Aurora
P&O Cruises · Cruise · In service · built by Meyer Werft
Aurora entered service in 2000 at 76,152 GT and remains the fleet's smallest and oldest ship, best known for a naming ceremony and maiden voyage that both went wrong.
Derived metrics
Computed by ships.fyi from the core specification, see how we calculate these.
How big is it, really?
The Aurora's length overall, against things you already know the size of.
The 747-8 held the longest-airliner record for over a decade, until Boeing's 777-9 took it by about 19 inches (76.72 m), our sibling site aircraft.fyi measures everything that flies the same way.
One Aurora = 1.00 Titanics · 2.6 football pitches · 11 blue whales · 3.5 Boeing 747-8s laid end to end.
Plan a sailing on Aurora
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The numbers
| Length overall | ≈270 m |
|---|---|
| Beam | ≈32.2 m |
| Gross tonnage | 76,152 GT |
| Passengers | ≈1,874 |
| Crew | ≈850 |
| Decks | 10 passenger decks |
| Speed | ≈24 kn |
| Entered service | May 2000 |
Put the Aurora next to something
Last verified: 2026-07-15 · Spot an error? business@luck.fyi
What makes it different
Aurora is the smallest and oldest ship P&O operates, and she began about as badly as a ship can. At her naming ceremony in April 2000 the champagne bottle swung against the hull and refused to break, traditionally read as an omen, and days later her maiden voyage was abandoned with a propulsion-bearing failure, every passenger refunded.
She recovered into a long and useful career. At 76,152 gross tons and 270 metres she is small by modern standards, which is exactly why she works: she takes the world cruises and long-haul itineraries where port access matters more than water slides.
She now sails adults-only alongside Arcadia, giving P&O two quiet ships at the bottom of a fleet whose top end is the 345-metre Arvia. A twenty-six-year-old hull at one end and an LNG mega-ship at the other is a wide spread for a seven-ship line.
The Aurora line
Adults only
A bad start
Who operates the Aurora
All 1 operator of record, verified 2026-07-15. Figures marked ≈ are approximate.
POP&O CruisesWorld cruises and long itineraries from Southampton; adults only.1✓→