By
Rebecca Gibson |
In the 2015-2016 cruise season, eight P&O Cruises ships will offer 211 itineraries to 81 different ports in 61 countries, making it the line’s largest ever cruise programme.
Next year, the operator’s ships will visit 15 new destinations including Fort William and Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, Scotland; Killybegs, Ireland; Fredrikstad and Haugesund, Norway; Bonifacio, France; Porto Santo, Portugal; Gijon and Villagarcia de Arosa, Spain; Wismar, Germany; Sevastopol, Ukraine; Gozo, Malta; Belem, Brazil; Jacksonville, US; and Georgetown, Grand Cayman.
Ten ports of ‘special interest’ – such as Charleston and New Orleans, USA; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Hamilton, Bermuda; Hvar, Croatia; and Manaus, Brazil – will also be reintroduced to P&O’s itineraries.
From late March to October, Oceana will homeport in the Mediterranean, offering seven and 14-night cruises to nine destinations including Genoa, Florence/Pisa, Naples, Venice and Rome in Italy; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; and Corfu, Greece.
Sailing from Barbados between November 2015 and March 2016, Adonia will sail river cruises on the Amazon or Orinoco River, as well as offering trips to remote Central American ports near the Caribbean. She will alternate two itineraries and provide two unique discovery experiences to either the Amazon rainforest or Banana Coast, the first mainland cruise port in Honduras.
Scheduled to launch in March 2015, P&O’s new flagship Britannia will sail an inaugural roundtrip cruise from her homeport in Southampton, UK, to Gibraltar, Spain and Italy. She will then offer itineraries from Southampton to the Mediterranean, Norwegian Fjords, Canary Islands and the Baltic Sea, as well as offering a range of short breaks and a special ‘Round Britain’ cruise. The ship will then transfer to the Caribbean for the winter season sailing a range of 14-night fly cruise itineraries from Barbados.
Britannia, currently under construction at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone yard in Trieste, Italy, will be the largest cruise ship ever built for both P&O Cruises and the British market and is expected to boost the line’s capacity by a quarter. British hospitality design company Richmond International has been commissioned to design the ship’s interior, which will offer many of the line’s popular signature features found on ships such as Oriana, Ventura and Azura, as well as a range of new concepts and an increased number of single cabins.
British TV chef James Martin will develop the first cookery school onboard a British cruise ship – The Cookery Club – while award-winning patissier Eric Lanlard will open his first patisserie range in the Market Café in the ship’s three-tier atrium. Established P&O Cruises favourites Marco Pierre White, Atul Kochhar and Olly Smith will also contribute to the onboard culinary options, which include speciality restaurants and gala dinners.
Passengers will be able to participate in cookery classes under the guidance of the chefs, while guest chefs will provide onboard assistance to classes of up to 24 people.
”We are determined to attract those people who want an effortless holiday and who have not considered a cruise whilst still retaining fresh appeal for regular passengers,” said P&O Cruises marketing director Christopher Edgington. “We hope that the spirit of Britannia will capture the imagination of all those who are looking for the best of the best from a holiday. Every detail on Britannia – from sumptuous linens to the £1million art collection, from the wines from around the globe to the provenance of our ingredients – everything has been chosen with care. Those long-held myths and perceptions about cruising would be banished if more people realised that this is the holiday they have been looking for.”