September 2024. My parents in law have been wanting to go on a cruise for a while now but didn’t feel like going on their own so they tagged along with Sam and I. My father in law’s ultimate destination would be the Norwegian Fjords, combined with the new that soon-ish cruises to the Fjords would be limited (and thus price sky-rocketing) we decided to cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. Considering I have to take time off at work outside of major school holidays we were looking at September-October, combined with my wish to cruise for longer than a week we ended up with a P&O cruise out of Southampton.
The P&O Aurora is currently the oldest and smallest ship in the P&O Cruises fleet. She entered service in April 2000 and was built by Meyer Werft in Papenburg in Germany. Its smaller size of up to 1878 passengers means it offers less amenities than the big modern cruise ships but it enables her to cruise to spots where the bigger ships can’t come.
As it is converted into an adults-only ship it mostly caters to an older public, less in need of lots of amenities but focusing more on the destinations offered.
The main reason we sailed on her is that she offered a sailing to the Norwegian Fjords with an entrance deep into several fjords that other ships didn’t or couldn’t offer. We made visits to Haugesund, Skjolden, Ålesund, Trondheim, Andalsnes, Nordfjordeid, Eidfjord and Stavanger. In a separate article I will write mote about our voyage to and in Norway.
Despite her age we remarked that she was mostly in a good condition, well maintained and cleaned. We had the bad luck of having a thermostatic tap at our bath not functioning properly, but this was mostly fixed after the plumber replaced it after 3 interventions. My parents in law discovered a whole ring of mold in their shower upon embarking but this was fixed on the second day of sailing (which should have been fixed before sailing, but better late than never).
The biggest issue we had on the ship was that some staff was completely clueless about what they were doing and didn’t give one fuck about their guests. Luckily there was plenty of well-trained and well-intentioned staff that did their jobs with pride and passion. It’s probably still a corona remnant that they laid off good staff and had trouble replacing them with new staff after the pandemic, but it’s about time that those last wrinkles should be ironed out.
Beginning on Deck 5 this is where you would find the reception at the bottom of the atrium and the wonderful elegant staircase. This is also where the photographers would take your picture on gala nights. The remainder of the deck is used for cabins and a free to use launderette for guest at the front of the ship (don’t forget to bring your own detergent though!).
On Deck 6 you could find both main dining rooms, Alexandria at the rear for the fixed time diners and Medina at mid-ship for the flexible diners. Around the atrium you could find some shops that compared to other cruise lines had relatively moderate pricing and tricked Sam into buying all sort of items. On this deck my parents in law also had their sea-view cabin.
Deck 7 sported the fully wrap around promenade deck, which you could walk your rounds of the ship on in case you needed some exercise. Deck 7 also hosted a lot of the ships venues. In the front there was the Curzon Theatre, offering all kinds of shows from theatre productions, singers and comedians.
Right behind the theatre was Anderson’s the more upscale bar, offering a wide array of fancy gins (all outside of the drinks package of course) and a fancy tranquil place to have a drink at night.
Around the atrium where again some more shops before passing by Masquerade on one side of the ship. This venue was used as a night club at night but throughout the day you could see other entertainment like quizzes taking place here.
Passing through the art gallery you ended up at the small casino (fully non-smoking!) and the Champions sports bar.
At the tail end of deck 7 there was Carmen’s a bar and show-lounge where there was a musical performance every night. Sometimes this was very popular and you couldn’t find a place to sit, on other nights the singers performed so badly that people left during the show and the venue was empty.
Deck 8 mostly contained cabins at the front side, around the atrium the common areas started with the Sindhu Indian Speciality restaurant and the Raffles bar.
This was followed up by Vanderbilt’s, a card and game room. This gave you a quiet and tranquil environment to play some games, especially loved by the older clientele.
Next door was The Playhouse, the onboard cinema. Screening several different films throughout the journey. Here you would also pass through the photo gallery where you could watch the pictures that where taken of you on the touch screens and order any that you would like to take home.
Further up was The Glass House, a wine bar that also acted as a pseudo speciality restaurant at night when you could order pub food for a fee.
After passing through a short cabin filled hallway you ended up at the rear of the ship with a breath-taking panoramic view of the wake. Here you would also find the outside terrace pool and two jacuzzis along with the Terrace Bar, which was unfortunately closed throughout our entire journey.
Despite the awesome scenery that could be had from this pool we never swam here as the water was kept very cold in between 16 to 18 degrees Celsius, which with autumn temperatures outside was too cold for us to plunge in the pool. Of the two jacuzzis only was moderately warm while the other was also cold. Of course the single warm jacuzzi was a favourite gathering spot on sail-outs to enjoy the scenery from the jacuzzi and thus very hard to get into.
Decks 9 and 10 offered guest cabins. With another free to use guest launderette on deck 9 aft and our own Deluxe Balcony cabin on deck 10 aft.
Deck 11 was also mostly cabins but at mid-ship you could find the small but seemingly well-equipped gym as well as another guest laundry room.
Deck 12 offered some more cabins to the front, followed up by another outdoor pool. This was the Riviera Pool, with next to it a small smoking section. While the water of this pool was somewhat warmer, it was often closed and drained throughout our voyage. We did make use of the single jacuzzi here. Also the Riviera Bar here remained closed throughout our voyage.
Before ending up at the indoor Crystal Pool you would pass by the Lido Grill which offered fast-food on sea days and of course the Crystal Bar from where you could order your pool drinks or buy an ice-cream for an additional fee.
Right behind the Lido Grill, indoors, was the spa. Here we had a haircut which at 29GBP was very reasonably priced. Of course they offered a full range of available treatments, at the usual elevated prices.
The Crystal Pool was the ships ‘indoor’ pool. It had a moveable dome which could be opened up with good weather, but considering we were sailing on the Atlantic Ocean to Norway it remained closed.
While this pool was somewhat warmer it’s still was a rather cold pool and not the most inviting to swim in. The boiling hot jacuzzis where better but started falling apart. I had much nicer indoor pools on my Celebrity and Princess Cruises and was rather disappointed by it.
The rear of deck 12 was occupied by the underwhelming and lacklustre Horizon buffet, I will delve deeper into this in a separate dining article.
At the far end there was the pennant bar, the only open air bar that was open at times on our sailing and offered a spectacular view over the rear of the ship.
Deck 13 had the magnificent Crow’s Nest on the front. A beautiful panoramic bar with wrap around windows allowing you to enjoy the scenery from the front of the ship. Unfortunately most of the window seats where hogged by the same people all day, every day, mostly consuming hardly anything and just sitting there looking outside.
On one side next to the entrance of the Crow’s Nest there you had the nice library while the other side had the Uganda Room, a room mostly used for weddings or other events.
The remainder of deck 13 was open air with some sport fields and sun loungers scattered around.
All in all Aurora was a decent classic ship from a somewhat bygone era. You could clearly see that she was once a proud and majestic ship but has now downgraded to one of P&O’s lesser ships. It’s scheduled to go into dry dock refurbishment in 2025 so she will sail for a few more years, but considering her age and lack of certain modern amenities here time will come sometime in the future.
8 Comments Add yours