumentalists good. Female vocalist okay when she warmed up after a couple of songs. Male vocalist pure karaoke, and his choreo attempts totally off beat Dad Dancing!

Good news. At the Peninsular party last night the Captain confirmed major refit next year and P&O committed to Aurora until at least 2028, with a further two years if demand remains high.

Chatting to a couple of of passengers in a normal balcony cabin established the nightly turn down we're getting is cabin specific, not ship wide. Still no pillow choc though.

Okay that's it. Off to do some ironing now.

[Stephen]

You get all the top jobs. Don't forget to peel Trish's grapes when you get back to the cabin.

[Ray B]

Ironing, is there no end that man's capabilities.

[oldbluefox]

Don't tell everybody. I'll be expected to do it next. My line has always been there isn't a laundry onboard.

[david63]

Good news. At the Peninsular party last night the Captain confirmed major refit next year and P&O committed to Aurora until at least 2028, with a further two years if demand remains high.

As we all know from past experience that does not necessarily mean anything as circumstances may change as could Carnival's view of the ship. It has also been known for a ship to have a refit in order to sell it or transfer to another brand.

Off to do some ironing now.

What's this ironing thing? Is it a new activity for Peninsular passengers in mini suites?