Comparing layouts and design features

Continuing with our comparison of ORIANA with fleet mate VENTURA we today look at another aspect of the ship's design the layout of public rooms etc.
ORIANA's layout is as most know designed to pay homage to her famous predecessor CANBERRA allowing for veteran cruisers of the old ship to have a sense of familiarity and also a continuation of brand identity giving new cruisers a sense of and traditional cruise experience
On board ORIANA with a few exceptions the majority of her public rooms are arranged on her promenade deck with a second run of rooms above on deck 8 each easily accessed by the upper two flights of the atrium staircase.


On board  VENTURA the design follows pretty much the same formula as the earlier Grand/Crown Class which in its self features some aspects which are similar to ORIANA, firstly the theatre is located at the forward end of the deck on both ships and located at the aft end is the a cabaret lounge both coincidentally named after distant shores being named the Pacific lounge and Havana respectively.
Below is a comparison of ORIANA's promenade deck with VENTURA and GRAND PRINCESS for reference.

As can be seen the modern trend of having a photo gallery being more of a walk through corridor rather than a dedicated room is present on board both ships
This design ensures that photos are visible to the passengers ensuring that a there is always a opportunity to make them part with their money.

The deck plan of ORIANA also shows what many consider one of the ships simplest yet most effective features having a inside passenger corridor running alongside the public rooms, meaning unlike many other ships including VENTURA passengers can reach one of the bar's or lounges on board without having to walk through other rooms instead a simple lamp lined corridor provides access on the promenade deck to all the venues there only requiring passengers to pass through the photo gallery on route to the aft end Pacific Lounge
During ORIANA's maiden voyage this feature proved to be a popular one with her passengers who all had high praise for the logical and well thought out layout allowing for excellent flow of passengers, unfortunately this was a design feature that wasn't to remain with the fleet long with ORIANA and AURORA being the only ships in the fleet this is possible. 

Catering for the larger passenger numbers means that the venues themselves on board VENTURA take up more deck space on board than their counterparts on board ORIANA.
This coupled with the fact the design is derived from class of ship originally developed  for the US cruise market means that feature favoured by most British cruisers is sadly absent from VENTURA which is a decent sized promenade deck.
ORIANA's is over double the width and encircles the majority of the ship from the superstructure front to the stern.

  VENTURA's starboard promenade deck top compared to ORIANA's.

 The size comparison between the two can be seen between the two can be seen in the images by the amount of space available between the sun lounger/deck chairs and the deck rail as well as being demonstrated below in these images showing the appearance from outside both ships, note how ORIANA's lifeboats are able to fit almost completely inside the recess above the promenade while VENTURA's are left protruding beyond the ships side.

In addition the deck on VENTURA does not it self encircle the entire ship ship it instead requires passengers to take steps up one deck at the forward end to continue round to the other side before once again descending.
This of course being possible only during good weather conditions or at the Captain's desecration.
Another often derided feature of the deck as with many new builds is the use plastic decking instead of the traditional teak decks on board ORIANA, this has two rather unfortunate effects, firstly when wet the decks become somewhat slippery and secondly the appearance of the deck is rather cheap.
 Returning to the layout of the interior of the deck also reveal something of a shift in emphasis for P&O, while on ORIANA the deck is entirely made up from Bar's with various styles to create different atmospheres for the different personality's of passengers on board.
While VENTURA also has this with her featuring an English styled pub, Spanish Tapas bar and a nightclub among others we can also clearly see how the design of VENTURA features multiple dining venues showing  a shift away from traditional main dining rooms and increasoing the presence of the  surcharge alternative dining venues as can be seen above on the promenade deck plan with East the on board Asian fusion dining option
If we compare with ORIANA we see that VENTURA features 3 main restaurants compared to ORIANA's 2  the third on VENTURA catering for the "Any time dining."
 The main "club dining" Restaurants on VENTURA Saffron and Bay Tree (named for eastern spices) are amidships and aft on deck 6 and arranged each side of the main galley in style dating back to the ocean liners which would have the 1st and 2nd Class restaurants arranged in a similar fashion and is also the same arrangement used for ORIANA with her Peninsular and Oriental main restaurants. as can be seen below.