Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2021

available to enjoy longer cruises. They’re also looking for smaller ships offering a more intimate and traditional cruise experience, as well as a hassle-free holiday option that doesn’t involve flying.” Ambassador will deliver a distinctive experience that offers the best of British cruising by combining traditional experiences – such as gala nights – with innovative enrichment activities. The friendly atmosphere will make it particularly suited to solo travellers, says Verhounig. “There’s a growing number of people in the 50-plus market that choose to travel alone but struggle to find cruises because many operators either do not offer solo accommodation, or they make it prohibitively expensive,” he says. “We’ve created 89 single-occupancy cabins in five different categories and will offer them at a highly competitive supplement that is cheaper than the industry standard. Not only will this make our cruises more affordable for solo travellers, but it will also benefit everyone onboard the ship because it will reduce overall capacity and improve the guest-to-space and guest-to-crew ratios.” Initially, Ambassador will operate one ship named Ambience, which formerly sailed as P&O Cruises’ Pacific Dawn. Onboard highlights will include nine lounges, five restaurants (including speciality dining options), two cafes, a spa, two swimming pools, and fitness and leisure facilities. The ship will accommodate around 1,400 guests in 798 cabins, 23 per cent of which will have balconies. “We’ll carry out various cosmetic upgrades to ensure Ambience offers a premium onboard experience and feels like an Ambassador ship,” says Verhounig. “We’ll make small changes to some of the public areas and renovate the guest accommodation, but the majority of the refurbishment work will focus on improving the sustainability of the ship to reduce our environmental footprint.” Before starting service, Ambience will be equipped with advanced ballast and sewage water treatment systems to enable it to sail in environmentally protected waters worldwide. The ship will also be equipped with emission reduction technologies to ensure compliance with the International Maritime Organization’s Tier III regulation, which enters force on 1 January 2025 to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. “We’re investing in various green technologies to enable us to reach the extremely high environmental and sustainability targets we have set ourselves,” says Verhounig. “We will not have single-use plastics onboard the ship and we’ve invested in IT technologies to digitise our menus, shore plans and activity schedules to reduce paper waste.” Ambience will debut with a short inaugural cruise to Hamburg, Germany “ The response we received from the industry and consumers has far exceeded our greatest expectations” 4 9 Ambassador aims to provide a relaxing and premium-value cruise experience for the over-50s market in the UK