More Ships to Be Added to P&O Cruises Fleet

More Ships to Be Added to P&O Cruises Fleet

In its biggest ever single fleet expansion, P&O Cruises will welcome two more ships next year to make it the largest fleet of cruise ships home-ported year round in Australasia.

Today’s announcement is an emphatic statement about Carnival New Zealand’s confidence and leadership in the cruise market and reaffirmation of P&O Cruises’ status as the region’s leading The additional ships, which will transfer to P&O Cruises from Holland America Line, will deliver much needed capacity in the world's fastest growing cruise market.

"This is a very exciting development for the Carnival Group, P&O Cruises and for our shipside and shoreside teams who have worked so passionately and effectively to build the business and the cruise category," said Ann Sherry, CEO of Carnival New Zealand which operates P&O Cruises.

"The P&O brand set the foundation for the resurgence of cruising in this region making it the most successful sector of Australian tourism. Adding two more ships to the fleet is a signal that the next generation of P&O Cruises is about to commence. It will also accelerate progress in reaching the industry goal of a million passengers a year by 2016 – four years earlier than forecast.

“With the P&O expansion, Carnival Group will have 12 ships home-ported in the region with fleets from P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines and Princess Cruises.”

The two ships will join P&O Cruises in November 2015. Work is already underway to develop itineraries and home-porting arrangements for the expanded fleet.

Both ships are of a similar mid-range size to the three existing P&O Cruises ships, Pacific Dawn, Pacific Jewel and Pacific Pearl with a range of onboard features that will be tailored for Australian and New Zealand cruise customers.

"The ships are a perfect size for the Australian and New Zealand markets. They are intimate, offering space, comfort and style, giving passengers more destinations to choose from, more onboard experiences to indulge in and more reasons to cruise," said Senior Vice President P&O Cruises Tammy Marshall.

We face a very busy time in preparing for the arrival of the two ships and their integration into the existing P&O Cruises fleet and look forward to announcing the exciting new itineraries, onboard features and other great additions over the coming months.”

The arrival of the P&O Cruises’ first superliner Pacific Dawn in 2007 set the scene for the cruise category’s incredible double digit annual growth. Pacific Dawn was quickly followed by two more P&O Cruises’ superliners, Pacific Jewel and Pacific Pearl, in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

“This further fleet expansion is entirely appropriate for P&O Cruises, the shipping line that pioneered cruising from down under more than 80 years ago and has set the pace for the industry Having a five-ship fleet will give P&O Cruises greater flexibility in its increased offering of short break cruises, traditional cruises to the South Pacific and cruises to new destinations such as Carnival Australia and Carnival New Zealand account for most of the cruise ships that cruise to or from Australia and New Zealand. Carnival New Zealand’s ‘House of Brands’ comprises P&O Cruises Australia, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Cunard Line, P&O Cruises World Cruising, Holland America Line and Seabourn.

Ends

© Scoop Media