Aurora wifi, and bringing children on an adults-only ship

Aurora is P&O’s smaller, older ship — about 76,000 gross tonnes, 270 metres and around 1,870 guests — and normally adults only. From 11 December 2026 P&O is opening a dozen of its sailings to families. On those sailings there is reportedly no kids’ club and no babysitting, which means the children are with you, or somewhere on the ship on their own. Keeping in touch stops being a nice-to-have.

What changes in December 2026

Aurora and Arcadia have been P&O’s two adults-only ships. On 7 October 2025 P&O announced that 20 sailings between December 2026 and September 2027 would be open to all ages — 12 on Aurora and 8 on Arcadia. The rest of the year both stay adults only.

Aurora’s first all-ages sailings, as reported:

• 11 December 2026 — 4 nights, Southampton to Rotterdam
• 15 December 2026 — 14 nights, a Scandinavian Christmas cruise
• 29 December 2026 — 5 nights, Hamburg for New Year

Later sailings run through summer 2027 to Spain, Portugal and the Western Mediterranean.

Sources: Cruise Mummy and Cruise Hive, both 7 October 2025, checked 23 October 2026. These are secondary sources; P&O’s own site refused our request, so confirm your sailing with P&O.

No kids’ club is the part that matters

On P&O’s family ships, children’s clubs called The Reef are where children spend a large part of the day, and P&O says those aged 12 and under are checked in and out by a parent or guardian. Cruise Hive reported that Aurora’s family sailings will not offer children’s clubs or babysitting. Cruise Mummy lists what is provided: children’s menus, baby-changing areas, bottle-warming stations, and entertainment suitable for all ages.

For a family with small children, that mostly means you are together all day, which solves itself. For a family with older children or teenagers, it means there is no supervised place they are known to be. They will roam a ship that was laid out for adults, and the usual answer on a big ship — “they’re at the club” — does not exist here.

Two of the Christmas sailings are to Scandinavia and Hamburg in December, too, so a lot of the time will be spent indoors.

What the ship gives you

The same as everywhere in the fleet. The onboard network is free and runs My Holiday for the daily programme, bookings and your account, and it works with your phone in airplane mode — which is where it should be at sea. Internet through it is paid, per device. What P&O charges, and what each tier covers.

My Holiday has no guest messaging, on Aurora or any other P&O ship. Reaching your own children is left to you.

The common mistake is a package on every phone, bought mostly so the family can message each other. With teenagers that adds up quickly. Work out what it would cost your group before deciding.

A small ship helps

Aurora is about 76,000 gross tonnes against Arvia’s 185,000, with roughly 1,870 guests against 5,200. On a family sailing that is a genuine advantage:

• Checking somewhere is quick. 270 metres end to end, and fewer places a teenager could plausibly be.
• Fewer people share the connection, though it is still shared satellite internet and evenings are still the slowest time.
• Phones are nearer to each other, which helps anything that works directly between them.

It does not make the problem go away. A phone on silent in a pocket still cannot be reached, and a ship of nearly two thousand people is plenty to lose someone in. Agree a meeting point and a time anyway. Naming the deck is the trick. If someone does go missing, here is what actually works.

What CruiseLink does here

CruiseLink passes messages between your group’s phones over Bluetooth and the ship’s local network — no wifi package, no account, free, every phone in airplane mode. It has a “looking for someone” alert that every phone in the group joins in on.

The limits, plainly. Everyone has to install it before you sail, because without buying a wifi package nobody can download it at sea. It reaches only your own group, not other passengers or the crew. And it is not instant across a ship: a message travels when phones come near enough, directly or carried by someone else in the group. On a ship Aurora’s size, near enough comes round more often than on Arvia, but not always. It is text, not a walkie talkie — there is no push-to-talk.

The 15-minute setup to do at home, and how the P&O ships compare.

Get CruiseLink

Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. On iPhone and Android, and the two work together.

Not affiliated with P&O Cruises. Ship figures are approximate and from Wikipedia (76,152 GT, 270 m, 1,878 guests) and CruiseMapper (76,152 GT, 270 m, 1,874–2,258 guests). Sources disagree on the deck count, so we have left it out. Checked 23 October 2026.