A record number of P&O Cruises itineraries will be on offer to travellers in Brisbane when a freshly renovated Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria call the Queensland capital their permanent year-round home from early next year.

For the first time, two of P&O Cruises five ships (to become six soon afterward) will sail exclusively from Brisbane, offering a total of 108 individual sailings – ten more than in 2016 – and a huge increase from the handful available when P&O became the first cruise brand to base a ship in Brisbane back in 2004. The huge jump in available cabins is indicative of the booming market, with Queensland growing faster than any other part of Australia.

Pacific Dawn is set to sail to Singapore in early February next year to enter dry dock for its routine maintenance. During the same time, it will be completely overhauled with a range of new passenger features including the expanded Pantry food marketplace, redesigned pubs and lounges and most impressively, the installation of two new waterslides along with a dedicated “kids only” play area.

The waterslides will be located at the rear of the ship and will be a different design to those which will feature on P&O Cruises’ newest ship Pacific Explorer from June next year when it enters the fleet. The arch which currently sits on the top-deck pool area over the centre stage will be removed entirely and replaced with an additional shaded lounge area.

On the decks below, popular bars and lounges such as Charlie’s, The Promenade Bar and The Orient and will be redesigned into a similar style which can currently be found on fleet-mates Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden. In the case of the latter, The Orient will take on a look along the lines of what you’d find in a classic NSW coastal pub in summer time.

Take a look at how Pacific Dawn will look when it returns from Singapore in March next year. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.