P&O Cruises, the Bfritish contemporary market unit of Carnival Corporation & plc group, has marked a milestone as it cut the first piece of steel for the first of two 180,000 gross ton LNG powered newbuildings being built at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg.

“P&O Cruises will announce the name of the new ship on Thursday May 24 at 4pm on the company's Facebook page. This highly anticipated announcement comes as a result of a competition that P&O Cruises ran last year when it invited members of the public to suggest a suitable name for the ship. Over 30,000 submissions were received with a panel of experts making the final decision,” the company said in a statement.

The steel cutting ceremony was attended by P&O Cruises senior vice president, Paul Ludlow; Carnival UK president Josh Weinstein and managing director of Meyer Werft, Tim Meyer.