In 1960, in conjunction with the introduction of the new larger and faster Oriana and Canberra, the fleets of Orient (which was majority owned by P&O) and P&O were combined as P&O-Orient Lines, although the Orient ships retained their corn-coloured hulls and sailed under their own house flag.

The ship was named after Orșova, which is a port city on the Danube in southwestern Romania's Mehedinți County.

This section of the bow opened inwards to reveal a powerful searchlight, used for navigating the Suez Canal.

The Iron Gate symbol also featured on the forward bulkhead of the First Class Midships Arena Games deck.

She was built with an all-welded hull, the first passenger liner to be so constructed,[2] and her bulkhead and wall linings were plastic-clad.

Orsova had First and Tourist Class sections with separate dining rooms either side of the Galley, and was among the first ocean liners to be fitted with air-conditioning.

F. A tragic side effect of this was that three of the First-Class stewards, running back and forth between the frigid dining room and the un-air-conditioned galley succumbed to pneumonia and were buried at sea.

The normal outward leg included Bermuda, Port Everglades, Panama, Acapulco, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Hawaii, Fiji, Auckland, and Sydney.

The home leg operated Sydney-Brisbane-Singapore-Penang-Colombo (with Goan crew change) Durban-Port Elizabeth-Cape Town-Madeira-Southampton.

In 1973 P&O announced that their flagship, Canberra, was to be withdrawn from service, largely because her deep draught prevented her from berthing at many popular cruise ports.