ORIANA and P&O's Grand Event

Taking short trip back in time to 2012 we take a brief look at ORIANA during P&O's 175th Anniversary  year.
Fresh from her refit in December 2011 ORIANA complete with a new "duck tail" stern and now an adults only ship she started  2012 with  a 97 night world cruise, on the first leg of the voyage while transiting the Gulf of Aden she was escorted by RFA WAVE KNIGHT due to potential pirate activity in the area.  

Photo: Royal Navy.

During the course of the circumnavigation ORIANA made her  maiden call in Muara, Brunei.

However perhaps the highlight of the year was the celebration of 175 years of P&O's heritage and this was celebrated in many ways on board from having 175 year heritage sailaway parties to displays around the ship detailing the history of the company.

While in Sydney, Australia ORIANA celebrated the role assisted passage scheme played in the company's history and welcomed on board some special guests, many of those who had travelled to Australia on board ORIANA and CANBERRA in the 1960's under the scheme joining them as well was Carnival Australia's CEO Ann Sherry and  AZURA's God mother Darcey Bussell.

Later in the year as the Flagship of the fleet ORIANA was centre stage for the climax of the year's celebrations on the 3rd July the entire fleet met for the company's Grand Event including  a review by Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, The Princess Royal and the Masters of Trinity house including ORIANA's first Captain, Commodore Ian Gibb.
Below we share some footage from Simon Jones a passenger on board ORIANA for her Grand Event cruise ,shot that memorable day firstly we see ORIANA and her fleet mates arriving and docked and then later some footage shot from on board.

Remembering ORIANA's debut and maiden call in Funchal

As the 20th anniversary year of ORIANA draws to an end, we are very delighted to present these stunning video footages of her inaugural call in Funchal, the first ever port of call of her maiden voyage after the christening by Queen Elizabeth II on 6th April and departure from Southampton on 9th April 1995.
The first video features images of her arrival on 12nd April and a detailed look of her interiors and public spaces. The second short film depicts her departure on the following day, a memorable moment in the history of the port, as a crowd of people witnessed live in port and along the seaside, paying farewell to the newbuilt cruise ship, at the time one of the World's largest, and the so called successor of CANBERRA, a well known ship by Madeirian people.

Videos filmed and produced by Paulo Camacho.

ORIANA and the QUEEN MARY 2 in Lisbon

Two of the greatest active icons of the British Merchant Navy, ORIANA and QUEEN MARY 2, were together last Saturday on 12 December 2015, in the historic port of Lisbon.
Both of them belong to a rare breed of passanger ships, unique in their own design, which is almost unexisting nowadays in the cruise industry. The amount of expectation and grandeur prior to their arrivals in 1995 and 2004 respectivaly, could be fairly compared to those of the great ocean liners of the past, having been christened in their homeport of Southampton by the Godmother they share, none other than Queen Elizabeth II.

And to increase the importance of their status, they also belong to the oldest British Maritime companies still active, P&O [178 years old] and Cunard [175 years old], and although the two were great rivals in the past, they presently belong to the same North-American group, Carnival Corporation.
After spending the day in the Portuguese capital, ORIANA left her berth first in the afternoon, followed some hours later by the QM2, who was forced to delay her departure due to a small fire in the engine room, that was shortly put under control. Also ORIANA, who was already underway some miles south, returned to the Tagus in the evening and docked at Jardim do Tabaco berth [where QM2 was previously docked] to disembark an ill passenger. She then left her moorings again and went on for her day at sea voyage to Casablanca, Marocco, having arrived on schedule today.

It isn't the first time that ORIANA and QUEEN MARY 2 meet in Lisbon, it also happened on 9 August 2006, and on that particular day the Cunard flagship, after leaving the Alcântara terminal, went upstream to give a traditional horn salute to ORIANA, before turning downstream again and bound to the open seas. One of those emotional and incomparable moments that only the ships and the sea can provide.

QM2 gives a horn salute to ORIANA in Lisbon - August 2006

Photographic Achivment [2015]: Ricardo Martins

Photographic Achivment [2006]: Luís Miguel Correia

ORIANA in Valencia

ORIANA seen berthed in the port of Valencia, eastern Spanish coast, on 17 November 2015, a sunny Autumm day with clear skies. It is a destination she often visits during her cruises to the Mediterranean.

Photographic Achivment: Agustin Castilla

20 years making calls in Funchal

The port of Funchal, that serves the city of the same name and capital of Portuguese island Madeira, is a well known cruise destination for many past and present P&O ships, and of course ORIANA is not an exception. Being the oldest ship in service of the current fleet, eventually she is the one who knows Funchal the better, and the only one that visited Madeira at the occasion of her maiden voyage, and not only that, it was also the first port of call on that cruise, after the departure from Southampton on 9th April 1995.

Two decades have passed since, and there wasn't a single year that ORIANA skipped a call in Funchal, making several visits usually as part of her Canary Isles or Caribbean Transatlantic itineraries and sometimes during the grand World cruises she often performed.

Left: The P&O house flag and sun logo proudly displayed in the tip of
ORIANA's bow for 20 years
Above right: ORIANA's starboard side bridge wing
Bellow right: Distinctive tender and lifeboat covers inspired
by her predecessor CANBERRA

For us we celebrate the same way we normally do, always looking to write and photograph more about the "Commodore of the fleet" with the same enthusiasm as ever.
Thus we take this opportunity to show some up close images of ORIANA while berthed in Funchal at her most recent call on 30th November 2015, depicting some of common features, as well as some new ones, including her exterior graphics added during the year of her 20th anniversary.

Left: ORIANA's new blue funnel
Right: Union Jack graphic in the bow,
P&O ship's new signature

Photographic Achievment: João Abreu