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New adult only ship for P&O Cruises


Beckyfaye-2008

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Oriana becomes the NEW adult only ship

 

When Artemis leaves the fleet next May the number of exclusively for adults cruises available for P&O Cruises will be reduced as Adonia, her replacement, is a smaller ship.

 

Therefore P&O Cruises have added a third ship to offer this type of cruise. when Oriana comes out of her refit in November 2011 she will become a ship exclusively for adults

 

There are 5 cruises that are currently on sale which will now become “exclusive for adults” and P&O will let all passengers know who are effected by this change. :)

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Interesting. I don't think there's another major cruise line that does this at all, and now we have three P&O ships that will be.

 

Is there any information on what they are going to do with the space currently occupied by the childrens facilities? There's an opportunity there for another restaurant, perhaps, or something special.

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Great news for us - a refit and child free in time for our world cruise in January 2012. Didn't expect too many little ones on this cruise anyway but it looks as if P&O are in the process of redefining their ships to fit their varying clientel. Wonder if they have realised that "one size fits all" does not really work.

 

Pat

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P&O Official release:

 

Changes to Oriana from November 2011

 

When Artemis leaves the fleet next May the number of exclusively for adults holidays available within the P&O Cruises programme will be effectively reduced as Adonia, her replacement, is a smaller ship. We therefore wish to add a third ship to offer this type of holiday. We are able to do this as Azura, the most recent ship to be added to our fleet provides additional holidays for families. Therefore, when Oriana comes out of her refit in November 2011 she will become a ship exclusively for adults.

 

P&O Cruises has seven ships in our fleet and after November 30th 2011 four will continue to welcome families (Aurora, Azura, Oceana and Ventura) and three, (Adonia, Arcadia and Oriana) will be “exclusively for adults”. We are totally committed to satisfying the holiday needs of both families and those travelling without children.

 

There are 5 cruises (X119, X120, X121, X122 and X201) that are currently on sale which will now become “exclusive for adults” we are communicating to passengers booked on these sailings as follows -

 

Passengers booked without children

All passengers are being sent a letter (via their agent as appropriate) which explains the changes to Oriana.

 

Passengers booked with children

All passengers are being contacted (via their agent as appropriate) by the Customer Service Team to discuss the changes and offer alternatives. If a suitable alternative cannot be found we will offer a full refund and protect agent commission.

 

We look forward to sharing with you our plans for Oriana. Full details will be included in our 2012/13 brochure but we will also make reference to the change in the 4th edition 2011 brochure which will be published on 1st December this year.

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I see that the gap in Oriana's schedule is currently from 16 November (end of X118) to 30 November (beginning of X119). That's not especially long. They could do a lot of internal refurbishment (new carpets, new cabin facilities, etc) but not a lot of structural work.

 

X119 is a three-night Channel cruise, and X120 is a 14-night Canary Isles cruise. I wonder if X119 will get cancelled?

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Interesting!

This will leave P&O with 4 family ships, 2 "casual" and 2 "traditional", with a large and a mid size ship in each category. They will now have 3 adult ships, the existing 2 of which are "traditional". As not all adult cruisers favour "traditional", will P&O now make one of their adult ships "casual" to cater for those who prefer to cruise child free but prefer less formality? Some P&O stalwarts would not like it, but there could be good commercial reasons for doing so. This is, after all, what P&O originally planned for the old Adonia before they got cold feet!

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Hmm! No smoking- almost, no children- at all. Seems like quite an unfriendly cruise line. I wonder what will be banned next. Its might be fun to speculate.

 

Smoking on P&O is no different to many other cruise lines and there are 4 other ships for families at least P&O are listening to what their guests want.

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Smoking on P&O is no different to many other cruise lines and there are 4 other ships for families at least P&O are listening to what their guests want.

Or trying to reduce the passenger capacity on their "traditional" family ships due to lack of demand? It looks like a panic move to me.

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Or trying to reduce the passenger capacity on their "traditional" family ships due to lack of demand? It looks like a panic move to me.

 

They still have to fill Oriana there does seem to be a demand here in the UK for adult only ships.

 

If I was sailing with children from the UK I would actually choose to sail on Indy much more exciting for children.

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Well that was lucky as we were thinking for a while which world cruise to do in 2012, Oriana or Aurora, with an almost 4 year old... going with grandparents too... they prefered the Oriana but we went with Aurora as it seemed to get more 'great for kids' reviews.

 

I guess had we picked Oriana we would be moved to the Aurora anyway :D

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Smoking on P&O is no different to many other cruise lines and there are 4 other ships for families at least P&O are listening to what their guests want.

 

Yes but you have to feel for anybody who booked the Oriana and was really looking forward to it with there kids... no doubt they will enjoy the alternatives offered, but nobody likes having their plans changed.

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Are these adult-only cruises P&O's idea of holidays for the newly wed and the nearly dead.

 

Surely nowadays these ships are large enough to cater for everyone, what a sad state of affairs it is coming to when you can't go on a ship that holds over 2000 and in some cases more if you have children and that they might upset someone waiting for the wooden overcoat.

Are the people that frequent these cruises so old and grumpy that they can't bear to see young children enjoying themselves?

As I am led to believe there is always a limit to the amount of children allowed on anyway.

 

Very sad!

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I don't think that's the case at all. I am definitely not newly wed or nearly dead. However, when I cruise, I have to cruise outside school holidays, because having 700 kids on board a reasonably small space is not my idea of fun.

 

Azura this year was crowded enough that I would not travel on her again and there were not many children on board. Goodness knows what it would have been like with 700 kids.

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I have never been on an Adults only ship, as it does not particularly appeal to me, even although I am in the nearly dead bracket :D

However I fully understand why some people prefer them, and as P&O have introduced another Adult only ship, there must be a market for them, each to their own I say.:)

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We did a back to back on Aurora very close to Christmas a few years back and on each cruise they did a Panto. On the first cruise I think there were something like 120 children on there and when it came to Panto 'participation', they 'made it'. It was fantastic. The second cruise only had a few children on, the panto ws dead :-((

 

Been on many cruises with children and never had any trouble with them being there, in fact on Aurora's America/Canada cruise a couple of months ago, there were two lads of about 4 or 5 who really lived the part when it came to dressing up for the Formals :o

 

I like to see them when they are 'doing something', like being Pirates and threatening all the other passengers and if you get the chance to cruise with children on board when you 'cross the line', grab it and see how the Officers react and 'get wet'.:rolleyes:

 

But 800 on a block of flats? NO NO NO

 

:(:(:(

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