Cruise to a better mind and body

I haven't had to repel a monkey before breakfast since an inquisitive chimp leapt onto my balcony during a holiday in Africa, but believe me, it's a lot harder to do aboard a ship rolling about on high seas.

With the room swaying from side to side, embracing the tiger and grasping the bird's tail isn't a bundle of fun either. But you must get used to such things if you want to master the Oriental discipline of t'ai chi on a Lifestyle cruise aboard P&O's 1,975-passenger ship Aurora.

Those who still think cruising is all about bingo and blow-outs would eat their words if they saw how fervently passengers participated in exploring the wilder shores of alternative therapy.

Every morning, the dance floor of the ship's Carmen lounge was packed with tracksuit-bottomed t'ai chi practitioners; it was standing-room only in Alexander technique, reiki and chi kung classes, and if you didn't get in quick for yoga sessions at the gym you'd barely find space to balance your chakras. While many passengers on the long sailing from the Caribbean to Southampton indulged in the more traditional cruise pursuits of snoozing round the pool, raiding the library and battling hangovers, we devotees of personal development followed a more hectic schedule.

From agony aunt Claire Rayner, we learned that "good sex plays a very small part in marital success" (though watching raunchy videos together comes highly recommended). Nutritionist Sally Whitman's top tip was never to cook anything in plastic, as it's full of hormone-hammering chemicals (I've decanted every ready meal since), while aromatherapist Valerie Anne Worwood's advice was to sniff rosemary for alertness on a long drive, and that scattering drops of neroli oil about will help sell a house.

With all this and talks on skin and back care, Indian head massage and feng shui, plus advice on how to placate irritable bowels and balance raging hormones, it was tempting - if counterproductive- - to spend too much time indoors learning about good health and not enough putting the advice to practical use.

But the well-organised programme - detailed on a leaflet distributed at the start of the cruise - made it easy to learn a lot and benefit from the ship's well-equipped gym, roomy pools, surprisingly affordable spa and other facilities. These include a bistro-style restaurant - the Café Bordeaux - where, for a £3.50 surcharge, you can eat freshly prepared food in more relaxed surroundings than the ship's main dining rooms (and indulge, if you wish, in a non-PC cigarette).

Head for Anderson's Club and you can sink into a leather armchair and go one better with a gigantic post-prandial cigar, while the Orangery, Aurora's alfresco-style cafeteria, offers the full days-of-the-Raj experience at its themed Indian nights, when the ship's largely Goan crew dish up their favourites.

But Aurora's best point - if you really want to shed some stress - is its indoor/outdoor children's facility which, offering a 6pm to 2am night nursery and age-related activity clubs for two to five-year-olds, six to nines, 10 to 13s and 14 to 17s, keeps the little darlings out of everybody's hair.

P&O's Lifestyle themed cruises are few and far between but worth looking out for; the company organises them with old-fashioned British thoroughness, you learn a lot in pleasant surroundings, can explore ashore as you go, and get large dollops of sea air thrown in for free. Now you wouldn't get all that at Champneys.

Way to go

The next Lifestyle themed fly-cruise with P&O Cruises (08453 555333 or www.pocruises.com) takes place from 14-26 March 2003 aboard Arcadia, 12 nights, sailing from Barbados to Southampton via the Grenadines, Dominica and Antigua, price from £1,280 pp based on twin share in an inside cabin and including the current 20 per cent Pricebreaker discount.

More health-themed cruises