ORIANA 23 Years Young

Southampton, 9th April 1995, ORIANA the largest, fastest and most advanced British passenger liner built for 25 years, embarks her first passengers as the great ship prepared to sail on her Maiden Voyage.
Amongest streamers, a brass band playing and a waiting flotilla of boats to wish her well the new flagship of  P&O Cruises and the British Merchant Navy looked resplendent as her master Commodore Ian Gibb guided her out of Berth 106 and down Southampton Water and onward to her first landfall  Funchal, Madeira.

23 years to the day it is perhaps fitting that ORIANA is alongside in the very port of call she set off for all those years ago Funchal, where she is joined by AIDA PRIMA.
A great many things have changed since April 1995 both with ORIANA/P&O and with the port of Funchal itself but ORIANA still makes for an unmistakable and elegant sight whenever she calls.

ORIANA arrives in Funchal 9/4/18 Photos: Francisco Correia

ORIANA docked in Funchal, 9/4/18