P&O Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market unit in Carnival Corp & plc group, saw an 81% increase in bookings for Britannia on opening day compared to the launch of its last ship Azura that was introduced in 2010, Travel Weekly reports.

Chris Truscott, sales and distribution support director, said there had been massive demand despite issues with the company’s IT system which caused problems for agents and customers attempting to make bookings. "We were having problems with our systems the night before, and then they went down on the morning as we opened to bookings. It was a combination of problems with the system and bad timing, being the first day of bookings," he was quoted as saying.

Truscott said bookings showed a 24% increase on the best ever ship launch for Ventura, introduced in 2008, and that the "vast, vast majority of bookings made been made by agents."

He said the systems went down and then eventually P&O was able to take bookings through its contact centre which is normally open to just consumers but was available to agents during the system failure. He said agents made bookings through his method and then by 10.30 both systems were back up and running.

The 143,000 gross ton Britannia will be the largest ship in the P&O Cruises’ fleet and it will take the number of ships the company has to eight.