New 'Grand' Class ship as Canberra?

[guernseyguy]

In yesterday's Carnival shareholder meeting Mr Arison mentioned that although no final decision had yet been taken, current thinking is that of the two unassigned newbuild 3,100 pax vessels one might come to P&O. Rumour has it that it will be named Canberra. IF they avoid the rather bland Princess decor I think this could be great news - though all those balconies will quickly make Oriana/Aurora seem dated.....

 

Peter

[Druke I]

Those mega-ships do not ride as well as the old Canberra or old Oriana.

 

Much to do with hull shape, length/beam ratio, etc.

 

I'm not surprised they are considering resurrecting the proud name Canberra, but would much rather see it on a smaller (70,000 GRT) ship.

[guernseyguy]

Those mega-ships do not ride as well as the old Canberra or old Oriana.

 

Michael,

 

Never fortunate enough to sail on the Canberra, but I agree the Grand class are not great sea boats - on my trans atlantic on the Golden Princess even a slight swell sent shudders through the ship - unlike the lovely old Caronia or QE2, which handled much worse, much better.

 

Peter

[Druke I]

Peter

 

We had a very rough trans-Atlantic on the Golden Princess, 8-02, out of the Azores. We were on Deck 10 (Caribe) forward, and had bow-slap spray raining down on our balcony. The forward bank of elevators had the cars banging about in the shafts, and about a dozen windows shattered along Prom Deck. The ship was fighting for headway for about 48 hrs, and we were 6 or so hours late into NYC. Several very sick passengers on that trip.

 

We hit similar sea-states on Royal Princess, in the North Atlantic, 8-98, between Greenland and Newfoundland, and the ship barely noticed, in comparison.

 

The Grand class are flat bottomed, very beamy, and very wind prone. Not good riders at all. The Royal Princess has a very good length/beam ratio.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

If a new build is named

 

"CANBERRA"

 

it MUST have a connection with Australia.....

 

perhaps we are seeing the birth

of a new build to service the South Pacific?????????????

[south seas voyager]

If a new build is named

 

"CANBERRA"

 

it MUST have a connection with Australia.....

 

perhaps we are seeing the birth

of a new build to service the South Pacific?????????????

 

Hi Kiwi Kruzer,

 

Canberra (P&O Service:- 1961-1997)

P&O have already had a vessel named Canberra- as you can see she was around for some time - and crusied to Australia every year to do a summer season - for the last few years of her life.

 

I doubt very much if we will be fortunate enough to see something that "GRAND" permenently based here in Australia.

 

 

:)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Indeed I am very familiar with Canberra.

 

I was fortunate to sail on her in 1984 from Southampton to Auckland,

then again in 1990 from Honolulu to Auckland.

 

Canberra was a very unique ship......

a true Ocean Liner,with a hull designed to take all that the worlds oceans could throw at her.

I well recall one evening ,mid Atlantic,in the middle of a hurricane,holding on to the rails around the windows in the Crows Nest Bar and watching the waves crash over the top of us.Many of the forward cabins below us were flooded and we awoke to find the lounges full of people sleeping on the floor.

 

She was originally designed as a three class ship,and one of her main purposes was to bring British immigrants to their new home in Australia.

For this reason she is very much loved in this part of the world,and if a new ship was to bear her name,it should be

 

.....an Ocean Liner design

.....Spend a season each year cruising out of Australia.

 

 

David.

[bayofbiscay]

Unfortunately P&O have slipped up here by having a massive ship to replace Canberras name.I think that a smaller one should have been ordered 65000 Max.One thing about it though,they will not be saying"its not like Canberra".No comparison.

[ps646566]

I read that the Princess Cruise's ship Dawn Princess is going to become P&O's ship based in Australia, but it didn't say anything about her being called Canberra.

 

It might be a mistake to call an even larger ship by that name. Canberra's spiritual replacement was Oriana. If they were going to resurrect the name the new (redeployed) ship Artemis (ex Royal Princess) might be a better bet, because she is of similar size and we will understand provide traditional British cruising.

 

It is likely that many former Canberra aficionades are among the P&O passengers who are not keen on Oceana, and may also feel that way about the new Arcadia. These ships are seen by some as too large, too modern, too open plan, and in the case of Oceana too glitzy. Such people might see an even larger ship of this type carrying this legendary name almost something of a betrayal.

 

They probably should have named Aurora as Canberra because she is a bigger, arguably better, Oriana (though she does lack some of Oriana's charm). Aurora does by the way have many balconies, Oriana is the one that only has them on one deck.

[bayofbiscay]

Aurora at present is our favorite ship as I have said before.Andersons and The Crows Nest are excellent rooms.Also more balconied cabins makes her a bit more of a favorite to a lot of passengers.All that is missing is a pub styled bar as The Lords Tavern on Oriana.We find the atmoshere on both ships identical.

 

I agree Aurora would have made a better"Canberra"but at the time P&O thought that it was too early after "the demise"of Canberra.

We look forward to the smaller ship Artemis on which we are cruising in August.

[Druke I]

Bay of Biscay

 

Sailed four times on Royal Princess, now Artemis, and she remains one of my favorite ships. Sorry to see her leave the Princess fleet. She is an excellent "sea boat" when the ocean gets rough.

 

We did receive an e-mail offer, from Princess, Fri or Sat re Artemis, Los Angeles through the Panama Canal and on to Southampton. Pricing was reasonable - but we've done the Panama three times, and have other itineraries that are of more interest to us at the moment.

 

Very high on my list is through the Suez, on either Aurora or Oriana.