SOUTHAMPTON'S A&P ship repair company has landed a multi-million pound contract to refit three major cruise ships in the docks.

Port watchers will see P&O Cruises' Adonia sail into the King George V drydock on Friday April 15 before re-emerging as Sea Princess on Thursday, April 28, to start a new Southampton based career with Princess Cruises.

The Adonia, built in 1998, will be entirely re-branded complete with the distinctive Princess Cruises livery. Then in May, Ocean Village, formerly the city based P&O Cruises vessel Arcadia, and then P&O Cruises' Oceana will enter one of Europe's largest dry docking facilities for a refit.

Both Ocean Village and Oceana will see a number of upgrade projects for both passenger and crew facilities.

A&P Southampton, which has not disclosed the value of the huge deal, is part of the UK's largest ship repair company, A&P Group. A&P Southampton's managing director, David Parry said: "We are delighted to secure this three ship deal and are pleased to be working with P&O Cruises on major refits again.

"With a fairly intensive programme over a short period of time, we have dedicated a specialist team for the planning and project management of these consecutive refits. We have been working very closely with the technical teams from both P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises and look forward to successful completion of these projects."