P&O Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market unit of Carnival Corporation & plc group, has decided to cancel a 50 night cruise of Oriana that had been scheduled to depart on 6 January 2018 to allow maintenance to take place.

“Following a recommendation from our technical team, Oriana must undertake some essential maintenance, which will result in the cancellation of cruise no X801,” said Michele Andjel, Head of Publc Relations at the Southampton based company.

 The 69,840 gross ton ship was built at Meyer Werft in Germany and it entered service in 1995. It is the oldest ship in the P&O Cruises’ fleet.

“We understand how disappointing this is for our guests but our ships sail 365 days a year and they do occasionally require unplanned maintenance, the only available slot for us to undertake this work is in January,” she told Cruise Business Online.

“We have written to guests and advised that there are four other similar cruises that sail to the Caribbean from Southampton early next year, including all of the information and itineraries for these departures,” she continued.

As a result of this cancellation P&O Cruises are giving guests a 5% Future Cruise Credit of the fare paid on the original Oriana cruise, which is available to use on one of the cruises mentioned or any other P&O Cruises holiday booked before 31 December 2019. “We will also honour the 500 Peninsular Club loyalty points they would have earned from the original Oriana cruise.

We have asked them to contact their travel agent by Friday 8 December 2017 if they wish to transfer to another cruise. If, by this date they have not done so then the booking for the Oriana cruise will be cancelled and all monies paid will be refunded,” Andjel said.

“If they do not wish to book an alternative cruise at the moment, the 5% Future Cruise Credit will be applied to their P&O Cruises unique reference number (URN) until they the new cruise booking is made,” she concluded.