The past few weeks have seen us reach another fantastic milestone: the return of our international cruises.
Britannia and Iona have both embarked with delighted guests to the sunny climes of Iberia and the Mediterranean, and today Queen Elizabeth sets sail for Amsterdam.
As part of our return to service deployment plan, the Return to Service programme team has been planning for international cruises for many months. This includes, understanding the requirements of the places we plan on visiting, making changes to our on-board offering, and the safe return of our crew who are at the heart of operating our ships safely.
The reason we’re able to return to international cruising now is because we were able to demonstrate to the UK Government that, together with the rest of the UK cruise industry, we had the right protocols in place to manage a safe return to creating unforgettable holiday happiness . On 28 July, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office changed its advice on international cursing, giving the industry the green light it needed to return to exotic destinations.
So what’s different for our guests on international cruises?
- We’re welcoming back guests under the age of 18 yrs
- Guests are able to disembark on independent shore experiences
- We’re offering back-to-back cruises for our guests who wish to carry on cruising
- Spa treatments, shopping and entertainment is available for guests to indulge in
- While P&O Cruises is only welcoming UK or Common Travel Area resident guests, Cunard is opening up its staterooms to guests from over 20 countries
To allow us to give our guests a safe and enjoyable holiday experience, our health protocols have been adapted and will remain in place. These play a really important part of how we’re able to keep our guests, crew and the destinations we visit as safe as possible.
1 Comment
I cruised on G133 Iona on its 1st International cruise to Spain and Portugal and it was fantastic, truly was amazing to be back in service and able to disembark in fantastic ports. Testing process was a little chaotic as both Britannia and Iona were sailing and there was no staff letting guests know what they had to do, where to queue and what was happening, so quite a few agitated guests. Our own experience took 1 hour for the testing and a further 30 minutes for results. Easy! All crew on board were brilliant, helpful and attentive. Food divine and a good choice of entertainment. Personally all in all I had a fab cruise on Iona.