I get a lot of questions about the two P&O Cruises,
the British one and the Australian one. And in fact sometimes people outside of Australia don't
even realize that there's an Aussie P&O Cruises! So how did we end up with two P&O Cruises,
and what are the differences and similarities between them? The story of P&O Cruises began at
the dawn of steamships, with the Peninsula Steam Navigation Company which was founded in 1835.
Envisioned as a small cargo and passenger service P.S.N. Co. originally linked Great Britain with
Europe through the Iberian Peninsula. In 1840 the line set its sights on expansion and was
reorganized as the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Company or P&O. As P&O grew, so did
its network with the line establishing a number of voyages to various destinations across the British
Empire by the turn of the 20th century P&O was a dominant force in shipping and a household name
in both the United Kingdom and Australia. P&O had offered a form of cruising from the early
days of its European voyages. Marketed then as the grand tour, travelers could book passage on
several P&O ships to create their own round-trip itinerary. This was achieved by working with P&O
to book passage on ships that had complementary itineraries. When these itineraries were combined,
travelers could sail from port to port on different P&O ships, creating a round-trip cruise.
Fast forward to the 1920s, and cruising had become better defined. But the stock market
crash of 1929 led to a stark decline in ocean line of voyages leading P&O to increase their
cruising activity. Mediterranean cruise offerings were combined into marketable pleasure voyages
which offered UK residents an affordable way to holiday, and on the other side of the world the
first Australian cruise took place on board the P&O ship Strathaird. This November 1932
voyage departed from Sydney bound for Norfolk Island. It was a cost-effective and fun break
from the difficulties of the depression years, and proved popular. As such P&O gradually expanded
the Australian offerings to take in other south pacific islands as well as New Zealand.
So by the 1930s P&O is an established brand. It is one of the largest and most reputable
shipping companies in the world. And despite the difficulties of the great depression P&O remained
flexible offering cruises out of Britain and Australia. Skipping ahead again and the shipping
industry was about to face its biggest disruption yet jet airliners when Boeing's game-changing 707
took to the skies in 1958. The traditional passenger shipping business model started
to crumble jet airliners made a lasting impact on P&O, not only in the UK and European market,
but also in Australia, as Qantas was the first non-us airline to introduce 707 jets - as early
as 1959. A decade later, the drop in passengers on line voyages was exacerbated when Noeing 747
revolutionized long-haul flying. Wide-body jets meant flying became affordable and travelers
embraced airlines at the expense of ships - after all why spend days on an air-conditioned and
unstabilized ship in humid and rough conditions when you could fly to the other side of the world
in a matter of hours? In order to survive, cruising became even more important to P&O
and during the 1970s the brand transitioned as passenger shipping division into a cruise line.
Many older ships were scrapped. Their largest liner Canberra was positioned in the UK market,
while the 1959 built Oriana was sent to Australia to cruise out of Sydney. During this time P&O
expanded further by buying other cruise lines. They acquired Princess Cruises in 1974 and gobbled
up Sitmar Cruises in 1988. All but one of Sitmar's cruise ships were transferred across to Princess
Cruises, with the Australian-based Fairstar the only exception. Fairstar was already quite an old
ship when P&O acquired her with a heritage that dated back to 1957. However her casual and relaxed
onboard atmosphere made her the most popular cruise ship in the Australian market. Fairstar
offered fun low-cost cruises for Aussies, wanting to have a party weekend or a week-long getaway on
a ship with no formalities or minimum dress code! Because of Fairstar's unique hold on the market,
P&O decided to retain her under an Australian brand P&O holidays. This brand shared the
P&O name and the P&O house flag, but Fairstar -the only ship in the brand at the time - had
her own unique marketing and even carried a unique Dolphin Logo on her funnel. From the late 1980s we
start to see two distinct brands forming, P&O in the UK continued to offer cruises with Canberra,
expanding in the 1990s with the addition of Oriana, Victoria and Arcadia. In the southern
hemisphere, Fairstar was eventually replaced by the larger Fair Princess in 1997, and she revived
the buff funnel colours in Australia - but this was short-lived. When Sky Princess was transferred
to the newly rebranded P&O Australia in 2000 she wore a new blue livery with distinctive
yellow font on the funnel. And from here we see the two brands diverge even further. P&O
Cruises UK received the bulk of the attention, with new build Aurora entering service in 2000.
2002 also saw the addition of Adonia and Oceana - two ships that were transferred to P&O cruises
from the Princess Cruises brand. The 2003 merger of Carnival and P&O-Princess coincided with a boom
in Australian cruising. As such the P&O Australia fleet expanded with Pacific Sun and Pacific Star,
two former Carnival Cruise Line ships joining the fleet. While P&O UK has received the bulk of the
attention and plenty of new builds including Azura and Ventura, P&O Australia has never yet received
a purpose-built cruise ship. Instead the Line seems to be a little bit like the little sister,
reliant on hand-me-downs from other brands within the Carnival Corporation. For example
at its peak of five ships in 2015, the Pacific Dawn was the former Regal Princess, Pacific Jewel
was the former Crown Princess, Pacific Pearl was the former Arcadia, while Pacific Eden and Pacific
Aria were originally Statendam and Ryndam for Holland America Line. Today the two brands both
still share the same name in the same house flag, but the onboard experience on each of the brands
is worlds apart. P&O Australia has a fleet of three ships, all former princess cruiser ships,
although each has had a multi-million dollar refurbishment to "Australianize" them.
On the other hand P&O UK has a custom-built fleet of six ships. This includes their brand
new $950 million ship Iona which is the flagship of the P&O UK fleet, as well as another new build
Arvia, which is under construction at the moment and due to the fleet in 2022. Having sailed on
board both brands as a guest lecturer I'd say that P&O Australia is fun casual and relaxed. There's
a welcoming and friendly onboard environment and it's a relaxing and stress-free holiday and very,
very local. In fact nearly all of the passengers on board are from Australia and New Zealand,
the onboard currency is the Australian dollar and the ships are all home ported in Australia
or New Zealand with itineraries not venturing too far from home. On the other hand P&O UK
are based in Southampton, offering year-round voyages for the UK market and world cruises.
The brand offers a higher level of formality and luxury than its Aussie cousin, providing a more
refined and noticeably British experience with the onboard currency in Great British Pounds.
Oh and to finish off the British travelers will know that P&O Cruises UK is known for its Great
British Sail-away party. Well perhaps this is something that the two brands also share because
the Australian brand is known for its Aussie sail away party. The only difference between
the two that I can see is that on the Australian P&O ships you will need your hat and sun cream
for sun protection all year round!! Thanks so much for watching and I hope you found the video
interesting? If you did please give it a like and don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification
Thanks once again for watching and
when it is safe for us to travel again, I hope to see you on board.