Aurora looking her age

Our third cruise on Aurora. We cruised first on her in December 2014 and liked the ship very much. She was scheduled for a “half-life refit” in Hamburg immediately following this cruise, and we fully expected a major improvement following this. However, she had been in dock for only two weeks, and it became clear on our next cruise (August 2015) that not much had been done. The favourite Cafe Bordeaux had been removed, to be replaced by the “Glass House”, a rather dimly lit venue, sparsely populated. Obviously, P & O had it in mind to create an additional profit centre, as this new venue carries a surcharge. Bad move from the customer loyalty point of view!
The overall condition of the ship had not really improved as one would have imagined following a refit, and it could really do with an extensive programme to remove corrosion and general deterioration, around the area of Balconies in particular.

Having said that, the service remains at a high level and the food is still very good, possibly the best that we have encountered on P & O shipe. It seems strange that there is so much variation between ships in the same fleet.

Cabin comfort very good, although proper down pillows would provide a distinct improvement over those now in use.

Probably driven by US attitudes at Carnival, the very gradual pennypinching is noticed by most of our fellow passengers, and crew members confirmed that their numbers were being reduced.