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Guests 'imprisoned' as cruise ship makes two stops in 22 days
The Herald -
Passengers on an ill-fated £200m cruise ship staged a revolt claiming they were "imprisoned" on the liner during a round-the-world trip after visiting just two ports in 22 days.
Hundreds of holidaymakers on P&O's Aurora, which had already been dubbed "the jinxed ship", formed a protest committee and demanded to see the captain after engine problems forced P&O Cruises to cut out five stops.
The 76,000-tonne ship has been dogged with misfortune since its launch in 2000 when the champagne bottle swung by Princess Anne failed to break - considered a bad omen.
The Aurora's latest problems resulted in more than 600 passengers on the 93-night cruise attending an emergency meeting and forming a protest committee after missing ports in New Zealand and two Pacific Islands.
P&O said the passengers, who had each paid up to £40,000 for the cruise, will receive compensation including £500 and a refund of the cost of four days' cruising.
But the protest group dubbed the Aurora Committee is now threatening legal action to compensate for the 93-day cruise, which some passengers had saved for 20 years to afford.
Problems on the Aurora, whose home port is Southampton, Hampshire, began within hours of leaving Sydney Harbour when it developed engine problems.
It limped into Auckland, New Zealand, on one engine, where it remained for five days while repairs to the engines were carried out. The delay meant 1736 passengers on board missed stops in Wellington, Napier and the Bay of Islands, Moorea in French Polynesia and Papeete in Tahiti, to keep to schedule.
Passengers on the liner, which is part way through a round the world cruise, will have paid at least £8599 for the three-month trip.
Jennifer Dunthorne, a protest committee member, said: "So many people worked hard for so many years to afford this cruise. It is unforgivable.
"P&O offered some free drinks and derisory payments to compensate for shattered dreams. Passengers are outraged at the company's apparent sole concern to concentrate on driving forward the ailing ship to pick up the next unsuspecting passengers on April 13 in Southampton by abandoning much of the cruise they had contracted to deliver."
A P&O Cruises spokeswoman said: "We greatly value the support and loyalty of our passengers and very much regret the disruption to Aurora's world cruise. In recognition of this we have since offered a compensation package which we believe to be a fair reflection of the disruption to the cruise, the actual amount of which will vary depending upon the fare paid."
The story of misfortune since the launch of Aurora began on her maiden voyage, when the ship broke down in the Bay of Biscay and had to return to port. Passengers were compensated to the tune of £6m.
In 2003 the notoriously contagious vomiting bug norovirus affected passengers.
In January 2005 in one of the most expensive and embarrassing bungles in recent shipping history, P&O cancelled a much-delayed world cruise of the £200m luxury liner because of propulsion system problems.
Last year hundreds of passengers were examined on board Aurora to see whether they had contracted hepatitis.
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