You may have read last week that the internet is now twenty-five years old! No invention in all of human history has had such a big impact as the internet has! Not only has it brought people together in a way never before thought possible it’s completely changed the way we shop.
To commemorate the event we thought we’d take a look back at how cruise.co.uk looked when it was first unveiled and how some of the biggest cruise lines have evolved their websites.
When our reviews were first introduced, when our Q&A section made its debut.
Enjoy…
2000
Back in the year 2000 cruise.co.uk was completely new but site veterans will see a lot of similarities with our current site!
2001
In 2001 Cunard’s fairly simplistic layout brought the company into the new era of information technology whilst boasting that they have been “advancing civilization since 1840”! Cruise.co.uk had some minor adjustments, but was ultimately very similar to the year before.
2002
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s page takes their signature shade of calming blue. Cruise.co.uk however looks very familiar…
2004
P&O keeps things simple with a classic and accessible layout, (note the logo they were using).
Cunard redesign again with a more centred layout, using a similar colour scheme.
2005
2005 saw cruise.co.uk with a much more recognisable layout, very familiar to what you might see today with some minor differences! This marks the first year that cruise.co.uk introduced many familiar site features such as reviews, Q&As and our first 0800 number. P&O kept it simple whilst shuffling space for clearer images and Cunard continued to stick with what they knew worked.
2006
With 2006 we see most of the major cruise lines moving onto centred web pages instead of the left-oriented pages; with Royal Caribbean being the exception! P&O had redesigned to keep up with the times, whilst Cunard were updating their layout and colour scheme.
2007
With a comprehensive search bar and prompts to write reviews you’d be forgiven for thinking the above picture of cruise.co.uk was taken from a more recent time! Royal Caribbean’s site had also been updated witha a more detaled home page.
2009
P&O’s page underwent a complete makeover, as had Royal Caribbean’s Both cruise lines went with more colourful layouts that caught the eye.
2010
2010 saw cruise.co.uk morph into an even more familiar form You can even see even the introduction of our current free phone number!
2011
2011 saw P&O entice their audience with views of some gorgeous tropical locations whilst Royal Caribbean’s clean layout was advertising both quality and quantity by promising to “pack more into your holiday” with a heavy emphasis on family cruises.
2012
Cruise.co.uk here looks much more like its final form, clearly advertising our awards, Super Low Offers and our signature cruise.co.uk logo! Cunard and Royal Caribbean both clearly agreed that large eye-catching images were a good way to go, whilst P&O chose to emphasis value.
2013
Cunard’s last redesign was sharp and clean clearly displaying a large and impressive image whilst also advertising the fantastic destinations available to their guests.
2014
As you can quite plainly see cruise.co.uk and the cruise lines have adapted to the internet and the modern information-hungry world. All of the websites have evolved in their own way, with tiny additions and changes eventually defining the form the sites have taken. You can see in a data hungry world how important it is for people to see exactly what they’re looking for at a glance, something any good website should have taken to heart by now.
Clearly cruise sites have evolved a lot since they first appeared online with huge changes to design and layout happening throughout the years. Cruise.co.uk in particular has introduced more Reviews, Guides, FAQs and picture hosting than ever before, becoming the one-stop shop for everything dedicated cruisers need to research, plan and book their dream cruise.
