Mysticalmother

22 hours ago, H.Thorne said:

I am looking at booking a cruise on the Arcadia for December 2022 and I have a couple of questions:

Are the balcony cabins spacious?

Can a person be booked on the cruise before they are 18, if they will be 18 at time of sailing?

Is the Lido Deck loud (due to entertainment and music etc)?

thank you. 

The balcony cabins on Arcadia are all classed as “ deluxe” balcony cabins, and all ( or virtually all) have a sofa. They are certainly quite spacious. The balcony sizes do vary a bit...have a look at the deck plans eg on C deck the Midships cabins have deeper balconies than those at the fwd part of the ship. Be wary of the cabins next to the glass lifts...not from the noise but people can see on to your balcony ! The cabins on D deck midships have smaller balconies and are quite shaded...but the ones fwd and aft are ok.

there are no cabins on Lido deck, but some A deck cabins suffer with noise from the deck above...particularly from deck chairs being dragged across the deck, 

as long as someone is 18 at the time of sailing they will be ok to be booked on the cruise.

15 hours ago, wowzz said:

First of all, I'd say that you got an excellent price by booking early.

I think you are correct in saying that the longer cruises, because there are obviously fewer of them, are in relatively high demand, especially at launch.  Conversely,  by their very length,  it is difficult to sell them cheaply close to departure date,  as the majority of casual cruisers cannot suddenly free up 5 weeks. Therefore,  setting appropriate pricing is difficult. 

What I have noticed, is that on our particular  5 week cruise,  is that the suites sold out almost immediately on launch. I appreciate that this is of little interest to most of us with limited budgets: however,  if I was in charge of P&O revenue management,  I would be seriously looking at my pricing policy. If my most expensive cabins are selling out that quickly,  I have obviously dramatically underpriced them.

We booked on launch a 19 night on Arcadia in a full suite for October 20. Cost was £3554 pp ( select) with £195pp OBC....so net cost £3359 each. Suites were sold out fairly quickly  and only mini suites are now available ( although they were shown as sold out a while ago...) ...the “ saver “ fare is currently £4869 for a mini suite...with OBC £355, giving net cost of £4514. So a mini suite is currently costing over £1k more than we paid for a full suite, so you could be right. Even a midship deluxe balcony is currently more than we paid! 

But I am happy! We dont normally book suites with P & O, but seem to have got this at a very good price by booking early.

Just been on the lunchtime news.... another MSC ship...

This will just add fuel to the fire for banning cruise ships in Venice I suspect...

Excursions for my cruise in November are already available... I guess where the ports are visited regularly its a case of “same old” so they can put them up early..

My middle name has never appeared on my e-ticket, or on CP, despite both my TA and P&O having been given this information.

I have never been refused boarding....

I think with tender ports it is always worth checking Horizon for the times that passengers on excursions are due to meet as they will get priority , understandably so. And then get there a good half hour before ...in other words get up early! Alternatively , wait until much later.... or book a half

day morning excursion! Has always worked for us..

I think basic maths can cause P & O a problem! Despite my husbands cruise history and points record being correct, the TOTAL points shown do not include the last cruise we did....which as a 19 nighter , are substantial. And As a result he is currently shown as in a lower loyalty tier than myself! He has  emailed Loyalty but is still awaiting a reply. 

My record and total points are however correct..

well my success rate is 100%... 4 times out of 4. I acknowledge I have been lucky!

I think if you book a cruise including Guernsey, you need to be prepared for not calling there. Some suggest that Cruise lines (not just P & O) should warn passengers...but I think passengers should always work on the basis that for a tender port...where ever it is ..there is a risk you wont get in. And sometimes an alternative is simply not possible to arrange at short notice.

Its just cruising....

It is an easy and very pleasant  place to walk around, with some lovely shops. Straight off the ship and you are in the town.There are several interesting Museums too... Petroleum, Canning and Maritime - all are well worth visiting.

the old town is lovely to stroll around too.

Me too...booked 2020 cruise on launch....now my cabin category (suite) apparently sold out already...(? Really)  and the one below it ( mini suite) is £1100 more! Each!

Ais was up the creek the other day, showing Oceana heading east in the Med, whereas she was actually heading west to Gibraltar...

Dining on Oriana... personally I would recomend Freedom dining if you have the choice. This gives you the option of going to either of the main shows, and also can fit in somehing inthe show lounge too as well as other entertainment around the ship. It also hives you flexibility as to when you eat. We ate anytime between 6.15pm and 8.45 depending on what we were planning to do in the evening. Also, the Freedom dining restaurant is midships, the dining room at the back has been known to play loud music as the cutlery vibrates !:D In case you were not aware, she can have a bit of a vibration problem at the very back of the ship which is where the “fixed” dining room is.

The Art class materials cost iro £20... cant remember the exact figure might have been slightly yes. Good quality paints, paper brushes etc For a beginner as my husband was, he felt it was good value, and he throughly enjoyed the classes.

We recently had B216 on Oriana for 19 nights... which is fairly well aft. We experienced no particular vibration other than the normal you get with all the ships... there is a kind of muted throb on most of them.

Having said that we were exceptionally lucky with calm seas most of the time, but Capt did put his foot down on the accelerator quite a bit.

The noise from the aircon... now that is another story!

You dont state which cabin you booked... or which is now available... might be able to help further...?

Hi, we are on a 28 night Oriana cruise in February in a deluxe balcony cabin. Can anyone give us idea about the storage space for clothes in the cabin, please?

We do not travel light and one of the attractions for us in this round trip Southampton cruise is the lack of luggage restrictions with no flights - and a shortish journey from home near Worthing, 50 miles or so from the port

I am sure my wife will want to bring lots of evening outfits (8 formal nights) so I am hoping there is plenty of wardrobe and drawer space and that I will be allowed a small corner!!

Any comments from previous passengers in those cabins on Oriana would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks Peter

We have recently returned from a 19night cruise on Oriana in a B deck deluxe balcony cabin... and there is plenty of storage. The wardrobe is what I would term a “flexible” wardrobe... you can move the rails to suit your clothing. But there was more than enough hanging space for the two of us, and we dont travel light. There were also lots of drawers...cant remember the exact number but two small ones each at the side of the bed, and then 2 chests of drawers, one with 4 and another with 3 drawers. Lots of nooks and crannies too. Decent size bathroom cabinets too .

I’m one of the plebs, and booked through a TA and have got my first choice of cabin too.

Happy Bunny here,...:cool:

Certainly the price has gone up on the one I have booked... i wonder if it is anything to do with the discounts offered? Have they finally been told that to show a price with a 5% discount already taken off for everyone is false advertising....?

Hope none of you have pinched the cabin I want! :D

One side of the prom deck ( deck 7)..camt remember which side ..sorry! And I think starboard side of Lido deck. Probably somewhere else too...

Having just come off Oriana, as a non smoker who hates the smell of it..... i didnt notice it at all!

Sorry...realise thats probably not a lot of help...

Been looking at coming back to P&O after a break of a few years, doesn't seem to be ANY availability for the 5-8 age group on their Summer 2019 cruises, even though there are plenty of cabins available (and of course its 12 months away!). Was looking at a cruise with them outside of school holidays in Autumn and there's the same problem again.

 

Seems to be that P&O are really dialling down this age group, which feels v odd. Anyone else found this, or have the inside track on what's going on?

Which ship and cruise number are you looking at? You might find a specialist cruise TA may be able to help..

I confess..... as I always have a balcony cabin, which isnt cheap, ( I am claustrophobic) on the few occasions my clothes need washing, the onboard laundry gets my custom. Quite simply I cannot be bothered to waste my time in the launderette and for the sake of a few quid, I pay someone else to do my washing!!

I can live with missing out on the gossip! ;p

Are we talking Falmouth uk? Or somewhere else.....?

Out of interest, could those who have made successful claims from their insurers for missed ports please provide some indication of the value of compensation per passenger per missed port, net of any policy excess? Thanks.

We are with LV who pay out £150 pp per missed port. No excess, and had no apparent impact on following years premium either.

Good point. Before you know it there will be an allowance of one toilet roll per cabin per cruise, with additional rolls available at £5 per roll. If you wish to bring your own roll aboard, the first roll will be free, and after that a £10 per roll Andrex tax will be charged.

Of course, sone unscrupulous passengers will claim that they are just bringing kitchen towels on board for cleaning purposes.

As the supporters of the new alcohol policy will say, "If you can afford a cruise, you can afford to pay for your own toilet paper. "

 

 

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:D...but did you know that Andrex Quilts toilet paper gums up the plumbing system on a cruise ship? Its too thick....thats why they supply that stuff you can almost see through....

I understand that on the World cruise, it was divided into sectors (which is normal) ....and those on the whole Worldie were allowed to bring on board an additional litre of Alcohol on each sector...