Oriana Cruise Ship

3 readers found this review helpful

went on oriana,5-7-2011,17 nights,music festival at sea was the theme,not sure why, there was absolutely nothing festive about any single part of the trip.entertainment the worst I have ever seen in all the years I have cruised food while ok was never what could be remotely described as hot.never saw any ice cream, or strawberries the whole trip.most po. ships have a bar where male passengers can get together for a pint and a natter about their favourite football teams,for example on aurora this would be champions bar.nothing remotely like that on this ship,the lord taverners is a bar on board this ship which gives the appearance of being a normal bar but is not,you are not allowed to talk amongst yourselves,the entertainment team that practically live in this bar do a quiz all day and all night in this bar frown on people who would just like to sit and talk with friends and are constantly interrupting you to get involved with whatever it is that they are doing. and if people have the audacity to try and have a conversation whilst they are doing whatever it is they are doing, they simply turn the microphone up full blast.you are not allowed to sit and relax at all.and beyond the shadow of a doubt this is a floating nursing home for the elderly and infirm.to give you a clue, the busiest person on this ship,is at all times........you.................guessed it.........the doctor. never again,for us.

we have just returned from a party cruise to Belgium, i found the ship very clean, the food was amazing, the staff friendly and helpful, i would certainly go again.

6 readers found this review helpful

We went on the Oriana for New Year to Madeira (fabulous for the New Years Eve fireworks), the Canaries and then back via Lisbon and Vigo.
We were disappointed with the ship, which we felt was rather shabby. Our cabin had rust round the bathroom door, and the toilet was terribly stained (though clean). I didn't feel the service was up to the standards we have had before, with drinks service being slow in both the Oriental restaurant and the bars, and the cabin steward often trying to service our room at about 8pm, which is when we were getting ready for dinner (second sitting). He also didn't fold our towels up, which I'm sure he should have done.
The entertainment was disappointing - we have seen many of the shows before - and the films were generally pretty dire (one in particular was so bad we really wondered why anyone had spent any money on it!). We normally use our cruises to catch up on what we have missed at the cinema, but not this time....
The average age was probably well over retirement age, but there were quite a few younger people on board (30s and 40s), and - apparently - 80 or so children (who didn't bother us at all).
The main gripe was about the New Year's eve/day party, which was due to finish on deck at 12.45 and then transfer to Harlequins, but actually went on until 2.30am! As we were on A deck (NOT to be recommended), it was really like having the disco (and dancing, which transmitted right through the ceiling) in our room. Apparently they had many complaints about this, and it wasn't funny if you were booked on a trip for 8am the next day (which - thankfully - we weren't).

5 readers found this review helpful

Have just returned from a cruise round the Canary Islands on the Oriana, and this is our first P&O cruise, and never again will we cruise with P&O. Twice we had wine glass with lipstick on, the crew when you left the ship and came back on were very surly, no greeting, The Conservatory was like a canteen and most of the time only one side was open, hence very long queues! Cabin was adequate but could have been a bit bigger, very difficult to go to the wardrobes and into the bathroom at the same time. Penisular Restaurant you could not fault, nor the staff waiting on us and the same goes for our cabin attendant. Entertainment each day was roughly the same, and in the evening one of the acts was given the sack because he was so bad! No a good experience which is a same as we really looked forward to a cruise with P&O, believe that the ship is going in for a refit, which it certainly could do with.

13 readers found this review helpful

Just returned from a cruise to the Canaries.
On the plus side the staff were excellent and we rated most of the food good to excellent.I'd agree with other reviewers that the Conservatory was a bun fight.Also our 2 kids (9 & 13) were very well looked after and gave the trip 9/10.
On the minus side the ship,whilst very clean,felt dated and in need of a facelift.
Also,and this comment is made with respect,the trip was surreal in that most of the other guests were aged over 70 - we are in our 40's.We lost count of the number of times that we were driven into or over by wheelchairs and mobility scooters - funny to begin with but it wore thin after a while!My wife who is a hospital doctor described parts of the holiday as like being on one of her wards.
It was an unfortunate consequence of this that the entertainment was aimed very much at the 70 plus market which left my wife and I somewhat bemused.In fact the entertainment was,from what we saw,and from what we heard from many of the older guests pretty poor.
In summary we felt that P&O should have warned us that the cruise was aimed at an older passenger and indeed our kids were told that the Oriana will become an "adults only" boat in due course - how dull.
It was clear that many of the other passengers felt that kids should be excluded already given the amount of moaning they did every time a child came within 100 yards of their wheelchair/zimmer/walker/scooter/oxygen supply/G&T.
The trip was an experience with some positives but not one that we would repeat.You can get better value for money elsewhere.

6 readers found this review helpful

For our first ever cruise we chose to Round the World in 82 nights on the Oriana - it was a huge gamble but one that paid off in spades. We had the time of our lives and contrary to many of the reviews here we found the standard of food in the main Peninsula Restaurant to be excellent. It is certainly the quieter of the two restaurants. The evening shows varied from a poor comedian to absolutely brilliant musicians but the best evenings were those where we were entertained by the house resident singers and dancers. We were able to improve our dancing skills, learn to paint with water colours, make some fabulous clay models and we learned so much about the different cultures around the world. If you want to follow our story in more detail then go to our blog http://oriana2009.blogspot.com/ which we wrote up and published just about every night after the evening show. We are due to go around the eastern Mediterranean in April 2011 on Oriana, so wish us well.

12 readers found this review helpful

We hae travelled on Oriana 8 times and we just love the ship. The staff are wonderful, the food is delicious and the whole Oriana experience is terrific. I cannot understand how anyone can fault it. Perhaps they have had things too easy in life and do not appreciate the luxury of being pampered.

8 readers found this review helpful

Just returned from a cruise to the baltic magnificent weather and fabulous places.However the oriana is the worst cruise ship i have been on.The food especially the meat was uneatable the rest was not up to a works canteen standard.The so called entertainment very sub standard none at all on the sun decks unlike all the other cruise lines i have been on.The attitude of the staff was unhelpful with a take it leave it approach.
To crown all i caught a bug on board and finished up in hospital on my return home.
P AND O OH NO DONT GO

8 readers found this review helpful

We choose to go on the Oriana as it was going to the destinations that we wanted to visit .When we arrived at the docks in our car our cases were out of the boot before we were out of the car ,we were told to board the ship we waited about 30mins then we were checked in when we boarded we were told to go to the conservatory allday restaurant for lunch to wait for the cabins to be ready .We had a nice lunch & met fellow pasangers we were very happy that our cabin was large & had a balcony ,entertainment was good plenty of activities if you wanted ,the food was firstclass the only problem was a lot of vibration from the engine although our cabin was a high one .when we were in the restaurant at night theengine was very noisy .we enjoyed ourselves it's a nice way to see the world only unpacking once ||

1 reader found this review helpful

This was our third cruise with P&O in the last eighteen month and each cruise has slowely deteriorated generally. Our suite was good and a super Steward. Breakfast in The Conservatory was an absolute bunfight. The Oriental restaurant was very nice but that cannot be said for the food - the vegetables were frequently undercooked and cold and on one occasion I had to send my dinner back as it was completely cold. The food generally was very poor and P&O are certainly cutting back on the little nieceties of life!!!! The waiters did,nt ask any of the diners at our table if they wanted additional helpings even when they had food left on their serving dishes. The gentlemen had to keep asking for additional helpings. They felt very embarrassed. The loos were frequently out of order and smelt. The staff on board were very poorly trained and (taking plates away whilst your companion was still eating). They seemed a very unhappy bunch. The "whippy" ice cream only worked on one afternoon and four days from home they had run completely out of ice creams of any variety. In the brochure it indicated that there would be up-to-date films but other than "THe Hurt Locker" the films were fairly out of date and were being played at odd times. The entertainment was very mediocre. The highlight was Roy Walker who was hilarious. The theatre group were second rate and the dancers were out of synch constantly. If it had not been the other cruisers on the ship making the best of a very poor cruise then we would of left the ship.