Aurora Calls it Quits.  Today guests should have been enjoying breakfast in sun-drenched Brazil, but instead P&O has finally called it quits on the malingering cruise ship Aurora and it's 104-day 'round the world cruise. As we previously reported,
the ship has struggled with engine troubles since the scheduled
departure date and never managed to get past the English channel, so
guests spent most of the week in less-than-sunny Southampton before
packing their bags and returning home today.
To ease the disappointment, P&O is refunding passengers their
fares (which ran up to £42,000 per passenger) and 25% in compensation.
The delay and cancellation are estimated to have cost
P&O £22m, and it is too early to say how much the repair of the
ship will come to. But the managing director of P&O, David Dingle,
played down the likely damage to its international reputation. He said:
"We don't anticipate any lasting damage providing we do the decent
things by our passengers and move swiftly to repair the ship, both of
which we are doing."
It's actually been pretty amusing to check in on the Aurora webcam
all week to see where they might be; the view has never changed much
from the shot above, captured today. On the upside, passengers who
chose to stick it out for the week while repairs were attempted did
score a rather unusual free week-long holiday in Southampton... [Wanda Lust: First Class Travel Blog]
11:30:26 AM 
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