Remember Ocean Village – Well It’s Back!

Do you remember the strap line ‘for people who don’t do cruises’ – Well it’s been announced after 6 years that the previous named Ocean Village cruise ship will be coming back to UK . For the past 6 years she has been under the P&O Australian fleet and named the Pacific Pearl, but from next year she will be owned by Cruise & Maritime and named ‘Columbus’ sailing from Tilbury in June 2017.

The Columbus will become Cruise & Maritime’s new flagship and largest vessel in their fleet accommodating up to 1,400 passengers compared to the Magellan which can hold 1,300 passengers. The other cruise ships in the Cruise & Maritime portfolio are Marco Polo which has 800 passengers, the 600 passenger Astor and the smallest ship the Astoria which holds 550 passengers.

When the new named ‘Columbus’ joins Cruise & Maritime she will be nearly 30 years old. She was first owned by Princess Cruises and named ‘Star Princess’ from 1989 to 1997. During this time she had some substantial damage, in June 23 1995 Star Princess struck Poundstone Rock from Skagway to Juneau in Alaska. There  were no injuries or deaths but repairs cost over $7 million and lost revenue was estimated at $20 million. In 1997 she was acquired by P&O and renamed ‘Arcadia’ then subsequently in 2003 P&O introduced the Ocean Village brand which continued until 2010, the vessel then was sold to P&O Australia and named Pacific Pearl.

What is very interesting is that we remember Ocean Village being very family and child friendly, Cruise & Maritime ‘Columbus’ will operate as an adult only ship, but it will have two sailings next August which will be available for all age groups. I personally think Cruise & Maritime are missing a trick here, all of their other ships are adult orientated already, so why not do something different and have a ship that is family and child friendly. There is more and more families wanting to cruise and don’t want the hassle of flying, also Cruise & Maritime have the added advantage that they do cruising from ports from all over the UK, which is great as a majority of us live ‘North of the Watford Gap!’

What do you think, of Ocean Village being back?

What’s your opinion on the ‘Columbus’ being Adult only?