P&O Cruises' right move

P&O Cruises say they will introduce the 2001 built Royal Princess of 30,300 gross tons on the UK market as Adonia in 2011, the same year as the currently smallest unit of the fleet, the 44,588 gross ton Artemis that was built in 1984, bows out to assume a new lease of life in Germany.

This is good news - on two accounts. Firstly, it means that the largest cruise brand in the UK will retain one small ship in its fleet of seven ships. Next April, the company will introduce the 115,000 gross ton Azura that is currently under construction in Italy: this is a slightly modified version of the 2008 built Ventura and the second Post-Panamax ship in the P&O Cruises' fleet. The news about the sale of Artemis suggested that the company might opt for operating large vessels only, while the decision to introduce Adonia means that this will clearly not be the case.

Secondly, the time is right for Artemis to go. When built as the original Royal Princess of Princess Cruises in 1984, the ship was hailed as revolutionary as a quarter of its 600 cabins had a private balcony. Indeed, the ship set a benchmark in design of layout that is used in most vessels under construction even today, a quarter of a century later.

However, while the cabins on Artemis are better than on virtually any other ship built at that time and certainly if compared to vessels of the same size, the public rooms have always been a weak spot of that ship.

When introducing Artemis, P&O Cruises wanted a ship that has a small ship feel after it had sold the Victoria of 28,891 gross ton in 2002 that had started life as Kungsholm in 1966. In terms of size, Artemis was not at all a bad choice. However, with just a show lounge forward, a secondary lounge in the stern and a two deck atrium with an admittedly very nice bar midships on its principal deck of public rooms, it never had any feling of cosiness. Rather, the large but low public rooms have an awful lot in common with cruise ferries built for Baltic trades at the same time by the same Finnish yard that produced Artemis.

Adonia, meanwhile, is one of the eight R-class vessels built in France for the now defunct Renaissance Cruises at the turn of the millennium. The interiors in general and the public rooms in particular, by the Scottish architect McNeece, are hugely superior to those on Artemis. Perhaps inspired by the film Titanic that was released when these ships were on the drawing board, McNeece created elegant fin-de-siecle interiors that had not been seen on a new ship for decades. In fact, the style that sought inspiration from historic country houses and grand hotels of the Victorian era had gone out of fashion already in 1927, when the French Line introduced Ile de France, one of the first and certainly one of the grandest ships with Art Deco interiors.

Adonia has the feeling of cosiness that P&O Cruises want to offer: the choice of public rooms is better, they are of far superior design, including an outstandinly elegant library that has a dome that gives it double deck height. Add gym and spa facilities that are surprisinly extensive for a ship of that size, this should be precisely the right kind of ship P&O Cruises need for this particular segment of the market.

The decision to introduce Adonia is a welcome one: I am personally interested in sailing on this ship in due time.