P&O, Fred Olsen and Viking release UK-focused roundtrip itineraries
P& O Cruises, Fred Olsen and Viking Ocean Cruises have announced a summer cruise season out of the UK between May and September, but one of them will require full vaccination for all guests. P & O Cruises will be bringing two ships back into service, Britannia, and its new Excel-class mega ship Iona.
- Britannia will offer three- and four-night roundtrip cruises, and one six-night voyage between June 27th, 2021, and September 19th, 2021. Prices start from £449 per person.
- Iona will sail seven-night itineraries from August 7th, 2021, until September 18,th 2021. Princes start from £1,199 per person.
P& O Cruises is the only one of the three that will require all guests to be vaccinated against COVID-19. All guests and crew will also be required to follow enhanced health and wellbeing measures. According to Paul Ludlow, President of P& O Cruises, Iona’s maiden Ultimate Escape series of holidays will include a seven-night maiden voyage sailing around the Scottish islands
“The Iona will anchor off Iona, the island after which she was named, with a celebratory extended stay until sunset for magical views of the historic shores,” Ludlow said. All cruises will be from Southampton.
Fred Olsen will be sailing 11 cruises from Dover and Liverpool with “scenic sailings taking in the best of the British Isles, including the Shetland and Orkney islands and the Isles of Scilly,” according to a press release. Borealis will be the first of the fleet to set sail, with a three-night ‘Maiden Voyage’ from Liverpool on July 5th, with the Bolette to depart on a three-night ‘Maiden Voyage’ from Dover on August 16th.
The maiden voyages will mark the ships’ first cruises with Fred Olsen, but won’t be their first voyages at sea, as both vessels were acquired second-hand from Holland America Line.
Borealis previously sailed as Rotterdam, while Bolette is the renamed Amsterdam. Both ships were in service with Holland America Line for more than 20 years before being sold amid the height of the pandemic last year.
Viking Ocean Cruises is also going to be sailing from the UK this summer, with three special sailings along the coast of England on the new Viking Venus. The new eight-day ocean itinerary, called ‘England’s Scenic Shores’, will sail roundtrip from Portsmouth, with departures on May 22nd, May 29th and June 5th, 2021.
Like P& O and Fred Olsen, booking for these cruises will be available to UK residents only.
“We welcome the UK Government’s support for the return of safe domestic cruises as an important component in the travel industry’s recovery,” said Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking. “In recognition of this support, and to celebrate the fact we have a British godmother—the esteemed broadcaster and journalist Anne Diamond—we have chosen to name our new ship, Viking Venus, in the UK on May 17.”
Cunard Line has also announced plans to sail roundtrip from the UK during the summer cruise season, but itinerary details have not yet been released.
