We have been cruising on the Aurora since she was launched in 2000, we liked her so much we only tried the Arcadia once and Oriana twice, we always go for a mini suite as this gives us a good space and a nice sized balcony.
We cruised on Aurora again in 2014 and for the first time we found it wasn’t up to the standards that we had become used to, we did not like the standard of the food served in the main restaurant and many fellow passengers were complaining that it as good as previously.
In our wisdom we gave P&O the benefit as we knew it was coming up for a refit and perhaps the kitchens were running down.
We decided to give her a miss in 2015 and went on her for the 2016 Canaries cruise in July.
Well instead of improving things had got a lot worse, the standard and variety of food was poor and only occasionally did we have a meal the we enjoyed, the Orangery buffet now renamed the horizon was diabolical the hot food look awful and tasted the same so we did not have a hot lunch from the Horizon throughout the cruise.
We tried the Lido grill once never again hamburgers like shoe leather.
We decided to yet the select dining option Sindu this was very good and we thoroughly enjoyed this but at an extra cost of €15 per head, we didn’t like the look of the Beach house menu so did not try it, we used to like theCafeBordeaux restaurant which has now changed to the Glass House, as much as we tried we could not ascertain what this restaurant did other than wine.
Many other minor things that go towards spoiling the cruise, long queues every evening for dinner, never experienced this before and guess that it is due to reductions in staff, we have never had any complaints with the staff and think they are all brilliant but wonder if they are unhappy with the new tipping arrangements, we have always been quite generous for good service so removed the tips from our account and rewarded the staff directly.
If you ask us things changed for the worse when P& O were taken over Carnival, that’s when the penny pinching started and things started going downhill.
To top off our holiday we were told to put all of our luggage out by 9 pm the night before arrival at Southampton, so effectively the clothes worn for dinner were also for travelling home, previously we could put our last case out before retiring the night before.
We are not big complainers.
But having used P&O for so long we have seen the steady decline, we would not recommend the and will not be using the ever again.
