P&O Cruises is celebrating raising over £600,000 for charity partner Macmillan Cancer Support. The business has worked in partnership with Macmillan for the last two years, and the money raised by employees and customers will fund local Macmillan projects to help ensure that no one has to face cancer alone.

In addition to P&O Cruises popular Strictly Come Dancing themed cruises, passengers can now slip on their dancing shoes as P&O Cruises ups the tempo with its first “official” Strictly Come Dancing contests on all ships.

When the doors of the country’s newest cookery school, The Cookery Club, open next March on Britannia, Britain’s largest cruise ship, it will offer the most comprehensive schedule of classes for all ages and abilities as it travels the world.

Carnival Corporation has announced plans to significantly expand its market leadership in Australia, one of the fastest growing markets in the cruise industry. With Australian cruise passenger numbers having increased 130 per cent in the past five years and projections of 800,000 cruise passengers in 2013 growing to one million by 2016, P&O Cruises (Australia) will add two ships to its fleet in 2015.

P&O Cruises will operate its largest ever programme next year featuring eight ships, 211 cruises, 81 different ports in 61 countries, covering 662,000 nautical miles and sailing 25 seas.

A ceremony has been held at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard near Trieste to mark the float out of P&O Cruises’ newest ship, Britannia. The first ceremony involved the welding of significant coins on the open deck of Britannia for good luck.