When the Queen ascended to the throne in 1952 , the latest thing in ship design was the Orient Line 's Oronsay , a 1,500-passenger vessel built by Vickers-Armstrong at its yard in Barrow-in-Furness . The excellent P & O Heritage website offers fascinating glimpses of life on board - all tea dances and cucumber sandwiches . What a change there is today . The bow of Britannia carries a huge stylised Union Jack , which serves not merely as a clever national marketing device , but broadcasts a British heritage which has been brought bang up to date . You feel that the latest P & O vessel Britannia , which the Queen officially named last Monday in Southampton , could fit the Oronsay on to one deck . However , they are not just vessels from different eras - they come from wholly dissimilar philosophies . Oronsay was built primarily to get passengers from Tilbury to Sydney - fun was considered to be a fancy dress party or the odd beetle drive . Britannia has been purposefully built for enjoyment . It is an entertainment monster , bristling with fun on almost every deck . It is , to borrow a line from poetry , a stately pleasure dome . It 's customary to bemoan the compromised standards of the modern era , to yearn for the sturdier certainties of times past . Cruising , at least , is one area where newer almost always means better . P & O Cruises may be part of the American Carnival corporation these days but , happily , it remains British to the tips of its mastheads . The bow of Britannia carries a huge stylised Union Jack , which serves not merely as a clever national marketing device , but broadcasts a British heritage which has been brought bang up to date . The ambassadors for modern P & O Cruises are chefs such as Marco Pierre White , Atul Kochar and James Martin because it is in the area of food , strangely enough , in which the UK has begun to lead the world . Another area where we set the standard is in hotels : the international success of Nick Jones and his Soho House group has ushered in a new era of laid-back elegance . It is this very style that Britannia has captured so impressively . The modern era of British cruising , which P & O Cruises began with the Oriana more than 20 years ago , has now achieved an apotheosis with Britannia . For those poor holiday limpets who will not consider cruising because they refuse to acknowledge the emergence of what is arguably the purest form of holidaymaking , I have one piece of advice : be ruled by Britannia because Britannia really does rule the waves .
Britannia has been purposefully built for enjoyment . Chefs Marco Pierre White , Atul Kochar and Nick Jones are ambassadors . James Martin and his Soho House group responsible for laid-back elegance . The bow of Britannia carries a huge stylised Union Jack . For further information visit pocruises.com/britannia or call 0843 374 0111 .