MEDIA RELEASE

November 2010

CONTACT: EVELYN A. MACAYAYONG

Office of Marketing Communications
525-18-05

British World Cruise Ship Oriana arrives in Manila

World Cruise Ship SS Oriana of the P&O Cruises, a British-American owned cruise line
based at Carnival House in Southhampton, England, chose Manila as a port of call
despite the travel advisories recently issued by the United States, Australia, United
Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, France and Japan.

The cruise ship, carrying 1,818 passengers, mostly British, Australian and American
citizens from all over the world, and 800 crewmembers, which include more than 150
Filipinos, arrived at 8 o’clock Monday morning at Pier 13 of the South Harbor in Manila.
Oriana’s Polish Captain Dariusz Gozdzik said, “Everyone was optimistic and excited to
see what Manila has to offer.”

Almost all of the passengers went on a full day tour to points of interest in Manila and
nearby Tagaytay and Corregidor and different shopping malls all over the city before
they went back on board and headed out in the evening for its next port of call.

Alongside the different tours, a group of around 28 passengers visited the SOS
Children’s Village, an orphanage in Alabang, as part of a charity-advocacy measure of
the cruise line, a first for the P&O Cruises, according to Nadja Trinchera, President of
Yellow Bird Tours, the tour operator which handled the visit and tours.

Director Verna Buensuceso, Department of Tourism’s representative to welcome the

visitors, said, “This is the biggest cruise group ever received. We are pleased that
almost all the passengers went on the tours and were not bothered by the travel
advisories. With the limited time spent here, many of them are planning to come back
on their own to experience more of the Philippines.”
 P&O Cruises’ SS Oriana docked at the Manila South Harbor. (Photo by Larry Moran, DOT)

Cruise passengers are met by their tour guides as they get off the ship. (Photo by Larry
Moran, DOT)

Cruise passengers of SS Oriana boarding the bus to sight-see and shop in Manila, Tagayatay
and Corregidor. (Photo by Larry Moran, DOT)