Sea Days

To get to the Mediterranean, we had 2.5 days sailing ahead of us … and would need to cross the notorious Bay of Biscay.  Much to Jon’s disappointment, it was foggy but the seas were as flat as a pancake!

From the moment Callum awoke, it must have taken him all of 5 seconds to utter those words, "can I go to Toy Box now!". Well, you can have breakfast first!!  We opted for breakfast in the Medina Restaurant rather than join the bun fight in The Orangery Self Serve. By luck, our waiter was Anil, our table waiter in the evening. Callum still got his bacon, sausage, tomato, beans and potato for breakfast ... along with a tropical fruit smoothie.

Afterwards, he couldn't wait to go an play in Toy Box, especially as Noddy was coming to play. We headed to listen to the port talk on Gibraltar. Lots of interesting places to visit and the network of caves sound intriguing to explore. On this visit we're planning to take Callum to see the apes and keep fingers crossed for good weather to get some great views!

There was a Magic show laid on for the kids tonight which Callum enjoyed. He pulled flowers from his jacket sleeve and magiced up some sweets that he ate himself and didn't share.

The evening was the first of two semi-formal nights – suits/jackets and ties for the men!!  We took Callum back to Toy Box for the evening whilst we got ourselves ready for dinner.  Callum was asleep when we went down to Toy Box after dinner, so we transferred him to the Night Nursery and we headed up to the Syndicate Quiz in Vanderbilts. Luckily we were joined by three others so we weren't left to struggle on our own. Maureen and Doug; retired primary school head mistress and teacher (and P&O cruise quiz addicts - luckily for us!) and Pat, a retired gentleman from Andover.  We did pretty well but should have won!! 

Day Two at sea was another quiet day that disappeared before we knew it! Once again the sea was calm and sun was shining. We decided to go to the wine tasting session organised by the Head Wine Waiter. We were surprised that only 6 of us turned up! We sampled two whites (a Sauvignon Blanc Oro de Castilla from Rueda in Spain and a Gewurztraminer from the Alsace region in France) and two reds (a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo from Italy and a Don Cristobal Malbec Oak Reserve 1492 from Argentina). Co-incidently, we'd actually ordered the second red with our meal last night!

Whilst we didn't learn an awful lot, it was actually pretty good fun and VERY good value for money.  You’d rarely have the opportunity to sample four very different wines back to back. The samples you were given to taste were very generous and at the end you could choose to have a glass of your favourite of the four (and if you asked for a second glass, it was forthcoming). We couldn't as we had to pick Callum up from Toy Box!!

At 4pm, Callum and the Kids Club had their Captains Coke-Tail Party so we went along to watch the antics in Carmens. Once again, they dragged a couple of the cadets along to liven the party up!

We had our first of four formal nights so Jon got the opportunity to dust off his DJ and I could wear some posh frocks!!  It was the Captain's Welcome Party with pre-dinner drinks in Carmens. Unlike last time on Aurora, the free drinks were free-flowing.   We didn't join the queue that snaked along the ship to have your photo taken with Captain Philpott and headed straight in! We got chatting to another passenger on Aurora for the first time and the Senior First Officer.

Dinner was lovely. We both chose the same options ... Smoked Salmon, Mushroom Soup followed by Lobster. Jon rounded off his meal with a champagne and mango sorbet whilst I went for the port marinated stilton with biscuits. The officers dining in the restaurant didn’t get to finish their dinner though. 

Whilst we we having our main course, there was an urgent announcement from the Bridge. "Assessment Party ... Assessment Party to Deck 4 Dry Storage". Well, I've never seen officers move so quickly. Three were dining in the Alexandria Restaurant and before the announcement had finished, they were all running for the exit! Jon had noticed before this that Aurora had stopped as there was no wake and the ship was bobbing around in all directions. Afterwards we did find out there had been a small fire onboard but it had been quickly extinguished by the crew. We guess the ship had stopped in case a situation had developed and they needed to report our position.

Quiz night followed and came third.