A look at ORIANA's world cruise

As ORIANA crosses the Atlantic on the final leg of her 97 night world cruise on route to Madeira we take a brief look at the last 3 months of her circumnavigation.

ORIANA’s first Landfall after her firework departure from Southampton was Oporto in Portugal, home to the famous fortified wine Port.

ORIANA in Leixões, Portugal

While the world cruise itinerary often takes in destinations seldom visited during regular cruise one of those ports, Tripoli, Libya which was scheduled as ORIANA’s second call had to be omitted due to the uprising in Libya the call being replaced by a day in the popular Italian port Naples and the Mediterranean island of Malta.

A famous sight for ORIANA's passengers in Egypt.

Following a transit of the Suez Canal and two calls in Egypt at Port Said and Sharm El Sheikh respectively ORIANA proceeded to Oman in the United Arab Emirates giving on route giving her passengers an excellent spectacle of a military escort from RFA WAVE KNIGHT while transiting the Gulf of Aden due to the proximity to waters prone to Pirate attacks.

Sea Rendezvous.

After two calls in the Emirates ORIANA’s next destination was something of P&O tradition with calls in Mumbai and Cochin offering ORIANA’s passengers a very different experiences to other ports and also for some of her Indian crew the chance of seeing home again.
After a series of calls in several Far Eastern destinations such as Hong Kong, Vietnam and Malaysia.

As we reported back in February the month also bought for ORIANA a maiden call in Bandar Seri Begawan , Brunai which brought the local media attention for the port and the call of ORIANA as can be seen at the site below
http://www.bt.com.bn/news-national/2012/02/13/mv-oriana-calls-muara

A further call in Bali, Indonesia and ORIANA headed to one of the highlights of an circumnavigation with calls in various Australian ports including The Whitsunday Islands and Sydney where ORIANA took part in some of P&O’s celebrations around the 175^th anniversary on inviting 175 “Ten Pound Poms” on board.

ORIANA at anchor in The Whitsunday Islands.

Celebrations on ORIANA's stern.

Another excellent photo opportunity arose for ORIANA's passengers when she passed fleet mate AURORA .

Two of the most elegant passenger ships in service today together, AURORA passes ORIANA.

Departing Australia ORIANA transited the Milford sound and called at two of the most popular ports in New Zealand, Wellington and Auckland.

Since departing from New Zealand ORIANA has cruised over to the Americas and around French Polynesia, Hawaii and San Francisco, Mexico before transiting the Panama Canal.

Now on the final leg of her voyage ORIANA has one last fitting port of call Funchal, Madeira where she will overnight undoubtedly having a warm welcome before returning to Southampton on the 10^th April.

Having been the second cruise since her winter 2011 refit it has been for the majority of passengers joining her in Southampton and other ports along the journey the first chance to take a look at the work done and from passenger reviews on line it appears that most approved with commenting that ORIANA was looking refreshed and as good as ever while another passenger said “always enjoyable, good food nice ambiance, stylish and exactly what you need to relax”

Photo Copyrights: José Modesto & P&O Cruises.