Aurora to the Baltic 21 June to 7 July 2019

We drove down on the Thursday and stayed overnight near Romsey which meant we were quite early arriving at the Mayflower terminal, with no queuing to hand over the luggage and car and straight to check in and after a short wait boarded. Our 8th time on Aurora and my 25th time on P&O – my wife and her sister are both ahead of me (and always will be) in that respect. After lunching and unpacking we set sail in the afternoon sunshine and out into the Channel. This first day very quickly made us realise just how poor our pre-Christmas trip on CMV’s Columbus – we had thought it was pretty poor at the time but when reminded of P&O service and quality of food and general cleanliness and comfort our CMV experience had actually been quite simply appalling. Enough of that however.

Saturday 22nd – a sunny day across the flat calm of the North Sea.
Sunday – a visit into the unknown at Skagen (pronounced ‘Skane’!), a pleasant coastal town on the tip of Jutland – we visited the Teddy Bear Museum and one of the Artist’s houses and stayed out for lunch. Skagen is apparently best known for Artists and for Skagen watches (which I had never previously heard of). Our stay had been extended into the evening to enable passengers to go to the mid-summer’s eve bonfire. We saw it from the ship, it was lit at 8.30 and very quickly disappeared from view as the top burned off. We sailed after 11pm and could see the remaining fire which was not much more than embers.

Monday – Copenhagen, took the shuttle bus in then did a harbour and canal boat trip, walked through the Royal Palace ‘square’, visited the circular Marble Church and walked back to the ship for lunch via St Albans Anglican church and the much celebrated but tiny mermaid. Another walk out in the afternoon then we set sail and turned to the north to go around the top of Zeeland.

Having passed under the Great Belt Bridge in the early hours, Tuesday morning found us sailing along the north coast of Germany / south coast of Denmark and actually not that far from Copenhagen as the seagull flies. On Wednesday we arrived in Gdynia for the sixth warm sunny day of our trip – no, not warm, this one was hot! We visited Gdansk which was very nice, and with the temperature into the mid-thirties it was nice to find shade. On the way back we drove past the famous Gdansk Shipyard – although unlike my previous visits to Poland in the nineteen eighties there were hardly any ‘Lech moustaches’ in evidence – and my remaining coins from that era were no longer in circulation. Later we paid a brief visit to Gdynia itself. Thursday was sunny again but it had got a bit windy – well, very windy, and just before 07.30 the Captain aborted attempts to dock at Visby (Gotland) but by 11 a.m. had cheered everybody up by telling us a berth had been secured in Tallinn next day.

Friday – Tallinn. Presumably they only had three ships booked in and we got the spare berth to make it four ships in for the day – plus four trans Baltic ferries. Having budgeted for only one port where the Euro was the official currency, and as we had a little unspent Zloty plus unused Swedish Kroner, we visited the exchange office. We then enjoyed a walk round the very picturesque upper and lower towns and, away from the main square and very silly prices we found a very reasonably priced lunch.

Saturday was an early rise as we were the first tour to set out in St Petersburg, meeting at 07.15. Before we left home the advance forecast for St Petersburg had been showers, but by the time we got there it had improved to be sunny throughout although the wind was still a feature. There were six cruise ships in dock, plus a smaller one up river in the city. Still layers of bureaucracy and security to venture into this country – and the threat that if you lose your passport they won’t let you leave until you have been to the Embassy in Moscow (400 miles each way) to get a replacement – but we did manage to get a smile or two from the immigration control staff.

The morning trip took us out of the city to Catherine Palace, spectacularly decorated and with very nice gardens and very, very busy – the early start was to get there before it got even busier! The afternoon trip was less fun with a not very good guide but achieved the goal of seeing inside the Church of the Spilled Blood plus the purchase of a ten piece Russian Doll (Euros being an acceptable if unofficial means of payment). Two of the six ships departed and four remained overnight and some passengers set off on the evening excursions to the Ballet / Folklore / River trip.
On Sunday morning two more ships arrived. Another early start this time in a different direction to Peterhof Palace and Fountain Park, another spectacular interior and gardens filled with a variety of fountains, and we saw the switch on of the grand display at 11.00. Very busy again and the bus drop of pick up facility clearly inadequate as we waited about twenty minutes as our bus queued to reach us. An afternoon at leisure on board then four ships sailed, leaving the two new arrivals to stay overnight.

Monday (1st July), another sunny but windy day as we exited the Gulf of Finland and headed for another new port and country.

Tuesday – cloudy and after 11 dry days, today showers were forecast – and still windy. Klaipeda, Lithuania, our excursion took us to the Curonian Spit with a very informative guide. The southern half of the spit is in Kaliningrad, hence the only access to the rest of Lithuania is by ferry in Klaipeda. There was some heavy rain on the return journey but the coach kept us dry. On our return to the ship the Security Officers were making sure everyone used the hand sanitising gel before boarding and on reaching the cabin there was a letter from the captain regarding norovirus and precautions and before we sailed he came on the p.a. to re-enforce the hygiene message – and in days to come to thank us for our co-operation. For the rest of the cruise all buffet food, plates, cutlery was served to us. Mercifully we were not among those affected and the hygiene measures were impressive and as time went on less people were suffering – but we have no idea if we are talking tens or hundreds although I suspect not a huge number were affected but enough to cause a major alert. Oh such drama on the high seas, and the seas were high, with winds reaching force 9 in the evening although by morning as we again encountered the coast of Germany it had dropped and we were back in sunshine and in the afternoon sailed under the Great Belt Bridge and onwards towards Oslo Fjord.

On Thursday we were in Oslo. A short walk to the quay and a boat trip across to the Bygdoy peninsula where we successively visited the Kon Tiki museum, Maritime Museum and Fram Museum and just made it back to the ship before buffet lunch closed at 3 – a similar trip (Kon Tiki, Fram and Viking Ship Museum) from the ship was £53 per head, we three did it for a total of less than £80 although we subsequently discovered none of use were actually eligible for the Senior prices which had saved us about £20 overall – senior starts at 67 in Norway! There had obviously been a downpour when we were indoors viewing Fram, and there was another when we were having a later stroll round the outside of the castle.

Kristiansand is Norway’s sunniest town and on Friday there was not a cloud in the sky. Our trip took us to a viewpoint with memorial commemorating the eight who were killed at this spot on the day the Germans attacked Kristiansand, then to a German gun placement – where the ‘cannon’ is much larger than those we have previously seen in Normandy and Guernsey, and then chillingly to the former Gestapo HQ. In the afternoon we walked round town and spent most of our not insignificant remaining Kroner on Ice Creams.

Saturday North Sea not as flat – or sunny – as the way out but pleasant. We packed in the afternoon and after our last dinner we passed Dover about quarter to nine. An earlier than normal arrival planned for Sunday, unstated reason being, so that they can deep clean the ship before the next lot board early afternoon, our disembarkation timed for 09.15 was announced at 08.15 and we imagine the ship would be cleared by 9 o’clock by which time we were on the Motorway and home to Cheshire in time for lunch.

Having described the cruise what about the ship? When we were last on Aurora in 2013 she was in dire need of a then pending refit and of course there has been another more recent refit and she is generally in pretty good shape although (as always) there were some areas of paintwork in need of attention. During the cruise our cabins – front facing single and starboard side balcony on A deck – received new pillows and new duvets and we were told the mattresses had been changed the day we boarded.

Food and service was good throughout – although sometimes some of buffet looked to have been out for ‘too long’. Neither Sindhu or Glass House seemed to be getting much trade and we noticed each day Horizon said ‘reservation not required’ for these and the Beach Hut (with it’s – to us – unusual menus). If P&O are looking to get some extra dining cash maybe it is time for a rethink, restore Café Bordeaux and provide an Ocean Grill?

Entertainment, some very good, some average, some just poor. Headliners did six or seven shows three of which were new to us. We particularly liked Applause, and a 2-1 majority in favour of the Steven Mulhern production. Two comedians, one excellent, the other should be consigned to history like his main theme of Opportunity Knocks – and his singing was rubbish too. The cocktail pianist was very good as of course were the ships Orchestra. We also liked the Aurora Trio but the band Equinox and the Guitarist were not to our taste. One show by a juggler which was very entertaining and one male and one female vocalist. We had a very interesting speaker who is a guide at Bletchley Park – his subjects covered a wider range.

One interesting point. At no time did any of the drinks stewards offer to sell us the ‘new’ drinks package – not that we would have been interested as the cost of that alone would have significantly exceed our total on board spend.

Overall an excellent cruise, our second to the Baltic and it won’t be our last.