P&O Cruises launches redesign of award winning website

P&O Cruises has redesigned several areas of www.pocruises.co.uk, building on the hugely successful and award winning website which was voted ‘Best Cruise Website’ in the consumer category of the Travolution Awards yesterday.

The new version of the site offers an improved layout and additional homepage features, several new pages of content, and a new intelligent search function.

Highlights of the redesign include:

· A new homepage
· A new intelligent and responsive cruise search with a wider range of filter choices, understanding what options to display as search is filtered
· A choice of how results are displayed – either in a list or on a grid
· A dedicated offers area
· A ‘recently viewed’ feature that recognises which cruises have been viewed by each user and lists them for easy link back
· Dedicated new pages on cruises from Southampton, world cruises, and winter sun fly cruises – all presented clearly on the homepage and for the first time, with lead-in pricing
· Value message and reasons to choose P&O Cruises displayed on the home – what’s included in the price and key USPs of the brand
· All social media channels displayed on the homepage – blog, Facebook, Twitter and the P&O Cruises community

P&O Cruises head of brand marketing, Philip Price, said: “Our website is one of the key means of communication for both existing customers and newcomers. This means it has to cater exceptionally well for both audiences, we aim to make it easy to find and navigate and engaging so that once they’re there, they stay and look around. In addition we need to constantly update the content and make it interesting and varied for our existing customers, who frequently visit the site and know it well.

“The changes we’ve made are part of an ongoing programme to make it the best site it can possibly be. To date in 2011, visits have increased by almost 80% year on year and 55,000 people ‘like’ us on Facebook, so digital marketing is a huge success story for us.”

The Travolution Awards represent the highest recognition for online innovation and excellence in the UK travel industry. The Consumer Awards, sponsored by Teletext Holidays, are voted for by around a million Teletext customers and readers of Associated Newspapers’ titles.

From ships officer to Barbados rugby star

As England’s rugby team competes in the World Cup in New Zealand, P&O Cruises own rugby team, the Ventura Vikings, is getting set for its fourth season playing in the Caribbean.

The Vikings rugby team was established in 2008 by Ventura’s youth director, Mark Price (33), after he decided to do something about missing his rugby playing days at home.

The first season saw Mark taking a bag of old rugby shirts and boots sourced from his local rugby club, Tynedale in Northumberland, out to the Caribbean. His first major challenge was to convince 15 fellow crew members, almost exclusively football players, that rugby was the sport for them.

Mark explained the rules of the game to them as they travelled on the coach to their first match at the Barbados Rugby Club’s home ground, the prestigious Garrison Savannah.

Support for Ventura’s rugby team has increased over the following three seasons with players now consisting of crew and officers from all areas of the ship.

Success has been mixed with just five wins over the past three seasons, however the team members are not disheartened.

Mark, whose job involves overseeing the day to day running of all the children facilities on board said:

“We have made a lot of friends in Barbados and the game is bringing the crew together which is fantastic. Everyone who has been involved has really enjoyed the experience and while not every result went our way, we go from strength to strength with every match.

“Last season we only just lost against Barbados’ national team so we are really looking forward to getting back out to the Caribbean this winter and giving it another shot.”

Support for the team continues to grow, with banners displayed around the capital, Bridgetown, announcing the arrival of the “mighty Ventura Vikings all the way from the UK” every time the ship arrives in port.

The Vikings fourth season starts in November and runs until March 2012, while Ventura is in the Caribbean. Rugby matches are played on the ships turnaround days in Barbados.

P&O Cruises hits 50,000 "likes" on Facebook

The P&O Cruises Facebook page has hit the 50,000 ‘likes’ mark through an engaging social media strategy encompassing regular discussions, polls, competitions, photographs, advertising and e-marketing.

A recent competition celebrating the heritage of P&O Cruises took the page up and over the 50,000 target. It invited users to suggest captions for photographs from the line’s archive collection. The competition is running for eight weeks with a different photograph every week. The person with the overall most popular caption will win one of the sought after Grand Event cruises, a 17 night Central Mediterranean cruise departing on Ventura on July 3, 2012.

The Grand Event is part of the special celebrations marking the 175^th anniversary of when the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company was founded in 1837. The Grand Event will see all seven ships in the home-port of Southampton for the very first time. The ships will sail out in procession and all seven cruises will have a special heritage theme.

In addition to competitions, the P&O Cruises Facebook page provides users with the opportunity to share their questions about cruising and their experiences and photos of life on board with thousands of other like-minded people. Photo albums of the P&O Cruises ships and destinations visited are all on the page and regularly updated, along with videos and images of special events such as naming ceremonies.

P&O Cruises head of brand marketing, Philip Price, said: “Social media is an important part of our marketing strategy and we increasingly use it as a means of regular contact with our passengers. The immediacy of online marketing lends itself very well within our brand as it enables us to engage with customers and encourage them to share their experiences with others.

“We’ve also found Facebook very useful as a customer services tool – during the bad weather last winter we were able to use Facebook as another means of urgent and immediate communication with passengers regarding flight changes and travel plans.

“Positive feedback from users shows that this form of communication and interaction with them is well received and breaking through 50,000 ‘likes’ is a fantastic achievement.”

For more information visit www.facebook.com/pandocruises

Olly Smith’s custom blends bring the house down in the 2011 International Wine and Spirits Competition

The house wines blended exclusively for P&O Cruises by Olly Smith have been highly commended in the 2011 International Wine and Spirits Competition. The Porta Palo Red 2010 vintage won Silver (Best in Class) and Porta Palo Rose 2010 vintage won Bronze in the same competition.

The wines were blended specially for P&O Cruises by Olly Smith at the Settisoli vineyard in Sicily, Italy. The wines are stocked on all seven ships in the P&O Cruises fleet and are firm favourites with passengers.

Olly Smith, said: “I'm so pleased and proud that these Porta Palo wines have won awards. I passionately believe that you don't have to spend a fortune to enjoy good wine and my mission continues to be to share the best wines I can find with the entire P&O Cruises fleet. Cheers!"

Olly oversees The Glasshouse on board Azura. A new wine bar concept for P&O Cruises, The Glasshouse is a must for wine lovers. Featuring a state of the art Enomatic wine system, passengers can choose to try any of the 32 wines by the glass. A bottle can be opened, then preserved by using revolutionary inert gas so it does not react to the oxygen in the air allowing the flavours and characteristics of the wide range of selected vintages to remain intact, as if the bottle had just been opened and therefore able to be enjoyed by many.

Olly travels regularly throughout the year and in 2012 will travel on the following cruises:

· A208 – a 14 night Western Mediterranean cruise, April 15 – 29
· A211 – a 14 night Baltic cruise, May 19 – June 2
· A216 – a seven night Norwegian Fjords cruise, July 14 – 21
· A226 – a 13 night Canary Islands cruise, November 19 – December 2