Return to Service

There’s been lots of milestone moments as we prepared to return to service, but we wanted to share photos of two that were particularly momentous – thank you to every single colleague for your support as we return to service. To see all the celebrations you captured on camera, search ‘milestone moments’ on The Insider.

Today is the day we’ve been waiting for… Britannia sets sail, the first Carnival UK ship to return to service. Colleagues ship and shore have been celebrating the moment and sharing their videos with us – watch the full video on The insider – search ‘We’re back!’ Once again, thank you to all of our amazing colleagues for supporting our return to service. We’re back, stronger and better than before . 

Tomorrow Britannia sets sail from Southampton with 1,000 Guests and 1,300 colleagues on board. She’s the first Carnival UK ship to return to service. Being able to create unforgettable happiness once more has been long awaited. To recognise your support, resilience, tenacity and dedication over the past 15 months, the Executive Leadership Team and representatives from the fleet’s Senior Management Teams have recorded a video. To watch it, search ‘return to service thank you’ on The Insider.

As excitement continues to build on board Britannia, our colleagues have been telling us about what returning to service means to them. On The Insider, colleague Felipe “DJ Philip” Dolor Jr, DJ, tells us his story and shares what he’s most excited about welcoming Guests back on board.  In just 2 days we’ll be back, stronger and better than before. #CarnivalUK #CruisingCountdown #ReturnToService #P&OCruises #Cunard #WellBeBack #UKHolidays #Phase1

We’re pleased to announce that Britannia’s operational test cruise was a resounding success and she passed her return to service audit with flying colours. To protect our Guests and colleagues, and facilitate our return to service, Carnival Corporation is working with Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, to audit and verify health and wellbeing standards on board our ships. During the audit on board Britannia, Bureau Veritas assessed and verified all procedures and protocols to identify and manage COVID-19 related risks in port, at embarkation and disembarkation points, and, of course, on the ship. To find out more, search ‘audit’ on The Insider

With four days to go, our colleagues are working incredibly hard to finalise preparations for Sunday when Britannia welcomes Guests on board. Her test cruise was a resounding success with everyone saying how delighted they were to be back on board. Our crew did an incredible job of creating unforgettable holiday happiness, something we’ve been waiting to do for over 15 months!  In just 4 days we’ll be back, stronger and better than before. #CarnivalUK #CruisingCountdown #ReturnToService #P&OCruises #Cunard #WellBeBack #UKHolidays #Phase1

Excitement is building on board Britannia as we continue our cruising countdown! We’ve been catching up with some of our colleagues on board to hear their stories and find out what they are most excited about returning to service. On The Insider, colleague Mike Brownhill, Entertainment Host, tells us all about his role, how he’s adjusting to our new ways of working, shares what he’s looking forward to most about welcoming Guests back on board. Swipe to see Mike!  In just 5 days we’ll be back, stronger and better than before. #CarnivalUK #CruisingCountdown #ReturnToService #P&OCruises #Cunard #WellBeBack #UKHolidays #Phase1

Today shoreside colleagues are supporting our return to service plan by embarking for our very first test cruise on board Britannia. To keep all our Guests and colleagues fit and well on board, we’ve introduced many new processes and protocols. By inviting shoreside colleagues to spend the night on board, our ship’s company is able to trial and test these new ways of working – it’s vital that we’re able to protect the health and wellbeing of everyone on board while still creating unforgettable holiday happiness.  In just 6 days we’ll be back, stronger and better than before. #CarnivalUK #CruisingCountdown #ReturnToService #P&OCruises #Cunard #WellBeBack #UKHolidays #Phase1

Today our cruising countdown moves from weeks to days as in just seven days, we’ll be welcoming Guests back on board Britannia. Britannia is the first Carnival UK ship to return to service on 27 June 2021. When she does, it’ll be the first time we’re able to create unforgettable holiday happiness in over 15 months. We’ll (very soon) be back, stronger and better than before. #CarnivalUK #CruisingCountdown #ReturnToService #P&OCruises #Cunard #WellBeBack #UKHolidays #Phase1  

In just under two weeks we’re setting sail again, 15 months after we first paused operations! As our cruising countdown nears its end, we’re getting ready to mark the momentous occassion on board and ashore. Our colleagues are working incredibly hard to finalise preparations for 27 June when Britannia welcomes Guests back on board. Thank you to everyone involved. We’re on our way back to business, creating unforgettable holiday happiness for our Guests and we’ll be stronger and better than before. #ReturnToService #CruisingCountdown #WeWillBeBack #Cruising #CarnivalUK P&OCruises #Cunard #UKHolidays #Phase1

Our return to service plans continue as we come to the end of our 3 week mark. We’ve just launched brand new online pocket planners for our Guests to help personalise their holidays just the way they like it. P&O Cruises My Holiday! and Cunard’s My Voyage! support our new health and well-being protocols, giving Guests the peace of mind that we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure they still enjoy an incredible holiday.  As well as supporting the new health and well-being protocols on board for our Guests, we wanted to make sure we’re able to do the same for our colleagues. That’s why, as our ships return to service, we’ll be introducing a similar platform which will be free for ship’s company to access on their devices, called My Tour!  It’s not long now until we get back to doing what we do best, creating unforgettable holiday happiness for our Guests!

With only four weeks to go until our first ship, Britannia, welcomes Guests on board once again we can’t wait to get back to what we do best, creating unforgettable holiday happiness. We’ll be back stronger and better than before.

With only five weeks left until we return to service we’re looking forward to welcoming Guests back on board once more and to offer them a truly unique holiday experience.  We certainly can’t wait to create unforgettable holiday happiness for our Guests once again and we’ll be stronger and better than before.

On Sunday we saw a huge milestone in our return to service as we welcomed Iona in to her home port of Southampton for the first time, followed by a spectacular naming ceremony.  On top of this there’s still plenty of work being done behind the scenes to get our ships ready for our return. We caught up with our shoreside Housekeeping Working Group on how how we’re making sure our updated cleaning policies and procedures on board meet professional standards so we can keep our Guests and fleet colleagues fit and well. We’re on our way back to business, creating unforgettable holiday happiness for our Guests and we’ll be stronger and better than before.

The wait is over. Iona is here! Following her arrival in to her new home port of Southampton our beautiful new ship Iona was named in a remarkable ceremony, by Dame Irene Hays, with a traditional bottle smash and a magnificent Nebuchadnezzar of Britpop cider. 

With seven weeks left until our return to service we welcomed another 700 crew back on board this week! As Britannia is our first ship to welcome Guests back we caught up with one of our colleagues on board to see what life was like as well as our Technology team to see what the plan was to get her ready for sailing again. We’re on our way back to business, creating unforgettable holiday happiness for our Guests and we’ll be stronger and better than before.

In order to make sure we’re keeping our crew and Guests fit and well on board we published our Medical and Public Health policies and procedures. These are now part of Seacare our fleetwide standard electronic health record (EHR) platform.

As we continue to work towards our return to service and getting our ships ready to welcome our first Guests back on board, this week we welcomeed 244 more of our ship’s company back on to Britannia as well as 55 more on Queen Elizabeth. 

We’re only eight weeks away from our Return to Service (RTS)! 

We’re moving ever closer to our return to service as we’ve now hit single figures with the number of weeks we have left. At the end of last week we shared in some some fantastic news as the UK Government published their Coronavirus (COVID-19); domestic cruise ship travel guidance, giving us the official green light we’ve been waiting for. This week, we also shared some exciting news about Iona’s godmother who’ll be naming her in a landmark ceremony on 16 May.