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Le Havre
Weather: Early morning fog lifted; sunny day
We awoke and found we’d arrived in France. It was a very foggy start to the day and quite chilly too, but there were glimmers that the sun was trying to break through. After the narrow escapes of yesterday, we decided to explore Le Havre. It didn’t take long!!
There was a fantastic square in front of the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) with waterfalls and statues.
We then we walked down the “main” shopping street to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Outside, the church still had signs of its wartime history with bullet holes to the stonework. Inside the restoration from WW2 had only been relatively recently been completed (in the mid-70’s). Inside was pretty plain. A few stain glass windows remain but the rest were plain glass with a border pattern. There was no gold/gilt embellishments and the vaulted ceiling was elegantly carved from wood.
Strangest sight has to the “Le Volcan” centre – it literally looks like a concrete volcano.
We tried to grab a bite to eat in a small square just off the Hotel de Ville Square but the service was non-existent (we were lucky to get drinks!). In the end we gave up and headed back to the ship instead and tested out the Sidewalk Cafe, followed by Afternoon Tea sat out on Pennants Bar.
There isn’t a huge amount to see in Le Havre itself, so would recommend visiting somewhere else – either independently or on a P&O trip.
We met in the Crows Nest for pre-dinner drinks but didn’t survive long with the smoke (smoking was still allowed inside at this point!!).
Dinner once again was lovely, although felt very sorry for Aly. Three out of the five main courses either contained Pork or Bacon, then to add insult to injury, the potato accompaniment also contained bacon! No wonder they ran out of bacon half way through breakfast service this morning – they needed it all for dinner that evening!
We all opted for the Poached Egg in Hollandaise Sauce for starters which was nicer than we were anticipating. This was followed by French Onion Soup. I went for the Roast Chicken, Jon, Nic and Aly opted for Plaice and Ray the Boeuf Bourguignon. Nic and I opted for the warm Chocolate Brownie and Ray the Baileys Crème Brulé and Jon the Cheeseboard.
Chrisley and Sumanto had done a great job of getting to know us over the last couple of days and had a great sense of humour. Chrisley presented his fruit platter each evening with the phrase; ”would anyone like some fruits from my garden” and Sumanto by the end was pre-empting any of those little requests that we had – like sugar for Aly’s fruit salad! Hope the guys we get next May are as nice as these two!
Callum had zonked out in Toy Box but he woke up before we could get him settled in Night Nursery. He was crying and all he wanted to do was head back to our cabin so I left Jon holding the fort at the Syndicate Quiz Night and retired back to the cabin to put Callum to bed and finish (well start) the packing!
The gang got 9 answers right … and that would have been +3 if I’d made it with my limited knowledge … St Stephens is Big Ben’s Bell Tower, Chess is the musical that Elaine Page sang “I Know Him So Well” and cars with “ZA” badge are from South Africa. The winning score was 15, so we wouldn’t have been challenging them anyway. Nic and Jon brought me up a couple of glasses of wine to keep me company so they checked out the answers then.
So, our thoughts on Aurora vs Oceana … would very happily cruise on either (or give Ventura, Azura or Oriana a go for that matter)!
- The children’s play areas on Aurora (Toy Box and Jumping Jacks) are much bigger and lighter than on Oceana. Staff however are fabulous on both!
- The Crows Nest on Aurora is a stunning bar and will be even better when they no longer allow smoking in there. My eyes were smarting and throat dry within 5 mins on being in the room. Service in here was really slow compared to other bars – a 20 minute wait for drinks to arrive after ordering.
- Love the back of the ship on Aurora, very classy … but I do like the Lido deck area in the middle of Oceana. Oceana in hot weather really comes into its own and lots more space than on Aurora.
- Prefer the layout of The Plaza on Oceana to Aurora. Having to the two sides separated makes it flow a lot better and the food area is less congested.
- Sidewalk Cafe … food not a patch on the food coming out of the Horizon Grill on Oceana. Different class completely.
- Cabin choice for us with sofa beds is better on Aurora. On Oceana you need to be in a mini-suite to have the option of a sofa bed, whereas on Aurora these are in all balcony cabins and upwards. I just don’t like the thought of Callum being 6 foot up in the air – Jon and I certainly wouldn’t want to be!
- The bars on Oceana all seem to be in separate rooms whereas a lot on Aurora seem to be walk through bars
- Down to personal preference, I do prefer the Freedom Dining option, giving us that little bit more flexibility with spending time with Callum. 2nd sitting is fine (and we had two fabulous waiters with great sense of humour) which admittedly you do miss on Freedom. No way could we consider 1st sitting at the moment – we’d need to start getting ready about 4.30pm in order to make it to dinner by 6.30pm!
- Not bothered about “semi formal” dress code. Wearing a suit to dinner has no appeal for Jon and the dress code for ladies is very similar for semi-formal and smart casual.
- Really like the locations of Pennants Bar on both ships. On Oceana, it overlooks the Lido Deck and affords fabulous views over the ship and the port you are in. Can get very breezy when ship is sailing though. On Aurora it has great views over the stern of the ship and the terraced balconies down to Deck 8.
- The age range on this mini cruise is much younger (this was a party cruise) – can’t really recall that many people people in their 70s or over (or that looked like they were any way!). There was much less moaning that we’ve come across on our two other cruises. The cruise prior to this was the 24-ish nighter across the pond to the USA and Canada; the bar staff confirmed that more alcohol had been served on this three nighter … than the entire 24 nighter across to the US!
What had we tried on this cruise that was new for us?
- The Syndicate Quiz – no-one takes it too seriously and actually pretty good fun
- Raffles Bar – a great place for pre-dinner drinks and pretty quiet too.
- We didn’t see a film, but were impressed by the size of the Playhouse when we assembled there for Muster Drill. Seats comfortable and good capacity and lovely large screen.
