My wake up call never materialised, so I woke up about 15 minutes later than intended. After shaving, showering etc. I ate breakfast, returned the hire car and bought flowers for the cabin. After checking out, I grabbed a cab and went to the port.

At the dock, I left my bags with the porters and went through to check in, which didn't open for another 15 minutes or so. Check in was was quick and sea pass in hand, I went through security with Barbara, who caught up with me. We then sat with Derek and Meg until called to board. Immediately after boarding we went straight up to the Orangery for a light lunch. I found my cabin and one of my bags was in the corridor, so I unpacked it. I met my cabin steward, Sheikh. My second bag arrived and I unpacked that too. Only the two cases sent down earlier were missing.

My cabin is a little smaller than I was expecting, but big enough and comfortable. The flowers I bought, turned out to be a pot plant! Muster stations at 16.30, then up to the rear of the ship for Sailaway. This was supposed to be at 16.30 but was 90 minutes late. There was a band and fireworks and I drank my champagne. On returning to the cabin, both missing cases were there, no time to unpack at it was dinner time.

I'm on a table of 8, all singletons. 4 of each sex and all the women were on their second world cruise on the Aurora. After dinner I unpacked and went for a drink before bed.