Your questions answered

What medical facilities are available?

In the unlikely event that you or your child requires emergency medical assistance, all of our ships have well-equipped Medical Centres on board, supported by qualified doctors. All of our Medical Centres hold the distinction of being the first and only facilities in the industry to be accredited by the prestigious United Kingdom Health Quality Services and certified to ISO9001:2000.

How old must children be to travel?

Please note that passengers under the age of 18 must travel with a parent or companion over the age of 21 and that we are unable to carry babies under the age of six months (one year for Aurora cruises R005, R010, R012 & R016, Azura cruises A018/A and A106/A, Oceana cruises E023 & E106, Oriana cruises X003, X101 & X102 and Ventura cruises N027/A, N105/A & N033/A).

What about vaccinations?

Passengers must be in possession of a valid certificate of vaccination against Yellow Fever for cruises P904, P905, P001 and P005. At the time of writing no other vaccinations are compulsory for any holiday in this brochure but the Department of Health does however recommend vaccinations for certain countries visited on our cruises. Since these recommendations do change you should check in good time before departure with your GP, or ask your travel agent for a copy of the Department of Health’s leaflet ‘Advice on health for travellers’. Alternatively you can find the location of your nearest MASTA travel medicine clinic at www.masta.org

What about Malaria?

There is a risk of Malarial transmission in the Dominican Repubic, Honduras and Guatemala. We therefore recommend that you seek advice from a Travel Medicine Clinic and, if advised, obtain prophylactic medication before joining: Azura cruises A019/A - A021/A & A101/A - A105/A, Oceana cruises E025, E027, E102 & E104, Oriana X001 & X101 and Ventura cruise N033/A.

What about alcohol on board?

We have recently updated our policy on the responsible serving of alcohol and we reserve the right to confiscate alcohol at the gangway should the need arise. It is not our intention to invoke this policy as a matter of course and we will implement it only on occasions where we consider it is likely that the health, comfort, safety and enjoyment of passengers may otherwise be compromised.

Passengers under the age of 18 will not be served alcoholic beverages on board and must not be in possession of alcohol. Passengers may be asked to verify their age. Cruise cards for under 18 year olds will be marked accordingly. It is prohibited to attempt to purchase alcohol for those under 18 in the bars and shops on board. 16 and 17 year olds may be bought beer, cider or wine to drink with a meal in the restaurants when accompanied by an adult. Alcohol purchased ashore by those under 18 will be confiscated at the gangway.

What should I know about health and safety?

For your own safety and well-being, you must be fit and healthy to travel with us and to undertake all associated flights and tours.

Naturally there is a well equipped Medical Centre on every P&O Cruises ship, but our medical facilities aren’t designed for extensive or continuing treatment of pre-existing conditions. So if you have a medical condition that necessitates the use of oxygen, will be taking an oxygen concentrator or cylinders with you, will be bringing electrical medical equipment or medical sharps, or if you require peritoneal kidney dialysis, you must let us know when you make your booking.

For the safety and comfort of all passengers we are unable to carry any passengers suffering from a contagious disease (for example measles, chickenpox etc.). Also passengers who normally require assistance in the activities of daily living are advised that they must be accompanied by a fit and able-bodied travelling companion. Pregnant women are only allowed to sail if pregnant for 24 weeks or less at time of the cruise disembarkation. All pregnant women are required to produce a doctors or midwifes letter stating that mother and baby are in good health, fit to travel and the pregnancy is not high-risk. The letter must also include the estimated date of delivery (EDD) calculated from both Last Menstrual Period (LMP) and ultrasound (if performed).

If your health condition as declared at the time of booking changes, you must inform P&O Cruises immediately. Please note that if, in our opinion, you have failed to inform us of any condition which we consider may be harmful either to yourself or any other passenger during the course of your holiday we shall refuse boarding. In addition, failure to disclose any of the specified medical conditions may result in your insurance being invalidated.

Pregnancy

We have reviewed our pregnancy policy in light of current medical research on gestation risks and infant mortality outside of specialised neonatal intensive care units.

As a result pregnant women are only allowed to sail if pregnant for 24 weeks or less at the date of cruise disembarkation. All pregnant women are required to produce a doctor or midwifes letter stating that mother and baby are in good health, fit to travel and that the pregnancy is not high risk. The letter must also include the estimated date of delivery (EDD) calculated from both Last Menstrual Period (LMP) and ultrasound (if performed).

What is the smoking policy onboard?

For the safety, comfort and enjoyment of all of our passengers, and in view of the UK legislation banning smoking in public spaces, we have reviewed and amended our policy on smoking on board our ships as of 2010.

We have been monitoring the reaction of our passengers to smoking in our ships and introduced a non-smoking policy on board Artemis, Oceana and Ventura last year which has proved to be very successful. Since this policy was introduced and as a direct result of feedback from our passengers, it has become increasingly apparent that the acceptance of smoking inside our ships has now declined to such an extent that we have decided to implement a complete non-smoking policy in inside public spaces on board all P&O Cruises ships.

Smoking will no longer be permitted inside any areas of the ship including passenger staterooms. Smoking will still, however, be allowed on stateroom balconies and on certain areas of the open deck.

The new policy for Arcadia, Aurora, Azura and Oriana will take effect from the following cruise numbers:

Arcadia - J003 9 May 2010
Aurora - R002X 19 April 2010
Azura - A002 12 April 2010
Oriana - X004 11 April 2010