P&O Cruises has announced ‘P&O Cruises Presents: Sail with the stars’, which will showcase celebrated UK stars from the world of sport and exploration on board Ventura in 2023 and will be included in the price of the holiday.
Sports enthusiasts will have the opportunity to enjoy memorable stories, games and entertainment on the Sporting Icons cruise with broadcaster trio Sue Barker, Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell on a seven-night cruise to Spain and Portugal. Guests who enjoy tales of the wilderness and the great outdoors can join the five-night Global Explorers cruise with adventurer and TV presenter Ben Fogle, travel journalist Simon Calder and Monty Halls, best known for his BBC Great Escape series.
Both cruises will depart from and return to Southampton with prices starting from £549pp for an inside cabin.
P&O Cruises Presents: Sporting Icons
Sporting legends Sue Barker, Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell, as well as former British snowboarding sensation and TV presenter Aimee Fuller will join guests on board this 7-night cruise on Ventura from £629pp for an inside cabin. Departing September 2, 2023, the price includes full board meals, entertainment and children’s clubs. Departing and returning to Southampton, ports of call are Vigo, Lisbon, Porto (from Leixoes) and Cherbourg.
P&O Cruises Presents: Global Explorers
Ben Fogle, Simon Calder and Monty Halls will join guests on board this 5-night cruise on Ventura from £549pp for an inside cabin. Departing September 19, 2023, the price includes full board meals, entertainment and children’s clubs. Departing and returning to Southampton, ports of call are Le Havre and Rotterdam (with tours to Amsterdam),
Sporting Icons
- Sue Barker – Sue Barker is a legend of British tennis. As a player she won Junior Wimbledon at the age of 17, before going on to win the French Open at the age of just 19 in 1976, making the semifinals of Wimbledon the following year. But it was fronting the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon from 1993 until her retirement in 2022 that made Sue a sporting TV icon. Her glittering second career saw her cover countless flagship broadcasts, including the Olympics, BBC Sports Personality of the Year and
- Phil Tufnell – Phil Tufnell is a former England international cricketer turned TV and radio personality. Having won I’m a .. Get Me Out of Here, Phil remains a favourite in the BBC Test Match Special commentary box.
- Matt Dawson – Matt’s early career was spent as a successful professional rugby player, making a total of 290 appearances for the Northampton Saints and London Wasps between 1991 and 2006. He also appeared 77 times for England and was selected three times to tour with the British and Irish Lions. Since retiring from rugby, Matt forged a successful career in television and media which continues to play an important role in his life, with commitments including BBC Radio 5 Live and BT Sport.
Global Explorers
- Ben Fogle – Ben Fogle is an award-winning broadcaster and adventurer. He has written nine Sunday Times Bestselling books and is the United Nations Patron of the Wilderness. Ben has climbed Mount Everest, rowed across the Atlantic, raced across Antarctica to the South Pole and crossed the deserts of the Empty Quarter in the Middle East. Ben’s career spans more than 20 years, having firstly found himself on BBC’s first reality TV show Castaway. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, ambassador to Hearing Dogs for the Deaf and patron of The Red Cross and United Nations.
- Simon Calder – Simon Calder is Britain’s leading travel commentator and is known as ‘the man who pays his way’, meaning he pays for his own travel. Simon is travel correspondent for The Independent, and writes for the Evening Standard, the i newspaper, National Geographic as well many other publications. Simon is a regular guest on national TV and radio, often seen on BBC Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, This Morning, CNN, ITV News, Channel 5 and Sky News, as well as BBC Radio 2, 4, 5, LBC, Times and Talk.
- Monty Halls – Monty Halls is a broadcaster, speaker, naturalist, marine biologist, travel writer and leadership specialist. He is an ex-Royal Marines officer who worked for Nelson Mandela during the peace process in the early nineties, before leaving to pursue a career in expeditions, travel journalism and biology, eventually becoming a qualified marine biologist. He is also the president of the Galapagos Conservation Trust. Monty rose to fame after winning the Channel 4 show Superhumans, leading him to present further series for Channel 4, National Geographic, the History Channel, Channel 5, and the BBC. He is best known for his three BBC2 series Great Escapes, where he lived on the west coast of Scotland and Ireland with his dog Reuben.
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