[ 12-17-2014: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

more here.

Pam

[ 12-17-2014: Message edited by: PamM ]

What next are they planning, could it be to replace the P & O house flag with a Carnival flag !

This ship now looks ghastly but I doubt if it will put off the loyal P & O passengers who love these British designed cruise ships and will not travel on an amusement park with a hotel stuck on a pontoon ! !

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[ 12-18-2014: Message edited by: Neil - Ex P. & O. S. N. Company. ]

Carnival Corp long ago made a strategic decision not to dismantle the individual brands believing their is significant value in the individual brands. At the same time they have done a lot to alter what the brands market and the target audience. There's no way the old P&O could have supported the buildup of the past few years but in the process that have moved the product totally away for its roots and heritage. Their proud of the heritage for publicity purposes but the product is thoroughly modernized.

First, it's tacky rather than classy—and P&O's brand has always stood for British classiness. Even the interior of the ships have and understated English classiness, but that's totally contradicted by this garish livery.

Second, it's just ugly. The blue funnel with gold logo doesn't work together. It's not easily identifiable (even if it were larger), and it makes the ship look dirty and dark rather than clean and bright.

Third, it may overtly play up the "British-ness" of P&O by literally wrapping the ship in the Union Jack, but it loses sight of the wonderful history and heritage of P&O. Would Cunard ever abandon the red/black stripped funnel? Would Carnival ever abandon the winged funnel? P&O's buff funnel has more history than either of those.

quote:

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Originally posted by Fairsky:
Would Cunard ever abandon the red/black stripped funnel?

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They did for many years. Remember the QE2's introduction and the Cunard Adventurer and Cunard Ambassador?

They only went back to the traditional funnel when the Cunard Countess was launched in 1976 and even then it took a while to get the QE2's funnel painted.

Lets hope they have rough weather on her next trip then the lot might get washed off !

crop

It was murky in Southampton this afternoon and it really was quite difficult to see the funnel logo and her name impossible, across the water, if you didn't know where to look.

I quite like Saga's funnel It again though is hard to distinguish at a distance. She was in Damen at Rotterdam this week. From one angle you could see her funnel in the distance over another vessel. On CT we know it is her, you can just make out the swirls and gradient, but not sure others would be able to tell it was a Saga ship?

Since leaving P & O with a friend, who has higher City & Guilds qualifications and been in the trade over 40 years, I own two commercial decorating companies and there is no way we would paint metal work in the winter months unless it was inside and the area well heated.

It looks as if this job was rushed and done on the cheap and this is now the result.

Just heard on my face book site this morning ( Neil's Cruisingchat ) from our retired Commodore Chief Enginer, who is an old friend of mine, the same thing has happened to the ' Pacific Dawn ' , which is operated by P & O Australia and recently had a change in appearence at the shipyard in Sydney !

I can not count how many times I have seen ships fresh from the shipyard after a MV or delivery run where the painters are quickly sent over the side to touch up the paint. It is no big deal. It happened on the super liners (look at pictures of the Queen Mary or the Normandie or the United States after the MV or any host of cruise ships.

SAGA SAPPHIRE's funnel is a 'plastic' wrap and seems to keep in good shape. Probably costs a lot? but saves a lot of work and no rust.

It happens on car bodies so why not on a cruise ship !

Perhaps we will get rid of the hideous appearing cruise ships sooner than expect . lol

Well, actually not. P&O's colours were black hulls and funnels and brown superstructures until the 1930s. Cunard's colours originated a century earlier.

This new P&O funnel colours are a reversion to the dull colours of yore. Very retrograde in my opinion.

But what can you expect when all the new P&O Cruises executives come from Premier Inn, Coral, Direct Line, Pernod and British Airways (hence the new bow colours).

[ 12-21-2014: Message edited by: Kevin Griffin, London ]

Most customers couldn't care less about P&O's origins but Carnival need to position it front and centre in the British market against competitors from RCI. NCL and other Carnival brands.

I am happy to see cruise lines update their logos, liveries, and look—as long as it is an improvement. For example, I rather like the light blue hull on the new RCI ships, and NCL's hull art is a fit for the brand's image and (in most cases) an eye-catching feature.