I Took a Cruise After an Outbreak, Would I Regret It? – 3 Days at Sea

Two days before I embarked on a cruise onboard P&O’s Aurora, I received an email that nobody likes to get.

It read, “During the last cruise, a number of people have reported to the Medical Centre with symptoms of “gastrointestinal illness”.

It went on to explain that they would be stepping up their disinfection measures and that we would be delayed embarking by a couple of hours. 

I’ll never forget those cruises I took with all the restrictions in place during the pandemic, and I didn’t want to do those again.

I decided to take this cruise with a big group of friends, some of which I hadn’t seen for years. I hoped that the illness outbreak wouldn’t affect us too much in terms of restrictions.

I was also keeping everything crossed that none of us would get ill because being ill is always miserable, but when you’re on a cruise and missing out on all the fun, that’s even worse. 

The ship that we were to be sailing on was P&O’s Aurora, and despite her age, I’d heard good things about the ship. I was very excited to get on board.

As instructed by the email, I arrived at the port an hour and a half later than planned so that they could do some extra cleaning. My embarkation time on my ticket was 1:15 p.m., so we arrived around 3 p.m.

I noticed that the final boarding time was meant to be 3:30 p.m., but I assumed that they would be delaying that. Otherwise, the people who had later embarkation times would miss the ship, and that wouldn’t make any sense.

Embarkation was very easy. We’d already checked in online, so we just had to show a QR code and go through security.

When we got onboard, the sun was shining, so we headed straight up and out, first to the big open spaces with beautiful wooden decks and then to the outside pool.

The ship felt spacious, and after picking up our first Pepsi, we met up with a few friends at the back of the ship. 

I fell in love with this area instantly, it’s spread over six decks, and there is one bar at the top and one at the bottom.

This is a very traditional cruise ship feature. New cruise ships tend to have much squarer backs.

Cruise lines can make more money if they fit more cabins or restaurants into this space so it does make sense, but you can’t beat a lovely aft like this. 

Find out more about that in the article below:

My Favourite Cruise Ship Design Feature Isn’t Being Built Anymore – Here’s Why

In total, Aurora can hold over 1800 guests, which makes her the smallest P&O cruise ship.

It does only takes one person to spread an illness, and if the media is to believed I would be having a horrible time trapped on a floating petri dish.

I really hate it when cruise ships are called that because it just doesn’t make any sense, it’s estimated that only 1% of norovirus outbreaks happen on cruise ships with schools, nursing homes, hospitals and restaurants accounting for a whopping 91%. 

I used to get ill much more often when I worked in an office and commuted on the train than than I do now when I spent a lot of my time travelling. 

My friends Bob and Holly gave me this incredible P&O biscuit, and we sat and chatted as a big group for what was probably a couple of hours.

What didn’t come up at any point, though, was the illness outbreak. We all cruise a lot and just weren’t worried at all. (That could have been famous last words, of course. Only time would tell if all of us would make it through the cruise without picking up something.) 

We were amazed by the sail out of Southampton. It was lovely to do it in daylight and the sun was shining.

I’m pretty sure I picked up a little bit of a tan from this first day, which I was not expecting. I’m pretty used to sailing away from Southampton in the rain.

Not wanting to go too far, we headed inside to the buffet for dinner, which was at the back of the ship.

Here we were greeted with a line that was probably longer than usual because they were making sure that every single person washed their hands before coming into the buffet.

Even if we just wanted to walk through the buffet area, we had to wash our hands. I, personally, think that is a fantastic idea. 

The ship probably could have done with a few more sinks, but it was built back in the year 2000 so I’m not going to hold that against her. 

When cruise ships are named, a bottle of champagne is broken against the hull for good luck. When Aurora was launched, the bottle didn’t break, which did leave some people wondering if that would mean she would have bad luck.

On her first cruise, she broke down 18 hours into sailing, and the whole trip had to be cancelled, so maybe there is something in that old superstition.

P&O had to refund and compensate everybody, which apparently cost them six million pounds. 

There was always hand sanitiser in the buffet, and we found a machine at the entrance and exit of every single venue we went into.

There are normally a lot on cruises but this really felt like they had placed extra. It was as if somebody had been playing the Sims, and just dropped the same item over and over again onto every deck. 

I found a Yorkshire puddings, and all the food was tasty and hot. The buffet itself wasn’t huge, but the thing that I care most about when it comes to P&O cruises and their buffets is the iced buns that they have for breakfast.

I’m happy to say that I did find these a little later in the cruise, along with the fresh fruit bowls, which were always nice. 

After dinner, we decided to head to the main theatre, where we watched a show which was your typical kind of cruise ship singing show.

It was easy to watch and upbeat, nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it kept us entertained for the half hour that it was on.

There was lots of interesting artwork around the ship, and you could even call some of the carpets works of art if you wanted to. 

The theatre itself was very well designed with lots of comfortable seats and not a pillar or post in the way anywhere. 

One of my favourite venues onboard was the Crows Nest, and we headed there for an evening drink. This lounge was huge and had windows all around the outside, with loads of smaller seating areas. 

We would come back to this lounge quite a few times during the cruise and it was a particularly nice place to be while sailing. It never felt too busy and we could always get a seat with a view if we wanted to.

This is definitely a feature of older cruise ships that I miss on a lot of the more modern versions. 

Overnight, we flew one hour into the future. Our cruise was taking us to Bruges, and I had hoped that we would have sunshine there.

When we woke up, we realised very quickly that that wasn’t a wish that was coming true. Still, I’d prefer not to get ill than see the sunshine, and maybe it was one wish per person on the cruise.

For me, this cruise really was about spending time with my friends and exploring a new cruise ship anyway, so we headed up to the inside pool.

I love cruise ships with an area like this, and it is perfect for cold-weather cruises. I saw a Grill up here and knew I’d have to come back for that later. 

My plan was to explore the rest of the outside spaces but it took me about 0.1 seconds until my feet were drenched, so I decided I’d leave that for tomorrow. 

The ship definitely did feel her age but only really in terms of style. Looking at the carpets, I think its fairly easy to see that the ship isn’t new, even though the carpets are new.

Most modern ships have a more Scandinavian muted colour scheme, but I really don’t mind Aurora’s more traditional look.

As long as a ship is well looked after that’s much more important to me than the actual age of the steel of the ship. 

I loved how we would just come across random quirky things, there were loads of cute little booth seats and spiral staircases. The ship flowed well and I was actually learning my way around.

It was around now that I started to notice one problem, though, which really isn’t a good problem for a ship to have if there is an illness outbreak onboard. That was that a huge proportion of the public toilets were broken. 

Cruise ships have lots and lots of public toilets onboard, usually at least one set on each deck. Inside there will often be 5 or 6 toilet cubicles.

I don’t think I ever saw more than 50% operational at once, and often, there would only be 1 or 2 working – which would mean that there could be quite a queue.

That’s not a line you want to be stuck in if you do have some sort of gastrointestinal illness!

That said though, because Aurora is such a small cruise ship, wherever we were we were not that far from our cabin and could just go back to the room to use our own bathroom.

Doing that does help to get the steps in too! 

Down by the cabins, there were self-service laundries, which I know might sound a bit dull, but this is a rare find on cruise ships, and it is great when it exists.

On a lot of cruise lines, they only have a paid-for service, which is a bit annoying if you really just want to iron one item because it got creased on the way. 

No British cruise ship would be complete without a pub and we found Andersons. I loved the little touches like the books, which are pretend by the way they’re just fronts.

The fireplace was a nice feature, too, and the whole place felt very relaxing. There were lots of comfortable chairs, and I knew I’d have to come back here later for a drink. It wasn’t open at this time during the day.

Heading further into the ship we came across the main Atrium. I loved this area and it really was the heart of the ship. Here, they had real flowers, a reception desk and a coffee shop on the top level. 

In Masquerade Bar, I found people doing Wii bowling, which was cute. I also found another massive bar at the back called Carmen. 

All this exploring was making us hungry so we went to one of the main dining rooms onboard for lunch called Medina.

For dinner I had been given a fixed late dining time and a shared table. I’m not really sure why – I wouldn’t have ever picked that option – but for lunch the seating is totally flexible. You just show up, are seated and eat and that’s how I like it. 

My friends onboard all had “flexible dining” for dinner so I hoped that I’d be able to just sit with them. After all that is why I came on the cruise.

If you do have a fixed table it means you can sit there, but you don’t ever have to.

I had a sandwich and chips and we were very impressed with the service. It really couldn’t have been better or faster.

It felt as though the ship had quite a lot of crew compared to other cruise ships that I’ve been on.

Sometimes we would have multiple waiters trying to take our drinks order at once – which was very nice.

Mine was always easy of course, a pint of Pepsi Max with no ice. It was fountain Pepsi, so the fizziness and strength would vary, but still, I prefer it to Coke. 

P&O don’t sell drinks packages on short cruises, so I was paying as I went with the drinks, but there is no gratuity added on like on American cruise lines.

At £3.50 per drink, I didn’t think it was too bad. I’d always like it to be cheaper of course, but it’s actually more expensive in my local pub. 

There was no change to the way we ordered or enjoyed drinks despite the outbreak risk.

I did do a little research into the ship because she’s had an interesting history, and I found out that once upon a time, there was a norovirus outbreak onboard Aurora when she docked in Gibraltar.

Spain actually closed the border with Gibraltar and called Aurora a “virus ship” before reopening the border once the ship sailed away.

The reports I’ve read said that it caused some tension between Spain and Gibraltar – and I can see why! 

The restaurant’s decor was very traditional, with white tablecloths and wooden chairs – but I liked it.

There was another main dining room at the back called Alexandria, and all the food in these main dining rooms is included in the cruise fare. 

After a quick drink in another bar called Champions, I went back to my cabin to film my cabin tour. I had the biggest inside cabin I’ve ever had.

Find out how to pick larger-than-normal cabins in the article below:

How To Find Bigger Than Normal Cabins on Cruise Ships (Quirky Layouts)

A friend of mine who was staying in a balcony cabin let me have a quick look around his room and I did try out the little bath because it’s always exciting to have a bath on a cruise ship.

It was a kind of top-half or bottom-half bath – but still, a bath is a real treat on a cruise ship so I was very jealous of that. 

The bath felt very low to the ground, and your Britishism today is that in the UK, our baths aren’t at floor level normally. All of the plumbing is underneath, so they sit up on little legs.

Whenever I go to the States and have a bath, I’m always so confused why it’s so low down.

We also would pretty much always call it a bath, never a tub. Bathtub is fine of course, but tub makes me think of a tub of ice cream… 

It was formal night and P&O do take their formal nights quite seriously compared to other cruise lines.

Find out more about P&O’s dress codes here:

What to Wear on a P&O Cruise – 39 Examples and Enforcement

On most lines there is a dress code that only applies in the main dining room but on P&O there are a few venues where they really won’t let you in unless you are wearing a collared shirt or a dress or something like that.

In the past, I had to use a cardigan to make myself a fake skirt to cover up my shorts – because apparently, that was better.

That happened on my cruise on P&O’s much newer, family ship Arvia. Find out all about that in the video below:

We wanted to get changed, so I put on a sparkly blue dress. I felt like I could fit in to the surroundings in this dress, the ship felt like a grand old lady, not saying I’m a grand old lady.

We watched the sail away from my friend’s balcony. It’s always great to make friends with somebody with a balcony if you have an inside cabin! Like a buddy system, perhaps they could do that, adopt a person in an inside cabin for the week into your family. 

There is no need to spend any extra money on P&O cruise food, but we did decide to head to a special restaurant called Sindhu.

On some of the big American cruise lines, speciality restaurants can cost hundreds of dollars. I paid less than £20 for my meal. It would have been even cheaper if I had pre-booked before the cruise.

Sindhu is an Indian restaurant, and the food is always good there. I think I’ve been in Sindhu on every P&O cruise I’ve ever been on. I’ve almost crossed all the ships off my P&O bingo card – it’s just Arcadia that I’m missing… 

For dessert, I had a big chocolate ball that quickly melted into a chocolate soup. Honestly, I could have used a straw to eat it, but it was lovely – just pure sugar, pretty much. 

At the end of the day every person who I knew onboard was still well. Apart from the additional hand washing in the buffet and the hand sanitisers (which were placed every couple of metres) we were totally unaffected by the potential outbreak. 

I noticed a few people wearing masks, but the crew weren’t, and the buffet seemed to be an interesting mix between things being served to you and things being self-serve.

There definitely were fewer things that you could take by yourself, but still, there were tongs for a few items. 

We headed up to the buffet for an evening cup of tea, and here, the tea and coffee were being served to you. Usually, this would be self-service, but this was one area where things were different because of the gastrointestinal outbreak on the cruise before.

I chatted with the crew, and they said that everything would be going back to normal after this cruise as long as there weren’t any reports of outbreaks onboard.

The tricky thing is though, it’s really hard to know if there is an actual outbreak onboard. I’ve known people who go out and drink 8 pints and then eat 5 chocolate cakes at 2 am in the morning – and then the next day, they say they have food poisoning or Norovirus.

I think some people are very quick to claim that they have a bug when they really don’t which must be so frustrating for the cruise lines. 

The crew works hard to keep the cruise ships clean. It makes sense that they do that because they also live onboard. Nobody wants people to be unwell. 

When we woke up the next day, the sun was shining, and the seas were so beautifully calm. To me, this is what cruising is all about. 

I sat in a massive deck chair by the pool deck, it was much easier to get into than out of but I appreciated the little step up.

As far as I know, this cruise was sold out, but older cruise ships do feel like they have more space per person.

In empty spaces on a more modern cruise ship they’d probably put something crazy like a trampoline park in an empty space – but onboard Aurora its just good old fashion deck space.

They do have areas for sports too and a promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship, we saw a beautiful sunset here one evening. 

We headed to the grill for a burger and chips and then onto the cafe for a slice of cake. It was here I met up with my friends Fraser and Lucy who invited me to have a look around their solo balcony cabins.

A lot of cruise lines do have solo cabins, but a solo balcony cabin is something special.

It did make me laugh that he only had one chair on the balcony—like he wouldn’t ever possibly invite a friend—but the cabin was a good size, and the TV even came with some free shoelaces dangling below.

I did hear some people on this cruise say that they would try to get compensation for the delayed embarkation, which I thought was really weird.

I understand an hour and a half of the cruise was lost but personally, I would much prefer the cruise line to deep clean the ship than to not if they know there has been an outbreak onboard.

I’m pretty convinced that we had an even cleaner ship than usual because of the extra cleaning. That is saying something because cruise ships are, generally speaking, far cleaner than the places I go to in real life. I say “real life” because the life onboard a cruise ship just feels like a parallel world to me.

We really didn’t notice any difference on this cruise other than delaying our embarkation, increased hand washing and I suppose a few more lines for things like the tea and coffee machines.

I did end up with a cold a couple of days after the cruise, but that isn’t abnormal. When you hang around with lots of other humans, that is a risk you take. You can’t stop other people from breathing into the air you breathe in, even though that might be tempting sometimes.

I didn’t meet anybody who got ill on board, and to my relief, all my friends were fine, too. 

The most ill I’ve ever been on a cruise was when I took a winter cruise on an old ship into the Arctic Circle; you could say I bought that one on myself. But given that we saw the northern lights, I think it was worth every single minute of feeling unwell.

I picked up Covid at the end of that cruise, too, so I just had terrible luck. To find out why I still think it was worth it, check out this video next. 

Before You Go

I took a cruise on one of P&O’s larger family ship, Iona. I book a controversial balcony cabin. Find out what was unusual about it in the article below:

I Booked the Most Controversial Cabin on a Cruise Ship – P&O’s Iona Conservatory Mini Suite

I enjoy P&O’s food. Have a look at 51 meals I ate on a P&O cruise here:

51 Meals I Ate on my P&O Cruise (Photos and Menus) – Food Review