She officially entered service with the company in April 2000 and was named by Anne, Princess Royal in Southampton, United Kingdom.

[5][6] Aurora was designed to appeal to the British market, and was built as an extended and improved version of P&O Cruises' Oriana.

The ship's hull and superstructure were designed to be attractive to this market with features similar to more traditional ocean liners, such as her raked, tiered stern.

This type of occurrence is considered a bad omen among seafarers, and this incident has been blamed for the numerous setbacks that Aurora has encountered throughout her career.

The ship's crew identified a major technical problem, and the cruise was abandoned after 16 hours at sea.

The cause was a propeller shaft bearing which had been damaged by overheating and required urgent repair while the ship was out of service.

Passengers expressed disappointment about the incident but reported that they were mainly satisfied with P&O Cruises' response to the situation.

P&O Cruises offered all passengers a full refund and compensation package, worth about GBP£6 million.

[18][19] During a cruise around the eastern Mediterranean in October 2003, over 500 passengers suffered stomach infections caused by the highly contagious Norovirus.

[8][20][21][22] On arrival in Dubrovnik, Croatia, a health inspector boarded the vessel and ordered the sick passengers to remain in their cabins "as a precautionary measure".

The Spanish government decided to close the border between Gibraltar and Spain on advice from its health ministry.

Aurora set sail for a dry dock in Bremerhaven, Germany, where her damaged motor would be removed and replaced.

During the 2009 World Cruise, Aurora again experienced problems with her propulsion system shortly after leaving Sydney, Australia.

More than 600 passengers on the 93-night cruise attended an emergency meeting and formed a protest committee after the ship failed to dock at three ports in New Zealand and at two Pacific Islands.

[13][14][31]In 2014, Aurora was repainted in P&O's new house livery with a stylised Union Flag on the bows, and the funnel painted blue instead of the customary P&O yellow.