Who Sailed On P&O

[norboy76]

Sadly I haven't been on them, but I had friends who did back in the 1960's. I just have a small collection of nice souvenirs from that line, menus, spoons, playing cards, postcards. A friend of the family, she came over on the Canberra. If you were ever on P&O, what was your favorite ship in the fleet that's gone now if that ship has been scrapped? Here are some nice photos of items I have. One of the items is a neat Anchor Ashtray for the SS Orcades. There is also a photo of a November 13, 1965 Canberra menu. I have more photos, but I wont post them all at once.

[Heidi13]

Thanks for posting the photos, brings back many great memories. I sailed with P&O for 7 years, with my favourite ship being SS Oriana.

[norboy76]

17 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Thanks for posting the photos, brings back many great memories. I sailed with P&O for 7 years, with my favorite ship being SS Oriana.

I also have a spoon for the Oriana when she sailed under the Orient Steam Navigation Company from 1960 - 1966, and a spoon for the Oriana for P&O from 1966 till she retired in 1986. Which of the other P&O's were you on, in case I have any items from them too in my personal collection I can share photos of?

[Heidi13]

Thanks - I sailed on SS Oriana, SS Canberra, SS Uganda (BI funnel), MV Spirit of London (Sun Princess) and MV Island Princess.

 

Was scheduled to fly out to Sydney to take SS Arcadia to the breakers, but got cancelled at the last minute.

[norboy76]

5 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Thanks - I sailed on SS Oriana, SS Canberra, SS Uganda (BI funnel), MV Spirit of London (Sun Princess) and MV Island Princess.

 

Was scheduled to fly out to Sydney to take SS Arcadia to the breakers, but got cancelled at the last minute.

I have either items or postcards for all of those ships in my collection. The first photo is of my SS Uganda postcard with BI, before P&O got her. Some nice Canberra souvenirs including a bell and an ad introducing the new Canberra. A couple of Spirit Of London postcards, sorry for the lines, when I scanned them, the wavy lines showed up. And a nice little Island Princess souvenir pin. 

[Heidi13]

Brilliant, thanks for posting.

 

Even though SS Uganda operated under the P&O banner, they never did change her BI Livery. When I sailed on her in 76 & 78, she still had the BI Funnel and flew the BI House Flag.

[rkacruiser]

On 7/24/2021 at 2:47 PM, Heidi13 said:

I sailed on MV Spirit of London (Sun Princess)

 

Heidi, why did P&O transfer her to Princess Cruises?  Too small of a ship for P&O?  She didn't fit their cruising itinerary plans?  

[Heidi13]

54 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Heidi, why did P&O transfer her to Princess Cruises?  Too small of a ship for P&O?  She didn't fit their cruising itinerary plans?  

 

When P&O purchased Princess, they retained the 2 ship's current names, but were operated by P&O Cruises. In the US, I believe they may have retained the Princess Cruises branding, but we were still all P&O. When I sailed on Island & Sun, I was still considered a P&O Officer.

 

The Spirit of London was originally ordered by NCL as I believe Seaward, if memory is correct. When P&O purchased Princess in 1974, her name was changed to Sun Princess.

 

She was a motor ship and about the same size as the 2 original Princess ships. They were significantly different from the other P&O ships, which were all steam ships, until Royal arrived in 1984. The Oriana and Canberra did different types of cruising, with Canberra doing a World Cruise and then 2 to 3 wk cruises out of UK. Oriana did a line voyage to Australia, then a full Australian season, with a line voyage back to UK. Her UK season was only about 4 months, when she did 2 to 3 wk cruises. The SS Uganda was again different, having room for about 1,000 school kids, sailing 2 week voyages.

 

The smaller ships really weren't built for ocean cruising, as we took some poundings south of Acapulco. They did well running around the US Coast and Caribbean. The Sun Princess was simply a better fit with the Princess ships than the steam ships.

[rkacruiser]

22 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

The Spirit of London was originally ordered by NCL as I believe Seaward, if memory is correct. When P&O purchased Princess in 1974, her name was changed to Sun Princess.

The exterior appearance of Spirit of London is remarkably like NCL's Southward which was NCL's 4th cruise ship.   She was the last of that type of ship design for NCL as the one's that preceded her.   As you said, must have been ordered by NCL to be named Seaward.  NCL must have decided not to take delivery or cancelled their order and P&O picked it up?  

 

Southward and Spirit of London (aka Sun Princess) are definitely two different ships.  Based on a small bit of research, Southward was sold off to Sun Cruises, a division of UK based travel company Airtours.  They named her Seawing. Then, she sailed for a few other companies with different names after that service was done.

 

22 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

The smaller ships really weren't built for ocean cruising, as we took some poundings south of Acapulco. They did well running around the US Coast and Caribbean. The Sun Princess was simply a better fit with the Princess ships than the steam ships.

 

Not surprised.  She was a good looking vessel.  When I sailed on Royal Princess in 1986 from San Juan, Sun Princess was sailing that same evening.  Or, was she still named Spirit of London in December, 1986?

[Heidi13]

31 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

The exterior appearance of Spirit of London is remarkably like NCL's Southward which was NCL's 4th cruise ship.   She was the last of that type of ship design for NCL as the one's that preceded her.   As you said, must have been ordered by NCL to be named Seaward.  NCL must have decided not to take delivery or cancelled their order and P&O picked it up?  

 

Southward and Spirit of London (aka Sun Princess) are definitely two different ships.  Based on a small bit of research, Southward was sold off to Sun Cruises, a division of UK based travel company Airtours.  They named her Seawing. Then, she sailed for a few other companies with different names after that service was done.

 

 

Not surprised.  She was a good looking vessel.  When I sailed on Royal Princess in 1986 from San Juan, Sun Princess was sailing that same evening.  Or, was she still named Spirit of London in December, 1986?

 

Spirit of London was changed to Sun Princess around 1974/75. When I started in Aug 75, she was already Sun Princess. Of the 3 ships, she was my favourite, known by the crew as the "Fun" Princess.

[CGTNORMANDIE]

2 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Spirit of London was changed to Sun Princess around 1974/75. When I started in Aug 75, she was already Sun Princess. Of the 3 ships, she was my favourite, known by the crew as the "Fun" Princess.

Yes she was to become Sun Princes and the first boat used in the TV series Love Boat.

[rkacruiser]

15 minutes ago, CGTNORMANDIE said:

Yes she was to become Sun Princes and the first boat used in the TV series Love Boat.

 

Are you sure?  I thought Pacific Princess was the ship that was used for background shots for the TV show.  

[CGTNORMANDIE]

25 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Are you sure?  I thought Pacific Princess was the ship that was used for background shots for the TV show.  

Pacific Princess came later.  Pacific Princess was used as the mainstay but the pilot was shot using the Sun Princess ex Spirit of London.  

[rkacruiser]

4 minutes ago, CGTNORMANDIE said:

Pacific Princess came later.  Pacific Princess was used as the mainstay but the pilot was shot using the Sun Princess ex Spirit of London.  

 

Obviously, I did not know that.  

 

Heidi13 and I have been having an interesting (to me, at least) discussion about Spirit of London/Sun Princess and NCL's Southward which seems to be a slightly older sister of Spirit of London.  The exterior ship design of both appear identical.   

[shipgeeks]

In 1990 we sailed on StarShip Majestic, Premier Lines, former Spirit of London.  

I knew of her history as SoL, but not as the other names and lines.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, CGTNORMANDIE said:

Pacific Princess came later.  Pacific Princess was used as the mainstay but the pilot was shot using the Sun Princess ex Spirit of London.  

 

Affirmative, i believe the pilot program was filmed on Sun, then for the first few years they mostly used the Pacific, with a little bit on Island. In later years they used some other ships,

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Obviously, I did not know that.  

 

Heidi13 and I have been having an interesting (to me, at least) discussion about Spirit of London/Sun Princess and NCL's Southward which seems to be a slightly older sister of Spirit of London.  The exterior ship design of both appear identical.   

 

I did know the entire history many years ago, but sadly the memory isn't so good. I recall that she was originally an NCL ship and that P&O purchased her from the yard after construction was underway. Unfortunately, can't remember how much customisation was made from the NCL design.

[rkacruiser]

21 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

I recall that she was originally an NCL ship and that P&O purchased her from the yard after construction was underway

 

That time took place when Norwegian Caribbean Cruise lines became Norwegian Cruise Lines.  The Company began to branch out to the North American West Coast/Mexico market with Southward.  Some "suit" decided that the new build didn't fit their market portfolio, I suspect.  Thus, the birth of the Spirit of London.