The New Cruise Ship Memorabilia

Posted by Sue Bryant Jun 17, 2007

According to a report in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, popular line P&O Cruises is planning to start selling items for its ships through its website.

So many people are asking to buy crockery, cutlery, sheets and even mattresses that the cruise line will start online sales of these and other items from next spring.

Even more interest is expected next April when the new ship, Ventura, is launched, as the British designer Nick Munro is creating a string of bespoke items for the ship. The website will offer crockery, cutlery, glassware, waste bins, soap dispensers and bud vases from the new flagship as well as mattresses, Egyptian cotton sheets and Molton Brown toiletries.

Cruise ship memorabilia has long since been a popular collector’s item and some of it is worth a lot of money. Offering items for sale is one way of encouraging passengers to buy, rather than steal the items; luxury hotel group Westin, for example, started selling its ‘Heavenly Beds’ after increased interest in them from guests, and has now expanded into an entire home range including goodies for dogs and bathroom luxuries.

But there will always be a culture of collecting ‘souvenirs’. My top five, if my suitcase were big enough and if I were dishonestly inclined (which I’m not, incidentally), would be:

• The furry white chairs from the Martini bar on Celebrity’s Century – retro, stylish and fun
• The mattresses from Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas – so comfortable you want to stay in bed all day
• The entire range of crockery from Crystal Symphony, with its beautiful, contemporary designs and colours, not forgetting the colourful coffee cups from the Bistro
• The door handles from Costa Serena, modelled like miniature yellow Costa funnels…
• …And pretty well anything with a Queen Mary 2 logo on it. No excuses for stealing here as the shop in board is packed with logo-ed material. I had to content myself with a $20 black-and-gold china bowl for my dog.