1 Boarding
We drove down to Southampton on a sunny summer afternoon (about an hour and a half from our home on the Thames). Stopped for lunch at a pub near Winchester.
Arrived at the docks, handed our luggage over to a porter and our car over to "Andrews Shipside Services" to garage for us, and checked in. All very civilised. Boarding was due to commence at 3.30 but it was well under way when we got there at about that time. We were given a numbered boarding ticket and waited in the comfortable, but rather hot, lounge where there was a small shop, coffee bar and bar. We were on the ship about an hour after our arrival at the dockside. Stewards were on hand at the head of the gangway for anyone needing help in carrying their hand luggage to the cabin.

2 Cabin
We had a standard outside twin cabin with balcony and bath. No. A296 well aft on the port side. Our bags were there before us and our cheery steward was on hand to introduce himself and explain everything.We were well pleased with the cabin.
Size was 175sq ft (including 25sq ft of balcony). Bed could be either twin or king-size. We found it better to have it king-size as this gave a bit more room in the sitting area - 2 seater settee, table, chair, small desk, television. Reasonable amount of hanging space though some of it tucked round a corner - more hanging space than on Oriana. Smart little bathroom - very small bath but excellent shower over, so for me it was just a nice deep shower tray. My wife did squeeze into the bath quite happily though. Coffee and tea making facilities.
I haven't had a cabin with a balcony before and it was a revelation. Just great to be able to lie in bed and admire the view out of big picture windows, or wander out onto my own little piece of deck any time, day or night, and lean on my own little piece of rail. We had some days when the sun was warm enough to sit on the balcony for a light lunch. (Room service menu was pretty restricted though, generally soup, sandwiches or pasta plus fruit salad )

3 Dining
Feeling a little unsociable for this cruise we had asked for a table for 2. Aurora has more tables for 2 than other P&O ships. Failing that we had requested a table for 8 - safety in numbers! There was a note from the restaurant manager in our cabin to say we had been allocated to a table for 6 (we had not booked early enough). Straight down to see the restaurant manager, Peter Toms, in the Alexandria Restaurant at the stern. He was very helpful - confirmed all the doubles had gone but as we were on second sitting and most people had opted for first sitting there was plenty of space and he was able to give us a table for 6 all to ourselves. This worked out fine. We had a good view out of the rear windows - room to spread ourselves and excellent service from our table steward who had less people than usual to deal with. There was no Oriana style vibration. The restaurant was alleged to have an Egyptian inspired design. I wouldn't have guessed - although there was a pictures of the pyramids on one wall. Anyway it was very pleasant and bright - broken up into different areas - raised in the centre so everyone got a reasonable view. Their was a (fairly) grand stairway down into the restaurant from which to make a grand entrance in all one's finery (6 of the 12 nights aboard were formal DJ/tuxedo dress). The standard of food was good if not sensational. Vegetables were served separately so you could avoid getting a massively overloaded plate. We often ate in the other restaurant for lunch and usually chose a large table - we weren't that unsociable. This was the Medina restaurant. Apparently exhibiting Moorish opulence. Again quite bright and cheerful - perhaps over-busy decor. On the whole we preferred the Alexandria. There was always a good curry at lunch time.

There was an enclosed, self service, "Orangery" restaurant on the lido deck open for breakfast, lunch and tea. Very bright and efficient but a bit of a scrum. We preferred to eat in one of the main restaurants. However breakfast finished at 09.00 there and we often found it difficult to make it. Sometimes there was only one restaurant open for lunch if the staff in the other were being used for a barbecue or "pasta event" on deck. In the cold weather these were not particularly popular. The result was a long and tedious queue for the one open restaurant. To avoid this we tried the Cafe Bordeaux. A new innovation for P&O, a bistro style restaurant open 24hrs. This was obviously very popular - particularly with evening diners seeking a rest from their regular daily table companions. The menu was unchanging however so once or twice per cruise would probably be enough. The day we "overflowed" there to avoid the queue for the main restaurant, it was full and having difficulty providing a decent service - took us 35mins to get a meal. The Cafe Bordeaux also replaced the midnight buffets which was a bit of a shame. There was also a "sidewalk cafe" supplying hot dogs etc on the sun deck. Would clearly be popular with the youngsters but was generally deserted on this cruise.

4 Bars
Apparently there were 12 bars. We gravitated to the Crows Nest, a large bar with a short sit-up counter and a big area of tables and comfortable chairs on deck 13 forward - just above the bridge. An excellent spot to have a drink before or after dinner, watch the view, listen to the music and chat. Good service. For those seeking something slightly more lively there was the Champions Bar - featuring continuous videos of sporting events and occasional beer and sing-song evenings - or for a more salubrious atmosphere there was Andersons - deep leather settees and quiet chat. Another good spot was Raffles Bar at the top of the atrium. No sign of peanut shells on the floor, or punka louvres in the ceiling, but a cheery atmosphere and excellent Irish coffee and Belgian chocolates. Just below this was Charlie's. Theoretically the place to sup champagne and eat caviar - we didn't see anybody doing so. There was a pleasant little string quartet that played here however.

5 Public Rooms
An enormous plush theatre was situated forward, fitted with the latest "technological marvels" and showing major musical productions. End of the row seats were most popular so you could slide out and make for the bar if the show was not up to much. We did once or twice. There was also a show lounge and a night club - not my scene. Port and other lectures and piano concerts were held in the "Playhouse" cinema. Very efficient and very well attended. In fact it was clearly a bit too small because to get a seat you had to get in early, otherwise you would join the many standing at the back. Quizzes, very popular, were held in the card room "Vanderbilts". There was a large comfortable and well stocked library with deep chairs very popular with those looking for a quiet place for a snooze. Flashy shops were always busy - POSH club members trying to spend enough to get enough discount to cover their membership fee!

6 Deck/Sports areas
I understand there was the full compliment of instruments of torture in the OASIS spa area - I kept well clear. There were also copious facilities for children - disco - arcade games etc. P&O is working hard to attract families, however as we were out of school holiday time there were very few children on this cruise. The ship has two good pools in addition to the family pool at the stern. One of the main pools can be covered over with a skydome - which it was throughout our cruise. This made a popular indoor swimming pool area. Well used but rather strong municipal baths smell of chlorine. This was also a popular deck party area - music was far too loud for me. In addition to deck quoits and shuffleboard areas, tennis, cricket, football and golf nets there was a high tech in door golf simulator. This was great fun, but somewhat oversubscribed - you had to wait a long time to have your brief moment of glory (or despair) in the various driving, chipping, and putting tournaments.

7 Itinerary - Tours
We called at: Andalsnes, Lofoten Islands, Honningsvag (for North Cape), Trondheim, Olden and Bergen. Most of these included a cruise along a very picturesque fjord. The scenery was beautiful (rather than spectacular, perhaps). We avoided tours wherever possible and just wandered off and explored on our own. What tours we did do were generally well organised except at Andalsnes - coach/vintage steam train trip - this one was very heavily subscribed and there was a lot of hanging about in a very crowded lounge waiting to go ashore on a tender. Steam train was fun though. Liked both Olden and Bergen - Olden probably more. Mind you the wind was building up in Bergen. When we got out to sea it was a force 11 storm which tested everyone's stomach. However Captain Burgoine said he was delighted with the way the ship handled. So fine for him - in fact I suspect he had headed into the storm just for fun! I think that about covers it. If anybody wants any more information post or e-mail me.

Doug