Given the pandemic uncertainty, and the particularly acute impact on the cruise sector, cruise specialists were desperate for positive start to the 2023 wave season. Thankfully, it hasn't disappointed.

But with a holiday on the water still a relatively uncommon choice for Brits compared with land-based getaways – only around two million UK holidaymakers chose an ocean cruise in 2019, equivalent to just three in every 100 customers – there’s still a vast untapped market.

It’s a task not lost on cruise chiefs, who have told TTG the industry can’t afford to rest on its laurels, especially amid the UK’s ongoing economic squeeze.

“Getting someone to take their first cruise has always been the big challenge,” admits P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow, albeit a task he is already embracing, with ambitious plans – he tells TTG – to bring “close to a million” guests onboard the line’s fleet this year.

Princess Cruises UK and Europe sales boss Nick Hughes concludes, succinctly: "Look at the value cruise offers – it’s got to be attractive to more than 3% of the population.”

January has been a welcome tonic – the sector must now ride this wave of positivity for the rest of the year.

Elsewhere, Ponders Travel managing director Clare Dudley said warnings that clients may rein in spending due to the cost of living crisis had not come to fruition.

“We have been inundated from the get-go,” she said. “From day one, people were enquiring and booking.”

Dudley added: “In the first week [of January] alone, we achieved 10% of our yearly sales target. And at the end of the second, we hit 20%, so we are all feeling very positive.”

Meanwhile, Travel Village Group chief executive Phil Nuttall revealed the lates market was holding firm. “I have no complaints,” he said. “It has been really, really good to be honest. It is a real mix out there at the moment.

“The Caribbean, the fjords, the Mediterranean, northern Europe and the Canaries are all proving very popular.”