The End for Oriana….

Big news from P&O last week when they announced they will be selling Oriana, one of their adult only ships, she will be leaving the fleet and finish her time with P&O in August next year. Oriana is the oldest ship in the P&O fleet carrying around 1800 passengers.

I for one was shocked when I heard this news as I know were lots of P&O’s customers. This announcement came after recent news last year that Adonia would also be sold. Adonia was a very popular choice for those who wanted a smaller ship. Carrying just 710  passengers Adonia was always there as the alternative to cruising on the huge ships and there has definitely been a gap left.  The same will follow I think with the loss of Oriana, a mid-size adult only ship and a favourite with lots of loyal P&O customers and it doesn’t seem at this moment she will be replaced with a similar size ship.

It seems with the news of the next two ships to join the P&O fleet, first being Ioana launching in 2020 carrying no less than 5200 passengers and following in 2022 will be her sister ship almost identical, that P&O are making their mark on the cruise market with these huge superliners! Of course, this is very exciting and it keeps P&O up there with the likes of Royal Caribbean, but is it time to take a turn in direction and perhaps launch a brand new smaller ship similar to Oriana.

Personally I do love the bigger ships and especially the new ones with all their amazing features but I do think I would like to see something different and a smaller ship can still have lots of amazing new and innovative features but you also get the charm of being on board a smaller ship.

What are your thoughts…is it time P&O broke the mould so to speak and announced a brand new mid or small size ship, or is it the case that bigger is better and P&O are doing the right thing for the British cruise market. Only time will tell and for those who are now having to change their cruise on the Oriana, will you be staying loyal to P&O or will you be looking elsewhere?

As always thank you for reading, until next time Abbi