I stayed in a Solo Balcony cabin onboard P&O Aurora: Here’s my review!
Before I start my review today, if you’d like to see a video tour of this cabin, then head over to my YouTube channel! This might be useful to watch before reading my more detailed review below…
As a British cruiser, I’ve taken quite a few cruises onboard various P&O Cruises ships. I’ve been on the largest ship in their fleet, and also the smallest in the fleet, and everything in between, so I reckon I’ve got a pretty good grasp of what the P&O Cruises product looks like in the UK market.
Before we get started on reviewing the specific room that I stayed in onboard Aurora, let me tell you a little bit more about the ship. Aurora was launched to the market back in the year 2000, so she’s not a new ship by any stretch of the imagination. Infact, she’s actually the oldest ship operating in the P&O Cruises fleet, preceding her younger sister - Arcadia - by multiple years! One thing’s clear about this ship in particular - there’s a really loyal following that seem to LOVE Aurora. I met so many people onboard who were (what I would call) ‘veteran cruisers’, and were delighted to be back onboard for an Aurora cruise way up in the double figures - impressive for an older ship, right?
P&O Aurora is now an adults-only ship - this hasn’t always been the case, but she was modernised a few years ago, and some interesting changes were made (more on this shortly). I’ll show you more from the ship itself over on my YouTube channel too, which leads me on to the perfect time to plug for your support… Every single view and subscriber over on YouTube helps me to grow, so it would be amazing if you’d come over and join me. To do so, just search ‘Fraser at Sea’ over on YouTube, or click here now!
So, when was I onboard Aurora? I cruised in May 2024, and was onboard for a short 3-night cruise from Southampton. During the cruise, we visited Zeebrugge (the port for Bruges), before heading back to Southampton and enjoying a day ‘at Sea’ enroute.
So, let’s think about the room - that’s why you’re here, after all! My cabin, D202, was at the back of the ship on Deck 8. For anyone who’s cruised on Aurora before the refit that made her change into an ‘adults only’ ship, you may be familiar with what was here before: the kids club! The removal of the kids club has allowed the cruise line to fit a healthy number of cabins in here, which ultimately provide increased revenue for the ship. In terms of room types back here, there are a few different cabin grades, and these span across inside cabins, sea view cabins (in other words, rooms with a window) and also balcony cabins! For me, I was staying in a solo balcony cabin, which you can see in the diagram below in purple (interestingly, it’s standard balcony cabins on the other side in turquoise).
I’ll cover the ‘ups and downs’ on the interior of the room shortly but, for now, let’s think just about the location. So, was this location any good? Well, here’s the positives:
VERY easy access to the pool - there was a door at the end of my corridor that took me straight out to the pool - fantastic, right?!
Proximity to venues - so many venues on this ship are on either Deck 8 or Deck 7, so I felt that I was never far away from the action!
Solo balcony cabins are grouped together - all of those purple cabins in the above diagram are solo, which means you’ve got like-minded travellers nearby. I always really like this for saying ‘hello!’ to my fellow solo cruisers when coming and going from the room!
However, there were some down-sides to this cabin’s location:
The room was directly above one of the show lounges onboard: ‘Carmen’s’. While this didn’t disturb me, anyone trying to go to bed before midnight could have trouble with live bands playing one deck below. That said, I genuinely didn’t have any noise issues with this cabin at all!
Movement - being right at the back of the ship, it’s known you could feel a bit more motion back here. For my cruise though, all was well!
Easy access to the pool - yes, this is overall a positive for this cabin, but this did increase the traffic flowing down the corridor past the cabin to get outside!
It’s an enclosed balcony - this absolutely doesn’t annoy me at all, but I know for some it would. This balcony isn’t a clear glass-fronted one - it’s a much more protected, enclosed balcony (I’ll show you more in photos further down this post!).
So, from a location point of view, there were both positives and also negatives to this room, but let’s talk about the room itself. First, here’s some photos of the cabin for you to familiarise yourself with:
So, I need to kick this part of the post off by taking my hat off to P&O - it’s so common for a solo cruiser to get ‘stung’ paying double fare for a cruise ship cabin designed for two people, and so it’s GREAT to see a ship house cabins designed specifically for just one traveller - thanks, P&O!
Now, the room itself I was actually really impressed with. Here’s what I found in the room that’s worth noting:
The bed - the bed felt larger than a single but not quite a double. Annoyingly, I couldn’t measure the bed, so can’t confirm the exact size, but I found it really comfortable and bedding of good quality!).
Bedside lamp - this featured both the section you can see lit in the above picture, and also a more focussed reading light that you could have on separately
Workstation - it was great to find a good size of desk in a solo cabin, and also a chair with a back on it! I often find ‘back breaking’ chairs on cruise ships, that really are just a stool, and you’re therefore almost incapable of spending any time working there. I know what you’re thinking - you shouldn’t be working on a cruise - but I need to get some stuff done for you all while on there!
Storage - there was LOTS of storage in this cabin for a solo traveller. There was a double wardrobe, bedside units, drawers around the workstation, and then more storage in the bathroom - well done, P&O!
Tea or Coffee? Not a problem! This room came fully equipped with a kettle, tea, coffee and some biscuits - welcome to the wonderful world of cruising with a British cruise line! Fun fact - most cruise lines departing a UK port will have kettles etc in the cabins - us British cruisers LOVE a tea or coffee in the room in the morning before heading out into the main ship!
Plug points - I found there to be plenty of plug points in this cabin. I had 2 on the desk (both UK, and one was ‘upside down’ which allowed me to plug in my laptop charger!), and there was another if I unplugged the kettle. It would be great to have a specific bedside socket (or even just a USB outlet), but not the end of the world…
The ‘framing’ around the balcony doors - hear me out here, as this might sound like a strange feature to call out. Look at the picture above - how nice is that wooden framing above the balcony doors? I felt that it made the outside view a real feature (made better by the fact that the balcony itself was enclosed). Look at how cosy the room looked at night when the curtains would get closed - really nice, isn’t it?!
So, what is an enclosed balcony cabin, and is it worse than a regular balcony?
Well, this is something that I wondered before staying in here - people had warned me that it might be an enclosed balcony, and I was a bit worried as I’d paid extra to get a good view. Would the view be obstructed, therefore making it ‘enclosed’? What did this mean? I couldn’t find a clear answer looking specifically at the solo cabins on Aurora!
Well, an ‘enclosed balcony’ is what a room is often referred to if, instead of having the more common glass frontage, the balcony has been inserted into a structural part of the ship. Look at the picture below - because we’re at the back of the ship, I didn’t have a glass barrier, but was instead met with an exterior wall of the ship outside the cabin. You might think this would make the cabin feel really dark, but it really didn’t! Yes, factually you’ll get more light and sunshine on a balcony that isn’t in this location, but I genuinely didn’t have any struggles at all (first world struggle, I know!).
You can probably tell that I was pretty impressed with this cabin! Let’s move in to look at the bathroom…
Don’t worry - I’m not going to spend all day complaining about the shower curtain, but yikes - do we need that in there in 2024?! Anyway, I was really happy with this bathroom - with this being one of the newly added rooms to P&O Aurora, it was clear that this was a modern bathroom in comparison to what some other people had while onboard. If you check out this post from Emma Cruises, you’ll see that her bathroom was much more ‘dated’, and featured a VERY strong salmon-pink vibe… None of that in here!
So yeah, nothing major to report from the bathroom - really functional, lots of storage inside the mirrored cabinets, and premium-feeling toiletries from the ‘White Company’ brand both at the wash basin and also in the shower cubicle - I always enjoy this final point on P&O Cruises - the toiletries always feel lovely!
So, here we go - the million dollar questions - would I cruise in this cabin again? Also, how much did I pay for this cabin?!
Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed my time onboard Aurora, and a large part of that was due to having such a nice cabin to retire to. For this cruise, I paid just over £450 for 3 nights, which I thought was decent value considering I had a cabin with an ocean view (AND outside space) as a solo passenger!
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