This was a Southampton to Southampton 21-night cruise to the Caribbean visiting most of the usual suspects - Ponta Delgade (lovely town), Tortola (pretty as can be), Antigua (great shopping at the Port - needs to spend money on the roads though), Grenada (wonderful people, needs our support to help recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004), Barbados (fabulous, wonderful - the place to buy that holiday villa or apartment if you can afford it, especially as now the South of France and Southern Spain is so unsafe and naff) and Madeira (pretty, with wonderful roads!).

This was our third trip to the Caribbean with P&O and the second on Aurora (the other was on Oriana). We have tried the other ships (but not Artemis) but Aurora and Oriana are definitely our favourites.

Aurora is a WONDERFUL ship and after recent upgrading work looks great (only bathrooms need updating now - pink? ugh!)

ALL STAFF, food, bars, lectures, library, cybastudy etc all first class. The cinema in very good although the choice of films are not!

ONE REAL COMPLAINT ONLY ........

The Aurora Theatre Company are brilliant and had many standing ovations. However, some shows were wrongly chosen - particularly 'WICKED' which was loud and shrill. Only good manners and not wanting to offend the performers or inconvience our fellow passengers stopped us and,(we found out later) many others, leaving the Theatre.

However, the UK cabaret artistes that were flown in at various locations were really dire. Usually the comedians were billed as 'From TV's The Comedians' - heck that programme was on 30 years ago and in the main the performers haven't been heard or seen of since! They must come really cheap! This was in the main village hall or pub-type entertainment and just not good enough for Aurora. The Classical entertainment we were told by many (unfortunately we didn't see it) was superb. The 'light' singers were awful (and permatanned old). One singer was giving an hour's programme of Neil Diamond songs and a fellow diner said that on a Saga Cruise in the Caribbean last year Neil Diamond HIMSELF was the cabaret. The diner suggested that if P&O just added a £10 increase per week per person on the voyage cost they would have had an extra £54,000 (plus what they would have usually paid out) to fly some decents act's on to the ship from the American mainland. What a good idea.

Accommodation is very good and well planned. We had a stateroom with balcony which we were very satisfied with. The cabin layout is far superior to the same grade on the new ARCADIA.

Aurora and Oriana are the only two ships in the P&O fleet that were specifically commissioned for the UK passenger (the others were inherited) and so as far as the layout and facilities are concerned they have got it as almost perfect as possible.

The weather on our Caribbean trip of 21 nights was pretty bad and we didn't have any sunshine until our last Caribbean port of call of Barbados when it was fabulous and how it normally is on all the islands. We had a further two or three good days on the way home via Madeira. However, the weather cannot be blamed on anyone (even P&O!) and was just unusually bad luck and in spite of it we had a great time and will be back on similar cruises in April and November next year on P&O's m.v. Oriana.

Would recommend Aurora and Oriana to all those people out there who appreciate the opportunity of glamming up and enjoy sophisticated environments and likeminded people. We had 6 formal nights on our cruise, 6 semi-formal and 9 smart casuals. Apart from the smart casual themed evenings (i.e. Caribbean, Mardi Gras type of thing) just about everyone dressed up for smart casual evenings as well.

was jus great!i loved every minute of it x x

this review is complied by Lucy.
" Iloved every moment of dinner except leaving at the end because it ment dinner was over until the next evening.we dined in the medina restaurant, our waiters were glorio and roque,our wine waiter was called janet.
another memorable part of my holiday was when i discovered that my hair had turned GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!I turned green because i had spent so much time in the pool!!my natural blonde hair had been bleached by the sun so it went green.the pools could have been kept cleaner towards the end of the cruise"
Dads comments - dress code gers worse.reserving of loungers never managed. the rest very good esp Venice.cruising has changed over the last 10 years, in real costd it represents good value for money and its appeal has widened considerably, i agree that the bean counters now run the business and that standards have altered, however that is true of most of the travel industry, whoo would have thought that on package holidays you would be charged for your in-flight meal and for transfers?

Our first cruise - loved every minute. Experience of a lifetime, a real family treat. We will definitely do this again. The kids were in their element in the clubs and for the adults, it meant a proper holiday, knowing the little ones were safe and having a great time too. We went with Mom and Dad, my sister and her husband and our nephew (12) and niece (8). The kids haven't stopped talking about it since (3 months later) and my sister has booked for next year. We had an outside twin cabin, which gave us constantly fantastic, different views. Wouldn't much fancy an inside one, might be a bit claustrophobic. The food was fantastic, even for the fussiest diner, it will always be accommodated, the waiters can't do enough. Please remember to tip them well, they deserve every penny. We didn't think we were the cruising type, but we defintely are - if you are apprehensive, go for it!

I travelled with my Mum and Nan and Grandad on a 4 day taster cruise to Amsterdam and Guernsey. This was my fist cruise and I loved it - I have never been pampered so much, the food and service was great - I would definately recommend anyone who isnt sure about cruising to try this short one - you wont be disapointed. I am 27 yrs old and I suppose the entertainment was a little more suited to older people, but had I been with my husband we would have spent more time in the main bar areas and not gone to all the shows. The organisation on board was excellent, the staff in all areas couldnt do enough for you and were so helpful, I really felt quite bad that they were treating us all so special. I would love to go on this ship again and am trying to talk hubby into a longer cruise next year.

We travelled on a Mediterranean cruise visiting eight ports during a two week holiday.

The ship was spotlessly clean and nothing was too much trouble for the busy crew.

Food in all of the different eating venues was first class vith lots of variety and choice. The weight that we put on is evidence of this!

The entertainment was excellent with several 'West End' shows and magic from Paul Daniels. There was loads to do throughout the day and night, a highly recommended holiday.

My second cruise on the fantastic Aurora. Everything first class. For me no other holiday can compare. A wonderful selection of restaurants. Cabins beautifully maintained with a twice daily towel change. Evening entertainments to suit all tastes.

Ecellant cruise and good ports of call we went on the Ancient WOnders Cruise.

My comments are as follows and really apply to us as a couple - There were a few ports that we decided we did not want to get off the boat at and unfortunately the weather was poor. For those of us that remained on board (and there were quite a few) there was absolutly nothing laid on as entertainment and the weather was not such that you would want to sit on deck or swim! This is soething I feel should be looked at.

My only other critism is the CASINO on previous ships I have always enjoyed a bit of a gamble, and previously with P&O the roulette table was with a single 0 and poker table was with more than 3 cards! The casino experience was a real rip off and the dress code of the staff within the casino made it feel like a bingo hall as opposed to a luxury casino - This was my only dissappointment so as I didnt use the casino after the first night I guess I saved money (but it did leave a bit of a hole in my usual evenings enjoyment)!

we sailed out of Southhampton to the streemers the band and the champagne, which was just what we wanted. we met lots of lovely people . we enjoyed the dressing up best of all. We enjoyed as many excursions as we could manage which was all of them . They were so well organised we felt so special. I like the ships security , and how we were accounted for. I had some sickness over the bay of biscay , but was very well looked after.This was a very special cruise and we re booked within 4 days of returning home . Anyone cruising on her will not be disappointed. Enjoy, youre worth it!!!

please re-read my review i missed the bit about the crew they scored a 6!!!!!