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Oceana
 
Page 4 - Oceana Cruise E317 - Aegean Discovery - August 2003
 
 
This is the fourth in a series of pages devoted to postcards and photographs of the P&O Princess cruise ship Ocean Princess, transferred to the P&O Cruises fleet in late 2002 as Oceana. The pages in the series are listed below.
 
Ocean Princess was delivered to Princess Cruises in 2000. She is part of a class of four 77000 gross ton sisterships, the others being Sun Princess, Dawn Princess and Sea Princess. They are 261 metres long, and carry 2100 passengers (2400 maximum), and all were built by Fincantieri in Italy. Ocean Princess was transferred to the P&O fleet as Oceana in 2002. Sistership Sea Princess was transferred to become the Adonia of P&O Cruises in 2003.
 
This page shows shipping postcards and photographs from a cruise, in August 2003, on the P&O Cruises ship Oceana. It is devoted to the shipping encountered on the cruise, and is not intended as a general review of the cruise. This page will show a few sample images from each port, with links to more detailed company histories of the ships concerned. Follow any of the links in the image captions for a more detailed page on the ship concerned.
 
 
Sections on this Page:-
Day 1 - Southampton - Departure: Saturday 16th August
Day 2/3/4 - At Sea - Sunday-Tuesday 17th-19th August
Day 5 - Palma - Wednesday 20th August
Day 6/7 At Sea - Thursday/Friday 21st/22nd August
Day 8 - Rhodes - Saturday 23rd August
Day 9 - Kusadasi - Sunday 24th August
Day 10 - Piraeus - Monday 25th August
Day 11 - Zakinthos - Tuesday 26th August
Day 12 - Messina - Wednesday 27th August
Day 13 - At Sea - Thursday 28th August
Day 14 - Malaga - Friday 29th August
Day 15/16 - At Sea - Saturday/Sunday 30th/31st August
Day 17 - Southampton - Return: Monday 1st September
 
Ocean Princess & Oceana Pages:-
Page 1 - Ocean Princess - Postcards and Photos with Princess Cruises 2000-2002
Page 2 - Oceana - Postcards and Photos with P&O Cruises from 2002
Page 3 - Oceana - Interiors and Deck Images with P&O Cruises from 2002
Page 4 - Oceana Cruise - Images from an Oceana cruise taken in August 2003 - This Page!
Page 5 - Oceana Cruise - Images from an Oceana cruise taken in May 2007
 
Associated Shipping Company Pages:-
Blue Star Ferries - Greek Ferry Company
DANE Sea Lines - Greek Ferry Company
Ferrovie Stato (FS) - Italian State Railways train ferries fleet history
GA Ferries - Greek Ferry Company
P&O Ferries - Portsmouth
P&O Princess Cruises Postcards
P&O Princess Cruises Photographs
Red Funnel Ferries - Southampton - Isle of Wight ferries
Trasmediterranea
Ferry Postcards
Cruise Ship Postcards
Ocean Liner Postcards
Simplon Postcards Home Page
 
Associated Port Pages:-
Messina - Details on Messina port and its ferries
 
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Cruise Itinerary Map
 
 
 
 
 
Southampton
(Saturday 16th August)
 
Whilst Southampton used to be a major ferry port with services to France and Spain, the only ferries using Southampton now are the local ferry across the Solent to Hythe, and the Red Funnel Ferries to the Isle of Wight. In this evening photograph, Oceana is being overtaken by Red Falcon, which in turn is being passed by fast ferry Red Jet 2.
 
Photo: © Ian Boyle, 16th August 2003.
 
 
 
Southampton's primary importance today is as a container port, and this photo shows P&O Nedlloyd Marseille arriving.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle, 16th August 2003.
 
 
 
Rickners New Orleans leaving just prior to Oceana's departure, 16th August 2003.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
Southampton is also a major importer and exporter of cars, and this photo shows Grand Pace arriving.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle, 16th August 2003.
 
 
 
NYK car carrier Leo Leader in Southamton, 16th August 2003.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
On the opposite side of the River Test to Southampton Docks is Marchwood Military Port. It is the sole military port in U.K. and provides the training ground for Army port and maritime personnel. It is the home port for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), Landing Ship Logistic (LSL) and army vessels run by the Royal Logistic Corps (RLC).
 
Hartland Point, one of four large ro-ro ferries managed for the MOD by Andrew Weir. The last of these, Anvil Point, was the final ship built at the yard of Harland & Wolff, Belfast.
Photo: © Ian Boyle, 16th August 2003.
 
 
 
Photo: © Ian Boyle, 16th August 2003.
 
 
 
Further down Southampton Water is the oil refinery at Fawley, where Cable Vermont is shown below.
Fawley is owned by Esso, and is the largest refinery in Britain.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle, 16th August 2003.
 
 
 
All the long distance ferry routes from Southampton have transferred to neighbouring Portsmouth.
We past P&O Ferries' Pride of Le Havre, off the Isle of Wight, inbound to Portsmouth from Le Havre.
Photo: © Ian Boyle, 16th August 2003.
 
 
 
 
 
 
At Sea
(Sunday-Tuesday 17th-19th August)
 
A photograph of the P&O cruise ship Adonia taken from Oceana in the Mediterranean on 19th August 2003.
Adonia is the identical sister to Oceana. Additional images of Adonia are available on this link.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle
 
 
 
 
 
 
Palma
(Wednesday 20th August)
 
Palma is the main city and port on Majorca. Largest operator for many years has been state-owned Trasmediterranea, who run a large fleet of multi-purpose, ro-pax, ro-ro and fast ferries to the island. The photo below shows the Trasmediterranea ferry berths, with ro-pax Murillo and superferry Sorollo. Part of fast catamaran Milenium is visble in the left, and there is a Balearia ferry on the far right.
 
 
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
ISCOMAR run competing services with a fleet of rather elderly ro-ro and passnger ferries. This image shows the Patricia del Mare on the left, built in 1976 as the Argo and subsequently serving with a huge number of European ferry companies, mainly under charter. These lines included Fred Olsen, Stena Line, TT Line, Sally Line, Dart Line, North Sea Ferries, Olau Line, P&O Ferries etc. To the right is Carmen del Mare, originally built in 1970 as the Silja Line (FÅA) Floria, and which served for many years with Trasmediterranea as the Villa de Agaete.
 
 
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
Palma is a busy cruise ship port, both as a destination call such as our visit on Oceana, and as an embarkation port for cruise lines running Western Mediterranean circuits, such as MyTravel, Ocean Village, Island Escape and Thomson. On our visit the Monterey of MSC and Costa Victoria of Costa Cruises.
 
Photograph of Monterey and Costa Victoria at Palma, Mallorca.
Photo: Ian Boyle, 20th August 2003.
 
 
 
Photograph of Monterey and Costa Victoria at Palma, Mallorca.
Photo: Ian Boyle, 20th August 2003.
 
 
 
Leaving Palma on Oceana.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
 
 
 
At Sea
(Thursday/Friday 21st/22nd August)
 
Sunset, 22nd August 2003.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rhodes
(Saturday 23rd August)
 
Rhodes is a busy ferry port frequented by many vessels including those of DANE Sea Lines, GA Ferries and the superb new ships of Blue Star Ferries.
 
 
Photograph of Rodos of DANE Sea Lines arriving at Rhodes (Rodos) on 23rd August 2003.
GA Ferries' Marina on the right.
Photo: © Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
Photograph of Rodos of DANE Sea Lines (left) at Rhodes with Marina (GA Ferries) and P&O's Oceana.
Photo: © Ian Boyle, on 23rd August 2003.
 
 
 
Photograph of Blue Star 1 of Blue Star Ferries leaving Rhodes.
Photo: © Ian Boyle, 23rd August 2003.
 
 
 
 
 
 
At Sea
(Thursday/Friday 21st/22nd August)
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kusadasi
(Sunday 24th August)
 
Oceana at Kusadasi, 24th August 2003.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Piraeus
(Monday 25th August)
 
Oceana at Piraeus 25th August 2003.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Zakinthos
(Tuesday 26th August)
 
Ferry services to the Greek island of Zakynthosare run by a number of cooperating companies. Routes from Zakynthos are primarily to the Greek mainland at Killini. There are not many inter-island services, although numerous operators have tried. On my visit in August 2003, the Killini service was being operated jointly by the Dionisios Solomos of ANEZ, and the Ionis of Tyrogalas Lines.
 
Zakynthos Ferries page
 
 
Aerial postcard showing Zakynthos I.
 
 
 
Oceana anchored at Zakinthos on 26th August 2003.
Photo: © Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
Dionisios Solomos arriving Zakynthos, 26th August 2003.
Photo: © Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Messina
(Wednesday 27th August)
 
Messina is the primary port linking Sicily to the Italian mainland. The railway arrived at Reggio on the mainland in 1886, and ferries ran from here to Messina. The first train ferries were built in 1896, and they operated between Messina-Villa San Giovanni. The ferries were nationalised with the railways as part of Ferrovie Stato (FS) in 1905. The full history of these ferries is shown on this link. Small "bidirezionali" ferries have been run by independant operators carrying passengers and vehicles in competition with the State Railways for many years. Caronte Shipping and the Franza Group jointly operate services between Messina-Villa San Giovanni and Messina-Reggio di Calabria. In 1998, and new operator Meridiano began competing between Messina-Reggio di Calabria, but the ships on this service in 2003 were all Caronte ships, so I presume they have been taken over.
 
 
The oldest serving Ferrovie Stato (FS) train ferries are the Iginia, Sibari and Rosalia, built between 1969-72.
A page devoted to these three ferries is available on this link. This early morning photograph shows the three ships together in Messina.
Rosalia (left) has received the new Bluvia livery, whilst Sibari (centre) and Iginia (right) remain in FS colours.
Photo: © Ian Boyle, Messina, 27th August 2003.
 
 
 
Official Caronte Shipping postcard showing vessels from their fleet at Messina.
 
 
 
Oceana at Messina 27th August 2003.
 
 
 
 
 
 
At Sea
(Thursday 28th August)
 
 
 
 
 
 
Malaga
(Friday 29th August)
 
Malaga is one of the Spanish mainland ports from which Trasmediterranea ferries serve the Balearic Islands. Despite extensive harbour works, with further additions being constructed, there was little other shipping activity when I visited.
 
Trasmediterranea Ferries Page
 
 
Almudaina arriving at Malaga, 29th August 2003.
Photo: © 2003 Ian Boyle.
 
 
 
Oceana at Malaga 26th August 2003.
 
 
 
 
 
 
At Sea
(Saturday/Sunday 30th/31st August)
 
 
 
 
 
 
Southampton
(Monday 1st September)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Blue Star Ferries - DANE Sea Lines - Ferrovie Stato (FS)
GA Ferries - Red Funnel Ferries - Trasmediterranea
Oceana Page 1 - Princess Cruises - Oceana Page 2 - P&O Cruises - Oceana Page 3 - Interiors
Oceana Page 4 - 2003 Cruise - Oceana Page 5 - 2007 Cruise
P&O Ferries - Portsmouth - P&O Princess Cruises Postcards - P&O Princess Cruises Photographs
Ferry Postcards - Cruise Ship Postcards - Ocean Liner Postcards
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