On our favourite Aurora, again.

Most disappointing was the quality of the food in both restaurant and buffet.
One lunch the buffet dish of pork was inedible. We reported to the head waitress, who got the sous chef in charge to come to our table. It would be good to get feedback from a senior food and beverage officer as to what they did about it, as having been asked for our cabin number, we heard nothing.
We understand that the Covid time nearly broke P&O, but as regular cruisers, the cost cutting is very obvious.
Felt the atmosphere in the restaurant was not a happy one. We consider it was a mistake to get rid of the experienced restaurant managers like Alan Carr.
Some meals on the served plate did not match the menu description.
The Celebration night food was not special or exciting. Towards the end of the cruise we wondered if we would enjoy our evening meal.
We looked forward to the the lamb cutlets one evening. They had no flavour. Seasoning prior to cooking does not seem to happen in the galley.
We have noticed that the Food Philosophy that used to be the main menu page and the name of the Executive Chef is no longer there.

We were on Aurora on the South America Circumnavigation cruise in January, and the food was better on that.
Temperature of the hot food is inconsistent.
Overall, the restaurant evening menus have become somewhat boring.

The Entertainment Manager, Paul Burton, and his Assistant Karen Campbell are always friendly and approachable when out and about.

Headliners were new as a troupe and seemed to bond as a team as the cruise progressed. It was nice to be able to talk to some of them after the shows. The youngest was only 20 years old!

The resident musicians are fabulous. Andy Davidson, the orchestra leader did two evenings with the orchestra in The Crows Nest, which were hugely enjoyable. The cocktail pianist, Coral had a different style but the trio Kool Blue led by Paul Hodgetts on keyboard is our favourite. We are amazed by the number of songs and music Paul plays. He is a superb pianist.

We are not keen on the new bands Pulse on all the ships but observed their evenings were popular.
Dave from Pulse took the choir this cruise. I did not like his ideas particularly.
The Dance Instructors had poor teaching technique. It is disappointing for dancers that so many evening dance slots are in the inadequately sized Masquerades. We had only two evenings in Carmens, which has a beautiful dance floor.

The classical musicians were excellent.

We did consider the evening entertainment rather focused on singers, but enjoyed Jay Mc Gee immensely.

Crew, as always, are excellent.

It was nice to meet and have a conversation with Captain Russell Robson, when he was on a walkabout one evening. Several of us were touched when he paid tribute to a crew member who had recently died, both in the church service and in the Horizon Paper.

Overall, we enjoyed this cruise, but the food standard needs to be assessed and improved.