Aurora Ship Visit

On the 9th December, I will again be lucky enough to leave the office for the day and take a trip to Southampton to see a beautiful lady.   Although we have the brochures, nothing beats actually seeing the product and sampling the food.  I have cruised on the Aurora although it was back in 2003 so it has been a while since I have been on board.

Many of you that have spoken to me know that when it comes to P&O, I prefer the smaller ships.  I do like the Azura and Oceana but I my first choice would be Aurora closely followed by Oriana, the reason being mainly the amount of outside space.  One of my favourite times is late afternoon, sailing along watching the sun set and then the starry sky late at night with no light pollution.  On a clear night the views are outstanding.

Another reason is because of the tiered backs.  Both the Aurora and Oriana have a base deck with a pool on the back and then around five-ish decks that tier up giving space on the back of the ship which rarely tends to get used in the evenings.

Aurora is 76,000 gross tonnes and has a passenger capacity of 1,874 guests.

The Aurora entered service with P&O back in 2000 and is the fifth largest ship in the fleet.  She was christened by Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal.   Her christening took place on 27th April 2000 whereby the champagne bottle did’nt shatter and fell unopened into the sea.  This was interpretted as a bad omen  among seafarers and has been blamed for many setbacks Aurora has had throughout her 13 years of service however she still remains a firm favourite.

One of Auroras most memorable news stories was in 2005 when she left Southampton to begin a 103 night world cruise.  With the ship full to capacity, whilst on the way to Madeira, Aurora had problems with the propulsion motors and since the problems could not be resolved, she had to turn around and head back to Southampton.

The cruise then become known as ‘the voyage around the Isle of Wight’ or ‘The largest ever Isle of Wight Ferry’. The cruise was also dubbed the ‘World Booze Cruise’ as the company offered free drinks, free excursions and 50% percent discount for the 2007 World Cruise. All people that were affected on the 2005 world cruise received a full refund and open bars whilst waiting in Southampton.

P&O then donated all the food purchased for the trip to local charities around Southampton before heading off to a dry dock to have a new motor put in.

The whole cancellation is reported to have cost P&O £25 million.

So what will Aurora hold for me? I am really looking forward to seeing her on Monday although She has a history.

Aurora is a fantastic ship and I’ll do a full update once I am back.

Have you been on the Aurora?  Is there anything in particular you’d like information on that I can find out for you?

www.tomstravels.co.uk – 0800 408 6143 – [email protected]