Princess Cruises has announced it welcomed a record 700 agents onboard its ships in 2018 and confirmed plans to expand the programme next year.

It is the sixth year in a row that the line has increased its annual agent ship visit allocation. In total, 32 onboard events were held across eight UK ports.

Visits took place in Southampton, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Milford Haven.

Next year, Princess will add Newcastle, Falmouth, Holyhead and Portland to the list of ports.

Five ships featured in the programme: Sapphire Princess; Royal Princess; Regal Princess; Pacific Princess; and Sea Princess.

Rachel Poultney, Princess Cruises’ sales director UK & Europe, said: “On behalf of the Princess Cruises UK team, I’d like to say thanks to all the agents who joined us onboard this year.

“Their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and it’s been a pleasure to introduce so many members of the trade to Princess for the first time.

“We’ll continue our localised approach next year and expand our programme even further, meaning hundreds of agents from all over of the UK will similarly be able to join us onboard.”

Approximately 80% of agents who took part in the programme had not been on a Princess ship previously.

Four themed family days were included as part of the 2018 programme, where agents and their children were able to experience the onboard facilities aimed at younger cruisers. This included revamped youth centres, which have been redesigned in partnership with the Discovery Channel.

Details of the 2019 ship visit programme will be announced later this year.