New ADONIA

[Captain Rhone]

I see on the P&O website that they are getting the Royal Princess and renaming her Adonia in 2011. Must be their replacement for Artemis...

[Beckyfaye-2008]

For those who have diffuculty with links, heres what it says

To all of you who have championed smaller ship cruising and have asked us to re-introduce a small ship, it gives me great pleasure to announce the addition of a new member to the P&O Cruises family – Adonia. Joining the fleet in 2011 she will accommodate 710 passengers and be the smallest of our seven ships.

 

It is good to see that there is genuine interest in the smaller, more intimate ships and, based on the majority of the comments you’ve posted, I think Adonia will be just what you are looking for. She will be elegant and welcoming. She will possess a real small ship charm and she’s going to offer a truly traditional cruise experience. That said she will have all the comforts you would expect from a modern vessel.

 

Her smaller size will offer a more familiar and relaxed feeling and enable you to get to know your fellow cruisers and crew more easily. More importantly though, she will be able to travel to some of the most intriguing “off the beaten track” destinations, so you’ll still be able to visit ports that the bigger ships can’t access.

 

Adonia was built in 2001 and recently she has been sailing as Royal Princess. At just over 30,000 tonnes, she’s much smaller than any of her fleet companions. You’ll find that more than three-quarters of her 355 staterooms have balconies. Her public rooms will have a traditional feel, featuring wood panelling, leather armchairs and a fine collection of artwork. She will boast an extensive library with over 4,000 titles and her grand lounge will have an intricately inlaid wooden dance floor. And one more aspect that is close to some people’s hearts – she will be an adult-only ship.

 

We will, of course, ensure that Adonia feels like a P&O Cruises ship; they’ll be some of our signature features including a forward observation lounge, the nautical Crow’s Nest, and Anderson’s, a centrally located traditional club-style lounge bar.

 

We hope you give Adonia a warm welcome to the fleet and we look forward to sharing her exciting itineraries with you, which will be available to book in the spring.

 

With kind regards,

 

Carol.

[jeanlyon]

Excellent news - now everybody will still have a choice, big or small, adult only or family. Fantastic.

[tom_uk]

I agree, this is good news. The 'R' ships have gained a very loyal following wherever they've been deployed (Renaissance originally, Princess, Voyages of Discovery, Oceania, Azamara) and they seem to provide the foundation for a good cruise experience.

 

Adults-only is sensible, given that these ships have very limited facilities for children - I think that both Oceania & Azamara operate them as such, or pretty much so.

 

I'm looking forward to learning the itineraries. And the prices, of course: Oceania isn't cheap and Azamara brochure prices aren't either, although I have heard that a lot of cabins get sold for much less in the end.

[tom_uk]

I see that she's currently got itineraries up to 19 May 2011 with Princess, and the last of them leaves her in Seattle. Then add repositioning time plus some refurbishment time (at the very least they'll need to replace all the signage), and that takes care of at least the first of June 2011.

[yorkielovescruising]

Some good photos of Royal Princess

http://www.cruiseweb.com/PRINCESS-SHIP-ROYAL.HTM

[David&Heather]

Good to see that P&O / Carnival do listen to their customers.

 

Here's hoping for OV3:)

[BrianI]

Seattle - UK might be a good repositioning cruise.

Brian

[BrianI]

Just had an email from P&O saying that Adonia will be joining P&O in May 2011.

Brian

[Johnthed0g]

I think OV3 will be Ventura, & Adonia will be Artemis 2

[lemmo]

I hope they may do a cruise to and around the Black sea with her, always fancied the Black sea but not that many go there.

[Johnthed0g]

Greek Islands??

[tom_uk]

Here are a few thoughts:

 

a) Fly-cruises: Oceania and Azamara, two other operators of R ships in the Med, run fly-cruises, of course. Could this be the ship that P&O start using for summer season Mediterranean fly-cruises? Given the new Adonia's size and ability to get into those great small ports - Sorrento instead of Naples, Giardini-Naxos instead of Messina, anywhere instead of Piraeus - it seems a waste to spend those four days slogging back and forwards from Southampton to the Med & back.

 

b) 'Informal' dress code. Oceania especially run their ships according to a 'country club casual' dress code, and apparently does so very successfully. Might P&O do the same? Note that I don't mean 'casual' in the normal sense, more 'expensive informal'. Possibly even 'very expensively informal' - 'Cashmere' would be a significant word in this context....

 

c) open seating dinners: the restaurant layout allows for a MDR plus two additional restaurants. One way of organising it would be for the two additional restaurants to be (possibly non-chargeable) specialist venues, and the MDR to be the general restaurant. No set sittings, and no reservations in the MDR; reservations in the additional restaurants, however.

 

Thoughts?

[Johnthed0g]

I agree that fly cruises give more of the destination, if a destination is what people want, some love being on the ship. I like both...sea days to relax with no pressure to be going somewhere, & I can appreciate that those who want to see places will be pleased to "get there" as quickly as possible.

I don't care about dress code, I just go with the flow, but think standards of some sort should be preserved, ''elegantly casual'' perhaps?

No real feelings about the dining suggestions but there are those who would rather have less formal timings. We found on Arcadia recently that even though our table was filled with the best people you could wish to meet, the dining occasion was getting a bit the same towards the end. We had no wish to go to the buffet but would have welcomed another waiter served venue, but with ordinary food, we couldn't go the Rhodes often & did visit Orchid twice.

[daiB]

Errrr.......No

 

 

 

EEEmmmmmm.......No

 

 

 

AhhhhEmmmmmm.... No.

 

Adonia will mirror Artemis with Southampton based formal/informal/smart casual cruises with club dining.

 

I suspect that the demise of OV was due to the problems of not being UK based. This will not change with the pound / euro rates being as they are.

 

I do not believe there is any ground swell of opinion towards more casual type of cruising within P&O. Let the other companies go down that route as mostly they are catering for our American friends.

 

P&O would lose some of its identity if this were to happen.

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[tom_uk]

I've dug up some info about the handover date. Apparently Royal Princess' currently-scheduled cruises in April & May 2011, which would see her on the Pacific NW coast in mid-May 2011, have been cancelled. They've been replaced by a 26-night voyage from Tahiti to Fort Lauderdale, from 6 April to 1st or 2nd May 2011. Then apparently she's going into dry-dock in Hamilton, Bermuda, for a livery change, and will then sail for the UK.

 

So I would expect her to be in the UK from about the 17th of May 2011.

[Britboys]

Tom UK - I doubt that your b) & c) ?wishlist items are likely to come to fruition. The press releases all seem to stae that that Adonia "will offer a truly intimate and traditional cruise experience". That all sounds wonderful to me personally :)

[daiB]

Tom UK - I doubt that your b) & c) ?wishlist items are likely to come to fruition. The press releases all seem to stae that that Adonia "will offer a truly intimate and traditional cruise experience". That all sounds wonderful to me personally :)

 

 

Right on.

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

:cool:

Dai

[thranite]

This is great news. We thoroughly enjoyed Tahitian Princess which is a sister ship. At the time we commented, have repeated many times in the cruise comments and also by letter to P&O that one of these ships would have been a perfect replacement for Victoria, albeit not a liner. The only downside is that they don't have the same speed.

 

All they need to do now is to drag the standards back up to where they were.

 

:)

[Somerset Cruiser]

 

All they need to do now is to drag the standards back up to where they were.

 

:)

 

and the prices :)

[Essiesmom]

I've dug up some info about the handover date. Apparently Royal Princess' currently-scheduled cruises in April & May 2011, which would see her on the Pacific NW coast in mid-May 2011, have been cancelled. They've been replaced by a 26-night voyage from Tahiti to Fort Lauderdale, from 6 April to 1st or 2nd May 2011. Then apparently she's going into dry-dock in Hamilton, Bermuda, for a livery change, and will then sail for the UK.

 

So I would expect her to be in the UK from about the 17th of May 2011.

 

I believe conversion work is to be done in Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport. EM

[geecee1]

This is great news. We thoroughly enjoyed Tahitian Princess which is a sister ship. At the time we commented, have repeated many times in the cruise comments and also by letter to P&O that one of these ships would have been a perfect replacement for Victoria, albeit not a liner. The only downside is that they don't have the same speed.

 

All they need to do now is to drag the standards back up to where they were.

 

:)

 

Don't worry, we "barbarians" from OV will not be tarnishing her with our presence.

Throughout history it is the non conformists that have driven mankind forward not the sheep.

[geecee1]

Errrr.......No

 

 

 

EEEmmmmmm.......No

 

 

 

AhhhhEmmmmmm.... No.

 

Adonia will mirror Artemis with Southampton based formal/informal/smart casual cruises with club dining.

 

I suspect that the demise of OV was due to the problems of not being UK based. This will not change with the pound / euro rates being as they are.

 

I do not believe there is any ground swell of opinion towards more casual type of cruising within P&O. Let the other companies go down that route as mostly they are catering for our American friends.

 

P&O would lose some of its identity if this were to happen.

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

If that is the case, why are P&O aggressively targeting the OV customer base.

My wife receives regular e-mails via my account re: P&O offers. The only way they will know of her existence is by trawling the OV past passenger list as she was always the lead passenger.

But if they read this forum and the OV one, they will know that they are wasting their time unless they give us what we want i.e OV3 in all but name.

Surely, even they and their American masters cannot afford to lose 60K British passengers in what will become an even more competitive market in 2010/2011, with the launch of 15 new ships.

As a former marketing man, I can assure you that with the launch of these new vessels, their will be too much capacity chasing too few passengers.

[Ilovecake]

If that is the case, why are P&O aggressively targeting the OV customer base.

My wife receives regular e-mails via my account re: P&O offers. The only way they will know of her existence is by trawling the OV past passenger list as she was always the lead passenger.

But if they read this forum and the OV one, they will know that they are wasting their time unless they give us what we want i.e OV3 in all but name.

Surely, even they and their American masters cannot afford to lose 60K British passengers in what will become an even more competitive market in 2010/2011, with the launch of 15 new ships.

As a former marketing man, I can assure you that with the launch of these new vessels, their will be too much capacity chasing too few passengers.

 

100% plus in agreement with you. Suggest original poster looks at Cruise Critic Ocean Village pages to see what their passengers think. And it is not, despite Carnival's belief that they are, prepared to switch to P&O. And this is not because we are too rough or cannot afford to do so, it is because we are on holiday and do not want to dress up. Speaking of affordability OV Caribbean cruises are retailing for a lot more than Ventura this winter which speaks volumes. I may also ask why Carnival are dropping a brand that has the highest satisfaction scores in their UK fleet, rarely discount, sail full on every cruise. Using the excuse that fly cruising is too expensive is nonsense when they are fly cruising P&O out of the Caribbean. If Carnival don't wake up soon, they are going to lose an enormous amount of both passengers, goodwill and profit.

[Johnthed0g]

Respect your opinions but I don't see what is SO bad about putting a jacket & tie on twice a week for dinner. I presume all the contributors are men (sorry if I missed some), what do the ladies think about dressing up? I can take it or leave it, but my wife, who seldom is out of wellies, loves the chance to dress up.....comments please.