O AURORA da P&O regressou a Lisboa

O navio de passageiros inglês AURORA voltou a Lisboa, a 8 de Abril de 2022, após ter retomado a atividade de cruzeiros, interrompida em 2020 por motivos de saúde pública global. 

Sendo o mais antigo e mais pequeno dos navios que hoje integram a frota da P&O Cruises, foi também o último a ser reativado e é provável que dentro de mais um ou dois anos siga o destino do seu irmão mais antigo, o ORIANA de 1995, entretanto vendido a armadores chineses.

O AURORA navega desde o ano 2000, está a completar 22 anos. E em 22 anos mudou tanta coisa neste mundo dos navios e cruzeiros. No caso do AURORA, até mudaram as cores, a chaminé amarela tornou-se azul em 2013, na proa nasceram uns bigodes e parte do costado passou a publicitar o nome da operadora P&O Cruises, como acontece há muito nos ferries, porta-contentores, etc...  

Mesmo azul, com a proa obviamente britânica, é um dos navios mais bonitos que fazem escala em Lisboa depois da razia pandémica que se abateu sobre a frota de navios clássicos desde 2020.

Fotografias originais de Luís Miguel Correia, captadas à saída da barra do Tejo, a 8 de Abril

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho, se descarregar imagens para uso pessoal sugere-se que contribua para a manutenção deste espaço fazendo um donativo via Paypal, sugerindo-se €1,00 por imagem retirada. Utilização comercial ou para fins lucrativos não permitida (ver coluna ao lado) / No piracy, please. If photos are downloaded for personal use we suggest that a small contribution via Paypal (€1,00 per image or more). Photos downloaded for commercial or other profit making uses are not allowed. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

AURORA showing her new P&O livery in Madeira

P&O Cruises AURORA wearing the new company's livery fited this December at the Blohm & Voss Yard, Hamburg. Photos by Luís Miguel Correia on 31 December 2014.

AURORAdid catch peoples attention  and no doubt she now sports a more modern profile influenced by NCL and Royal Caribbean that have been eating up P&O passengers in the UK market.

Gone is the buff funnel introduced more than 80 years ago with the STRATHs, well we'll get used to the new look that really gives an appearence of a Greek ship, rather a proud British (Bermuda flagged) Peninsular & Oriental cruising ship.
Let's hope Carnival UK do not develops also a new look for their trio of Cunarders, but in line with current bad taste in terms of ship liveries, nothing would surprise me...
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Gathering of cruise ship armada in Madeira

Gathering of the 2014 cruise ship armada in Funchal bay, Madeira Island on 31 December 2014: the P&O Cruises AURORA in her new livery arrivng early in the morning, seen from the FUNCHAL...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

AURORA and her future look

As part of a marketing campaign being developed by P&O Cruises associated to the introduction of their new mega flagship BRITANNIA now being built in Italy, the traditional classic livery of P&O passenger liners first introduced in the 1930s with the STRATH white sisters is being discarded in the whole fleet of Carnival UK's P&O brand, and AURORA set to become the first victim: she will be the first ship to have the new blue funnel and hull markings going along the trend first developed by NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES, with another dark blue funnel and logo plus a decorative bow and a ferry like hull display of P&O Cruises name. So AURORA is set to look a bit less P&O next December following her refit in Hamburg's Blohm & Voss yard in time for the ship's New Year's cruise.

Meanwhile, yesterday the 14-year old AURORA looked as smart and classic as ever when I took this photograph at Lisbon on 20 August 2014. Increased competition on UK's cruise market seems to have geared the P&O master brains to radical change. P&O buff funnels and all white ships will be missed.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia 

AURORA arriving Cape Town

Cruise ship AURORA entering at Cape Town on 5 April 2014 photographed by my friend Ian Shiffman. I first exchanged slides with Ian in 1975 and we have been in touch all over those 39 years.
 Ian started to take photograph of ships in his native port of Cape Town in 1955 and now owns one of the largest photographic libraries in the world.
Texto d L. M. Correia e imagens de Ian Shiffman /Text by L.M.Correia and images copyright Ian Shiffman. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

AURORA funnel

AURORA's classic buff funnel with Madeira Island's mountains on the background, another photograph taken by L. M. Correia on 31 December 2013 in Funchal... Soon this magnificent tradicional livery will be something from the past, now that Carnival UK is modernizing the "P&O" brand... All very senseless...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

AURORA arriving at Funchal 31 December 2013

P&O cruise ship AURORA arriving off the port of Funchal, Madeira Island, at sun rise on 31 December 2013 for another New Year's eve in Madeira. Photographs taken by Luís Miguel Correia from the decks of nearby FUNCHAL. 

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

AURORA e QUEEN VICTORIA em escala dupla no Tejo

Escalas sucessivas dos paquetes ingleses AURORA e QUEEN VICTORIA em Lisboa num espaço de seis dias: primeiro a 14 de Novembro de 2013, quando estiveram ambos atracados em Santa Apolónia e Jardim do Tabaco no final de cruzeiros com regresso a Southampton, ambos com a proa virada para o Terreiro do Paço; novamente a 20, desta vez atracados à vazante, proas a apontar para a nascente do rio, ambos vindos de Southampton no início de novos cruzeiros. Aqui ficam os registos dessas escalas e a satisfação de ver o Tejo cheio de belos navios de passageiros carregados de turistas. Durante ambas as largadas, sempre com o AURORA a desatracar primeiro que o navio da Cunard, houve concerto de apitos. Espectacular e o tempo no melhor estílo do nosso verão de São Martinho.

The cruise ships AURORA and QUEEN VICTORIA called in Lisbon twice in six days, first on 14 November (first image) and again on 20 November 2013... Former rival companies P&O and Cunard now both part of the same family - Carnival UK, of Southampton. Nice family pictures in the best indian summer time in Lisbon...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

AURORA and QUEEN VICTORIA

Cruise ships AURORA and QUEEN VICTORIA alongside Santa Apolónia and Jardim do Tabaco passenger ship terminal on 14 November 2013. Two British ladies registered in Bermuda...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Nove paquetes no Tejo

Ontem foi dia de festa no Tejo com 9 navios de passageiros no porto de Lisboa, incluindo os três navios da companhia Portuscale. 

Com o FUNCHAL fundeado no Mar da Palha para dar lugar a dois outros navios no cais da Rocha, e o PORTO e o LISBOA em Santa Apolónia em "lay up", o INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEAS atracou a Alcântara, e o AURORA esteve atracado no Jardim do Tabaco. 

O SILVER CLOUD e o KRISTINA KATARINA atracaram na estação marítima de Santa Apolónia, o CRYSTAL SYMPHONY e o CORINTHIAN na Rocha. 

Um dia em cheio, com o FUNCHAL em preparativos finais de largada para Gotemburgo, o que veio a acontecer ao amanhecer de hoje (22-08).  

Os 6 navios em escala transportaram cerca de 7000 passageiros que ajudaram por umas horas, a animar a cidade de Lisboa e arredores.

Fotografias originais de Luís Miguel Correia. 

Tantos navios em Lisboa num mesmo dia a deixarem algumas ilações: o porto de Lisboa é um dos melhores do mundo como destino de navios de cruzeiros e as cores dos navios da Portuscale são das mais bonitas do mundo, nada ficando a dever às da P & O (ver AURORA) em termos de imagem clássica.

 Isto claro na opinião isentíssima do LMC

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

175 ANOS DA P&O

A companhia de navegação P&O- Peninsular & Oriental Steamship Company está a festejar 175 anos de actividade, como se pode reparar pela observação da bandeira azul comemorativa do evento içada na verga de sinais do paquete AURORA, um dos navios de cruzeiros que continua a tradição com efectivamente mais de 175 anos, pois as origens da actual P&O são anteriores à fundação oficial - Setembro de 1837 - data em que a carreira Inglaterra - Península Ibérica já se efectuava há alguns anos transportando correio e passageiros.

O facto é que a empresa que a partir de 1840 se passou a chamar P&O visita Lisboa regularmente desde 1822, quando com a designação de Wilcox and Anderson tem início um serviço para a Península com navios de vela. Em 1835 a companhia utilizava já navios a vapor e dois anos mais tarde consegue um subsídio para assegurar o transporte de correio até Gibraltar, o que torna viável a futura P&O.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Funchal cruise fleet on 31 December 2011

Some of the cruise ships in Funchal for the New Year's eve, 31 December 2011 on photographs sent by Nuno Jesus.

QUEEN ELIZABETH, , AURORA, BOUDICCA, AIDABELLA, AIDASOL, SAGA PEARL II spent the day either on the roads at anchor or alongside the passenger terminals. In the evening they were joinned by PRINCESS DANAE, MSC FANTASIAand SAGA RUBY. Also in port was the local flagship LOBO MARINHO.

There is no other place like Funchal to enter the New Year while on a cruise...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

AURORA in Funchal for New Year's eve

P&O always have at least one cruise ship in port in Funchal, Madeira Island on 31 December every year since the nineteen eighties when CANBERRA berthed at the pier's head. 

There is no other place to call on New Year's eve like Funchal with the famous fireworks display and P&O knows that. 

On 31 December 2011 the P&O fleet was again represented by their elegant AURORA which spent the morning at anchor exhanging positions with QUEEN ELIZABETH at about noon in order to berth at the pier's head...

Photographs kindly sent by Nuno David de Jesus... This past 31 December we were unable to go to Funchal for a safary of cruise shipping photography as usual, much to our regret.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia