ORIANA - A Media Sensation

From the keel laying of ORIANA  in 1993 right up to her naming and Maiden Voyage in April 1995 ORIANA became virtually a celebritiy in the eyes of the British media.
Whith the internet as we know it to day in it's infancy there was no checking forums or live feeds from shipyards we have today instead newspaper articles and news reports covered the ship and developements related to her entry into service.

Not since the days of the Ocean liners when they were the pride of a nation had a single ship seemed so important, the first custom designed cruise liner for the rapidly growing British Market, she would also be one of the largest passengers in service, at the time the by far the largest passenger ship in service was NCL's 1962 built NORWAY at 77,000 tons formally FRANCE the last of the French Line's fleet of super liners.
For ORIANA the list features and numbers the media P&O and the media could boast about were almost limitless, the fastest ship built for 25 years , the first ship since 1967 to be named by Queen Elizabeth II, the largest swimming pool ever to go to sea, the largest ship built in Germany since 1914 and all the arrangements that were required to allow her leave the Meyer Werft yard
As with any news story was always those who would throw a negative light on things and this would those who tried push the fact that the new pride of Britain was German built a little digging on the part of the writers of such stories would of course soon found the reasons why being British built wasn't an option.

With ORIANA's arrival in the UK and media went into overdrive with footage on board making it onto prime time news broardcasts.

And the naming day 6th April 1995 was no exception.

After the publicity of her entry into service ORIANA quickly settled into her role and became the ship of choice of many cruise passenger and today still enjoys a loyal following .
In the years since her arrival many ships entering service  have enjoyed coverage in a similar vain to what ORIANA including 9 years later QUEEN MARY 2, indeed last year P&O's latest and largest ship BRITANNIA's arrival with all the coverage it received did in many ways echo the arrival of ORIANA 20 years earlier.