P&O Princess is faced with a tense wait while Royal Caribbean decides whether to abandon merger plans, after a marathon 16-hour EGM session ending in the early hours of Friday 15 February.

P&O said it would seek to prevent Royal Caribbean Cruises from walking away from its £4.8bn merger proposal after P&O shareholders voted to postpone a ballot on the merger in order to consider a counter bid from Carnival Corporation.

The shareholder revolt was seen as a victory for Carnival and a humiliation for the chair of P&O, Lord Sterling, after the company had advised investors to vote for the merger with Royal Caribbean.