Oriana Final Farewell

[snaefell]

I knew she had been in Piraeus but couldn't remember when,what is her final destination?

[Chrisdriving]

On 17 August 2019 at 6:19 PM, tartanexile81 said:

 

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 

Really? We were on X913 and the Carnival people onboard told us Pianoland means Beautiful Island in Chinese.

[showingdiva]

27 minutes ago, snaefell said:

I knew she had been in Piraeus but couldn't remember when,what is her final destination?

 

Xiamen.

 

Gulangyu Island in Xiamen is also known to the locals as Piano Land.

[snaefell]

Interesting,we should be sailing past Xiamen around 12th October,must keep my eyes peeled,knowing my luck it will be dark!

[DamianG]

Farewell our favourite ship by far. Our 1st cruise on her was 18 nights to Egypt in 2008 where we only had half a day in port (Malaga) in the first 7 days. It was probably the most sociable cruise I can ever remember as we got to know quite a few passengers outside our party during that first week, definitely helped by the size of the ship which meant that you met people then actually saw them again (unlike on some of the biggest ships these days). 

We followed that up with a memorable 17 night Easter cruise in 2011 which included Venice and we have fond memories of cruising away from that port sat out at the tiered stern with classical music playing. We are by no means classical music fans or experts but it was perfect for the setting. We also tried the Gary Rhodes restaurant on that cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it (and the man himself said good morning to us when passing on a staircase).

Our final adventure was a 17 night Christmas and New Year cruise where the staff made a real effort with Carol Concerts etc and I (nervously) delivered the readings at a packed Midnight Mass. It felt like every crew member who attended wanted to shake my hand afterwards. Great memories.

[tartanexile81]

On 9/1/2019 at 5:15 PM, Chrisdriving said:

Really? We were on X913 and the Carnival people onboard told us Pianoland means Beautiful Island in Chinese.

 

Really?  Not what we were told