Still the Norwegian Fjords

As ORIANA is currently underway back to Norway and to the port of Andalsnes, we share some more images from her previous cruise, depicting her last call in the destination mentioned above on 25 February, where she is seen during a snow shower, and also a stern shot taken at dusk while berthed in Alta three days later. The author describes the temperature being -18º at that moment!

ORIANA is currently performing the exact same itinerary as the previous one, a 12 night cruise calling in Andalsnes, then Tromso, Alta and finally Stavanger, before returning to Southampton on the 18 March, where she will once again prepare to cross the Atlantic Ocean westbound to the Caribbean on a 24 night voyage.

Images: MattyBoy

ORIANA in Åndalsnes

Today during her latest cruise to Norway in search of the Aurora Borealis ORIANA called in town of Åndalsnes in the Isfjorden a branch of the Romsdalsfjorden the ninth largest fjord in Norway which is located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county.

While ORIANA will not be visiting Norway again this year her call marks the first call at Åndalsnes of a P&O ship in 2016 the last will be by her near sister AURORA in September.

ORIANA sails through the Romsdalsfjorden

 Leaving the Romsdalsfjorden ORIANA is now once again heading north along the Norwegian coast at an avarage of speed of 15 to 17 knots  on route to Tromsø 400 km inside the Arctic circle it is Norway’s most northerly city where she will arrive in early hours of the 13th here ORIANA will overnight before heading to Alta.

Photographic Achievement: Leif Johnny Olestad

ORIANA in the village of Flåm

ORIANA seen last week in the port of Flåm, Norway on 5 March, surrounded by a stunning snowy landscape, typical of the Norwegian Winter season. Just like in Stavanger a few days before, she was also the first cruise ship of 2016 in Flåm, although some months ahead of the cruise season in Northern Europe.

Flåm is a village in Flåmsdalen, located in the municipality of Aurland in the Sogn og Fjordane county (Western Norway). It is part of the Aurlandsfjord, itself a branch of the Sognefjord, the largest and most well known fjord in Norway and the second longest in the World.

At the moment ORIANA is once again at sea, bound for Northern climes in search of the Northern lights, being scheduled to arrive in the port of Andalsnes on the 11 March.

This has become something of a tradition for ORIANA over the last 3 years, alongside longer transatlantic cruises of 20 to 50 nights.

ORIANA homeward bound leaving Flåm and the Aurlandsfjord.

Photographic Achievement: Tomas Østberg- Jacobsen

The first cruise ship call of the year in Stavanger

ORIANA was the first cruise ship of 2016 to arrive at the Norwegian port of Stavanger, on 27 February, as depicted in this video produced by Harald Oanes.
The "Commodore" of P&O's fleet will return to this port already on 18 March, during the following Norwegian Fjords cruise. Afterwards she will not be back to Norway this year, spending in the other hand her Summer months mainly cruising in the Mediterranean and Western Europe.

ORIANA leaving Bergen

ORIANA has made recently her first appearance in the Norwegian fjords under her new colours, and in the image she is seen leaving Bergen bound for her homeport of Southampton.
At present she is on her way to Norway again, on a 14 day cruise calling in Tromso, Alta, Bergen and Stavanger.
Although the famous northern lights, which occur frequently at this time of the year in the northern regions of Norway, are surely the main attraction of this itinerary, yesterday its passengers were lucky enough to witness another phenomenon, a total solar eclipse onboard ORIANA, as she called in the port of Thorshavn (Faroe Islands) which, alongwith the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, were the two only places in the World where it was possible to see this rare event in whole.
Image by Tom Gulbrandsen.

ORIANA the video star

Like many subjects ships and shipspotting features in many videos on video shareing sites such as Youtube and of those many feature our very own ORIANA one such video is featured below and shows ORIANA departing Geiranger, Norway on the 12th June 2012  and was filmed from the then brand new AIDA MAR.  It offers a great view of the ship as slides serenely past the AIDA MAR and even features the authors and founder of this blog among the passengers standing above the bridge forward of the Oasis Spa and Hair Salon.

 Meanwhile back in the present today sees ORIANA returning to one of P&O's favourite ports of call Funchal in Madeira and makes the second Portuguese call in so many days having sailed from Lisbon on Monday.

ORIANA's passangers watch the approch to the Ponte 25 de Abril (25th of April Bridge) departing Lisbon.

Webcams showing ORIANA in Funchal.

ORIANA is due to depart Funchal at 17:30  when she sails for La Palma.

More of ORIANA in Geirangerfjord

 Below we present several photos recently sent to us of ORIANA at anchor in the Geirangerfjord 12th June during the authors cruise on board.

Many thanks to Phil Green for sharing with us.

Upcoming "blog cruise"

From this Saturday (9th June) the authors of the blog will be undertaking  7 night cruise on board the magnificent ORIANA as she takes a week cruising around some of the famous fjords of Western Norway.

 During the cruise ORIANA will call at some of Norway's most famous ports of call such as the City of Bergen Norway's second largest city and former capital which is famed for the buildings of old  Bryggen area of the city.
Other ports of call include Geiranger a Unesco world heritage site and home to the picturesque village of the same name.

More info can be found on the cruise on P&O's website : http://www.pocruises.com/Cruises/2012-13-cruises/Southampton-Cruises1/Norway--Fjords-X207/?mode=overview

ORIANA in Bergen

Highlights of ORIANA's most recent call in Bergen on 23th May 2012. Bergen and other ports of the Norwegian Fjords will have a special coverage soon here in the blog and in our facebook page that you can visit Here.
Photographic Achivement by Nuno Jesus.

ORIANA in Stavanger; Norway

ORIANA is here seen outbound Stavanger on 20th May 2012 after a sunny spring day in this famous norwegian cruise port.

Like many other cruise ships, ORIANA will call regularly to the Norwegian Fjords and Baltic until September, taking advantage of the good weather of Nothern Europe now in the Summer.
Images of ORIANA leaving the port of Stavanger by Harald Oanes. Click Here for more of Harald's ship photos and more.