ORIANA in Funchal: Last call of the World Cruise

After 3 months at sea, for some passengers onboard ORIANA in her 97 night World Cruise it's time to return home. Funchal is the last port of call in this circum-navigation voyage and what a perfect ending, with a sensational spring weather in Madeira more summer alike.

Eastbound and under a nice morning twilight ORIANA arrived in Funchal bay early in the morning from the island of Barbados. The rising sun shined over her as she turned to starboard ready to begin her docking manouvers. At her stern and already docked was NORWEGIAN JADE, a cruise ship built on the same shipyards as ORIANA but a decade later.

It was also her first call in Funchal after last November's refit which consisted on a series of major changes on P&O's oldest ship. I wasn't too keen with her new exterior changes, especially the new duck tail or sponson, if you prefer, so as I left this morning to see and photograph her today I felt a little worried if her new looks were even worse to see live.

Surprisingly I didn't disliked it at all as she looked elegant as ever. Having observed more closely in detail it's clearly seen that the new structure at the stern was nicely thought in her creation. The area that maintains contact with the water was designed to look as the original form and it's painted red bellow just as the rest of the keel. Althought not as good as before it's not as bad as it could be.
Another exterior change, in this case a small one that even passed unoticed by many, was the addiction of six(three on each side) small windows on the bridge wings and also two canvas(one on each side) above them in case the weather get's rough enough.

Needless to say that besides the recent changes ORIANA shall continue to sail into the 21st century as elegant and modern as ever and with the latest passenger positive critics, it seems she will remain a favorite for many years to come.
Text & Photos: © João Abreu.