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Contact Information:
P&O Cruises
Richmond House
Terminus Terrace
Southampton, SO14 3PN
0845 3555 333
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Why P&O Cruises?
 The biggest operator catering to the British market
Editor's Picks: Best Choices for First-Time U.K. Cruisers
Family-friendly ships feature children's favourites Noddy and Mr Bump
The main homeport is Southampton, U.K.
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About P&O Cruises
2009 U.K. Editors' Picks Awards Winner!
Best for Stag and Hen Parties, Best for Foodies (Ventura)
Editor's Note: P&O Cruises announced in September 2009 that it is selling the 45,000-ton, 1,196-passenger Artemis to MS Artania Shipping. The ship will continue to sail for P&O through mid-April 2011.
In December 2009 it was announced that Princess Cruises' Royal Princess will be leaving the Princess fleet to join P&O as adult-only ship, Adonia, in May 2011.
P&O Cruises can trace its roots back to 1837, when Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company started a passenger and mail service from the U.K. to Spain and Portugal. The service network expanded rapidly and by the 1860's embraced India, China, Japan and Australia. While the main purpose of the company was to carry passengers and mail, it also sent vessels on occasional cruises as early as in the 1840's.
The company's ships evolved from wooden paddle steamers to iron-hulled screw driven ships, and eventually steel replaced iron as the construction material. Until the late 1920's, its ships remained conservatively designed, slow, and mainly powered with old-fashioned engines, while many other companies preferred using newer steam turbines and diesel engines. However, with Viceroy of India (1928), P&O was a pioneer of turbo-electric drive, and Orion (1935), of associate company Orient Lines, introduced simple, clean, yet pleasant art deco-inspired interiors and abandoned period styles in interior design. Post World War II vessels mainly hovered between modernity and reference to older styles, until the original Oriana (1960) and Canberra (1961) introduced a leap to modernism.
P&O Cruises is the biggest operator catering to the British market, and it has developed its fleet and introduced new features rapidly since the debut of the current Oriana in 1995. The ships sail from Southampton for most of the year, and most of the cruises are about 14 nights in duration. However, each year its ships offer a host of shorter mini-breaks of two to seven nights, as well, and Oriana, Aurora and Artemis undertake long cruises of 80 to more than 100 nights, some of which take them around the world. For 2009, Artemis is taking a break, and will be sailing in Central America and the Caribbean, while Arcadia embarks on its first world cruise. Oceana and new ship Ventura will spend winter in the Caribbean, based in Barbados, where they will offer mainly 15-night cruises.
Read the complete P&O Cruises Review
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Read More About P&O Cruises Ships:
Arcadia
• Artemis
• Aurora
• Azura
• Oceana
• Oriana
• Ventura
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