P&O cruise ship Aurora to be given new restaurants in £26 million makeover

New-look Aurora complete with Union Jack painted on the bow, and blue funnel 

Old-look Aurora: In December the ship will get a new paint job
and £26 million invested in new restaurants and improved facilities

When P&O Cruises Aurora returns to Southampton in December after a three-week dry dock refit, she will boast more than just a new blue funnel and red, white and blue Union Jack paint job across the bow.

The 14-year-old ship will be the first in the fleet to receive the new livery but she will also be given a £26 million makeover in time for its Christmas and New Year cruise, and ahead of its 2015 world cruise to South America and the Pacific.

The work, to be carried out in Hamburg from November 29 to December 18, will concentrate on updating the 1,900-passenger ship’s restaurants and bars. In come several features that have proved popular on P&O’s newer ships. The Sindhu restaurant, with Indian fusion menus devised by Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar, will replace the library on Deck 8.

Olly Smith’s Glass House restaurant and wine bar moves into the space currently occupied by Café Bordeaux It will be open for brunch, lunch and dinner and will also have a private room for wine tastings and exclusive dinners.

The Deck 12 Lido buffet restaurant gets a complete refurbishment and its evening Pennant Grill menu will be replaced by The Beach House, with favourite dishes such as fillet steak cooked on hot rocks. The Medina Restaurant will be adapted for Freedom Dining, with more tables for two, and the Sidewalk Café wil become a Costa Coffee Shop with a grab-and-go snack counter.

Champions Bar and the casino will be refreshed and the ship’s shops are to be updated, while all cabins will be fitted out with new soft furnishings and – belatedly – flat-screen televisions.

The library has not been forgotten – it will be moved to the internet centre next to the Crow’s Nest lounge on Deck 13.

Marketing director Christopher Edgington said: “Aurora will be the first ship to display our new livery and we have big plans to welcome her back to Southampton. We can’t wait to see her.”

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