SHE is back home. The 76,152 ton luxury cruise ship Aurora arrived in Southampton docks yesterday after completing a £27m major refit in Germany.
The P&O Cruises vessel has undergone ten weeks of work at the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, during which a section of the hull was removed to replace the two main propulsion engines.
Aurora left Southampton in January after a technical fault forced the company to abandon a scheduled 103-day world cruise.
Despite repeated attempts to solve the problem, the 1,752 passengers only sailed as far as the Isle of Wight and the Channel before the cruise was cancelled.
A spokesman for P&O Cruises said: "While Aurora was undergoing the refit we took the opportunity to also carry out routine maintenance work as well as upgrading some of the public rooms.
"Aurora underwent a series of successful sea trials to fully test the new equipment before returning to Southampton."
The ship, which entered service in May 2000, is due to leave for a two-night cruise to Belgium tomorrow before returning to the port on Sunday and then departing for a 17-night voyage to the Mediterranean.
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