"As with her cherished namesake and her sister the sacred CANBERRA, old acquaintance will be more than enough to ensure that whenever the great ships of Britain are brought to mind, another ORIANA shall now never be forgot."
Oriana
ORIANA berthed in Funchal as the replica of Columbus SANTA MARIA passes by. 8 October 2015
Having spent 3 days at sea from her successful departure from Southampton ORIANA made her way to first port call, Funchal, Madeira.
ORIANA arrives in Funchal, Madeira 12/4/1995: Luís Filipe Jardim
The Portuguese Island had been an important port for P&O since it's earliest days and since the transition to cruising had been popular among repeat P&O passengers.
As is customary ORIANA and her passengers recived the warmest of Madeiran welcomes, local flowers being presented to the passengers as they stepped off the gangway. Seeing as ORIANA would be remaining in port overnight a fireworks display in her honour was also put on in the evening. Being that this was her first call a group of local enthusiasts visited the ship where a plaque commemorating the call was presented to Commodore Ian Gibb, who in turn presented a plaque featuring ORIANA's own Coat of Arms.
Sunday 9th April 1995 It was a fairly grey overcast Sunday as passengers arrived at Southampton's Mayflower terminal, pulling up in cars, taxis and coaches, their luggage dropped off before joing the check in queue. These are scenes repeated regularly in the port, this occasion however was different for there 1,636 passengers were embarking the Maiden Voyage of ORIANA, ,P&O's newest and first custom built cruise ship, advertised as The First Super liner Built for Britain she perfectly blended modern British cruising tastes with the traditional from teak promenades to her Art Deco/Edwardiana styled interiors. Behind the scenes ORIANA was also a technical marvel her navigational
equipment was the most advanced yet fitted aboard a civilian ship and
her intergrated bridge system wouldn't become standard for another 5
years at least.
Departing her berth ORIANA was escorted by a flotila of small crafts wishing her well as she made her way down Southampton water. Despite the overcast skies and the wind picking up sightseers lined ORIANA's route. Seen below ORIANA passes Cowes on the Isle of Wight on her Maiden Voyage.
Heading into the English Channel ORIANA turned south and made her way down towards her first port of call Funchal, Madeira.
16th August 2019: 7 days after her final P&O Cruise ORIANA found herself in the company of her former fleetmates AURORA and VENTURA for what would be her final hours in Southampton.
One final meeting Photo: Patricia Dempsey
In the week since her last cruise her P&O logo,livery ,name had all been removed and some items had been taken from the ship while temporary names were added to her. On board her new crew (supplied by V.Crew) were joined by some P&O crew who were remaining onboard until her arrival in Asia alongside her new entertainment troupe, provided by Sea Cruise UK. Over the week ORIANA had been in Southampton her departure day and time had constantly changed but finally at little after 8:30am ORIANA/PIANO LAND began to pulling
her lines up and shortly before 9am slipped her berth under the charge
of her V.Ships crew her horn sounding 3 blasts AURORA chimed in with a
final salute to her former fleetmate with 2 short and 1 long blasts.
ORIANA pushes off for the last time Photo: Patricia Dempsey
Heading down Southampton Water passing VENTURA docked in the Ocean Terminal with the two saluting as she passed.
ORIANA passes VENTURA Photo:ABP
ORIANA continued on her way as she had done many times over the years with many happy cruisers on board, only this time her cabins were only occupied with crew members and she wouldn't be returning.
Goodbye ORIANA Photo:Patricia Dempsey
As ORIANA moved on Southampton fell astern as did the Isle of Wight and she headed South towards the Bay of Biscay as she had so many times.
Outbound for the last time
ORIANA was heading to Piraeus,Greece where she would have her new logos and names added. While en route work would also begin on removing unwanted fittings such as furniture in the former Cybercafe and the stripping out the Terrace Bar. Photos: Patricia Dempsey
Two years ago today ORIANA made her way up Southampton water for the final time, her glittering 24 year career with P&O brought to a premature end taking with her the majority of what remaind of the authentic British line that had been so loved by their loyal clientele.
Final arrival taken from on board, Photos: Bob Bowler
As far as P&O and Carnival UK were concerned unique and custom built ships such as ORIANA were no longer relevant to the company, in sad contrast to her intoduction 24 years earlier, all that mattered to the American owned brand was the introduction of the third massed produced Excellence Class ship IONA, a true step backward for the company. As for ORIANA herself before the end of the day she had been handed over to her new owners and her name and bow livery crudely painted over, the letters which proudly stood under her funnel were cut from their supports all the while Paul Ludlow and the rest of his Carnival House team spouted empty platitudes about her service.
Today we say goodbye to a legend of British entertainment and firm favourite on board ORIANA throughout her P&O career, Tom O'Connor who has passed away aged 81. A presenter and comedian Tom will be known to many in the UK for hosting televison game shows throughout the 1970's and 80's such as Name That Tune and Crosswits among others. Trained as a Mathmatics and Music teacher his comedy career started with evening shows in the working men's clubs of Northern England before moving on to tv with a spot on The Comedians which launched Tom's tv career, Quiz shows followed and eventually he was givein his own show, The Tom O'Connor Show a mix of stand up and comedy sketches. Like many entertainers he found his way onto cruise ships and was often to be found on CANBERRA who he would later fondly make jokes about. In 1995 he was among the first entertainers to perform on board P&O's new flagship ORIANA during her Maiden Voyage.
Tom headlines ORIANA Today 11th April 1995
Two years later Tom would be among those on board CANBERRA during her Farewell Cruise. Over the years Tom would remain a firm favourite with the P&O fleet and other lines with British passengers enjoying his familiar sense of humour and often reused jokes.
Departure day, the beginning of your cruise, for seasoned and novice cruisers there is nothing quite like it, often planned months in advance Passports/cruise tickets, check, Packing, double check, Dog, collected yesterday. Then the journey to the cruise terminal, for the majority of those cruising from the UK, the journey to Southampton, nearing the docks a first glimpse of your ships' funnel and upper looking for the correct dock gate, and finally arriving at your terminal ready to show passports and tickets. P&O Cruise 571 departing on the 9th April 1995 was in many respects no different, yet in everyway it was a very different journey the 1800 passengers were about to embark upon not only were they sailing on a Maiden Voyage they were sailing on board ORIANA, the new flagship of Britains oldest shipping company, its first dedicated UK based cruise ship designed with the British passenger in mind standing in contrast to her mass market US cousins. On a technical level ORIANA was a masterpiece of martime design
being the fastest passenger ship built for 25 years and the fastest
purpose built cruise liner in the world while at the same time her
design remained somewhat traditional giving her passengers the best of
both worlds.
In terms of the passengers boarding covered a broad range,mostly
there were regular P&O cruisers members of P&O's POSH club but
there was also passengers who were new to cruising beginning their
"cruising life" with the ship designed to usher in the new era of UK
based crusing, while the majoritiy of passengers were British and had
come from all over the UK to join ORIANA for her maiden sailing there
were some who had travelled from further to join the ship, including from the Netherlands to Australia.
To greet the boarding passengers the first edition of ORIANA
Today the ship's own onboard newspaper they and a letter frm
ORIANA's Master Commodore Ian Gibb, welcoming them on board and sharing
some of the effection which the crew and company had already come to see
ORIANA with.
A warm welcome from Commodore Gibb
It wasn't only for those on boarding who were anticapting ORIANA's
sailing ship spotters and enthusiasts were eager to see her sail and to
that end P&O published the times at which they estimated ORIANA pass
certain points on her journey down the Solent and to the sea as shown
below
With passengers boarding at 4pm the first entertainment held onboard
ORIANA for her fare paying passengers began with Piano music on offer in
The Crow's Nest some or for different tastes there was music being
played in both Harlequins and The Pacific Lounge followed by the obligatory
safety drill held at 5pm and shortly after 6pm to the sound of The
Horn Pipe played by The Band of the Royal Corps of Signals. To begin ORIANA's sea going career her first port of call would reflect
P&O's history and heritage, leaving Southampton behind ORIANA 2 days
at sea would follow before reaching Funchal, Madeira one of P&O's
most popular ports call, here she would spend overnight allowing the
passengers to take in the beauty of the city and islands while a local
Folkloric group would be boarding to entertain the passengers with local
dance and traditions before departing for the Canary Islands. In her 24 year service she would become a familiar sight in those destinations with Madeira in particular having an affinity with the ship over her career.
ORIANA arrives makes her Maiden Call at Funchal, Madeira :Luís Filipe Jardim
ORIANA's Maiden Voyage proved to be resounding success and helped to birth a new short lived era for the company before it demerged the cruise operations 5 years later leading to eventual meger with Carnival to form faceless by the numbers Carnival PLC/UK. In the years since a number of P&O Cruises ships have entered service all promising to be the next generational leap for the company, with the exception of AURORA in 2000 none of the others lived up to the promise ORIANA brought to P&O and the UK cruise market.
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.
