P&O Cruises has unveiled its 2024-25 winter programme featuring more than 200 new holidays.
The collection includes the first short break itinerary for Arvia, the line’s newest ship scheduled to launch in December.
The ship will sail on a four-night itinerary to Northern Europe on October 21, 2024. Departing and returning to Southampton, it will call at Zeebrugge and Cherbourg, with a lead-in price of £379.
More: Arvia in ‘final sprint’ to completion ahead of maiden voyage, P&O Cruises declares
Arvia will also sail on a nine-night southern cruise break to Spain and Portugal on October 12, 2024. The sailing will depart and return to Southampton and call at Le Havre, Vigo, Lisbon and La Coruna, and has a lead-in price of £649.
On January 11, 2025, Arvia’s sister ship Iona will sail on a new 35-night itinerary to the Caribbean, which includes visits to Tenerife, Tortola, Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada, Antigua, St Kitts, St Maarten and La Coruna. The lead-in price for the sailing – which will be Iona’s first cruise in the Caribbean – is £2,579.
Aurora will feature a 65-night Amazon and Caribbean sailing departing Southampton and calling at Gran Canaria, Antigua, Tortola, St Lucia, Barbados, Manaus, Parintins, Santarem, sail by Devil’s Island, Tobago, Cartagena, Colon, partial transit of the Panama Canal, Puerto Limon, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, Georgetown, Montego Bay, Grand Turk, Freeport, Bermuda and Praia da Vitoria.
The sailing departs January 6, 2025 and has a lead-in price of £5,529.
Other holidays featured in the collection include 14-night fly cruise itineraries to the Caribbean, 14-night itineraries to the Canary Islands and 12-night itineraries to Norway.
Holidays booked by December 1, 2022 and departing between September 2024 and April 2025 will include a 5% deposit, 10% saving for passengers who have previously sailed with the cruise line, and free sailings for third and fourth guests in a cabin on selected cruises.
Director of sales Ruth Venn highlighted two ex-UK cruises on Arvia departing during October half-term in 2024 the line hopes will appeal to new-to-cruise passengers.
One of them is a four-night Northern Europe cruise departing from Southampton on October 21 which is priced from £379.
Venn said: “Coming off the back of July and August, we were seeing record-breaking new-to-cruise numbers – that is happening because of our pricing and value for money [offering].”
Asked how else the line planned to continue attracting new-to-cruise passengers, Venn said: “We’re open to having conversations with new agent partners that have not sold cruise in the past.
“It’s also about working with existing partners and identifying new marketing opportunities – such as radio advertising and different events.”
P&O Cruises hosted a live agent webinar on Thursday morning to unveil the details of 2024-25 programme.
Venn said “hundreds” of agents joined the webinar which can be watched again on demand.
“There are still some staff shortages at some of the travel agencies so I just want to thank them for joining the webinar.
“I am sure a lot of them would have had early starts.”