On July 28th 1988, P&O - Princess Cruises bought the Sitmar Cruise Line for $210 million. Sitmar had a new cruise ship nearing completion at that time with the intended name being Fair Majesty. After the completion of the ship, she joined the Princess fleet under the name Star Princess. Princess Cruises based Star Princess at Fort Lauderdale to be operated on cruises to the Caribbean in winter and Alaska in summer. Star Princess was transferred to P&O in 1997 to replace their aging cruise liner Canberra. After undergoing a £14 million refit at Harland & Wolff/Belfast, she was renamed Arcadia before joining the P&O fleet based at Southampton/England.

Arcadia has 11 passenger decks, 2 pools, 8 bars, casino, gymnasium, 676-seat show lounge, 583 outside cabins, 165 inside cabins, can carry over 1,500 passengers and a crew of 650.

Under P&O as Arcadia, she was operated on cruises from Southampton - Mediterranean, Atlantic Islands, Norwegian Fjords, Caribbean, South America, and World Cruises.

Arcadia was moved to P&Os new cruise line Ocean Village in 2003 to be operated under the name Ocean Village. This cruise line based at Palma/Majorca and Barbados/Caribbean offers seven night cruises throughout the Mediterranean & Caribbean. Ocean Village is strongly marketed in the UK trying to attract younger British passengers by offering fly/cruises from Britain - Majorca & Barbados.

Ocean Village will stop operating late in 2010 with their ship Ocean Village (Arcadia) being transferred to P&O Australia to be operated under the name Pacific Pearl out of Sydney/ Australia and Auckland/ New Zealand.

Websites www.oceanvillageholidays.co.uk. P&O Australia: www.pocruises.com.au