P&O Cruises has announced details of “The Grand Event” on July 3, 2012, when the entire fleet of seven ships will be docked together in its home port of Southampton for the first time in the company’s history. This is part of a year of celebrations in 2012, marking the 175th anniversary of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company being awarded the lucrative Admiralty contract to carry mail to the Iberian Peninsula and beyond.

Each ship in The Grand Event will then depart on its own Grand Event cruise, with a spectacular send off with champagne deck party, flutterfetti and marching bands. The ships will then form a procession as they leave Southampton for the English Channel and beyond.

Once in the open water, the ships will meet again, saluting one another before they sail onwards to their various destinations. Departing on July 3, 2012, all seven cruises will be heritage themed with special on board entertainment including a 175th Anniversary Gala dinner, heritage art display, guest speakers and more. “We are also inviting passengers to help us celebrate by offering a full World Cruise prize draw on each cruise and a total of seven passengers plus their guest will be travelling around the world as our guests in 2013.”

Now we have a P&O "Grand Event". Granted seven ships of one line together in port is more impressive than two or three, but it's easy to see the same marketing geniuses at Carnival UK are behind this.

I guess this is what you come up with when you have no new ships on order to tout?

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Originally posted by eroller:
Is it just me or are these "Royal Rendezvous" type events becoming a dime a dozen? [...]

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Beside that, what is so special about these 'events'? Yes, in a way it's 'fun' to have e.g. the whole P&O fleet in one place (and actually it will be a mess) but these days it actually happens quite often that there are a lot of large passengers ships in one port - if they are all from one line in one livery it's finally not that much different. Having several sister ships in one port is in my opinion a bit more interesting or unusual - but even that happens occasionally these days.

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I agree.

In the case of Cunard, what is interesting about the QE and QV being in port together? These are Vista Class ships and there are multitudes of similar ships that look almost just like them in port on any given day.

Sometimes there are four HAL Vistas docked simultaneously in Ft. Lauderdale. They are not very interesting to look at to be honest. At least HAL hasn't touted these gatherings as "Dutch Darlings Rendezvous" or something silly like that ... at least not yet!

I agree with Malcolm that Southampton will be busy that day - in fact P&O are already saying that passengers for three of the ships (Azura, Adonia & Aurora, if my memory serves me) will be checked-in at temporary locations on the edge of the city, from where they will be taken to the ship in buses. If we do the Oriana cruise, I think we'll go down the day before, possibly by train, and stay overnight in one of the water-front hotels. At least we have 15 months' notice, to get bookings made.

When I mentioned it to my wife - she replied with "not another cruise" - to be fair, we have done about 12 in 5 years.

This part sounded especially cool:

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:
[...]

This part sounded especially cool:

Once in the open water, the ships will meet again, saluting one another before they sail onwards to their various destinations.

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Originally posted by Ernst:
Yes, this at least will be a nice photo opportunity.

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Originally posted by Ernst:

Of course, one way to take advantage of this would be to allow visitors to all ships since one hardly has the opportunity to visit all ships of a line like P&O in a day.

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I agree that would be an amazing opportunity. If you could visit all the P&O ships, I would fly out to London/Southampton just for the occasion.

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Originally posted by eroller:

I agree that would be an amazing opportunity. If you could visit all the P&O ships, I would fly out to London/Southampton just for the occasion.

Ernie

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I recall that the late Steve Read visted most(?) of the six ships at Southampton in January. (P&O woould not let him on Arcadia)

[ 03-08-2011: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

We remember the 3 Queens a few years back in Southampton as a lovely day.

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:

I recall that the late Steve Read visted most(?) of the six ships at Southampton in January.

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Well as you know Steve was a unique and talented guy and that afforded him some unique opportunities. Unfortunately most of us would never have the opportunity to visit all those ships, especially in a single day.

What would be cool is if P&O truly organized something to visit all the ships and you have lunch on one, and dinner on another, then a private viewing place to watch the departures. Of course you would pay for this opportunity and they could treat it like a mini-cruise. You would enter all your passport info and everything just like a passenger would so they could do all their security screenings in advance. At the first pier you would check in at a special desk and be issued your unique "7 ships in one" cruise card/boarding pass for the day (this could be kept at the end of the day as a souvenir). All the security check points on the ships would be programed to accept this card for the day only. Finally P&O would have transportation arranged between all the ships so you could easily get from one to another and to the viewing platform as well.

It would probably cost as much as a short cruise, but honestly I would sign up for it.

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Originally posted by eroller:

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What would be cool is if P&O truly organized something to visit all the ships and you have lunch on one, and dinner on another, then a private viewing place to watch the departures. [...]

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That at least would make sense. If you look at the photo Malcolm posted above it's hardly an advantage to have them all at Southampton since the would not be 'all in one spot'. Yes, this is difficult to achieve with that many ships but there are more suitable ports for that - especially since one can expect a 'gridlock' in town like Malcolm mentioned.

Here's a link to a thread about the Oasis/Allure photo. It includes other sister ships and fleets together including Disney Magic/Wonder, MSC, Solstice and Eclipse, the NCL white fleet, and three original Princess ships. Can't wait to see the P&O fleet together.

http://www.travelserver.net/travelpage/ubb-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=012044

[ 03-08-2011: Message edited by: Fairsky ]

In the Uk we do have a number of historical events that are worth celebrating !

Although Carnival may have a hand in arranging this event it is nice to see that they also feel that a shipping company, which is a member of their group, does have a 175 year history that is worth celebrating.

Having been formed in 1837 The P & O company is three years older than Cunard !

Ernie

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:
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Is there anything 175 years old near where you live which could be celebrated ?
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Like the undefeated, still intact and floating USS Constitution?

Of course, she is actually not 175 years old but older.

However, a lot happened since the uprising near Concorde so I am sure other CT members can point out examples for 175 years old artefacts worth celebrating.

[ 03-08-2011: Message edited by: Ernst ]

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
I'm impressed with the people who do P&O's cruise schedules, managing to get all the fleet at Southampton on the same day!

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Well considering there are only three Cunard ships, I don't think it would be that difficult to avoid being in port with one.

I do agree this took some doing by Carnival UK's planning department and fleet operations. Seven ships of one fleet in port the same day is no small feat.

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Originally posted by Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company.:

Ernie

Is there anything 175 years old near where you live which could be celebrated ?
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More than you might think. I grew up in a small town outside Philadelphia. Generally speaking the area is one of the most historic in the US, with Betsy Ross, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Valley Forge to name a few. Lots of things are older than 175 years and plenty worth celebrating too.

Now where I live today (Miami) not so much, but Carnival Cruise Lines will turn 40 next year if that counts? Perhaps Carnival can arrange for all 24 of it's ships to be in Miami on the anniversary? ;-)

I would love to be on either Aurora, Oriana, Arcadia or even Adonia.

These Cunard events are becoming so common I'm beginning to wonder if the ships are ever in port without one of their fleet mates? LOL

Ernie

Source: Seatrade Insider:

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Cunard Line will celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and Her Majesty’s long association with Cunard, with a Three Queens Event in Southampton on 5 June 2012 and 'we intend to make it an occasion Southampton and our passengers won’t forget,' comments Cunard president and managing director Peter Shanks.

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