Cruise Lines

With Azura out of the way, excitement is mounting at P&O Towers about the imminent arrival of new ship Adonia.

When I say imminent, it's actually a year from now before the ship enters service and new is not quite accurate either as the ship has been doing the round for a while now.

It launched in 2001 as R8 for the now defunct Renaissance Cruises, became Minerva II for Swan Hellenic, then when Swan was sold it was moved across to Princess Cruises and renamed Royal Princess.

It joins P&O Cruises as Adonia, an adult-only ship, in May 2011 and will be based in Southampton until October, sailing to the Med and Northern Europe. In October, it moves to the Med so P&O can try its luck with six flycruises.

I have cruised on the vessel twice - once when it was Minerva II and then last September in the Black Sea when it was Royal Princess, and it is a lovely little ship. There's room for just 710 passengers so it has a more cosy feel than the likes of Azura and Ventura, which I am sure will go down a storm with P&O people.

The only drawback for me is the fixed dining system that Princess operates and which no doubt P&O will continue. However, there are also two small restaurants where Princess has its steakhouse and Sabatini's, the multi-course Italian trattoria, on alternate nights.

It'll be interesting to see what P&O does with these spaces given its love affair with celebrity chefs. How about a Sindhu spin off (that's the Indian restaurant on Azura) alternating with an Adonian Rhodes? Yum!