Oriana Final Farewell

[Solent Richard]

FAREWELL ORIANA.

 

As I was finishing a rather late breakfast this morning there passing our place on the Solent was Oriana leaving for her new operations and owners in the Far East.

 

Or was it really ORIANA?

 

P&O's funnel logo had disappeared and the ship had already been renamed 'Pianoland'...

 

 

[Britboys]

A sad day indeed.  I guess at least she is not off to the breakers.... 😢.  Farewell my favourite.

[Selbourne]

Yes, very sad. We did our first cruise on Oriana in 1995, to Istanbul and have never forgotten it. We had watched a documentary series called ‘Supership Oriana’ which covered the design, build, fit out, sea trials and entry into service of the ‘first cruise ship designed and built specifically for the U.K. market’. We decided to give cruising a go as the ship really appealed. We were quite apprehensive, knowing that we would be much younger than most other cruisers (less than half the age, as it turned out) and even went to Ballroom Dancing lessons thinking that it was almost compulsory (we were hopeless, so went to the pub instead in fits of laughter).

 

Many years later we had a very enjoyable 2 weeks in the Baltic on Oriana, when the ship got absolutely covered in a swarm of ladybirds in Travemunde and we carried millions of them around the Baltic for a few days, the crew sweeping up piles of them each day as they expired. We also had our best meals at sea in Oriana Rhodes. Sadly, when my wife became wheelchair bound and we needed an accessible balcony cabin we had to abandon Oriana as she has no provision, so our new favourite is Aurora. Let’s hope that she has many more years left in her. 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Selbourne

[Babyeddiedog]

Oriana will always hold a place in my heart,. As a travel agency manager I was offered my first ever educational on her, a 10 day trip  to the Canaries. What a wonderful experience, I would never have tried cruising without her, and I encouraged many friends and clients to try her out. Needless to say they loved her too. Buon viaggio 😪

[Host Sharon]

A sad loss to the UK cruise industry. The perfect cruise ship IMO - lots of rooms for different activities to run concurrently, lovely open teak decks, good in bad weather, ideal size - not too big and not too small. 

[janny444]

Unfortunately I have never cruised  on the Oriana....sounds like I have missed a wonderful experience and neither have I cruised on the Aurora but that will be rectified next April.

Is the Aurora similar in design and ambience to the Oriana and also does Aurora have the wide teak promenade deck and open teak decks ?

 

I have cruised on the Oceana which I loved.

[bee-ess]

Very sad to see Oriana leave, we have been on Oriana more times than any other P&O ship and wish we had booked one for this year.

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, janny444 said:

Unfortunately I have never cruised  on the Oriana....sounds like I have missed a wonderful experience and neither have I cruised on the Aurora but that will be rectified next April.

Is the Aurora similar in design and ambience to the Oriana and also does Aurora have the wide teak promenade deck and open teak decks ?

 

I have cruised on the Oceana which I loved.

Very similar layout but with quite a different interior decor, apart from Anderson's.  Ambience quite similar too.  She does indeed have a nice promenade, with the lovely tired stern too - all with lots of teak.  Quite different to Oceana though.  Hope you have a great cruise on Aurora.

[AndyMichelle]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, very sad. We did our first cruise on Oriana in 1995, to Istanbul and have never forgotten it. We had watched a documentary series called ‘Supership Oriana’ which covered the design, build, fit out, sea trials and entry into service of the ‘first cruise ship designed and built specifically for the U.K. market’. We decided to give cruising a go as the ship really appealed. We were quite apprehensive, knowing that we would be much younger than most other cruisers (less than half the age, as it turned out) and even went to Ballroom Dancing lessons thinking that it was almost compulsory (we were hopeless, so went to the pub instead in fits of laughter).

 

Many years later we had a very enjoyable 2 weeks in the Baltic on Oriana, when the ship got absolutely covered in a swarm of ladybirds in Travemunde and we carried millions of them around the Baltic for a few days, the crew sweeping up piles of them each day as they expired. We also had our best meals at sea in Oriana Rhodes. Sadly, when my wife became wheelchair bound and we needed an accessible balcony cabin we had to abandon Oriana as she has no provision, so our new favourite is Aurora. Let’s hope that she has many more years left in her. 

What a lovely story of how you got the cruising bug Selbourne, thank you for sharing.

We never got to sail on Oriana, but, like you, hope Aurora has many years left in her.

Andy

 

[Bedruthen]

Our first cruise was on Oriana in 2002. We always blame her for our subsequent addiction to cruising, although we never found a ship that we felt matched her for elegance. We returned to her in 2016, but she did feel then like an old lady gently slipping into her dotage.  Tomorrow we embark on our first cruise on Britannia, although I fear she will not steal our hearts in the way Oriana did

[P&O SUE]

Very sad, I only went on one cruise on her but I loved it.

[AndyMichelle]

56 minutes ago, Bedruthen said:

Our first cruise was on Oriana in 2002. We always blame her for our subsequent addiction to cruising, although we never found a ship that we felt matched her for elegance. We returned to her in 2016, but she did feel then like an old lady gently slipping into her dotage.  Tomorrow we embark on our first cruise on Britannia, although I fear she will not steal our hearts in the way Oriana did

Have a fantastic time on Britannia, we love her despite thinking we wouldn't and have just booked another one..

Andy

 

[Slugsta]

Goodbye Oriana. We too have happy memories of her.

[Kendo44]

I took my fiancé on her first cruise in 2013 on Oriana.

it was my third cruise on her.

now she is going on her 15th cruise in October.

i was a cruise addict before I met her and Oriana kept it going so I’m really grateful she gave my fiancé a great introduction to cruising.

[Clodia]

We first sailed on Oriana when she was a family ship and my daughter loved her. She went adult only the year my daughter turned 18 so I arranged a post A Level cruise on her to Iceland and Norway, where we were upgraded to a mini suite and had a wonderful time. Done 2 more on her as a solo, but had to have outside cabins as I really couldn't afford the solo supplement for the tiny number of balconies she has. Unfortunately the last of those cruises was the one that I feel broke her; she froze up in unprecedented low tempaeratures of minus 27 in Alta last Feb/March. There was no heating for 2 days; the engineers worked round the clock to get things working again, and once lunch was cooked in the dark in the galley! Then all the pipes burst as we sailed south.

That cruise was a great adventure, with several Northern Lights displays, and I'm glad I was on it. But I've noticed so many breakdowns on Oriana since and don't think she ever really recovered. That combined with the few balconies and inefficient fuel probabaly made her demise inevitable, if so sad!

Edited August 17, 2019 by Clodia
typos

[jeanlyon]

What a ridiculous name??!!

 

I have had many cruises on her.  Lovely ship.

[tartanexile81]

50 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

What a ridiculous name??!!

 

I have had many cruises on her.  Lovely ship.

 

Not really if you read the article which explains why. In summary, it is based on PandO. Also te ship has been sold with its baby grands which are highly valued in China and a big feature is to be made of them - hence PianoLand

 

I've only cruised a handful of times on Oriana and of the old-style ships she was our favourite, head and shoulders above Aurora and Oceana but our memories of her have been skewed by how badly P&O treated us and many others when they cancelled our cruise which we should have been doing now  and offered us derisory compensation 

Edited August 17, 2019 by tartanexile81

[jeanlyon]

I like Aurora better now.  Interesting.

[tartanexile81]

I prefer Britannia!

[snaefell]

On 8/16/2019 at 4:26 PM, Selbourne said:

 ‘first cruise ship designed and built specifically for the U.K. market’.

Didn't P&O say something like that about Britannia?

 

Sad to see her go,still a handsome looking vessel IMO

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

Didn't P&O say something like that about Britannia?

 

Sad to see her go,still a handsome looking vessel IMO

Not quite but their 'strapline' now is "Biggest ship built specifically for the UK market"...  That's what they said about Britannia and what they are saying about Iona.

[Presto2]

We sailed from Athens last week and I am sure that we saw Oriana there in dry dock. It was sad to see and we have never sailed on her. Oceana was also in port that day so bet some crew noticed her.

:-(

[snaefell]

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

We sailed from Athens last week and I am sure that we saw Oriana there in dry dock. It was sad to see and we have never sailed on her. Oceana was also in port that day so bet some crew noticed her.

😞

When I last checked the ship positioning system she was showing in the Suez Canal with her next stop showing as Sri Lanka

[Presto2]

This was the 24th so if it wasn't her then not sure which former P&O ship it was as it was definitely a former P&O ship

[showingdiva]

8 hours ago, Presto2 said:

This was the 24th so if it wasn't her then not sure which former P&O ship it was as it was definitely a former P&O ship

 

I replied on the other thread, but yes, it was definitely Piano Land (Oriana) you saw in Piraeus.  She arrived there on the 23rd (since left and on the way to Colombo via Port Said).