We were a little concerned about this cruise because of the rather negative reviews we've seen about the ship. We decided to go for it anyway and found the ship to be everything we wanted. OK, the dEcor needs an update (due next year I think), but it's still very nice indeed, clean, with a less excitable atmosphere than we found on the Ventura and Azura - we did the Baltic on the Azura last year and enjoyed it so much, we decided to it again on whichever P&O ship was going there in July - glad it turned out to be the Aurora.

For two weeks we enjoyed the best food we've had with P&O to date (we also sailed on the Oriana two or three years ago and the Ventura last year to the Canaries). The staff were noticeably friendlier than the bigger ships, and it was not only our opinion either.

We thought the entertainments were better, and the layout of deck 7, with the theatres, bars, shops etc. seemed more interesting somehow. Read more