Keel laid for new P&O ship

[littlesteelo]

The keel was laid this morning for the new ship, more info can be found here:

 

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/captain-greybeard/2013/05/new-po-cruise-ship-is-on-its-w.html#comments

 

Seems they are keeping the name a secret for as long as possible!

 

A new rendering was released, interesting to note the design of the funnels has changed. I think I preferred the original design, the colour on the new ones seems way too pale. I would imagine the grilled design is required from an engineering standpoint, and was not able to be kept fully enclosed as it was originally.

[jeanlyon]

I can't think of anything that would tempt me onto a ship of that size. Azura was bad enough for us.

[littlesteelo]

I can't think of anything that would tempt me onto a ship of that size. Azura was bad enough for us.

 

Each to their own. Some like big ships, some like small ships. Something for everyone :)

[Cosmic Rays]

Mmmmm, me sees plenty of Getaway fares in the future to fill this tug!!!

[neuphin]

That's the biggest rendering I've seen so far, so thanks for posting the link.

I see the funnels will have the logo on too.

If the name on that rendering is anything to go by, it's going to be called "Newbuild" :D

 

Oh, and I spy some palm trees just aft of the aft funnel.

[littlesteelo]

That's the biggest rendering I've seen so far, so thanks for posting the link.

I see the funnels will have the logo on too.

If the name on that rendering is anything to go by, it's going to be called "Newbuild" :D

 

Oh, and I spy some palm trees just aft of the aft funnel.

 

I'm imagining the layout similar of the upper decks will be very similar to Royal Princess, so that area aft of the funnel will be the sports court area, and the bit at the front of the ship will be The Retreat.

 

The rising sun logo looks great on the funnels. That is something they should have put on Ventura and Azura, considering it is the P&O Logo, and is on pretty much everything onboard, kind of like the Crown and Anchor for RCI.

[Sutho]

Its a clone of the new Royal Princess. I am as yet un-decided on those ships. The Azura was a bad choice for me and I did not like it. Azura is too crowded. It is smaller than Celebrity Solstice and its class of ships yet it carries more passengers than the Solstice class so go figure.

 

It looks like P&O is getting all the designs from Princess from now on. No new designes for P&O. If the ships statistics look favourable it might be a good ship to finally do a maiden cruise on. I like large ships but I do not like over crowded ships where the passengers are crammed in.

 

I doubt that having two funnels is anything to do with making it look good. It is probably more to do with actually needing it opposed to appearance.

[carhirer]

The keel was laid this morning for the new ship.....

 

Seems they are keeping the name a secret for as long as possible!

 

 

"MS Getaway?"

[simonpjd]

Gosh this is an ugly looking ship - well I hesitate to say ship. It is just a huge floating box. They obviously think a ship should not look like a ship anymore.

[littlesteelo]

Its a clone of the new Royal Princess. I am as yet un-decided on those ships. The Azura was a bad choice for me and I did not like it. Azura is too crowded. It is smaller than Celebrity Solstice and its class of ships yet it carries more passengers than the Solstice class so go figure.

 

It looks like P&O is getting all the designs from Princess from now on. No new designes for P&O. If the ships statistics look favourable it might be a good ship to finally do a maiden cruise on. I like large ships but I do not like over crowded ships where the passengers are crammed in.

 

I doubt that having two funnels is anything to do with making it look good. It is probably more to do with actually needing it opposed to appearance.

 

The Royal Princess has a higher passenger-space ratio than the Grand class. I personally didn't find Ventura crowded, but some do.

 

Also, the twin funnels weren't needed. On Royal it is a large long grilled funnel, similar to that on Oceana. They could have just done the same on this ship and painted it yellow like they did with Ventura/Azura, but they have actually changed the design around a bit this time, which is nice.

 

I don't see the issue with P&O getting Princess designs. If the design is good, and it works, then there is no need to start from scratch. It is very expensive and time-consuming to design a brand new ship, and if you have a design which works, and can be modified to fit the brand, then I see no problem in using it.

[littlesteelo]

Gosh this is an ugly looking ship - well I hesitate to say ship. It is just a huge floating box. They obviously think a ship should not look like a ship anymore.

 

Define 'ship'. It looks like one to me. It has a bow, a stern, a bridge, two propellers, and all the bits you would associate with a ship.

 

Cruise ships now have lots of decks of balconies, and consequently a large superstructure. I can assure you that a 'floating box' would look a lot worse than this ship. Perhaps see Norwegian Epic to get an idea of that.

 

This design is actually pretty good looking compared to some. If you are expecting a design similar to your tiny Fred Olsen ships, you won't find it with any of the major lines, and not even with the smaller ones. Times change, designs change.

[simonpjd]

Never mind a cheap Getaway - they would have to pay me to go in that monstrosity. Thank goodness some lines still have good looking vessels. As do P&O - Adonia as a lovely little ship.

[London-Calling]

The Azura was a bad choice for me and I did not like it. Azura is too crowded. It is smaller than Celebrity Solstice and its class of ships yet it carries more passengers than the Solstice class so go figure.

 

That's the differnce between 'Premium' (Celebrity) and 'mass-market' (P&O).

 

The new P&O ship is slightly smaller than the QM2 (gross tonnage) but the QM2 will often carry 1,000 passengers less!

[Sutho]

The Royal Princess has a higher passenger-space ratio than the Grand class. I personally didn't find Ventura crowded, but some do.

 

Also, the twin funnels weren't needed. On Royal it is a large long grilled funnel, similar to that on Oceana. They could have just done the same on this ship and painted it yellow like they did with Ventura/Azura, but they have actually changed the design around a bit this time, which is nice.

 

I don't see the issue with P&O getting Princess designs. If the design is good, and it works, then there is no need to start from scratch. It is very expensive and time-consuming to design a brand new ship, and if you have a design which works, and can be modified to fit the brand, then I see no problem in using it.

 

I am taking note of space ratios more now. About ten years ago I used to say they meant nothing. That was until I cruised on Azura.....

 

Azura and Ventura are a almost identical clone of the Diamond and Sapphire Princess which have one deck less and only carry 2,600 passengers. The Sapphrie Princess was one of my favourites when I tried it and then going on an almost similar design with Azura (except more passengers) Azura proved disappointing. Then just this year I finally tried Celebrity. It was really a big difference.

 

With all the cruises I have done with P&O I would really like to be on a maiden cruise of one of their new ships. I am still thinking of this one but am sceptical about its passenger capacity. Size does not bother me but crowding does.