Carnival hikes UK cruise capacity

A new ship originally designated for Cunard is to be delivered to sister line P&O cruises instead as part of a fresh assault on the UK cruise market by parent company Carnival. The £225 million Queen Victoria, due for delivery to Cunard next April, will instead be re-named Arcadia and join P&O in time for summer 2005. The 1,968-bed vessel is claimed to be the largest cruise ship ever built exclusively for the British market. Cunard will receive a new Queen Victoria, capable of accommodating 1,850 passengers, in January 2007 at the cost of £260 million. P&O is also swapping vessels with US line Princess Cruises, which is to sail from the UK for the first time next summer. Princess is taking P&O’s 1,950-passenger Adonia and re-naming it Sea Princess. The ship will run itineraries specifically tailored to meet the preferences of British passengers, sailing from the UK in summer and operating 14-night Caribbean cruises in the winter. In return, P&O will receive 1,200-bed Royal Princess in May 2005. To be renamed Artemis, the ship will bring the P&O fleet up to five vessels. More than 860 of its 984 cabins will have a sea view, with 677 of these having private balconies, more than any other UK-based ship, according to P&O. P&O’s capacity will rise by eight per cent as a net effect of the ship transfers, with almost 40 per cent of the fleet’s cabins offering balconies. Princess will see capacity growth of 16 per cent in 2005, with the average age of the fleet reduced by four years. The percentage of the fleet’s total number of cabins with balconies will rise to 54 per cent. P&O Princess Cruises International chief executive Peter Ratcliffe said: “The tremendous success of the Queen Mary 2, and the potential to grow and offer further choice for UK cruise passengers, prompted these changes. “We will now have brands and ships that cater to all the differing needs of the growing and diversifying UK passenger base.” Report by Phil Davies