P&O continues to refresh its Australian fleet with a rollout of new amenities, play zones, dining options and the ever-popular, waterslides at sea.
Cruising back into Brisbane from a two week dry-dock in Singapore, Pacific Dawn is sporting a variety of new updates and additions throughout the popular ship.
Updates include a new waterpark, refreshed kids club, addition of the The Pantry, upgrades to some of the ship’s key public spaces and P&O’s first virtual reality activity at sea from Sony Interactive Entertainment Australia.
New waterslides and fun zone
Featuring the longest and wildest waterslide at sea, the two new slides measure in at around 80-metres long. Slide one is partially transparent for spectators to watch punters shooting through the various twists and turns, while the second slide has music pumped through the tubes for a high-impact race to the bottom.
The two waterslides took almost 40 days to build offsite and onboard the ship, with final installation and testing occurring as Pacific Dawn returned to Australia.
A new waterpark for younger cruislings will have them entertained for days as they make their way through various water obstacles.
Kids club
The new and refreshed teenage clubs, HQ and HQ+, has taken entertainment to a whole new level with the cruise line’s new virtual reality experience, featuring a range of popular Sony PS4 titles including Tearaway Unfolded, Gravity Rush 2 and Ratchet & Clank, as part of the exclusive partnership with Sony.
New colour scheme
As part of the refurbishment, the 2000-guest Pacific Dawn has also become the first in the fleet to wear the cruise line’s striking new livery featuring the Southern Cross, a national symbol in both Australia and New Zealand.
Bye bye buffet
Replacing the traditional cruise buffet, The Pantry has been added to Pacific Dawn. The international market-place has nine fresh food outlets, including two new kids-on-the-(chopping) block; the Mediterranean-inspired Nic and Toni’s plus seafood restaurant, Shell & Bones.
Charlie’s Café has a new and contemporary look, mirroring some of the design features found on Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden.
Public space makeover
Some of the liners key public spaces have also adopted the new and contemporary design features including the atrium, The Orient and the Promenade Bar. The new look has fast become a trademark of the P&O fleet and part of the cruise lines multi-million-dollar, fleet-wide refurbishment.
It takes a village
Making over a ship in a short amount of time is logistically a nightmare – but the experienced team of contractors at Singapore’s shipyard have it down to a fine tune. Over 700 contractors, spending more than 100,000 hours of work, transformed Pacific Dawn during its dry-dock.
Part of the refresh included the installation of more than 18,000 square metres of carpet –enough carpet to cover all four exhibition halls at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Rounding out the additions to the 70,000-tonne ship include more than 3,000 pieces of new and reupholstered furniture, more than 1,500 pieces of art and accessories and more than 500 new pieces of signage.
RELATED STORIES…
Pacific Explorer debuts in June
Multi-generational cruising
Your guide to cruising – what you need to know
P&O President Sture Myrmell said the refurbished Pacific Dawn was the next step in the evolution of P&O’s modern Australian holiday offering, designed to deliver good times in a stylish yet relaxed setting.
“Pacific Dawn not only features the new look and feel which has been so popular on our latest ships, Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden, she also provides a taste of what’s to come on our next ship Pacific Explorer, which debuts in June. We think she’ll be a real winner and we can’t wait to welcome guests onboard,” Mr Myrmell said.
The refit comes at the start of P&O’s biggest year of Queensland cruising, with two ships sailing from Brisbane year-round – Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria. Between the two ships, they will offer a record 108 cruises to holidaymakers in 2017, up from 98 cruises in 2016.
According to the latest statistics, Queensland is the second biggest source market for Australian cruisers with more than 280,000 Queenslanders cruising in 2015, up almost 30 per cent on the previous year.
During the 2015-16 financial year, cruising contributed an estimated $976 million to the State’s economy.
Are you ready to book your cruise holiday onboard Pacific Dawn? Speak to one of our experienced cruise consultants today.