Profile and Photo Tour of P&O Cruises' Azura

This week the focus is on Azura, P&O Cruises’ latest ship. Azura is 115,000 gross tons and entered service last Spring.

What I like best about Azura is the innovation. The ship is based on a tried and true design - - the design that debuted with Grand Princess and which has been used with refinements in nine subsequent ships. In 2008, P&O purchased its first Grand-class ship, the Ventura, and while that ship has proven successful, P&O has not merely cloned that ship but has continued to develop the design.

The most striking example of innovation is the introduction of staterooms for the single or solo traveler. While the ships of the ocean liner era almost always had single cabins, in recent years, the cruise ship industry has shunned them; arguing that they do not produce as much revenue per square foot of space as double occupancy cabins. As I have written previously, the math does not support that argument but nonetheless it was the common wisdom in the industry.

The net result was that solo travelers were left to pay a single supplement so that they could occupy a double cabin single occupancy. Sometimes the supplement ranged up to 100 percent of the per person double occupancy rate. This created a disincentive for solo travelers to cruise.

Yet, cruising is a great method of travel for solo travelers. People are open and friendly on a cruise and so a solo traveler does not have the isolation that he or she would face staying at a hotel. At the same time, a solo traveler has the freedom to choose whether he or she will go off on his or her own or take an organized excursion in the ports of call.

Recognizing that solo travelers are a natural for cruising, P&O included a series of inside and outside singe cabins on the Azura. These have sold quite well and generally speaking are booked quite far in advance. (Interestingly, NCL also recognized the importance of solo cruisers at about the same time and included a large number of single cabins on Norwegian Epic, which entered service shortly after Azura. I am told that Royal Caribbean is also thinking of adding single cabins to its ships as they go through their scheduled refits).

In addition to the single cabins and other physical innovations, Azura has a somewhat different style than Ventura. Both are large family-friendly ships. However, P&O has styled Azura to meet the tastes of people who have enjoyed cruising on P&O’s more traditional cruise ships. The idea is to give the traditional cruiser the features of a mega-cruise ship.

All of the P&O ships have a unifying atmosphere. However, the line shuns the notion that one size fits all and there is considerable variety across the fleet. I am pleased to see that P&O has continued this philosophy with Azura.

The Beyondships profile of Azura is at http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Azura-Profile.html and the multi-page photo tour of the ship begins at http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Azura-Tour-1.html

Talking about Single Cabins and Talking with the Senior Officers of Ventura

When I sat down with Captain Alistair Clark, Executive Purser David Sheperd and Cruise Director Leon de Ste. Croix, and asked them to talk about Ventura, the word that kept coming up was “choice.” Ventura is designed to offer guests choices so that the guests can shape the cruise experience so that it suits their needs and tastes. This “choice factor” cuts across entertainment, dining, accommodations and activities. The ship is not based upon the principle “one size fits all.”

One also sees this choice factor across the P&O fleet. While some of the major cruise lines seek to have each of their ships resemble each other as closely as possible so as to maintain brand continuity, P&O has a markedly different set of ships. It is not just that the fleet has large, small and medium sized ships, but there are adults-only and family-friendly ships, traditional/more formal ships and contemporary/more casual ships. Again, this allows the passenger to select the cruise experience that is most suited to him or her.

Unifying all of this is an overall P&O flavor and way of doing things. When you step aboard a P&O ship, you know it is a P&O ship.
Our discussion about Ventura is posted at http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Ventura-interview.html

Because Ventura does present an array of dining choices, I thought it would be helpful to write an article that gives an overview of the various dining venues on the ship. To help me on this, I asked Food and Beverage Manager Alasdair Ross to give a brief introduction to each of the venues. That article appears at http://www.beyondships.com/PO-Ventura-dining.html

Changing topics, this year’s crop of new ships includes two ships that have single-occupancy cabins. For the last decade or so, the prevailing attitude in the industry was that single-occupancy cabins were uneconomical and had no place on a modern cruise ship. Every cabin had to accommodate at least two people. As a result, solo travelers had to pay a single supplement that was sometimes twice the per person rate for a double-occupancy cabin.

Now, however, going against this common-wisdom both P&O’s Azura and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Epic have included some single-occupancy cabins in addition to the typical mix of suites and double-occupancy cabins. Neither line is charging a single supplement for these cabins.

Why did these lines do this and is this the start of something new? I asked several cruise line executives to comment including Carol Marlow, Managing Director of P&O, Dan Hanrahan, President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises and Peter Shanks, Managing Director of Cunard. The article is posted at: http://www.beyondships.com/Cruise-articles-singles.html