travel42 Cruise Line Overview: P&O Cruises

travel42 Professional Cruise Line Review

The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. was established back in 1837, three years before Cunard, to carry the mails and passengers between England, the Iberian Peninsula and soon onto the British Empire east of Suez. The company fully merged with the Orient Line (not Orient Lines) in 1961 and in 1974 bought the fledgling Princess Cruises, becoming P&O-Princess Cruises. By this time, the company’s transportation role had withered away and it became a full-fledged cruise company separated from the ferry, container and logistics operations. Then in 2003, Carnival Corp. bought the line outright.