Cruises to Date

Cruises to Date

As said in my previous post, our first cruise was around the Western Meditteranean on the Aurora in 2003, but we have had several cruises since then which have included the Baltic Cities, which again was a super cruise and the places we visited were stunning. The only let down on this cruise was the actual Ship, the Artemis, which we hated, so much so that we put in a complaint to P & O.  I won’t go into detail, but she was purchased by P & O and this was her inaugural cruise under their flag, and she really was not ready to sail.   There were problems all along the way and it was quite clear that money over passenger comfort was more important.

We have also been on the Arcadia, where we visited such Cities as Venice, which was lovely and had the must have ride in a gondola. the Norwegian Fjords on Oceana which were absolutely stunning, and a stand out port was Flamm which was utterly charming.  On this cruise we also did an excursion to the Birksdal Glacier near Olden which was amazing.  We have also been on the Oriana at the end of 2010 which was  a New Year Cruise around the Canaries, but on New Years Eve we were actually in Madeira and were treated to their famous firework display.  I have never seen a firework display like it and would recommend it to anyone, as it certainly made this New Years Eve special and one which we will never forget.

Now Steve, not overly keen on cruising would much rather fly, and as we had done almost all of the cruises without having to fly almost decided that that that was enough, and that I would have to pluck up courage and revert back to flying.  As you can imagine I was not very keen.  However, one day  in 2008 when we were sat outside in our garden with the sun shining and enjoying a nice  a cup of coffee, we started to talk about holidays and where we could go next year.  During the conversation Steve said that he would love to go to New England in the Fall, and if there was a cruise that went there, he would consider it.  Well, that was enough, I disappeared and would you believe it I found out that P & O had introduced a new cruise this year to  New England, which started and finished in Southhampton, RESULT!  I was on the phone, finding out all the details, and within 15 minutes I had provisionally booked it for the following year 2009 (almost 12 months in advance).   Steve had wondered where I had gone, and nearly fell off his chair when I told him we COULD cruise to New England.  He had no option but to agree and our 24 night cruise to New England was booked.

Cruises to Date

It was back on the Aurora, which is our favourite ship of all the ones we have been on, so it couldn’t have been better, and this cruise was something special.  We took in New York, which was fantastic and then we stopped off in Quebec in Canada, which I absolutely fell in love with, and could have quite happily stayed there.  We then visited some of the New England ports which were all stunning.  We had a super time, although the 7 days crossing the Atlantic without seeing land during this time, was quite long.

We also had an experience in the Hudson River in New York, when we were leaving the berth at 6.00 p.m.   The electrics failed and we were drifting down the Hudson River with no power at all.  It must have been quite a sight to see a large cruise ship just drifting in the river, and no sooner had we left, we were then being attached to tugs to take us back to the berth until the problem had been fixed.  We therefore had a few more hours docked in New York until the problem was sorted and inspected and we eventually left New York around midnight, so we saw the evening lights of New York  which were spectacular.  Also after passing the Statue of Liberty at dawn the previous day, we now sailed passed her all lit up at night, which was unexpected.

We have met some lovely people on board and quite a few we have kept in touch with and have met up with them again.  There are other cruisers however, who we would not want to see again.

I could go into detail about more experiences we have had on previous cruises, but I have decided not to, as reading and seeing other peoples’ holidays photos can be a bit boring.  However,  as we treated ourselves to a digital camera a few years ago, I  have just added a few photographs, to give you a little taste of life on the ocean waves.  But as you can imagine,  with all this modern technology we have hundreds and hundreds of photographs stored on our computer, it was very difficult to pick just a few.

 Cruises to Date