All P&O Cruises ships by age and size

P&O Cruises currently has 7 cruise ships in its fleet. This post includes a list of P&O Cruises ships by age and size. This is a handy guide to help you decide which P&O ship is best for you.

List of P&O Cruises ships by age

The table below lists all P&O Cruises ships by age from oldest to youngest. It’s also useful to note when these ships were last refurbished.

Cruise Ship	Year Launched	Last Refurbished
Aurora	2000	April 2019
Arcadia	2004	November 2017
Ventura	2007	March 2018
Azura	2009	April 2020
Britannia	2015	November 2019
Iona	2020
Arvia	2022

Which is the newest P&O Cruises ship?

Arvia is the newest P&O Cruises ship and entered service in December 2022. Arvia offers itineraries in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Read my review of P&O Arvia.

We took a 14-night Mediterranean cruise on Arvia in 2023 and were impressed with the amount of included dining options on board. This made a refreshing change with the addition of more casual restaurants.

Which is the oldest P&O Cruises ship?

MV Aurora is the oldest cruise ship in the P&O fleet and was last refurbished in April 2019. It is one of two adult-only cruise ships owned by P&O Cruises.

Recently, passengers have complained that this ship is now showing her age and the standards of food have dropped. Despite this, reviews indicate that the crew on board are helpful and friendly and the entertainment is a good standard.

List of P&O Cruises ships by size

The smallest ship in the P&O Cruises fleet is Aurora. Azura and Ventura are very similar in size and have the same passenger capacity. In comparison, the newest ship in the fleet, Iona, is the largest with a passenger capacity more than twice the size of Arcadia’s.

Cruise ship	No. of Passengers	Gross Tonnage	Length	No. of Decks
Aurora	1,874	76,152	270m	10
Arcadia	2,388	84,342	289.9m	11
Azura	3,597	115,055	290m	17
Ventura	3,597	116,017	288.6m	17
Britannia	3,647	143,730	330m	18
Iona	5,206	184,089	344.5m	19
Arvia	5,200	184,700	344.5m	19

Which is the largest P&O Cruises ship?

Arvia is the largest P&O Cruises ship, it’s also the biggest cruise ship made for the British cruise market. The ship has 19 decks and can accommodate 5,206 passengers.

It is the second British cruise ship to be powered by liquified natural gas (LNG) making it one of the greenest ships in the P&O fleet.

Arvia is an Excel class ship and has a variety of new features such as the first rum distillery at sea and a high ropes course.

This ship is definitely designed with families in mind and is attracting a lot of new people to cruising. It has a more casual approach to cruising than P&O previously had.

One of the biggest things we noticed was that the traditional formal nights have been reduced in favour of Celebration Nights. In our opinion, we preferred it as we didn’t enjoy wearing full formal attire on our Caribbean cruise on Britannia.

Which P&O Cruises ship is the best?

This is very subjective, depending on what you enjoy. If you don’t want to cruise on a large ship, we would recommend booking on Arcadia, Azura or Ventura but be aware that these are the oldest in the fleet. One benefit of these ships is that the public areas and balconies are bigger than the newer ships.

If you prefer cruising exclusively with adults, Arcadia is the ship for you because the rest of the fleet is family-friendly.

Britannia is a Royal-class ship and sister to Royal and Regal Princess and remains the flagship. We really like this size of cruise ship but it does lack a variety of included dining options compared to Iona and Arvia.

To learn more about Britannia, you should take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Britannia.

The newest ships, Arvia and Iona, are much larger, with a lot of venues and restaurants to choose from. You can take a look at how Iona and Arvia compare to see which you should book.