Azamara Club Cruises expands by buying Carnival’s Fathom-operated Adonia

Carnival Corporation has sold P&O Cruises’ ship Adonia to Azamara Club Cruises, the luxury boutique cruise line owned by Royal Caribbean International.

Although Adonia belongs to P&O Cruises, the UK line owned by Carnival, it has operated recently under the colours of Fathom Cruises, another brand owned by Carnival, which offers personal enrichment and community engagement style voyages in developing parts of the world.

Azamara Club Cruises says delivery of Adonia, a sister ship to Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest, will take place in March 2018.

The ship will be renamed Azamara Pursuit and will go into dry dock for a bow-to-stern renovation aimed at bringing her cabins and public rooms up-to-date and in-line with Azamara’s existing fleet.

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“We are pleased to expand our portfolio by 50%, allowing us to visit even more regions of the world through the acquisition of this sister ship,” said Larry Pimentel, President and CEO of Azamara Club Cruises.

“Our loyal guests and travel partners have asked for this expansion for a long time; we are very pleased to deliver this to them,” he added.

The cruise line says the ship’s refurbishment will be similar to the renovations recently introduced on the Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest, bringing guests the experience of a boutique hotel at sea.

Adonia’s last cruise as a P&O Cruises ship will be D804 leaving Barbados on February 23 and ending in Barbados on March 9, 2018, where she will be handed over to Azamara.

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“During her time with us Adonia has captured the hearts of many thousands of P&O Cruises guests. She has ventured into new ports of call around the globe and has negotiated Icelandic Fjords, European rivers and Caribbean coves,” said P&O Cruises SVP Paul Ludlow.

“We will ensure that these discovery itineraries are continued on other ships in the fleet,” he added.

P&O’s discovery itineraries will likely be taken up by one of its other smaller cruise liners, possibly the 1995-built and 2016-refurbished Oriana or the 2000-built Aurora, which was refitted in 2014.

Adonia at just 30,277 gross tons was the smallest cruise ship in the P&O fleet, and with the cruise line pursuing a fleet expansion program that includes ever-larger cruise ships, the writing was on the wall for the little ship.