Christmas Cruise Experience

Christmas Day

Waking early on Christmas morning it felt somewhat strange to be celebrating the climax of the festive season while being at sea, outside the weather was still somewhat overcast but the was just rising over the slightly grey looking sea.

Taking an early morning walk around the ship I could imagine that behind the doors in the cabins and suites alike, young passengers would be waking early annoying their parents into allowing them to open presents in scenes that would echo those ashore.

So it was unsurprising then that although walking around I met some passengers walking the decks there was no one under 18 walking out and about.

There was quite a relaxed and tranquil atmosphere about ORIANA on this morning perhaps partially created by the sound of Christmas songs playing gently over the public address system.

Meeting several of the ship’s House Keeping team they each of them wishing Merry Christmas with a genuine smile before giving a pleasant parting comment.

Moving out onto the promenade deck where in the early morning light the ships own lighting was slowly turning off.

There was a slight breeze coming from the sea but at this time was hardly having any effect on ORIANA with no movement in terms of either pitching or rolling.

Here also there were some other passengers who had the same idea as me by getting some morning air on the promenade.

Despite ORIANA’s 15 years in service on the promenade there were absolutely no sign of any age, thanks to the dedication of ORIANA’s crew who while we had been in Tenerife two days before had been varnishing the handrails and wooden benches on the deck.

Back inside in the atrium’s tiffany styled celling was still illuminated in its darker colour scheme with the dome lit in blue.

Returning to the cabin and opening the gifts from P&O we watched ORIANA’s progress on the Navigational information channel it showed ORIANA was currently cruising at about 23 knots on her Northern course having passed by, several hours before I guessed the west and east bound traffic entering and leaving the straits of Gibraltar.

In between each of the information screens a message would appear “Wishing passengers a very Merry Christmas from Captain Brown and the ships Company of ORIANA”

The sound of church bells sounded to indicate the two Christmas religious services were being held in Chaplin’s Cinema a Catholic mass was being held and in the Pacific lounge the interdenominational Holy Communion.

Before going to breakfast we opened the small boxes that had been placed in our cabin the night before, for my mother there was a red letter holder and for my father and myself a 2010 P&O Cruises diary.

A Present from P&O.

t breakfast there was a far greater attendance than the previous day and since the previous evening had been decked out in Christmas Decorations which now adorned the celling and around the window frames, it wasn’t as extravagant as I thought it might it, but thinking about it to my mind it looked better as it was, after all too many decorations would I felt make the room look rather tasteless.

That being my own opinion others instead felt it was too under decorated and not festive enough, how hard, I mused it must be to keep passengers of different taste happy!

Since we were not seated at our usual dinner as table we were not being served by our usual waiters but like on the other breakfasts we had been to on the cruise the waiters on this table were offering an excellent service and were more than happy to get into the festive spirit.

During the course of Breakfast the morning announcement was made from the bridge but unlike the previous days at sea morning announcement on this occasion Captain Brown himself gave the speech taking the opportunity to give another Christmas greeting as well as an update on ORIANA’s progress overnight.

During the night ORIANA had passed 280 Nautical Miles (518.891km) to the west of Gibraltar and since then would be continuing on her course until arriving in Vigo the following morning.

Before finishing he once again wished everyone a good Christmas on board ORIANA and that he would be around the ship and hoped to meet and talk to as many passenger as possible.

With Breakfast finished it was out to the atrium and with our copy of Horizon in hand looked to see what on this festive morning was going on board.

There was a fairly interesting mix of both festive and non-festive activities beginning with for the fitness fanatics, Pilates in the Gymnasium and Fitness Centre while in the Oasis Spa a lecture on skin care was about to start, from what I had heard over breakfast and also dinner the previous night it seemed that many loving husbands had arranged various beauty therapies for their wives, a fact they were quick to inform other passengers.

A little later in The Crow’s Nest another of the arts and crafts classes was being held and it continued with the theme of the previous classes making a gift box, which seemed for this day to be highly appropriate.

In Andersons, Cruise Director Gary was holding a special Christmas get together chat and coffee for the traveling alone guests.

In ORIANA’s largest venue Theatre Royal ORIANA the entertainment team holding a “festival “of Christmas music, lessons and carols being held Captain Brown

Elsewhere the gambling crew as I had nicknamed them where surely pleased to hear that while occupying the Casino during 10 to 11 they were given the opportunity to enjoy complimentary coffee and Danish pastries while winning or losing , which to be honest was the most likely outcome.

Along in Harlequins another activity “Festive line dancing” was about to begin hosted by a member of the entertainment team, peering in through the open double doors and with the sound of upbeat music playing it seemed that all taking part were enjoying their selves.

In the Lords Tavern another of ORIANA ‘s entertainment team were once again hosting a Christmas themed quiz and also wearing some Christmas themed costumes and although not having a faintest idea what else there was possible to know about this time of year we did decide to stay and see how we would get on.

After, if I recall correctly 40 questions and a quick round of “Christmas karaoke”, which included some quite out of tune singing from passengers, questions papers was swapped and some minutes later with the checking complete the papers were handed back and a show of hands showing the scores, as it was our score was 30 more than I expected and enough to give us position of joint 4^th with two other teams, not bad considering!

Similarly to our quiz win some nights before the winner’s prize was a bottle of P&O’s own brand wine.

Leaving Lord’s Tavern and on route to the forward lifts we again passed Harlequins where since we last passed an hour or so before, the guest dance instructors were now holding dance classes, most likely the passengers were getting in some late practice for the Christmas ball later in the evening.

Back through the atrium where the sounds Winter Wonderland and other classic Christmas songs could be heard playing while wives and their rather exhausted looking husbands tried to divert their attention away from the expensive gifts which obviously they desired, others still were going up one deck to Chaplin’s Cinema where the on board Jewellery experts were holding a talk on Birthstones their meanings and at the end of which various Jewellery items with the stones in would be available for sale again I am sure much to the husbands on board’s despair!

As it was we were on route once more for The Crow’s Nest Bar arriving just as more of the Christmas musical entertainment being held on board was about to begin, this time a mix of the Cruise Directors usual mix of entertainment style.

The entertainment was much in the style of his usual songs à la carte which fittingly were all Christmas related, a little Karaoke, and musical quiz in the style of the game show Name That Tune, whose original presenter Tom O’Connor has been a regular guest entertainer on ORIANA since her maiden cruise in April 1995 and had been on board during my own first cruise in 2006

All in all there was a very light and festive feel to the entertainment and although not related to what was going on I recalled watching many years before this very room decorated in a similar way in the comedy series 2 Point 4 Children whose Christmas special episode for 1996 had been filmed on board.

With the Cruise Director finishing up at midday and wishing everyone present a good and hopefully festive filled Christmas afternoon just before the sound of ORIANA’s bridge bell rang 12 times to begin the midday announcement.

In the last 24 hours ORIANA had travelled 441 Nautical Miles (817.254km) and was at present continuing on her North Easterly course across the North Atlantic towards Cape Finisterre in North West Spain.

At are current speed it was expected that ORIANA would pass 170 Nautical Miles (315km) west of the Portuguese capital Lisbon at about 1730 and later in that evening would pass by Portugal’s second largest city Porto before moving off the coast of Spain late in the night/ early next morning.

After explaining more of the company’s history relating to the area the officer wished all passengers a good afternoon on board, at which point we headed to lunch in the Peninsular Restaurant where much to our pleasure we were given our normal dinner table.

My delight however was not to last very long when much to my dismay the elderly passenger who we had been seated with some days previously who had claimed cabins had been flooded with water was seated with us.

The Lunch was excellently prepared as always and my steak with Madeira wine Sauce was second to none that I had tried before I fact which voiced much to the annoyance of the elderly woman, who’s disapproving gaze indicated that my youthful and enthusiastic opinion was not required, not required and to which she replied what a poor Christmas day it had been and how much better she had experienced on her many cruises with Cunard.

My own reply was that it was a shame that Cunard had withdrawn their last true liner from service and how fortunate she was to be on board the true successor to the great P&O liners which by far outnumbered those that Cunard had owned.

Before she had a chance to answer I expressed my own opinion that ORIANA was among the most elegant if not the most elegant ship in the world and asked she had anything to say about that.

Much to my surprise she remained fairly quite after that and after being kicked in the leg by mother to keep me from saying anything else the rest of lunch was relatively quiet allowing for all concerned to enjoy their respective meals and surly as always the meal came to an end and shortly before we left the elderly lady left.

The first of the after lunch activities being held was the “battle of the sexes” men v women quiz which is something of a P&O tradition which was being held in Lord’s Tavern we were sat outside the main entrance and were taking the time read Christmas Day edition of the Britain today newspaper.

From reading the news stories from back home it made me realise that we were lucky to be on board ORIANA although outside currently the wind was at about wind force 8 the weather was far better than the conditions were at home, there according to what we were reading more of the country had been affected by weather conditions with transports systems in some places including the Eurostar train service to France being brought to a complete standstill, fortunate then we had chosen this year to take a Christmas cruise I thought to myself.

After the “epic” battle of the sexes had ended in a draw much I am sure to disappointment of both sides, as a Christmas gift for my mother and father I had arranged an appointment at the Oasis Hair Salon so after taking them both to enjoy their gifts I headed off once again around ORIANA.

On the deck above the starboard side of The Crow’s Nest had once again become a venue for members of the Oasis spa team who were holding a talk on the virtues of Healing with Ancient Acupuncture.

In Chaplin’s the theme of Christmas movies continued with the second showing of the day of the 2007 Christmas film Fred Claus while below on the promenade deck more dancing was the order of the day in Harlequins and in the promenade level of the Knightsbridge ladies with expensive tastes were deciding on what dress to buy and debut at the evening’s formal dinner.

It was often said that the class system on board ships had long since faded into history however seeing those passengers in the shops buying ever more expensive clothes and suchlike you wouldn’t know it!

After about an hour I returned to the Salon to find both my parents pleased at the end results of my “gift” to them and with that continued with our Christmas afternoon.

Next on our agenda was a talk from different members of the entertainment team including a particular focus on the Headliners Theatre Company, P&O’s own theatre production company.

The presentation offered an interesting insight into life on board ORIANA for her entertainment team both in terms of work and their spare time, for them ORIANA was a far different experience to the one that we as passengers although they did have the occasion when not working to relax in finery of the public areas.

While being interviewed and asked about what his aim was beyond singing one of the younger singers of the theatre group said that in an ideal world his aim was to build and operate his own Cruise ship an ambitious and admirable dream!

Concluded by the Cruise Director after leaving the theatre many of passengers in particular the older passengers all began to move towards Lord’s Tavern where in about half an hour with weather and satellite reception permitting the showing of another tradition would take place the Queen’s Christmas Message.

However when I passed by sometime later instead of Her Majesty’s image on the screens inside there was a music video from British Singer/musician Sir Cliff Richard , interestingly and of course quite coincidently he was awarded the Ordem do Infante D. Henrique by Portugal some years before and at this time Portugal was the nearest country to ORIANA.

Sometime later and deciding to sit and enjoy the ambiance of the atrium from Tiffany’s while enjoying a coffee with the sound of the waterfall offering a relaxing backdrop to rest before preparing the dinner

From where we were sat near the staircase we could see down to the levels below and watch the animated scene of passengers of all ages walking through.

Sitting and looking at the elegant surroundings it wasn’t hard to see why ORIANA had become an instant favourite with many passengers as soon as the boarded her and with the Christmas decorations hanging from the bar which added to ORIANA’s already warm and homely feel.

Before l realised it was time to go and prepare for dinner on this most special of evening.

While preparing for dinner on ORIANA’s internal television channel the ship’s DJ Paul was hosting a special Christmas edition of ORIANA’s early evening entertainment show which screened before the first sitting of dinner, with passengers music requests and some quiz games the show eased passengers in to the evening in a relaxing and fun way before dinner.

Arriving at the restaurant we only had to wait about minute if that, before being welcomed by the head waiters and Restaurant Manager and of course faithful Manoj who was waiting to take my father the table.

All it seemed had been having a good Christmas at sea and in the spirit of things everyone we spoke to on our way to the table asked if our day had been good and we asked the same back.

Once seated we noticed for the first time that in addition to their normal uniform the waiters were wearing Christmas hats and some with festive waistcoats as well.

On each table there was several Christmas Crackers all ready to be pulled to see what little gifts and jokes were inside.

Much like the previous night’s dinner the menu was different from the usual menu this menu was white with Christmas baubles and snow and inside the menu was typically Christmas affair with the usual Turkey for main course.

Chistmas Day menu later signed by the waiters.

Starting with a Tomato soup followed by a Lemon Sorbet and the decision to go traditional and have the turkey course which was as expected of excellent standard being a credit to ORIANA’s chefs.

However when it came to deciding which dessert course to choose from both the English Sherry Trifle and the Baileys Chocolate Yule Log appealed to me.

When Salvador our waiter came to take my order I still had not decided on which to have and told him that, with a smile he replied he asked if I would like a sample of both to help me choose.

It seemed to me to be the perfect solution, what level of service I thought to myself.

Waiting for my “samples” to arrive I was looking around to see both some of the chefs and head waiters with bottles of Brandy setting alight the Christmas pudding in as is the tradition.

Having known Salvador from the year before and this cruise I should have guessed sample would not have been what I got and instead received one of each dessert!

Although full from the Main Course I couldn’t exactly see either be wasted and did somehow manage to eat both!

An excellent and certainly full dinner came to an end and almost need to crawl out from the restaurant being so full.

From the restaurant we moved on towards the theatre where one of ORIANA’s guest performers was going perform his first show of the evening.

Before the show started the Cruise Director came on stage to say that because of the Queens Speech had been cancelled due to weather conditions they were now able to show a recording of the speech.

As the speech began and the national anthem played and all who could stood and sang along until the speech itself began.

Fitting then to be watching Her Majesty on board a ship to which she is Godmother.

Her Majesty giving her speech.

After the speech the show began the guest being Jimmy James of the 1960’s band The Vagabonds.

Although not my style of music it was none the less very entertaining and even in his late 60’s/early 70's Jimmy James was able to enthral the crowed with his performance.

With the performance over we took a quick look into Harlequins to see the Christmas Ball getting under way before at around 10 or 11 pm we headed to The Crow’s Nest to enjoy the last hours of Christmas in its elegant surroundings although of course the only view outside was the unfolding pitch black night .

Fun amongst the formality.

A Christmas Dance.

Playing up in The Crow’s Nest was a Scottish husband and wife folk band that was playing on the small stage towards the centre of the room.

Taking a brief walk out on deck to get some Atlantic sea air looking to starboard and other towards are next and last destination of the cruise, Vigo which was out there on the horizon.

Going back inside we had one last drink as midnight fast approached and Christmas day quietly ended, quietly for us but not for those in Harlequins who most likely were still enjoying their dance and in Lords Tavern the night was still young and like any good bar the entertainment would go on for some hours more before our arrival at Vigo in about 7hrs time.

Photos Copyright P&O Cruises