Safe and secure on board

Some very important aspects to life on board ORIANA are the ship’s compliance to matters relating to the well being of both her Passengers and Crew.To this end ORIANA has like all other ships to follow some very stringent guidelines which relate to these aspects of her operation.

Firstly Hygiene,

To ensure that Southampton based cruise ships remain at a high standard the local environmental health agency undertakes regular inspections where two of the representatives board the vessel, during the inspection visit various areas of the ship in both the passenger and crew accommodation as well as service areas such as one of the galleys, these vary from visit to visit although in general they take in one of each examining everything relating to cleanliness as well as compliance to date keeping in of food products .

During the course the inspections also take inspectors also take water samples from various sources from shower heads in passenger and crew cabins and also the well of the atrium fountain.

The samples are tested for their quality and suitability for purpose and also for any possible to bacteria such as Legionella and E. coli.

Although very rare any problems that are found during such inspections are referred to as a Non compliance and outlined in a letter which is sent to the ship.

The inspectors also take the opportunity to interview members of the ship’s crew ranging from the Captain and various supervisors.

During ORIANA’s last inspection which was held on the 12th February 2011, as expected everything was found to be in excellent condition passing 100 % as shown below in the letter sent to P&O and to the ship detailing the inspectors findings.

Aside from hygiene another important aspect to the mutual safety of all passengers on board ORIANA is P&O’s vigilance and effective use of safety procedures beginning before the ship has even left port with the life boat muster drill being carried out before departure from Southampton, the drill covers a wide range of areas relating to safety on board from the basics of putting on life jacket to which signal to listen out and how to behave on board with regards to safety around the ship.

For the crew normally a exercise is held during the course of the cruise designed as a a simulated emergency such as fire in the lower decks often with theatrical smoke to add to the realism

Also when the opportunity arises the crew performs a full watertight and fire door closure.

It is also reassuring to know that as unlikely occurrence of violence on board or around ORIANA is the ships security team are fully able to deal with an incidents thanks to their professional to training given by the Hampshire Police force including manuals on a range of security issues including interview techniques and how to deal evidence collection. The full manual can be viewed at http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/TAM/2010/The%20Crime%20Manual%20for%20Ship%20%28non%20restricted%29_2010.pdf

Along with the Cruise cards used for signing on and off the ship stringent security checks are in place around the the ship's gangways including full metal detectors and hand baggage x-ray screening which is standard practice on board all passengers ships.

Always safe and secure ORIANA.