Will P&O ever replace the Oceana and Oriana.

[Cruisemeister2002]

With Iona and Arvia coming on line and really only Aurora left as in recent years as  Oceana, Oriana, Artemis and Adonia have all departed will P&O carry on with their march towards ships carrying 5,000 plus or will they bring any smaller vessels of between 700 and 2000 passengers back into their fleet ?

[wowzz]

You have not mentioned Arcadia !

[mickey1959]

It would be nice. I'd like to think they would, but I have my doubts!!!

[LondonLad60]

45 minutes ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

With Iona and Arvia coming on line and really only Aurora left as in recent years as  Oceana, Oriana, Artemis and Adonia have all departed will P&O carry on with their march towards ships carrying 5,000 plus or will they bring any smaller vessels of between 700 and 2000 passengers back into their fleet ?

In my humble opinion (for what that may be worth) I can't see P&O  bringing smaller ships back. I agree with you; it seems P&O policy now is to build them bigger and keep the prices low in order to attract a new, younger demographic. I wouldn't be surprised to see them unload either Arcadia or Aurora in the not too distant future.

[mickey1959]

How about replacing one of them with  Azura or ventura and going adults only?

[wowzz]

9 minutes ago, mickey1959 said:

How about replacing one of them with  Azura or ventura and going adults only?

Too big to be adult only, and the size would also put many people off as well.

[jeanlyon]

That's not the way they are going.  I can see either Aurora or Arcadia going this year.

[Port out]

30 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Too big to be adult only, and the size would also put many people off as well.

We started on the Sea Princess/Victoria in the '80's, only 750 passengers, then moved on to old Arcadia, Oceana, Oriana, old and new Artemis, new Arcadia then went big with Ventura and Azura and enjoyed them both. Recently been on Britannia and several on Iona. Have said all this as we were wedded to smaller ships but our experience of the larger ships has been very positive. So, after more than 150 P&O cruises we think if Ventura or Azura became adults only we would be more than happy to go in that direction. 

[jeanlyon]

Tried Azura once, but far too big for me, so certainly wouldn't try the others.

[kalos]

The small ships are nice and cosy ...But you cannot fit a shopping centre and a family

holiday resort into them. So my guess is P&O will not be buying any smaller ships or 

replacing them in the near future. Hope I'm wrong 

[mickey1959]

With out Arcadia and Auraura how would they do the long haul World cruises?

[Megabear2]

41 minutes ago, mickey1959 said:

With out Arcadia and Auraura how would they do the long haul World cruises?

Maybe those have had their day too! The younger demographic won't have time for 90 days plus cruises.

 

A very specialised market and with so many older cruisers saying they won't cruise anymore a seemingly diminishing customer base.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Megabear2

[mickey1959]

End of an era then maybe!

[mickey1959]

1 hour ago, kalos said:

The small ships are nice and cosy ...But you cannot fit a shopping centre and a family

holiday resort into them. So my guess is P&O will not be buying any smaller ships or 

replacing them in the near future. Hope I'm wrong 

Hope so Kalos.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, mickey1959 said:

With out Arcadia and Auraura how would they do the long haul World cruises?

Princess do world cruises with Island Princess (iirc), so you could go on her.

[Jill85]

Build a new up to date Oriana!! 🤪

[Angel57]

15 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Maybe those have had their day too! The younger demographic won't have time for 90 days plus cruises.

 

A very specialised market and with so many older cruisers saying they won't cruise anymore a seemingly diminishing customer base.

My feeling from doing several world cruises on Aurora is that they do not make so much money from the bar takings on the long cruises.
When you are on board for 100 nights you have to pace yourself.
Therefore would P&O be more than happy to restrict themselves to the shorter cruises where people spend more in the bars and speciality restaurants? I suspect the answer is most certainly - yes.

[arlowood]

Arcadia and Aurora are doomed IMHO. P&O (Carnival) have made it abundantly clear that they are moving their business model to attract the younger/family demographic. I'm afraid the "grey pound" has lost out to the Disneyfication mantra.

 

You only need to look at the disdain with which they treated their adult-only customers with the short term cancellation of the Arcadia cruises in May and June in favour of providing staff and crew for their larger ships. Aurora is also having cruises cancelled to accommodate some maintenance work that was not completed during its dry dock sojourn earlier in the year.

 

Our 1st May Baltic cruise on Arcadia was cancelled at 3 weeks notice. Still awaiting the refund from P&O. We will also have close to £900 in FCC in our account as a consequence but I am pretty sure that I will be waving goodbye to this for several reasons.

 

Firstly I have no enthusiasm to book a cruise on one of the larger ships and with the uncertainty over the future of Arcadia and Aurora (despite assurances to the contrary), I have no intention to book a cruise on either ship for any potential 2023/24 sailings.

 

If I do choose to use my FCC it will be a short term decision in the hope that cancellation is less likely.

[Denarius]

I believe that Carnival see the future of P&O as ever bigger ships offering mainly short 7 day cruises on largely repeated itineraries (or alternating itineraries which may be done back to back to become 14 day cruises) aimed at the family market. Like the currrent Winter season in the Canaries and the Summer fly cruises in the Eastern Med. A resort hotel at sea. There is no place in this scenario for mid size ships like Oriana and Oceana and I do not believe that they will be replaced; neither will Aurora and Arcadia when they are eventually retired. I would expect one of the latter to depart within the next couple of years following the introduction of Arvia.

As regards myself, I started cruising in the mid 1990s when the typical cruise ship carried 600 to 800 passengers; the 1800 passenger QE2 was huge. In the intervening years I have seen cruise ships grow bigger and bigger, but bigger is not necessarily better. My first big ship (she was in those days) was Oriana and I enjoyed sailing on her. Oceana became my favourite, but for some reason I have never quite taken to Aurora. I have sailed on both Ventura and Azura and enjoyed them, whilst wishing they were that little bit smaller. Britannia was a step too far, and I have no intention whatsoever of sailing on Iona or Arvia.

I believe that the cruise market will continue to polarise with the mid market lines like P&O and Royal Caribbean concentrating on ever bigger ships and smaller lines like Oceania, Azamara and Saga filling the gap by continung to provide the small ship experience - at a price.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Denarius

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, Angel57 said:

My feeling from doing several world cruises on Aurora is that they do not make so much money from the bar takings on the long cruises.
When you are on board for 100 nights you have to pace yourself.
Therefore would P&O be more than happy to restrict themselves to the shorter cruises where people spend more in the bars and speciality restaurants? I suspect the answer is most certainly - yes.

When we were on the Britannia 3 night Easter cruise some of the bars/music venues didn't close till 5am and the bar takings must have been huge.

This happens regularly on the younger demographic cruises where shorter up to 7 nights cruises proves your point Gill.

Royal  Caribbean Voyager class ships 2 of which went to Marella would fit the Oceana size of cruise ship plus they have plenty of balcony cabins.

[Cruisemeister2002]

20 hours ago, wowzz said:

You have not mentioned Arcadia !

No, sorry about that. Didn't realise Arcadia came into service, although not with P&O in 2000 as did Aurora. Arcadia started sailing under the P&O flag in 2005. Of course Oriana although sister ship to Aurora and Oceana came into service in 1996. As was said by a fellow passenger Sea Princess/Victoria left service in 2002 as this was it's last season and I believe started service as the Kungsholm original for the Atlantic. Bought by P&O as Sea Princess. The name was then taken up by a Princess cruises ship and she became the Victoria and in or around 2002 was sold and became the Mona Lisa. There's a bit more history from there on. Don't know whether it's us, but Victoria are first cruise and her last season, we then sailed on Artemis which was her last season and we went on Oriana in 2016 her 20 year Anniversary and then in 2019 she left P&O.

[annieuk]

I'm afraid I don't see P&O investing in new ships the size of Aurora or Arcadia.  We started with the old Adonia (Sea Princess) in 2003.  After that we went on Oceana (loved her), Arcadia, Azura, Ventura, the new Adonia (now with Azmara - loved her too).  The longest cruise we did was the Circumnavigation of South America on Aurora which was 65 nights and we greatly enjoyed. Looking at the latest TV advert it's certainly aimed at the young market, having fun, not at the older cruiser who would appreciate an adults only ship.  I'm on my own now and would consider going back on Aurora or Arcadia but not any of the others. I'm afraid the newer large ships are just too large for me.    If I were to travel with a friend I might consider Azura but didn't really like her as much as the smaller ships.  I'm probably more likely to look at Saga and if I could afford it to lines like Azmara or Oceania but I do like sailing from Southampton which those lines very rarely do.  I've had over 30 cruises with P&O but maybe, sadly will not go with them again, depending on what happens to Aurora and Arcadia.  

 

 

[Cruisemeister2002]

18 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

That's not the way they are going.  I can see either Aurora or Arcadia going this year.

Sadly it can't be much longer for either of them. Oriana went in 2019 when she was 23 and both Aurora and Arcadia went into service around 2000 although Arcadia didn't join P&O until 2005. So in effect both are around 22 years old. I think it's the cost to maintain and run these smaller ships and also if true where it has been said these larger ships can break even at between 25-30% full I doubt very much that a ship with a capacity of around 2000 could run with 500 passengers without losing money. 

[Cruisemeister2002]

21 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

When we were on the Britannia 3 night Easter cruise some of the bars/music venues didn't close till 5am and the bar takings must have been huge.

This happens regularly on the younger demographic cruises where shorter up to 7 nights cruises proves your point Gill.

Royal  Caribbean Voyager class ships 2 of which went to Marella would fit the Oceana size of cruise ship plus they have plenty of balcony cabins.

I think the problem is that you have a two tier customer base. Those that want so called booze cruises and families that can't take much more than two weeks at a stretch and the older clientele who have time to spare, can take longer cruises, don't drink that much and aren't interested in being in a disco into the early hours. From a passenger point of view I have mostly travelled P&O, although I do believe their level of service across the board has deteriorated I don't want to be forced to go to another cruise line by being cast aside because of my age and preferences by P&O. But sadly if that is what they want then so be it. But a word of warning to them and that is "Who will fill their ships when children are back at school and parents have to return to work " ?

[bee-ess]

24 minutes ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

No, sorry about that. Didn't realise Arcadia came into service, although not with P&O in 2000 as did Aurora. Arcadia started sailing under the P&O flag in 2005. Of course Oriana although sister ship to Aurora and Oceana came into service in 1996. As was said by a fellow passenger Sea Princess/Victoria left service in 2002 as this was it's last season and I believe started service as the Kungsholm original for the Atlantic. Bought by P&O as Sea Princess. The name was then taken up by a Princess cruises ship and she became the Victoria and in or around 2002 was sold and became the Mona Lisa. There's a bit more history from there on. Don't know whether it's us, but Victoria are first cruise and her last season, we then sailed on Artemis which was her last season and we went on Oriana in 2016 her 20 year Anniversary and then in 2019 she left P&O.

I thought the current P&O Arcadia was a new build in 2004 and in service with P&O from 2005.