A Royal celebration for ORIANA

On the 29th of this month ORIANA along with the rest of the P&O fleet and the United Kingdom will be celebrating the wedding of Prince William of Wales and Miss Kate Middleton. The ceremony which will be broadcast live from London at 11am, will be shown onboard in the public rooms while ORIANA is alongside in Plama, Majorca with fleet mate AZURA.

ORIANA- A ship with many royal connections.

The official engagement photograph © Mario Testino.

Onboard ORIANA

The Crows Nest.

To begin our tour of ORIANA’s public rooms we are going to start at the very top of the ship with a room with a view, The Crows Nest.

Located in the forward section of Deck 13 , The Crows Nest along with the Cyber Study and Medina Room make up the set of three rooms on the deck. Access to the rooms on this deck is via the forward lifts and stairway. A popular venue among passengers The Crows Nest appeals to a broad range of tastes from those who enjoy a quite place to read during the day to those who are looking for a pre dinner drink in a refined setting in the evenings . Often used as a venue for cocktail parties including being one of the rooms used for the Captains Gala Reception, the room in its design and décor evokes the feel of a sophisticated wine or champagne bar with the added benefit of stunning views. Like ORIANA as a whole the theme of room is a nautical one with many reminders of the fact that the passengers are indeed onboard a ship including a replica of a traditional ships compass. The most noticeable of the rooms features is the large model behind the bar, depicting one of P&O’s R class Liners built in 1925. Passengers with a eye for finer details may also notice on many of the seats around the room the image of the previous ORIANA’s badge which adorned the bow and the name ORIANA The perfect venue day or night the onboard entertainment team often hosts live music in The Crows Nest, often calling it “Music from the room with the view or “Music at the top”. Alternatively on other night the only music to be heard is lounge Music from the pianist with the lights set to a low level and small lamps placed on the tables the room takes on a intimate and sophisticated atmosphere where passengers can enjoy one or two last drinks before retiring to their cabins for the night. Along with its counterpart onboard fleet mate AURORA The Crows Nest is considered by many to be among finest panoramic lounges fitted aboard any ship being rated considerably higher than even QUEEN MARY 2’s Commodore Club which serves a similar purpose on board that vessel. Living up to its namesake from the early liners The Crows Nest also serves from time to time as lookout for the passengers to watch a later approach to a port particularly where the approach is a long or scenic one such as Oslo, Norway often with a description of the area from the local harbour pilot. Although it may vary generally the opening times for The Crows Nest are: 10am to 4pm reopening at 9:15pm until 1 or 2 am on sea days. And on port days 10am to 1:30pm reopening at 4:30pm until 1 or 2 am.

To finish our tour of Deck 13 we will briefly look at the Cyber study and Medina Room. The Medina Room is located on the starboard side of ORIANA and adjoins and forms a small annex to The Crows Nest. Named after P&Os MEDINA of 1911 which came to a premature end 6 years later when it was sank by a German submarine. With its walls adorned by images of the company’s previous ships , ceiling to floor windows and comfortable chairs the room forms a quiet retreat for passengers to read , write post cards home or just to sit and relax with a drink. The room is also used for religious services , meetings, arts and crafts classes and small formal and informal gathering of passengers. At the requests of passengers the room can be used to hold private parties complete with waiter service Cyb@study located just aft of The Crows Nest on the port side is ORIANA’s onboard computer room, allowing access to the Internet while at sea and in port through one of the computer terminals it also features a large flat screen television screen that can be used by the onboard Internet manager or Digital living presenter to host presentations on computers, software and other digital technology. Access to the computers is 24 hours a day with the Internet manager available between 8am to 10 am and 4pm to 10pm on sea days and 9am to 12pm, 2pm to 5pm and 7pm to 10pm on port days. The Internet service offered onboard is based on a so called pay as you go or on one of the prepaid time plans. In Terms of the décor the room continues with more paintings of P&O’s earlier ships including CANBERRA with a small description of each. The room is tastefully decorated with cream and wooden panelled walls. Images © P&O Cruises & Steve Martin

Onboard ORIANA

Good evening all,
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new weekly post "Onboard ORIANA" in which we will be exploring the ships public rooms by describing each room and giving examples of their functions during the day and evening.
The first post will be this Wednesday where we will begin our tour with the lounge with the best views The Crows Nest.
Hopefully for those who have been lucky enough to cruise on ORIANA we will bring back memories of relaxing days and entertaining nights onborad, while for those who have yet to travel onboard we will give a good impression of the experience of cruising onboard this magnificent ship.
So with out further ado all aboard!
The Admin team.

ORIANA in high speed

Presently on a 17 night western Mediterranean cruise, and to prove our previous post, this image taken from the AIS website LocalizaTodo, shows ORIANA navigating at high speed on her route from Lisbon to Messina(2 days at sea).
She surpassed her service speed of 24 knots and achived some impressive 25,4 knots while transiting the Strait of Gibraltar this morning, even besides the intense traffic in that area, being the only gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
On a more uncasual note, captain Mark Symmonds shows why ORIANA helds the Golden Cockerel trophy, as the fastest ship in P&O's present fleet.

ORIANA in western med. waters inbound Messina, April 2010. © Steve Martin

A modern Ocean greyhound

When ORIANA entered service in 1995 she did so as the fastest ship built since Queen Elizabeth 2 and the fastest ever purpose built cruise liner. Not being built for line service she was not required to have a maximum speed like the later generations of Ocean Liners including the previous ORIANA and CANBERRA ORIANA with a maximum speed of 24 knots is however fast enough to be able to complete a circumnavigation within 80 days or less, a requirement that was laid down in the contract for the ship. Below is a chart of comparisons with ORIANA (1960) and CANBERRA. Although CANBERRA and the previous ORIANA had a higher Maximum power output this came at a the price of high fuel consumption required to power both ships steam boilers. For being the fastest ship in the fleet today ORIANA holds the Golden Cockerel trophy which was inherited from CANBERRA and was given to ORIANA when the two met on CANBERRA's Farewell cruise.

Proudly displaying the Golden Cockerel on the bridge wing.

ORIANA makes a high speed turn in the Med 23 April 2010.

Photo Copyrights: P&O Cruises & Steve Martin.

German issued postcard of ORIANA

On the back, some of the ship's details are described

© João Abreu Collection

A west med cruise on ORIANA

Contribuitor Bob Percival, told us his favourite highlights when he boarded ORIANA for a Western Mediterranean cruise in July of 2010, in which we now share among with some related images taken by him during this, let's just say, fantastic and memorable cruise.

ORIANA backing into Ocean Terminal, Southampton

"The first picture was taken from the Town Quay Southampton, I was so excited again(I am 66) and our hotel overlooked the harbour so i got up at about 5!! and walked down to see her arrive. I knew she always came back about 5/6 and I walked down to the end of the car park of Town Quay, and she appeared out of the mist!! and I was SO excited!! She then stopped, swung round and backed into the new Ocean Terminal. The first pic was taken by 07.03 am on 30/07/2010, she was coming back from a 7 night Norwegian fjords cruise.... and we were going on West med. cruise: Malaga-Dubrovnik-Venice -Split-Kotor(amazed by Kotor and approach)-Corfu-Gibraltar; Wonderful!!

The second pic was taken at 11.12 on 1/08/2010, I was sitting at my favourite seat Rear Terrace A deck, and the wedding party came out for photos. It was the day before we made our first call in Malaga, Spain."

ORIANA's port of registry change in 2006, to Hamilton(Bermuda flag), allowed couples to perform their wedding cerimonies onboard.

Photos & Text: © Bob Percival.