Post COVID return to service?

 Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the  cruise industry earlier this year a common question  has  been when will crusing resume?                                                                                                                           ORIANA as PIANO LAND the propaganda flagship of the Domestic Chinese market had her sailings suspended on the 29th of January and has spent most of the last 8 months idle in a lay up vastly different from her former fleet mates back in the UK.

In service with Astro Ocean Cruises

During the course of the year with stories from China itself and the World Health World Health Organization relating to the the state of the virus in the in the country it has been interesting to see when the ship would return to service.
With China being the progenitor of the virus and it's "effective" and "swift" measures being a complete uncomfirmed success it had been widely reported by experts that it would lead the cruise industry into recovery and be the first to return to service, this of course did not come to pass.
During this hiatus ORIANA herself has been for the most part laid up making very short trips out to sea and returning to dock within an hour, a contrast to her former P&O fleet mates who have been constantly sailing between ports on England's south coast.
During April she headed to Zhoushan where Cruise Industry News reported that she would be entering drydock for work alongside new HVAC equipment being installed and a new grade of suites being added with a view to resuming service sooner rather than later
While she didn't enter drydock some work was carried out.

Still in need of a new lick of paint ORIANA departs the Zhoushan shipyard.

 Aside from rumours there has been lack of information coming out China related to it's cruise activities  with only the most broad predictions of the ships returning to service however finally a date has finally been announced and according to Astro Ocean's offical website they will resume their own operations tomorrow, the 12th December although like many things relating to the company and China as a whole there are pleanty of questions left unaswered.

Despite the above banner appearing on Astro Ocean's website the only cruises on sale are 3 cruises scheduled to take place between the 23rd July 2021 and 2nd August 2021.
The first a 2 night party cruise to and from Xiamen, and the second   5 night cruise departing from Xiaman and touring around Japan ending in Qingdao in the Shandong province of China.
For the last of the 3 cruises she once again will head round Japan before returning to Qingdao.