P&0 CRUISES- WHY SHOULD YOU GO?

It's a good question. Why would you book a P&O cruise when there are so many alternatives out there these days? The company is long associated with the 'old days' of the empire, and still has an image in some quarters as a sort of stuffy, outdated fossil; a last hold out for the newly weds and the nearly dead. But is that true these days?

Like any cruise line, the median age group on any P&O cruise can vary wldely. In general, the longer the cruise, the older the on board average age will be. And, unlike most lines these days, P&O still carries an almost exclusively British passenger clientele, and the on board currency is pound sterling.

So it should come as no surprise that the food and entertainment on board is tailored exclusively to British tastes. In so many ways, P&O does indeed remain a quintessentially British cruise experience. But there will always be a hard core constituency for whom that very fact alone is a compelling enough reason to book a cruise with them.

And yet P&O really has evolved these last fifteen years or so, with huge, new resort style ships with hundreds of balcony cabins, and the introduction of a string of flashy new, extra charge eateries right across the company's line up of ships. Entertainment, too, has received a massive reboot, with themed cruises and headline performers on board each ship for most sailings.

And, in response to guest demand, P&O has now designated two of it's ships as solely for adults on a permanent basis. The old two sittings for dinner remain, but there is also a flexible evening option that allows you to dine at any time as well; great news for familes and those that simply enjoy late quality time ashore.

And even the length of the tradtional cruise has changed, too. Once, two and three day 'taster' cruises would have been anathema to P&O, but now they offer them several times a year. It's part of a massive roster that features cruises of up to fourteen nights from Southampton, plus fly cruises in the Mediterranean, and the annual World Cruise for which the line has always been justly famous.

So no, this is not quite your Grandmother's P&O any more; the line now caters to everybody else as well. With fantastic children's facilities, stellar entertainment and a range of eateries to rival any of their competitors, P&O still retains enough of it's cherished, traditional heritage to give it a broad swathe of across the board appeal to people of all styles, tastes and ages.