The first new cruise line since 2010 has been unveiled and will begin sailing in Spring 2022. Ambassador Cruise Line, which will homeport in London Tilbury, will offer no-fly itineraries aimed primarily at the over 50’s market.
It’s first ship, Ambience, will have 798 cabins and a capacity for 1,400 guests. It will begin sailin on 6 April 2022 with an a short-break cruise to Hamburg and follow it with sailings around the British Isles and the Norwegian fjords. It plans 33 sailings in its first year of operations, visiting a total of 88 different ports including the Baltics and St Petersburg, Greenland, theArctic and Iceland. In the winter months it will offer a range of expedition-style cruises to the Canaries, Cuba, the Caribbean, Cape Verde and Scandinavia.
The ship was built in 1991 and originally sailed as Regal Princess, before transferring to P&O Australia.
Sales will open in June 2021.
Ambassador’s chair is Gordon Wilson, former president and CEO of Travelport. Its management team has several members who were at Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), while the CEO is Christian Verhounig. Christopher Coates is thew new CCO, Gary Hides is CIO and Simon Weeks is CFO.
“We are hugely excited to launch the first British cruise line in over a decade. It is just what the industry needs right now to reboot the British cruise market and inject confidence into the sector,” Wilson said.
“We’re a new company offering a distinctive product but maintaining traditional cruising values which we know are important to our guests.”
He also added that Ambassador plans to employ 100 people in the UK and that he was looking forward to “working collaboratively with agents, partners and the shipping community.”
