| We went to dinner. I told Rowan I would go up to sailaway at 7.50pm but it seemed the Captain had other ideas. I noticed out of the window the building moving at 7.40. Rowan asked one of our waiters if we were and he said we were just settling the ship or something. But no. We were leaving Le Havre and there had been no announcement to let anyone know. Buggered up sailaway then! |
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| After dinner we bumped into Tracey and Ali who we hadn't seen since before muster! We arranged to meet them in the Rising Sun at 10.30pm then went to the shops so Rowan could pick up a few last minute items. Fifty minutes outside the port and we hit fog. It didn't seem too bad but our horn was going - excellent! I'd only got muffled blasts from our balcony when we left. This was a chance to hear it properly. We decided to go on deck for night shots at 10pm. Since the French should be on our time, it was too light but would have to do. |
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| And then my camera batteries died. I had two in my bag but it took four and I left the other pack in the cabin. Typical! We contined going around the Promenade Deck then back inside. There was a quiz going on when we found Sian and Louise but no sign of Tracey and Ali. They were still at dinner. I had Blue Lagoons but am sure it was just coloured lemonade. I couldn't taste any alcohol and was completely sober by the time we went to bed at nearly 2am. Anyway, it turned out no one had been allocated their coloured cards for disembarkation. Tracey and Sian both had coaches to catch and all their timing was to be announced. This was yet another black mark and beginning to sorely resemble our first P&O cruise when so many stupid things happened on Aurora which shouldn't while the ship and cruise itself was good. Well once the quiz finished it was karaoke. The Down's lad we'd seen that morning, Jeremy, did two Tom Jones songs (Sexbomb and Delilah) and went down a storm. Louise had a go as well. Afterwards was a Hungarian group. As we were dancing, Louise knocked Tracey's wine glass onto the floor which really killed the moment! Louise and Sian went to bed about 1am and by the time we did, Tracey and Ali weren't that far behind. Annoyingly they had removed the navigational info from the TV so we had no idea how fast we were going or where we were! |
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| The alarm went off - yay!!!! That was a first! From the balcony we saw Pont Aven heading to France. Due to the lack of signal we had no idea Aurora was now ahead of Oriana so I went looking for Aurora in the mist! Rowan stayed in the cabin while I went to get the rest of the ship and our arrival. Then she would be going to the Meridian for breakfast while I'd have to skip it. We hoped the disembarkation cards would be there with the bill later. |
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| I got talking to a couple whose first cruise it was after they asked me to take their photo with Indy and Aurora behind. They had moved house two days before the cruise so had all that to return to. They asked me about various cruises and I told them about the four nighter on Indy to Cobh, which they said they'd consider. After seeing Oriana was now partially hidden by a horrible, I took a few other shots and noticed her funnel has a smoke leak in the same place as Queen Victoria. |
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| I went back to the cabin and found Rowan was already there. Not only did they now put both accounts on one sheet instead of two, but they also still hadn't delivered the disembarkation cards. On the deck the announcement had said we would be called in deck order. It was a joke. Rowan told me she'd spoken to Desmond's assistant who told her they hadn't been given them to deliver. As usual it's the crew who get it in the neck. Before we left (it was now out by 8am), I caught another horrible being towed in to berth beside us which now completely blocked the view of Oriana. |
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| We waited in the Piano Bar and talked to a couple who were also on their first cruise. Disembarking turned out to be a free-for-all which was ludicrous! Basically you could go as long as everyone was off by 9.30am. Loads of people surged to the deck below which meant we'd have to wait longer. When it was finally sparse we went only to be caught in a long queue heading for baggage reclaim, which including Sian and Louise slightly ahead of us. Once we collected the cases we went to wait for a taxi. |
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| We went to the station and caught up with Howard and Patty, who told us about their time on QM2 while my dad had come to help me with my bags. Then Rowan went to catch her train, as did we and we'd see Howard later for the departures. And so the verdict. Not a bad ship really for a cloned Vista. She suits P&O more than the Grand class Princesse. I liked her when I visited in 2005 and still liked her. If the itinerary and price were right (that single supplement's a killer!), she would be my ship of choice. I'm not going to judge them too much on the bad things since no cruise is perfect or the same as the next, as I discovered when my first in 2007 on Aurora was like this but the second wasn't. I'm glad I finally tried her though. To see photos of our departure, click here. For more of Artemis, Mary and QV, click here. To see pictures of the five ships sailing that afternoon, click here. |
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