Aurora 3rd Cruise - 6th November 2005 - 21 Nights

Ships Statistics

Gross Tonnage 76,000 (approximately)
Length Overall 886 feet
Beam 106 feet
Draught (full) 26 Feet
Maximum Speed 24 Knots
Engines Diesel electric
Cost £200 million
Builder Meyer Werft Shipyard, Germany
Flag British
Passenger Capacity 1,874 Reg 1,950 Max
Passenger space ratio 40.6 tons Passenger Cabins 939 total

Cruise Itinery

Sunday 6th November - Sail from Southampton
Monday 7th November - At sea
Tuesday 8th November - At sea
Wednesday 9th November - Ponta Delgada
Thursday 10th November - At sea
Friday 11th November - At sea
Saturday 12th November - At sea
Sunday 13th November - At sea
Monday 14th November - Antigua
Tuesday 15th November - Tortola - BVI

Wednesday 16th November - St Lucia
Thursday 17th November - Grenada
Friday 18th November - Barbados
Saturday 19th November - At sea
Sunday 20th November - At sea
Monday 21st November - At sea
Tuesday 22nd November - At sea
Wednesday 23rd November - At sea
Thursday 24th November - Madeira
Friday 25th November - At sea
Saturday 26th November - At sea
Sunday 27th November - Southampton

Total distance steamed was 8,339.5 nautical miles

This is a view of one of the 3 swimming pools on board the ship. Above this pool was an enormous sliding roof so if the weather was not very nice the roof could be closed making it an indoor pool.

To help us find our way around the ship we each had a little pocket guide. A much larger picture like this could be found on the walls outside of the lifts around the ship.

In order to keep us informed of everyday events a daily paper was issued called Aurora Today. In it there would be information about the dress code of the day as well as details of the various resturants and bars around the ship.

There would also be information about the various activities and entertainment available on the ship.

If we were in port it would also tell us the arrangements for going ashore and sailing times.

 

 

Dinner was a main occasion every night. There was always plenty of food around all day and you might very well miss some meals but we never missed dinner. You can see from the menu on the left that we could chose whatever wine we fancied although in honesty we did tend to go for the same red wine every night.

 

 

 

 

This particular menu was for the Captains dinner and as such was a formal affair. This gave the men the chance to wear their dinner suits while the ladies were able to dress in their prettiest evening gowns and jewellery.

The menu was typical of how we ate every night the only difference being the addition of an extra course in the style of the sorbet.

 

 

During this cruise we had six formal nights. Normally I vary the colour of my bow tie or my cummerbund but with so many nights I felt I needed something extra. I bought this white dinner jacket onboard. One of the evenings was a black and white dinner. For that I wore a black shirt with a white bow tie and white jacket. It looked very smart but made me look like a member of the mafia.

Throughout our cruise we were always sat at the same table for dinner. The lads on the left were our waiters and really looked after us during our three weeks.

 

 

When booking a cruise one of the questions is how many other guests you would like to dine with. We always ask for 6 as this makes it more likely that you will find someone you can enjoy talking to. On our table we were joined by Jenny and Graham Jenkins and their son Alistar. They were really nice and we got on very well with them.

While we were in ????????? one of P & O's other ships, the Arcadia was also there. When it was time for us to sail we had a party on the upper deck, aft. It was called the 'Great British Sail Away'. We had very loud music and were all waving flags. The idea was that the passengers on both ships could wave at each other as we sailed. It did not quite work out like this as most of the passengers on the Arcadia had only arrived that afternoon by plane and were all asleep. Anyway we had a lovely party.