Aurora is the smallest and the oldest of the ships currently (August 2025) owned and operated by P&O Cruises and it’s also the shorthand name given to the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis which can cause confusion in the cruising world. This is probably why TUI’s German cruise ships (Mein Schiff) decided to simply number theirs.
“We’re going on an Aurora cruise!”
“Very nice! Remember to wrap up warm!”
“What? We’ll be in the Bahamas.”
“You’ll never see the Northern Lights at that latitude.”
We weren’t going to the Bahamas, but in March 2024 we were going to the quite possibly equally exotic destination of Rotterdam. This was our first (and so far, only) time on P&O’s old lady of the fleet (not an official designation), and a short cruise of effectively a long weekend. The time of year, rather common cruise destination, and short duration made this cruise quite affordable even with a balcony cabin on a small ship like Aurora. Typically, the smaller the ship then the more you’ll probably pay, and while we are keen to get value for money on cruises we also have no love for the newer, bigger ships, particularly in P&O’s fleet, and will often look at the older, less-promoted ships that cruise lines operate even if they cost a little more.
We drove down to Southampton, parked in the West Quay multi-storey car park, then walked our carry-on luggage down to the terminal. We’d decided we weren’t going to partake in the single, planned formal evening on the ship so didn’t need to be weighed down by my tuxedo or my wife’s heavier, more glamorous dress, and the short duration meant we didn’t qualify for free port parking despite paying for the higher fare in order to pick our cabin so we crammed what we needed into the smaller cases and got a little bit of exercise instead.
We had a late embarkation slot and arrived after that because we were in no hurry to board. We had no pressing need to get on with all the crowds and start drinking as early as possible, and much of that was because we no longer get the drinks package when sailing with P&O. I’m sure they suit some people’s drinking style but they certainly don’t work out to be good value for money for us, and you know how much I like value for money because I’ve already mentioned it. Plus, with no free port parking we did have additional on-board spend instead so we knew we could offset some drinking with that, although we had some food plans to take into account first.
The terminal was pretty empty when we arrived so five minutes after arriving we were on the ship, had visited our muster station, and were in our room with the safety video on while we unpacked and checked out the view from our cabin’s outside space. This was cabin C127 and there will be photos from inside it later in this series but for this first day all I did was snap a shot from the enclosed balcony.
A quick wander around the chilly top deck brought us to the Crow’s Nest at the front of Aurora and we grabbed a drink each before returning to our room for the sail away down the Solent.
Prior to the cruise we’d booked speciality dining for the first night aboard, and on Aurora that pretty much just means Sindhu, P&O’s Indian-inspired restaurant. This was located just off the top floor of the atrium with its very stylish design incorporating some lovely Art Deco lines and artwork.
We are not fans of Indian food. We’re not fans of what some people call “spice” but what we call “pain that overwhelms your senses”. Flavours are what we want from food. Flavours and textures. And maybe not all the same shade of brown. And definitely not something that tries to strip off a layer of skin inside your mouth and on the surface of your lips as you’re eating it. For these reasons we’re not fans of Indian food. But despite this, we do keep trying it out on ships. We still haven’t done it ashore as a couple, although I’ve been to a couple of restaurants on dry land for work-related reasons and not been massively impressed.
Below is the menu from our visit to Sindhu on Aurora, and after that all the dishes that ended up filling every space on the table. There were some okay bits, and even a few bits that strayed over the border into fairly nice territory, and certainly when comparing it to an experience on Iona years before it was a great improvement. It’s still not really our thing, though.
If you do like Indian food then absolutely consider booking your visit to Sindhu ahead of your cruise because it can be popular and you can save some money. We’d pre-booked for a discount, then received another discount on board because we’d booked for embarkation day.
The next day was spent at sea, slowly heading along the English Channel then up the coast of mainland Europe towards the Netherlands. A chance then for a bit of an explore around Aurora. After breakfast we stepped out onto the aft of the ship and it’s a very attractive aft indeed with those tiered, wraparound decks.
Staying outside, Aurora’s promenade deck was nice and wide.
In from the promenade deck we descended the attractive, gently spiralling staircase around the Glass House area down to the pub below and took part in morning trivia (which we won) before continuing on, through the art gallery (no Park West collaboration on P&O ships), then up the much-photographed atrium area to Anderson’s.
Anderson’s was a lovely, upmarket, homely-feeling lounge, reminiscent of the sort of thing you find in stately homes now converted to fancy hotels (not that we stay in them any longer as they are far too pricey for us these days). The big problem with Anderson’s was that it wasn’t big but it was popular across this cruise – understandably so – which made finding a seat in there in the evenings troublesome.
We don’t often visit theatres on cruise ships when there’s anything actually going on in them but we’ll often pop in for a look when they’re empty. What we did like about the Curzon Theatre on Aurora were the vintage posters on display in the entrance to the venue.
Finally on this brief wander around the ship on this sea day, back up to the Crow’s Nest to see if there was anywhere to sit down and read our books and to also take a quick look at the library just next to it. A decent-sized library as it turned out.
This sea day was also formal night on P&O Aurora and it’s something that P&O are a bit fussy about, limiting some of the venues you’re allowed to hit if you’re not prepared to dress up, including the main dining room. I’ve already said that we’d decided not to lug our formal clothes with us on such a short cruise so we had the choice of the buffet or the Glass House for our evening meal and picked the latter.
The Glass House isn’t a speciality venue but it is an additional charge restaurant that you can’t book ahead of time. No matter, we thought, and wandered over to get a table. The maître d’ made every effort to dissuade us, first telling us it would be over an hour (“No worries. We’ll have a drink over there and wait!”) then telling us he couldn’t add us to any queue because the software wouldn’t allow him until it had cleared down and we’d simply have to come back later and try again. I don’t think so. We eventually persuaded him to put our names and cabin numbers down on paper, along with those of other people in a similar situation to us, and told him that as spaces turned up he could then add us to the queue in the order in which we’d arrived rather than just continually coming up to check. I mean, quite why I needed to explain to him how to manage a queue is beyond me.
We were eventually called forward – and in well under the hour – and proceeded to enjoy the meal immensely, sharing a selection of small dishes before a larger course each. We had enough room left to go for desserts too.
Carmen’s was where we ended the night, catching some Motown music by a singer called Nick James before the general disco.
In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll wake up in the Netherlands and head off to take a look at Rotterdam Zoo.