MV Oriana 2005 cruise review

With Reuben Goossens

Cruise’n’Travel Journalist / Cruise Reviewer & Maritime Historian

P&O Cruises UK

MV Oriana

2005 World Cruise Review

Brisbane - Southampton

MV Oriana seen in the Whitsunday’s on 18 February 2005

All photographs on this review are © Copyright & taken by Reuben Goossens & Mr. Hun-Eng Tan

Except where marked otherwise

Please Note: Cruise-Australia is a non-commercial and privately owned cruise site. The author has been in the passenger shipping industry since 1960 and is currently semi-retired, but continues to write cruise and ship reviews and articles in order to better to inform cruise and ship enthusiasts and provide information for those intending a cruise in the future.

Introduction

I had the pleasure of sailing on Oriana for 42 delightful days, sailing from Brisbane Australia to Southampton England. This review will cover various aspects of the cruise experience, including the ships condition, on board service, cuisine and entertainment, etc.

Please Note: This cruise was part of a three-month personal vacation; therefore, the author cruised at his own expense.

Venues and facility mentioned on this page have a link. These will direct you to a page containing a description and photographs of the said venue/facility. This review features 162 fine photographs of MV Oriana, covering every aspect of the ship.

At the conclusion, if you have enjoyed this review and wish to make a comment, you are welcome to email me.

Reuben Goossens

Author, Maritime Historian and Lecturer

A little history

Her Majesty the Queen named Oriana (2) in Southampton on April 6, 1995. The traditional ceremony was attended by 2,500 guests and was the high point of a week of festivities, which marked Oriana's inauguration. The ship sailed on her maiden voyage on Sunday, April 9, 1995.

Oriana was built by Meyer-Werft of Papenburg in Germany and was built specifically for the British market. She operates cruises out of Southampton, as well as an annual round the world voyage. Oriana's design was based by her famous forerunner SS Canberra. With the latest technology and ultra modern facilities, she retains that touch of P&O’s classic tradition. Her elegant lines and tiered curved stern harks back to the golden age of sea travel. Once on board, you will discover that Oriana has a vast variety of elegant restaurants, bars, clubs, cabarets, lounges and a Broadway style Showroom. Accommodation includes sumptuous suites, deluxe staterooms, both with balconies, as well as balcony staterooms. In addition, there are spacious outside cabins, most with large windows as well as inside cabins.

Boarding Oriana

On arrival at the wharf, it was obvious that security was at a premium, giving boarding passengers a feeling of security. The gleaming white Oriana towered above Hamilton wharf and she was an impressive sight indeed. Her hull and superstructure was spotless with not a single spot of rust, there was simply not a single smudge to be seen anywhere. Upon boarding, it became obvious this same level of maintenance continued throughout the ship. As you board this fine lady, you will soon realise that Oriana is very much an English ship, designed by and for the English, as he cruises from Southampton for nine months of the year. The efficient boarding experience combined with her ambience and charm made passengers feel welcome. This cruise certainly started on a good footing.

Accommodation

Cabin D197 is located starboard on Deck 8. It is perfectly located, just forward of Tiffany Court, which is located on the top level of the four deck atrium. Cabin D198, an outside cabin, has a large panoramic window; twin beds (can be configured as a queen size bed).

The authors cabin - cabin D197

This cabin, like all accommodations on board features spacious wardrobes with more than sufficient drawer space, a TV, fridge, safe, tea and coffee making facilities, a corner sofa with a round coffee table, a writing desk with chair and a bathroom with shower (being my preferred option). This, together with its décor made it a good home away from home for the next 41 nights.

Public Rooms

Oriana’s vast variety of public rooms provided the perfect venue to suit your mood and activity. There is the quiet ambience of the champagne and caviar bar Anderson’s.

Anderson’s

The elegant Curzon Room is the venue for the regular classical concerts and on various days the art auctions. Crows Nest, set atop the ship, is the room with a view over the bow. During the day, Crows Nest is popular room for reading morning tea, whilst a night, music will fill the room from its portside bandstand.

Tiffany’s Chocolate and Espresso bar

Other venues are the popular chocolate and espresso bar, Tiffany’s atop the four level Atrium, the ships Pub, Lords Tavern, Harlequins Night Club, Monte Carlo Club, catering for those who like to play the tables, Jackpot’s has ample slots machines. Crichton’s is the ever busy Card Room; the Library has a vast number of books, videos and DVD’s on offer. The adjoining Thackeray Room is the reading and writing room. Up on D Deck Chaplin’s Cinema, the art gallery Peter Pan’s and Decibel’s teenage club and children’s pool and playground. Up on Sun Deck is Cyb@Study, but may I recommend that you avoid it as much as possible as internet facilities on board are the most expensive combined with the slowest service I have encountered on any ship worldwide. Be wise, head for an internet cafe whilst in port. Cost was 10 UK pounds for one hour. At one time, 1 email cost 3 UK pounds to send. Ridiculous!

Entertainment

Oriana has two showrooms both are located on Promenade Deck. Aft is the Pacific Lounge, an intimate venue offering a host of cabarets, featuring vocalists, comedians and magicians. Forward is the magnificent Theatre Royal being the venue of the “Oriana Theatre Company” Broadway style productions. The theatre is an impressive room, however, air-conditioning in this room is quite inadequate and it can become quite warm and uncomfortable, especially on the frequent formal nights. Theatre Royal is also used for concerts and stage plays. One night we enjoyed a hilarious play featuring guest actor Sue Hodge, who played Mimi in the TV comedy “Allo Allo.”

Having been on many cruises, I did feel that some of the “Oriana Theatre Company” on this particular cruise did look and sounded somewhat inexperienced. I found that their shows lacked panache and I have seen better on previous voyages.

Theatre Royal

During our 42 day cruise we were entertained by some top class cabarets, shows and concerts. We particularly enjoyed the classical concerts features in both the Curzon Room and Pacific Lounge. These included the brilliant classical guitarists, Sam Piha and Martin Vishnick, fine pianists David McArthur and Allan Schiller and the superb “Classical Connections,” being a five member Opera Company.

“Classical Connections” Opera Company in the Pacific Lounge

Cuisine

Food was simply excellent, well presented, combined with excellent service. However, the buffet (the Conservatory) tends to be very crowded and the food is usually only just warm. For me it was a place to avoid at all costs. Although an attractive venue, the atmosphere and food was very average.

Décor in both the Peninsular and Oriental Restaurants was pleasing. Tables varied from two to eight seats. We dinned in the spacious Oriental Restaurant, which has large windows on three sides of the room, giving magnificent ocean vistas. However, frequently we experienced excessive vibration and engine noise, which was, to say the least, extremely annoying. The Peninsular Restaurant is by far the better option! We had the option to move to the Peninsular Restaurant, however, we were blessed with four of the best dinning companions you could wish for - George and Annette, George and Eileen, you “are simply the best!”

Peninsular Restaurant

Other dinning venues are as follows. The excellent Alfresco Café forward starboard side on Deck 12 is the twenty-four hour café. Menus change throughout the day. The floor to ceiling windows gives this compact room a spacious feel. Tiffany’s, located on D Deck, is the popular chocolate and espresso bar. However, both a light breakfast and lunch are served here in a delightfully casual and relaxed atmosphere. At nights there are two alternative dinning venues, Le Jardin Bistro, located on the port side of the Conservatory, and the outdoor Terrace Grill. Both have a cover charge of £4.75.

Cruise Experience

P&O has obviously worked hard to make the cruise experience on any of their ships a good one. Service on board was provided by British, Indian and Filipino crew who were always at the ready with a friendly smile. Bar and restaurant stewards soon came to know your likes, as well as your preferred drinks. The combination of an excellent ship, excellent accommodations, the vast variety of public rooms, cuisine, entertainment, three pools, five Jacuzzis and the vast amount of deck space, made the cruise generally a pleasurable one. I have given our cruise experience 8 out of 10.

Dress Code

The main complaint by most non English, Irish, Scottish passengers is always in relation the many formal nights. These are held almost every third/fourth night. Other nights were equally divided between informal and casual dress. However, informal still means a collar and tie. Air-Conditioning on board tended to be more suited to the English passengers, who preferred a warmer climate, which also means that the Theatre Royal, Pacific Showroom, and the Crows Nest tends to be far too warm, especially during formal nights or in a collar and tie, etc. In addition, in the Restaurants, the Theatre, Andersons and Crows Nest, the dress code is strictly enforced and passengers who may have removed a tie or jacket are asked to wear them or leave the venue. And the female Asian barmaid in the Crows nest does this and not to politely as well. It needs to be said that she was the exception to the rule on Oriana, as all the bas and serving staff at Crows nest was embarrassed by her and her mannerisms, but she was the senior on duty.

Final Comments

Oriana is without doubt a wonderful ship, this combined with excellent the service she is a ship to be recommended. I do hope P&O will wisely treat future world cruises as truly International cruises, suitable for all nationalities, for lets face it, they do heavily market this cruise both in Australia and New Zealand. In spite of this, I have to say that I and my travelling partner thoroughly enjoyed the cruise. And will have long and happy memories of our time on her.

The author in his favourite lounge - Crows Nest

The author previously enjoyed a good number of world voyages (sectors) on SS Canberra, MV Aurora and MV Arcadia (ex Star Princess). The author sailed many times between Australia and the UK in the 60’s and 70’s on the P&O ships of the day. This Oriana cruise was my 108^th cruise/line voyage.

Oriana’s Specifications

Gross tonnage 69,153 tons

Length 260 metres (853 feet)

Breadth 32.2 metres (106 feet)

Draught 7.9 metres (26 feet)

Service speed 24 knots

Main Engines 4 x MAN medium speed diesels

Auxiliary Engines 4x MAN medium speed diesels

Propellers 2 - each with 4 blades and a diameter of 5.8m (19 feet)

Bow thrusters 3 - each of 1,500 KW (2,000 horse power)

Stern thrusters 1 - of 1,500 KW (2,000 horse power)

Rudders 2 - with a maximum angle of 45° for improved manoeuvring performance

Stabilisers 2 x Brown Bros folding fin, each 21m2 (226 sq feet)

Passengers 1,810

Passenger cabins 914 - 594 outside (118 with balconies) including 8 Suites, 16 mini-suites, 8 designed for disabled passengers - 320 inside

Crew 794. Officers British

Passenger decks 10

View the Deck Plan

All photographs in this review are © Copyright & taken by Reuben Goossens & Mr. Hun-Eng Tan

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When sending an email please name the ship you are requesting information or speaking about!

However, if you are interested in a cruise, I am happy to refer you to a dedicated cruise agent in Australia, New Zealand or further afield on my recommended “cruise agents” page, for these are agents that specialise in cruising and they will be able offer excellent service you and the best fares available! Be assured, I do NOT receive any commissions or favours from these agents, and in the vast majority of cases these agents will not even be aware of my, or mu site’s involvement, as I provide the enquirer with the requested information of the agents (in their region) including their contact details. Reuben Goossens.

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