At Sea 5th- 6th June
With no more tropical destinations to explore and 2 days at sea before once again returning to Southampton ORIANA’s passengers were now left with “Little to do” except enjoy the comforts and facilities on board and being there was no destinations to explore there was a calm and relaxing atmosphere on board and as such many of the passengers were sleeping in a walking down the corridor many of the passenger cabins had a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door handles
While those who had risen early had the benefit of ORIANA’s generous deck space to them with very few other passengers around.
Understandably with many passengers having a lie in the breakfast venues were very sparsely attended although with meals available throughout the day for many it didn’t really bother them at the prospect of missing the meal.
However at the other end of the food spectrum there were some passengers who would be religiously attending each meal and would for any reason be missing any of them.
The morning atmosphere on board was wonderfully relaxing the other passengers who were up and about were enjoying the day at sea and were definitely benefitting from Sun ,Sea and ORIANA’s always pleasant yet never overwhelming surroundings had up to this point been providing an excellent cruising choice.
While at breakfast it was a little reassuring to see the elderly lady who the day before had been getting a lower view of Funchal than most, thankfully no worse for ending up on the ground although it was no something which she was talking about openly.
Having just left the restaurant on finishing breakfast suddenly the lights in the area of the restaurant and atrium unexpectedly dimmed much to the surprise shock and horror of the passengers, while some looked a little worried others who I would have guessed had a background in engineering seemed to be completely at ease and explaining their theory as to why the lights were behaving in a bizarre manner.
While it was for a few moments quite a talking point although it was soon all rendered academic as the lighting retuned to its normal level,.
Although I am sure that as far as most were concerned that was the end of the matter Captain Reid made an announcement to call any passengers fears by explaining the cause of the disturbance, it being nothing more serious than a circuit breaker tripping due to a blown fuse and that being effectively a large piece of machinery ships do from time to time suffer these sorts of incidents.
While it seemed most had been reassured by his announcement there were several passengers who seemed to unsatisfied with some passengers of course wanting to make more of it than just a simple maintenance issue and instead were telling of how they heard sounds of metal straining and 'clanking sounds coming from the ships engines followed by the sound of them slowing down.
When challenged by another passenger as to why if that was true ORIANA was continuing at the same speed and seemingly at that point all on board machinery seemed to running as normal the passenger went uncharacteristically quiet.
Either way engine problem or not the incident was soon forgotten passengers went about their own way on board.
The weather outside was turning the day into a splendid day at sea with the sky being clear which contrasted with the weather which had been forecasted, and was for sun worshippers an impromptu cause for celebration as they made their way onto the upper decks to find the ideal spot for spot of sunbathing, despite ORIANA’s relatively high speed and the air passing over the ship making a light breeze over the ship the scene on deck was something reminiscent of the Caribbean or Mediterranean rather sailing up the Atlantic all that was needed to complete tropical image would have been a barbeque on deck.
Whereas by night ORIANA would be taking on the mantel of an elegant club especially being the final formal night of the cruise, for now she was a sophisticated resort and a very comfortable one at that.
On both the Lido Deck itself and on the sun deck above people had gathered to enjoy the weather and further aft still more passengers were able to enjoy thanks to one of ORIANA’s truly outstanding exterior features her terraced decks.
To say that ORIANA at this time with all her passengers, even those who liked to complain, content was the very picture of maritime perfection would be the only way to describe it.
As she cut her way proudly through the Atlantic ORIANA was certainly living up to her motto of To Swim, To Serve.
Leaving the upper decks to check something in the Cabin I was surprised at my arrival in the cabin to find a small white envelope inside a letter from ORIANA’s ships secretary which was with regards to the request we had made at reception some days ago about having a visit to the navigational bridge informing us that a such a visit would be possible the date was for the next day and the letter gave a place and time of meeting.
While waiting until the next day was something of an annoyance it would be I am sure well worth it to see ORIANA’s ‘nerve centre’ where the great ship’s main decisions were being made.
While we had our good news for the day life on board ORIANA continued apace, from those on the deck relaxing to those starting their daily activity Being that later on board would be the last formal night of the cruise the ladies had hit the on board shops relatively early ensuring they had the right look and of course the all-important accessorises to go with it, life I decided must be hard for the fashion conscious woman on board a cruise liner never knowing if the wardrobe they had bought with them would be sufficient or would they have to buy more on board, of course for their husbands things must have been worse in most cases they were paying for it and at that moment in time most likely to be seen keeping in one of ORIANA’s bars.
While many of the passengers had been snapping away happily during the cruise with their cameras myself included it was interesting to see how many were actually getting any good shots of the ports and ship as often happens some holidaymakers are so eager to photograph anything and everything them around them that their eagerness carried them away so to speak and the results were less than desired, well to help those who felt needed it the ships photographers were on hand for a time giving a lecture in Chaplin’s Cinema the perfect way to take the perfect photo, from perspectives to spacing all that a person would need to know to become a good photographer was available to find out in this interesting lecture
Of course being ORIANA there was several more options for people’s varying tastes and ranging from sports on deck to beauty seminars.
As the time approached midday the sky had become overcast but still warm and to begin the afternoon with the officer of the watch gave his announcement which was relating to the ships current position which put her near the Spanish coast having travelled 419 Nautical miles (776.484 km) since her departure from Madeira with 933 Nautical miles (1729.020 km) remaining until her arrival in Southampton on Wednesday morning, although the officer hoped that passengers had enjoyed the cruise thus far and would be reluctant to leave in 2 days’ time.
From what I heard while being on board this cruise certainly many passengers would be sorry to leave, well for certain I would be.
Shortly after the announcement we made our way down to The Peninsular Restaurant to have a light lunch, seemingly now most passengers had ventured from their cabins since on this meal the restaurant was considerably fuller than at breakfast however with the upcoming chocolate buffet I could imagine that there would be some very full passengers on board by the late afternoon.
Whereas initially I wasn’t overly interested in going to the Buffet only to the Galley which was going on at the same time entering from the Peninsular and then exiting in to the buffet.
While not my thing exactly I thought that I should at least sample a little of all ORIANA had on offer.
However before the buffet there was plenty of time to do something which I liked to do most days spend some time walking through ORIANA both inside and out, while not exactly something which could be described as being a physical thing there something about her Ocean liner like traditional style which it was always pleasant to experience while passing through her beautiful rooms and wonderfully wide teak promenade deck.
ORIANA, I had decided on this cruise after having spent more time than the previous one was truly a remarkable ship in every way as a child the first ship’s name I had been introduced to was that of TITANIC famous of her demise but by to TITANIC historians she was perfect inside and out, far be it for me to disagree but ORIANA had much finer lines than the Olympic class liners and internally had décor which would have made the early 20th Century designers envious.
My walk over with it was almost time to head once more for The Peninsular and to take the tour round galley, a truly excellent sight to see various preparation areas for different food items and as a novelty near exit to the Oriental Restaurant an Ice sculpture of in the shape of a chef held a black board with the message “Welcome to ORIANA’s Galley” written on it.
Leaving the galley and entering the Restaurant the tables in the centre were all arranged with chocolates of all different types white, dark and in all different shapes and also other chocolate cake slices.
While some of the passengers were overindulging in just selecting the chocolates to taste therefore it wasn’t surprising that some had 2 plates full, it would be interesting to see how much they would actually be eating, for me though only one or two would be more than enough.
While many were remaining to indulge in more by the time we left it was time to think about getting ready for Dinner.
Being that it was the last formal night there was really sense of occasion and most on board after some preparation were ready to enter into the spirit of things.
In the beautiful in surroundings of ORIANA her passengers entered the spirit of things with the passengers for 1st sitting made their way toward the restaurants now adorned in their finest with the ladies in their evening dresses and gentlemen in their tuxedos and some also in kilts.
The Dinner was excellent in its presentation and its standard was beyond words in keeping with the excellent surroundings and exemplary service being given.
The meal over it was certain that our penultimate night on board ORIANA was going to be excellent.
The last day on board for cruise X705 dawned with ORIANA 5 hours into her crossing of the Bay of Biscay which she entered at 1am, her log descripting it as “In the early hours of the morning at 1am ORIANA continued passed well clear to the East of the traffic lanes off Cape Finsisterre marking her entry into the Bay of Biscay.”
The atmosphere on board was more sedate than the day before most likely I assumed was because it was the last day and most didn’t really want to go home maybe even planning their next P&O cruise of course for me 3pm couldn’t come soon enough, although I didn’t want the time pass to quickly I was anxious and excited to have a look at ORIANA’s command bridge.
At breakfast it was quite easy to see that many passengers didn’t want the day to come to an end their faces alone was more than enough to tell what they were thinking but as the saying goes all good things must come to an end of course with ORIANA playing host it was surly going to be good last day.
Although the sky was overcast the temperature was still warm and for the morning the sea conditions were fairly calm as ORIANA made her way throughout the day along the outskirts of the Bay of Biscay.
So in comparison to taking the mini cruise a year before what was my feelings compared to then ?
Quite simple now even more than ever ORIANA had proven herself to be the perfect choice to cruise on in terms of her size not too big yet large enough to have more than enough facilities to keep her passengers entertained for both long and short cruises.
It is said that ships have personalities of their own and although we felt it a during the 3 nights onboard in 2006 the past week had really brought ORIANA’s personality out for us one of timeless elegance, recalling a bygone era yet having a distinctively modern side as well yet never did she feel overwhelming everything about her was on a ‘human’ scale not large and sometimes over whelming and forbidding as is often the case of the mass market two, three and even four thousand passenger ships.
The classic features which had made her a hit with passengers back in 1995 were still 12 years later her main selling points.
While the day continued and passengers moved here and there through these last hours on board I finally found the time to relax before visiting the bridge, and in what better way to than by reading the books I had brought earlier in the cruise on the evolution of cruise ships and CANBERRA the former having an excellent section dedicated to none other than ORIANA herself with other ships mentioned along the way.
Eventually though 3 PM did come round and in anticipation we waited outside cabin A107 just behind the bridge it was almost time for our tour.....
Being greeted by the Ships Secretary we were escorted through to the bridge being greeted by our tour guide for the visit one of ORIANA's Deck Cadets Adam to make us and the few others who were with us feel comfortable he shared many jokes.
His look at each console was complete and gave a full explanation of all the various controls and displays noting when we were looking at the stabilizer indication panel that they had been rarely deployed on this cruise and despite the rough weather at times ORIANA had only rolled a maximum of 3 degrees, impressive by any ships standards.
While looking at the helm controls it was reassuring to hear that ORIANA thanks to her variable pitch propellers, high lift rudders and thrusters was due to her medium size the most manoeuvrable in the P&O Cruises fleet.
The tour lasted about an hour or two and when we had finished and were leaving the bridge we saw the Captain who was returning to the bridge and was interested to see hear of our experiences of the bridge.As we the Captain moved off continuing on his rounds we went on our way it was almost time to get ready for the last night on board
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