P&O Cruises is one of Carnival UK’s flagship brands. My team and I built and maintained two onboard guest portals (My Cruise & My Portal) plus contributed to the pre‑booking brand site helping guests book dining, shore excursions, entertainment, cabins and more. For the past three years, I have been leading the UX for P&O Cruises’ digital ecosystem, ensuring seamless and engaging experiences for guests throughout their journey.
Cruise holidays are unique. Unlike a standard hotel booking, guests often book multiple cabins for families and groups, each with different needs. The existing process felt fragmented, leading to confusion and frequent calls to customer support. And so I had to solve for:
Multiple cabins, cabin types, and linked itineraries.
Guests wanted a clear view of costs and inclusions.
Special requests like connecting cabins or linking separate bookings.
To simplify the multi-cabin journey, I anchored the design around three principles:
A guided, step-by-step booking flow with clear progress indicators.
Options for mixing cabin types, requesting connecting cabins, or linking with separately booked groups.
Transparent cost breakdowns, summaries, and confirmations that reduced uncertainty.
Onboard a cruise ship, every day is full of choices dining, spa, shows, excursions. But guests were navigating this through paper leaflets, flyers, and long queues at the service desk. Information was fragmented, decisions were overwhelming, and connectivity at sea often made things worse. Guests deserved something simpler, calmer, and more reliable.
How do you turn a floating city with hundreds of daily activities and diverse guest needs into an effortless digital experience?
We needed to design a companion that worked for everyone:
Days change quickly, with port calls and sea days.
Wi-Fi can drop or slow down.
Families, couples, solo guests, and first-timers, each with unique expectations.
We built the app using the Carnival Global Design System, ensuring consistency across P&O Cruises and Cunard while adapting for unique guest needs.
Improvements, that made guests feel in control rather than overwhelmed.
Browse dining, spa, entertainment, and shore excursions.
A personal, time-aware view with reminders and alerts.
Stay connected with fellow travelers onboard.
Track spending, packages, and account details.
From simplifying pre-cruise bookings to enhancing onboard journeys, these projects delivered measurable business gains and more enjoyable experiences for guests.
Revenue gained (4 months)
Increase in bookings
Additional orders.
Higher confidence managing daily activities
Increased spa & dining bookings via app
Less reliance on service desks (support load reduced)
Together, these initiatives redefined the P&O Cruises guest journey both before the trip and onboard. By simplifying multi-cabin reservations and creating a calm digital companion at sea, the design work delivered measurable business results while making holidays smoother, simpler, and more enjoyable for thousands of guests.
“From booking to boarding, every journey became smoother.”
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