Topic: Oriana’s Dry Dock extended - Cancellations afoot

Plans to refit P&O's soon-to-be Adults-Only ship will take a bit longer than expected...

The following was sent to us from P&O Cruises regarding Oriana's refit.

Oriana has a scheduled dry dock for November 2011 to convert the ship to “exclusively for adults”. This work is going to take longer than originally expected, and therefore, we have had to extend the dry dock period by 10 days.

Regrettably, as a result of this we have to cancel the following cruises:

- X119 (3 nts) Friday 9 December
- X120N (5 nts) Monday 12 December
- X121 (2 nts) Saturday 17 December

As a result, Arcadia's short refit period at the same time has been postponed and 2 new cruises have been introduced.

- J113N (3 nts) Tuesday 6 December
- J113P (3 nts) Friday 9 December

The passengers who where booked on Oriana will be sent a letter going through the options available to them. Click Here for more information

Are you booked to cruise aboard Oriana after her re-fit? Have you been affected by the extension?

This must be quite a dissapointment for some people who were looking forward to a specific itinerary. I believe dry docking periods are particularly demanding on the cruise companies also. All it takes is a Lloyds Register surveyor to find a structural defect that affects seagoing capability or structural strength and that can extend the ships period in dock whilst the repairs are made. Consequently the re-programming and notification to passengers and re-booking creates a real minefield. My system is to look at the ships cruise programme and if there is a gap in dates, usually a period of 2 -3 weeks, then that is when the ship will be dry docked. If you book on the cruise before the docking it may mean spending the last few days of your cruise watching the decor being stripped and carpets lifted in some areas in preparation for machinery removals. IF YOU BOOK FOR THE 2 WEEKS FOLLOWING THE DRY DOCKING YOU RUN THE RISK OF SOMETHING PREVENTING THE SHIP FROM SAILING and your holiday plans ruined so, if you can, always book for at least 2 weeks after a docking.

So reading between the lines it looks like both ships were planned to use the same dry dock. Arcadias' dry docking cannot be put off indefinitely so maybe some cruises may be cancelled to accommodate in the spring of 2012 after the world cruise.
Watch this space
Brian

I can't say I'm surprised. I couldn't believe the amount of work that was supposed to be being done could possibly be done in the 2 weeks scheduled, although I feel sorry for those whose plans hae been spoiled. I shall look forward to seeing the results in January!!

I have been looking forward to Oriana again but I am concerned to know whether or not the only "problem" with that delightful ship is subject to the attention at the refit. The "problem" reported by me and a number of passengers over a period of time is the vibrations caused, I am told, by propellers to the Oriental dining room. Often a very unsettling noise and vibration caused an unpleasant evening. Is this problem to be remedied? Martin

It's been 7 years since we were on The Oriana for our first ever cruise and the only thing that spoiled it was indeed the very vibrations you are talking about - and we were sitting at the First Engineers table right in the middle on top of the engine !!! We also had a low inside cabin and the vibrations never stopped there either. I felt "dizzy" and disorientated from he moment I stepped onboard until about 3 weeks after ! Having said that we liked the ship better than the Arcadia so we were definitely looking forward to it being Adult only - let's hope they DO do something about the vibration. Hope someone on here will let us know

I received my letter last week to tell me my Dec 17th mini cruise was cancelled. May be just a short mini cruise but this was important to me (as posted on another thread by me earlier this year under who is travelling on Oriana).
This was to be my renewing of vows cruise and 10th wedding anniversary celebration. Also deliberatly booked this date so we could have the Christmas market trip and Christmassy decor onboard and was able to book the Himalayan Suite, which I could not afford if on a longer cruise!
Can't do alternative dates offerred as I work in a school.
Annoying thing is..although a refund is offerred, it does not count for the extra payments made for A. travel Insurance B.Car parking paid at Southampton C.Extra paid for credit card D.Clothes bought unneccesarily.

The Oriana has had vibration problems since the day it was launched, That's about fifteen years!!!!!!!!!!!!. Ian

We've cruised with Oriana 5 times, last one Nov/Dec 2010 and must say never noticed any vibration. However, homewards bound in December just entering home waters the ship stopped and all power went off. So we wallowed about for an hour or so as they fixed what we were told was a fuel pump failure.
We'd had a force 111 - 12 storm in the Med but Oriana is a fine seaboat and was much more stable than some of the newer 'block of flats' type ships we've experienced.
Not sure that adults only is much of a marketing advantage, we've enjoyed seeing kids having a great cruise holiday, keeps us oldies from getting too crochety.

Gordy

Well Gordy and I may have been on the same cruise. Yes the ship andled the weather well but did you eat in the Oriental or Peninsula? The later was comfortable I hear, but we in the Oriental had our disturbances.