When the Oriana was launched in 1960 she was regarded as revolutionary. Nobody thought she would ever grow old. She did.
Her 67,000-ton namesake took cruising headfirst into the 21st Century. Nobody thinks she will ever grow old. She will. In the meantime everyone is making the most of her.
Oriana 1995 is the first ship built exclusively for British cruisers, despite the fact that she was constructed under the cover of Germany's state-of-the-art shipyard in Papenburg.
She claims to be the fastest cruise liner built in a quarter of a century, yet at 24 knots she cannot get anywhere near the speeds of her predecessor, whose steam turbines drove her to a staggering 30.47 knots during trials.
But her sleek lines make her a show-stopper, as wasproved in her first world cruise when she turned heads everywhere she went.
For £200 million P&O created a ship that has everything. More works of art than the National Gallery, furniture by Viscount Linley. The list goes on and on
Lord Sterling, the then chairman of P&O, ha drelentlessly pursued his ambition to restore the cruise industry, now rising from the ashes of the post-jumbo jet nightmare.
Jet travel destroyed cruising and its first and tourist class divisions almost overnight in the early Seventies. Many ships, such as the original Oriana, became virtually redundant as the skies opened up.
Oriana is now among a growing number of new ocean-going giants designed to take on the world and put air travel to flight.
Clever tricks and comfort
Lord Sterling says:
"Oriana keeps P&O at the forefront of European cruising. She will proudly take P&O Cruises into the 21st Century with all the tradition and quality of her famous predecessor."
Driven by twin diesels instead of steam turbines of the original, she is steered by a Sega-style joystick rather than the more traditional wheel, and has an operations room - or bridge - akin to the Starship Enterprise.
Oriana is a starship of the high seas. She is packed with all the technological wizardry that the silicon chip era has to offer, but is also brimming with the comfort and style associated with the great liners of a bygone age.
But will P&O be able to fill cruise after cruise in a highly competitive market being flooded by 12 new cruise vessels every year?
David Dingle, P&O Cruises' marketing director, is confident.
"A steady stream of new vessels not only meets the new capacity but also replaces existing ships.
"In the UK specifically, the market is well exceeding the global patterns and a new ship, built especially for the British market, was long overdue."
