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✓→