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P&O Arvia Construction

Monorail Orange

By Monorail Orange,
in P&O Cruises ( UK )

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wowzz

wowzz

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Not for me either. I suppose with Iona being Southampton based all year round, they need to put the next big one somewhere else to be able to fill them. 

But where do they put both of them in the UK summer months?  10,000 people per week on just two ships ? - plus they have MSC coming into Southampton.  Could be a race to the bottom in terms of pricing.

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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Gary's a welsh name.They'd better hurry up or RC will nick it.I can see the headlines now."RC new flagship,the magnificent 300000 ton "Gary of the Seas".

I can recommend a good therapist for you Brian...😉😄

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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, wowzz said:

But where do they put both of them in the UK summer months?  10,000 people per week on just two ships ? - plus they have MSC coming into Southampton.  Could be a race to the bottom in terms of pricing.

I think it's already clear where P&O are heading price-wise. Recently had a TA mailshot with "prices per night from" - Celebrity £106, NCL £93, Cunard £84, P&O £56....

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wowzz

wowzz

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, ohnonotmeagain said:

My name suggestions are 

Luna

Stella 

 Ava ( but I'm sure they won't pick that.)

Can't imagine Stella is in the running - not unless P&O have finally decided to totally go for the Booze Cruise market.

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AndyMichelle

AndyMichelle

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I don't think any of P&Os old names have really been girls names, even Iona is not really one.

I still think they will delve into their history to find her a name.

My daughters, Arcadia and Aurora might disagree with that😊

Andy 

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ohnonotmeagain

ohnonotmeagain

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Can't imagine Stella is in the running - not unless P&O have finally decided to totally go for the Booze Cruise market.

Now you see how pure of mind and "spirit "(pun intended) I am, I didn't even think about booze!!!🤪😉

Edited by ohnonotmeagain
Bad typing
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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

My daughters, Arcadia and Aurora might disagree with that😊

Andy 

Just as well you are not a Celebrity Cruises fan Andy - any more and you might be thinking of naming them Apex and Edge...😱

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DamianG

DamianG

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I don't think any of P&Os old names have really been girls names, even Iona is not really one.

I still think they will delve into their history to find her a name.

 

Agree. As a "Carry On..." film fan I'd suggest Oronsay. 🙂

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molecrochip

molecrochip

Posted
Posted

The general feeling was that Oceana was either going to become an adults only ship in Summer 2022 or was leaving the fleet. Obviously we now know that the later has already happened.

 

The name was due to be announced in May with on sale in June. Obviously that all changed however I had heard that the official name was being reconsidered. Many have also noted that the P&O website still shows Oceana under choose your ship on the home page. Internally the ship is most certainly still called Gala2.

 

Both Iona and Gala2 are restricted by which ports have LNG capability whether through direct access or bunker ships. As more ports come online for LNG, the range of destinations can expand.

 

It had always been suggested that Gala2 would be a sunshine ship and not based in the UK after summer 2022. The popular vibe was that she would operate a fly-cruise season from the Canaries. 7 days around the canaries followed by 7 days on the Iberian cost / Gibraltar / Morocco. Available to buy as 7 or 14 day cruises.

 

Its worth noting that with P&O aiming at the younger dynamic its felt they are less accepting of 2 days dodgy weather around Biscay and are more accepting of flying. Its also worth noting that if you are in Scotland or north England, you can get from home to ship in say Gran Canaria (via Manchester airport) almost as quickly as you can get from your home to Southampton by road.

 

Personally, I was expecting the ship to go to the Caribbean instead of Azura once Barbados has LNG capacity with Azura maybe doing middle East or winter in the Canaries. There had separately been suggestions that Azura may head off on a world cruise in 2023.

 

I think its worth stressing at this point that a lot has changed in the past 9 months. Not least the perception of who may cruise, the appetite of those who have not cruised before and what will be profitable. This isn't me trying to reverse anything I've said. I'm just acutely aware that the more adventurous growth plans have been trimmed back to ensure good sustainable profit and that may include ship deployments away from higher risk but potentially lucrative plans to attract new markets, towards more traditional, yet profitable, deployments.

 

Gala 2 is due in December with the maiden cruise followed by the Christmas cruise.

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Selbourne "Live from...." Rare

Selbourne

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

The general feeling was that Oceana was either going to become an adults only ship in Summer 2022 or was leaving the fleet. Obviously we now know that the later has already happened.

 

The name was due to be announced in May with on sale in June. Obviously that all changed however I had heard that the official name was being reconsidered. Many have also noted that the P&O website still shows Oceana under choose your ship on the home page. Internally the ship is most certainly still called Gala2.

 

Both Iona and Gala2 are restricted by which ports have LNG capability whether through direct access or bunker ships. As more ports come online for LNG, the range of destinations can expand.

 

It had always been suggested that Gala2 would be a sunshine ship and not based in the UK after summer 2022. The popular vibe was that she would operate a fly-cruise season from the Canaries. 7 days around the canaries followed by 7 days on the Iberian cost / Gibraltar / Morocco. Available to buy as 7 or 14 day cruises.

 

Its worth noting that with P&O aiming at the younger dynamic its felt they are less accepting of 2 days dodgy weather around Biscay and are more accepting of flying. Its also worth noting that if you are in Scotland or north England, you can get from home to ship in say Gran Canaria (via Manchester airport) almost as quickly as you can get from your home to Southampton by road.

 

Personally, I was expecting the ship to go to the Caribbean instead of Azura once Barbados has LNG capacity with Azura maybe doing middle East or winter in the Canaries. There had separately been suggestions that Azura may head off on a world cruise in 2023.

 

I think its worth stressing at this point that a lot has changed in the past 9 months. Not least the perception of who may cruise, the appetite of those who have not cruised before and what will be profitable. This isn't me trying to reverse anything I've said. I'm just acutely aware that the more adventurous growth plans have been trimmed back to ensure good sustainable profit and that may include ship deployments away from higher risk but potentially lucrative plans to attract new markets, towards more traditional, yet profitable, deployments.

 

Gala 2 is due in December with the maiden cruise followed by the Christmas cruise.


Thanks, as always, for your very useful insights. I wasn’t at all surprised to read you comments in the penultimate paragraph about the likely change of direction. Makes absolute sense, as the market that P&O was really going for is going to take a lot more convincing to cruise now than they would have done pre Covid. Even some of us ‘old timers’ are still some way off returning. I’ve had a number of emails from P&O in recent weeks reminding me that I have some FCC to use and that the launch offers end soon, but we are still not tempted! I fear it’s going to be a long haul. 

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wowzz

wowzz

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, molecrochip said:

The general feeling was that Oceana was either going to become an adults only ship in Summer 2022 or was leaving the fleet. Obviously we now know that the later has already happened.

 

The name was due to be announced in May with on sale in June. Obviously that all changed however I had heard that the official name was being reconsidered. Many have also noted that the P&O website still shows Oceana under choose your ship on the home page. Internally the ship is most certainly still called Gala2.

 

Both Iona and Gala2 are restricted by which ports have LNG capability whether through direct access or bunker ships. As more ports come online for LNG, the range of destinations can expand.

 

It had always been suggested that Gala2 would be a sunshine ship and not based in the UK after summer 2022. The popular vibe was that she would operate a fly-cruise season from the Canaries. 7 days around the canaries followed by 7 days on the Iberian cost / Gibraltar / Morocco. Available to buy as 7 or 14 day cruises.

 

Its worth noting that with P&O aiming at the younger dynamic its felt they are less accepting of 2 days dodgy weather around Biscay and are more accepting of flying. Its also worth noting that if you are in Scotland or north England, you can get from home to ship in say Gran Canaria (via Manchester airport) almost as quickly as you can get from your home to Southampton by road.

 

Personally, I was expecting the ship to go to the Caribbean instead of Azura once Barbados has LNG capacity with Azura maybe doing middle East or winter in the Canaries. There had separately been suggestions that Azura may head off on a world cruise in 2023.

 

I think its worth stressing at this point that a lot has changed in the past 9 months. Not least the perception of who may cruise, the appetite of those who have not cruised before and what will be profitable. This isn't me trying to reverse anything I've said. I'm just acutely aware that the more adventurous growth plans have been trimmed back to ensure good sustainable profit and that may include ship deployments away from higher risk but potentially lucrative plans to attract new markets, towards more traditional, yet profitable, deployments.

 

Gala 2 is due in December with the maiden cruise followed by the Christmas cruise.

Excellent post, thank you. 

I wouldn't want to be in the P&O marketing department at the moment, deciding how to attract customers to a mega liner in the middle of a pandemic. 

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terrierjohn

terrierjohn

Posted
Posted
28 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Excellent post, thank you. 

I wouldn't want to be in the P&O marketing department at the moment, deciding how to attract customers to a mega liner in the middle of a pandemic. 

Interestingly I just read that RCI have hard 350000 expressing interest in their trial cruises to test their new protocols, granted these are gratis but it does show people are still interested in cruising.

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