Ocean Princess (Princess Cruises: 2000-2002)

Oceana (P&O: 2002- )

 

The fifth Grand Class ship (the fourth of 77000grt), introduced in 2000.

Ocean Princess was transferred to the P&O fleet as Oceana in 2002.

The name Oceana was previously used on a P&O passenger liner between 1888-1912.

 

Additional postcards and photographs of Ocean Princess are available on this link.

 

 

Princess Cruises postcard of Ocean Princess.

 

 

The card of Ocean Princess included in the Princess Postcard Set.

As with the card above, this is actually Sun or Dawn Princess, since it does not have the enclosed bridge wings introduced on Sea Princess.

 

 

Ocean Princess was transferred to the P&O fleet as Oceana in 1992.

This is the first official P&O postcard.

Additional postcards and photographs of Oceana are available on this link.

 

This P&O postcard is available for sale in the shop.

Aurora

(P&O Cruises: 2000- )

 

Aurora entered service in May 2000, built by Meyer-Werft of Papenburg. She was built specifically for the British market, running cruises out of Southampton, and is a development of the Oriana design, but with diesel-electric propulsion. The first cruise was aborted after 18 hours due to overheated propeller shaft bearings. repairs were carried out in hamburg, and she ran for over 24 hours at over 24 knots at the start of the third cruise.

 

A complete history of this ship is shown on this link.

 

 

Three official cards were available initially, as shown below:-

 

 

 

 

This is the Maiden Season card, using the same photo as the card above, but with a white border.

 

 

Three further official cards were available in 2001, which are shown below:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

The card above has been reissued with a white border.

Golden Princess (2)

(Princess Cruises: 2001- )

 

 

The initial official card of Golden Princess uses the same image as the Grand Princess card shown above (use of a magnifying glass even shows the name as Grand Princess still). She is the second ship in the 108000grt Grand Class, and has replaced Grand Princess on her Mediterranean and Caribbean itineraries. The third sister, Star Princess, is due in 2002, and will operate out of LA to Mexico.

 

 

Photographs of the Maiden Voyage of Golden Princess are available on this link.

A sample is shown below, photographed by Ian Boyle.