Lanzarote - Canary Islands.

Let’s Go Around the World!

20th November 2009.

Hello again,

‘Lanzarote an island forged by burning fire, has evolved a unique and never–before–seen landscape which is both lunar and cosmic’. That is what the Lanzarote Tourism Board say and I for one agree with every word; it is a very special island. The excursion to Fire Mountains, (Montanas del Fuego) is a must if you have never been to the island before.

Today I am going to tell you all about our world cruises and how we go about entertaining passengers for up to 104 nights on board!!!

From January 2010 to January 2011 there are five P&O Cruises world cruises scheduled, they range in duration from 82 to 104 nights! Here they are listed below:

Arcadia World Cruise 2010 – 94 Nights
Aurora Grand Voyage 2010 – 104 Nights
Oriana World Cruise 2010 – 84 Nights
Artemis Asian Grand Voyage 2011 - 98 Nights
Arcadia World Cruise 2011 – 82 Nights

All of these voyages can be booked in their entirety or in legs, I know a great many of our passengers do a world cruise over five or even six years doing a leg each year, what a great idea!

You are probably thinking by now how on earth do we entertain passengers on these very long voyages? Don’t worry have great experience in this field having done ‘Round the World Cruises’ for decades and decades.

We have a clear strategy; we plan for the entertainment for passengers doing the entire cruise but also make sure that those doing one leg or more are also taken care of. The Arcadia 2010 World Cruise is 94 nights and we have divided this up in to five entertainment legs, the Aurora 2010 Grand Voyage is 104 nights and we have divided this up in to six entertainment legs.

The passengers doing the entire voyage will get fourteen Headliners Theatre Company production shows. None of these will be performed more than twice, on each leg we intend to perform at least five shows, so the passengers on one or more legs still get to see a number of great shows. On each leg there will be up to nine different cabaret acts, a classical recitalist, bridge, art, craft, dance and language lecturers, two guest speakers and a celebrity speaker! We will also have our usual number of ship’s bands, cocktail pianist, and the entertainment officers onboard. For those ships that are ‘Family Friendly’ we will also have the usual Youth Director and team. If we have any late night or overnight calls in ports we also will endeavour to book a local Folkloric Show to perform on board our ships.

I have had a great deal of input with the planning of our world cruises for many years, and in fact next year I get to go on two! I am on the first leg of the Arcadia 2010 world cruise up to San Francisco and then join Aurora in Hong Kong for the last four legs.

As you can appreciate logistically it’s a complex operation as we have guest entertainers, (cabarets, speakers and lecturers), joining and leaving us all around the world!

For a Cruise Director the world cruises are the ultimate challenge.

Below you can see our After Dinner Speaker this cruise - ex England Football Captain Alan Mullery MBE - and I. Alan played for England 35 times and has successful careers with both Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham. After he retired as a player he became a successful football manager, managing six teams in all. His honours include, FA Cup winner – 1967, League Cup Winner – 1971 and UEFA Cup Winner 1972. Alan is a real gentleman and it’s always a real pleasure to have him sail on our ships. The photograph was taken on board Oriana in Southampton 16th November.


Bye for today.

Nigel