P&O Cruises marked the first construction milestone for its newest ship with the steel cutting ceremony in Germany on 25 April. But we will have to wait until 4pm on Thursday (24 May) to know what she is to be called.
The ceremony at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg was attended by P&O Cruises senior vice president, Paul Ludlow; Carnival UK president Josh Weinstein and managing director of Meyer Werft, Tim Meyer.
How the new ship will look when she is delivered in 2020
P&O Cruises will announce the name of the new ship on Thursday on the company’s Facebook page. It follows a competition that P&O Cruises ran last year when members of the public were asked to suggest a suitable name. More than 30,000 submissions were received.
Josh Weinstein said: “This is the first time in 20 years that P&O Cruises has had a ship built by Meyer Werft and I’d like to thank everyone who has worked so hard to get us to the first stage in the life of this ground-breaking vessel.
“Meyer Werft has an enviable track record of producing genuinely innovative ships which also deliver tremendous levels of operational efficiency and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership over the next couple of years to this ship’s completion in 2020 and beyond.”
Paul Ludlow added: “This is a very exciting and momentous day. Our new ship will be the largest ship ever operated by the brand and the largest ever to be dedicated exclusively to the UK cruise industry. It will also be the first ship in our market to be powered by LNG, the most environmentally-friendly power source yet for large-scale cruise ships.
“With UK passengers numbers set to top two million for the first time this year, we are confident in cruising’s future and believe that there will be an exceptionally positive UK response to this ship and the innovations it will bring. We also expect this ship to persuade many UK consumers to take that all important first cruise.”