The £20m cruise bill

P&O Cruises is facing a £20 million bill today after it was finally forced to scrap the ill-fated round-the-world voyage of its liner the Aurora.

The operator said the 76,000-tonne ship and its remaining 1,400 passengers are heading back to Southampton after nearly two weeks of technical problems.

Aurora is expected to berth at the port's Mayf lower terminal at midnight with passengers being invited to disembark from 8.30am tomorrow.

Engineers have tried to fix a faulty propulsion system and the £200million ship finally departed Southampton yesterday but got no farther than the Devon coast.

Now the company has admitted defeat, saying tests at sea last night had "not been successful enough to allow her to achieve the required speed to complete the Grand Voyage". The company added: "P&O Cruises apologises for the disappointment this has caused passengers and offers its assurance that everything possible was done to get Aurora's Grand Voyage under way before this difficult but unavoidable decision was taken.

"Passengers will be refunded their full fare together with compensation of 25 per cent of the amount paid for their holiday to be used as a future credit on a cruise holiday booked before the end of January 2007. We would like to thank passengers for their support and patience."

The Aurora left Southampton to start the voyage for the first time on 9 January with 1,752 passengers on board. They had paid between £9,800 and £41,985 for a 103-day trip taking in 40 ports including Acapulco, Honolulu and Barbados. However, the Aurora got no farther than the Isle of Wight before she was forced to return to port for repairs. Her first scheduled port of call had been Madeira, and she was supposed to have docked at Rio de Janeiro tomorrow. Instead, she stayed trapped in the Solent. About 350 passengers left the ship, but those who stayed on board were given free food and drinks and extra entertainment with singer Elaine Paige, comedians Jimmy Tarbuck and Tom O'Connor and magician Paul Daniels. The German-built ship is now expected to be out of service for a month. P&O said she had covered about 110 miles and was 25 miles off Start Point when the decision had been taken to return to Southampton. "The problem we've experienced is very complex and we looked at a number of options," said a spokeswoman. "We owed it to the passengers to explore every avenue. We have tried to make their time on board as enjoyable as possible." The Aurora, the biggest ever British-registered cruise ship, entered service in 2000. She broke down in the Bay of Biscay on her maiden voyage, when the compensation bill topped £6million. In October 2003 she was nicknamed the "plague ship" after a norovirus outbreak hit 600 on board.