P&O Cruises (AUS) has found an innovative way to throw off the so mewhat staid reputation that cruise lines often attract. They are featuring in episodes of the Neighbours soap opera that will be shown in Australia this week.

The cruise line has paid for the right to appear in the programme, but believes it will get plenty of publicity for its investment, when the episodes travel around the world, to the fifty- so mething countries in which Neighbours is screened.

In particular, P&O has high hopes of attracting younger people to cruise holidays – the core following for the soap opera in Australia is under forty years old, and that’s a key market for cruise lines. In addition, and in Australia in particular, the death of a female passenger on a P&O ship sailing around Australia in 2002 has damaged the reputation of the cruise company.

Toadie, who is a comic character in the show, is going to take his girlfriend aboard Pacific Jewel when his son is given a cruise as a prize in a contest. As Pacific Jewel is one of four ships that allow people to get married at sea, there’s a hint that perhaps Toadie is going to propose!