Peter's story

For three weeks, this blog will be written by P&O Cruises passengers.  Today, Peter shares the world he has discovered with P&O Cruises.
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Oriana World Cruise 2010

We have never cruised before! That was my first statement when I first enquired about using a P&O Cruises holiday as a means of getting to Australia to visit relatives.

We had always planned to visit my Australian cousin, although we always intended to follow convention, including a long and tiring flight there, followed by the usual holiday, and a return flight home. Whilst I was researching this trip, it occurred to me that I could use a leg of Oriana's forthcoming World Cruise to get us there relaxed and in style. I decided to proceed with the idea and started to put my package together. My planned trip would start in Southampton, cruise to Brisbane, utilising all the facilities that this beautiful ship has to offer, then, on arrival, start our "holiday within a holiday", eventually flying home via Abu Dhabi.

During this process I had no trouble at all putting my own itinerary together. Everybody involved was more than helpful, and I eventually had the holiday of a lifetime to look forward to, which included a cruise to Brisbane, three weeks holiday in Australia, including short breaks in The Whitsundays and The Sunshine Coast, followed by a four day stop over in Abu Dhabi on the way home. As it turned out, everything worked like clockwork and went exactly to plan. As I wanted to include the stay in Abu Dhabi, I decided to book my flight independently of P&O, but I must say I found them extremely helpful co-ordinating the cruise booking with my flight booking. The P&O Cruises booking representative stayed on the 'phone until I had confirmed my flight booking on the internet, before confirming our cruise booking. I also pre-booked three excursions which I definitely wanted to include - afternoon tea at Reids Palace, Madeira, Pearl Harbour and The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb! All we had to do now was wait until September when it was time to embark and sail off into the Southampton sunset.

When the time came, we hired a car to get us to Southampton the day before embarkation, dropping it off near to the cruise terminal. We then walked across the road where we spent the night in one of the many first class hotels in the vicinity, discovering that there were many other guests there who would be joining us on our cruise. The check in at the cruise terminal was well organised, with different time allocations, and we soon found ourselves aboard, our luggage waiting for us in our cabin, and ready to explore our home for the next six weeks. We found the internal fittings of the ship to be of "jaw dropping" quality. Everything we found was in first class condition and very luxurious. The departure from Southampton was not to be missed, with lots of flag waving, pyrotechnics and tickertape. When all the excitement was over and we were underway, we made our way to dinner, where we found we had been allocated a table sharing with two other couples, both Australian, who were also disembarking in Brisbane. It was obvious that P&O had also paid attention to detail here too, as we would share the table for the whole trip, allowing us to form lasting friendships. Both couples eventually arranged to take us out for days once we were in Australia, their home.

It would take too long to describe the cruise in detail here, but what other holiday offers you the opportunity to see Pacific sunsets at sea, wake up in different countries, with new places to explore, have dinner in a first class restaurant overlooking Sydney Opera House, be offered world class entertainment nightly, and finally arrive at your destination completely relaxed and ready to start your next "holiday"? 

I hope my photos will give you a taster of the places we visited.

Close up of me aboard Oriana approaching St. Lucia

Margaret paddling in the Caribbean at Isla Margarita

The middle lock, Gatun, Panama Canal

Cliff diving at Acapulco

Downtown Honolulu

The first crossing the equator party of the cruise.

In port, Samoa, South Pacific

Brisbane River, Australia

 Feeding the laurakeets at Lone Pine Reserve, Brisbane.

The Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi

We may have never have cruised before, but we will certainly be doing it again, and with P&O Cruises........... sometime soon!

Peter Berry

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