silkworms

I think you will find that Arcadia was launched in 2004 which makes

her 18 not 22!

So Ocean Grill is open for business?

Thats good news!

How are the arrangements for ordinary dining, any queues?

8 minutes ago, LesleyAnn60 said:

Has anyone purchased the WiFi package and shared it across 2 mobiles? It does say it’s possible in the Frequently Asked Questions, but not at the same time. I’m wondering how easy it is to log off and then log onto a different mobile device 

It’s really easy, you don’t even have to switch present device off, it comes up with a question on the second device, ‘Do you want to disconnect previous user?’ We always share like that.

Terri

57 minutes ago, sagaris said:

I have booked this trip through P&O, just under £100 for 2 of us, with our discount, which I didn't think was too expensive.

I have a question regarding the trip. It says the activity is moderate and as I am not as fit as I used to be (understatement of the year!!) and have problems walking, especially uphill, I am wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew😲Any advice would be welcome.

 

Thanks

Molly

You cannot go to Madeira and not do the cable car/sledge run. You will be absolutely fine, it is not strenuous, you can take your time. If you do the excursion with P and O you will not need to get a taxi back or walk down to town.  Thoroughly recommend it.

Terri

1 hour ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

We go away on Arcadia in 2 weeks time and my wife has been completing the necessary info into their system. She managed to print out her boarding pass but despite several attempts mine won’t print, has anyone else had similar problems?

We are on the same cruise, have just printed everything out OK.

Did not download photo because they normally end up doing it again at terminal.  Why not join our roll call under Arcadia J219.

Terri

5 hours ago, Grumpycruiser60plus said:

Good afternoon everyone, 

 Well it is time to for me to come out of the "lurking cabin" I have been in for the past months, the reason is to announce that in 4 days, we shall be heading off down to Southampton to embark Arcadia for the Northern Lights cruise. This will be 3rd time "lucky" as we had it cancelled the last 2 yrs running  because of you know what. We were last on board P & O Oceana Sept 19,so exactly 3 yrs since cruising. Starting to place bit & pieces in spare room ready for packing. I shall be writing a review from my perspective in the days ahead, depending on wifi!!. This is not our 1st time up to Norway, having been twice  before with HAL. But it is a bucket list cruise to hopefully see & photograph the Northern Lights. We have had our cabin booked for over a year now & we have been given 12.00 noon boarding time. I look forward to sharing my views from onboard in the days ahead. 

Really looking forward to your updates as like Purdey we are also on the next cruise on Arcadia and really wanting to know what is open and what is closed as well as what shape the ship is in. Very disappointing that despite being out of service for many months, none of the ships seem to have had any kind of makeover.

1 hour ago, db51 said:

View out of our Southampton Harbour and Spa balcony; beautiful hotel, lovely views but so noisy - even 2 floors down we could hear the music from the bar until after midnight- we won’t be staying here again! 

Oh that’s a shame, the view from your window/balcony looks identical to ours.  We were probably on floor 7 or 8.  Never heard a thing.

I am wondering if there was a wedding on? I did double check before we booked to ensure there wasn’t a function on because I had heard of other noise complaints.  It is such a handy hotel, so close to the ship.

Hope you enjoy your cruise more than the hotel.

I agree, Ocean Village Hotel hard to beat.

Food, accommodation, views, all are splendid.

A bit pricey but worth it!

I’ve been trying to think of adjectives which describe what I’ve been

watching on TV all day, I can only say MAJESTIC and POWERFUL.

I had better go and wash the breakfast pots now!

Terri

2 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Good morning everyone another full day of watching tv I think today a sad day 🥲 I think I’ll be staying in my pjs all day not had a good night after having the booster yesterday in fact the worst I ever felt from them with a very sore arm and shivers and temperature and stabbing pains all over and now the other half is feeling unwell so we’re both having lemsips so a chill day today I’m sure it’ll be all ok in a few more hours onward and upwards 🥴 .

Hi Sandra,

I hope you are feeling better soon, we have also had our latest boosters so we should all be good for Arcadia next month, just over four weeks to go.

Our roll call is so quiet considering the short time left until we go.

A sad day today, am expecting quite a few tears.

Terri

1 hour ago, margsbolton said:

I have just returned from a cruise on Arcadia where I bought some perfume using OBC and noticed that I have not received any Loyalty Discount (8.5%). Is this because I still had OBC available ??

Hi Margsbolton, how was Arcadia ? We are on shortly and wondered if

all is OK.  Are the speciality restaurants open, Ocean Grill, Sindu?

How was the entertainment ?  We are on second sitting hopefully

and normally go to late show at 10.30. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Terri

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Thanks for the information.  The amount of the saving isn't so important but if there is one I won't say no!  More importantly as its work related we require an invoice and purchasing in advance generally generates one.

Normally no invoice is provided, an envelope is in the cabin to

remind you how to connect up.  I just got a price for a 19 night

cruise payable in advance and the saving is hardly anything 

compared to price on board.

Hope you don’t have an icloud account because the Britannia IT

system does not accept the icloud platform!!! The exact words from

the IT manager on board. Very strange. Have a brilliant time anyway!
 

Terri

41 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

As it's some way off did they allocate your seat or could you pick it in advance? Also do you pay upfront or when your balance falls due.

The amount is included in the balance, we are on same cruise and

booked PE seats when cruise was booked over 12 months ago.

Actual seat bookings are not able to be done until 14 weeks prior to

cruise except of course higher tiered cruisers have a couple days before

that 14 week period commences.

13 hours ago, arlowood said:

Ocean Grill was not open during our cruise. I think I heard someone suggest that they were aiming to have it open in October but I don't know if that is fact or rumour.

 

Sindhu was open and we dined there on 2 occasions during our cruise. Enjoyed it immensely the first night but I was less impressed with my Chicken Korma main meal on our second visit. There is a new system in place (well new to us since last eating at Sindhu). Previously we were just charged a fixed supplement per person to eat at the speciality restaurants. Now the set up is more aligned to a normal situation where each individual dish is priced separately and you are charged a total depending on what you select. Our first visit came to £64 for 2 including a bottle of wine which I think compares well with what you would expect at a decent Asian restaurant onshore.

 

One tip I would give is that if you want to eat at Sindhu, do as we did and make your bookings as soon as you get on board either directly by phone or using the  My Holiday app. Within 2 days on our cruise , Sindhu was fully booked with only a waiting list for those hoping for cancellations.

 

Just to confirm your final point, the set dining is now in the Meridian on Deck 3 aft whereas the Freedom Dining is downstairs on Deck 2

Thank you for your info, most helpful. We are on Greek islands cruise for 19 nights so hoping very much that Ocean Grill is open, it is middle to late October and we really like a change from the MDR.

59 minutes ago, arlowood said:

Just returned from our J216 cruise on Arcadia (7 night Portugal& Spain) and thought I'd chip in with a few observations following the earlier posts regarding the start up cruise on Arcadia.

 

Firstly, we had a great time and enjoyed the visit to 2 ports that we had never visited previously (Oporto and Vigo). Sadly due to adverse weather conditions we did not get to visit Guernsey (swell conditions outside the safety levels for tender operations). This was our 3rd failed attempt to visit Guernsey due to weather/sea conditions so e have resigned ourselves to the fact that it is not meant to be.

 

Our cabin steward was excellent and very quickly learned our morning routine so that the cabin was always serviced when we got back from breakfast. As mentioned elsewhere, there is now no turn-down service in the evening as I believe the cabin stewards have been redeployed to other duties in the evening. (We did meet our steward one evening near our cabin and he was wearing a white jacket rather than the normal blue shirt so he was probably off to his evening shift somewhere else on the ship).

 

There were a few minor issues that showed how things have been pared back since we last sailed with P&) in 2019.

Bulk bottles of shower gel and shampoo fitted to the wall over the bath. No moisturiser or shower cap provided.

The menu in the Meridian Restaurant has been shrunk and the always "available items" (salmon fillet and sirloin steak) are now included with another 3 items as main menu options.

There seemed to be a preponderance of green beans and broccoli as the vegetable accompaniments to most main courses.

No sweet sauces (caramel, butterscotch, chocolate)  available to add to your ice cream.

Restaurant staff appeared to be struggling to cope on occasions probably due to reduced staffing levels.

The "My Holiday" app facility was a bit of a puzzle. We were on Freedom Dining and tried to use the app to join the "virtual queue" for a table. However it stated that the app page had to be kept open to allow you to be notified when a table was available. My issue was that my wifi connection to the app would not work in my cabin and frequently dropped out when moving around the ship. So in order to get the benefit of the virtual queue I realised that, once I had joined the queue, I would have to park myself in a good wifi area and not move from there until I was alerted to come to the restaurant. In my view the idea is a little half-baked at present but may work better with some tweaks.

 

We also spoke to those who had used the app to book sets for the entertainment. Some shows were very popular but they said appeared to be no checks made of those entering the theatre to see whether they had pre-booked or not. So effectively the pre-booking system was a bit of a lottery and you could miss out if those who had not booked got there before you.

 

We had a good time but the various little things that niggled away meant that our enjoyment was eroded by comparison to our earlier experiences on P&O.

 

 

 

Thank you for the update. We are on Arcadia J219.

Would you please let me if the Ocean Grill is open and/or the

Asian restaurant at the top of the ship? We are on second sitting 

club dining, I believe that is now upstairs whereas previously the 

freedom dining was upstairs.
Any other thoughts you have gratefully received.Thank you.

Terri

On 8/30/2022 at 2:20 PM, hapster85 said:

You would need to enable wifi calling in order to text (SMS) with someone using Android, or any other non-Apple phone, as those messages travel over the phone network. Group messages (MMS) use internet, so if you did not pay for internet, but were only connecting to ship's wifi, those wouldn't work either. Group messages with only other iMessage users should work if iMessage is working. Wifi calling would need to be enabled while connected to a land based cell tower, preferably one from your carrier, prior to connecting to the ship's wifi. Make a note for next time. 😉 This would also allow you to make regular phone calls while on board. We do this all the time.

 

Princess must have an agreement with Apple, otherwise, iMessage wouldn't work either without paid internet. Some airlines, airports, etc do the same thing.

I do find these things are strange, I don’t know who to believe.

Last October on P and O Britannia, I was told in no uncertain terms

that P and O wifi was not a platform I could use for icloud.

I had so many meetings with IT manager, I could never figure out

anything he was telling me. He said icloud was not that popular!!!!!

I have cruised for many,many years and never had a problem prior to this cruise. Has Carnival taken a new satellite system on?  Why won’t it work? In the end I had to go on iCloud’s website and go through a long procedure to get what I wanted!

I have just come off  Emerald Princess and there was absolutely no

problem.  
 

I just wish they would tell me the truth.

After all your recommendations we did indeed stay here and totally agree with all your comments, it was great.  Thank you.

Terri

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

I need some ideas from those of you based in the middle of the country please.

 

We always try to see something new on the way down to Southampton. We travel down the the m6 and we are running out of ideas for half way down. So we have visited for example the Potteries, Wedgewood and Drayton Manor, Chester cathedral etc

 

So for this trip any ideas for attractions around about an hour up or down from say Knutsford?
 

 

Tatton Park is lovely, on the outskirts of Knutsford. It is the show ground for the RHS Tatton Show held every July.  But apart from that, it is acres of

woodland with deer and the house itself of course, especially if it s raining!

16 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

We have a mix of Princess tours with some private tours in the mix. My main concern at this point is tendering into Dublin. Need to try to beat the masses.

We tendered into Dun Laoghaire for Dublin, right across the road is

the railway station where trains to Dublin are frequent and the cost

only 5 euros pp return. Very good service. Get off at Pierce Station.

Hoho bus in Dublin is just round the corner. Brilliant Irish humorous 

bus drivers.

We arrived back from Emerald last weekend. It was a super cruise.

We wore masks all the time even though they were not mandatory.

It is not a problem having to wear a mask. It is common sense.

Our ports of call were similar to yours except we did not visit 

Liverpool. The Edinburgh Tattoo was a slight disappointment as

it is called Military Tattoo and that it was not. Far too many singers 

and Mexican dancers.

Favourite excursion was in Orkneys. Don’t miss the Italian Chapel.

We did not do Princess Plus.  The cruise was so port intensive we were

off the ship more than we were on and it was just not financially viable.

Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

9 hours ago, Technoman2 said:

We are  booked on Azura 9th December from Gatwick and before they announced which Which London airport you could fly from the price for an inside cabin was £729 and if you could fly from Glasgow on 10th it was £650. 

Going on Azura to Croatia next week been on her twice already and Ventura her sister ship once.

She had a refit in November 2021 so will be interested to see whats new next week. We enjoy the bigger ships because on sea days there seems to be more space to find your own space and it also has a promenade deck which Brittania does not due to all the additional balcony cabins. Never done RCL so cannot compare.

On Azura over Xmas last year. The refit you mention was mechanical

only. The ship was a disgrace and was not fit to sail on, our cruise

was the first one since being out of commission. The cabins were

not fit, dirty carpets, bathroom grout all falling apart, the food was

a joke, especially over Xmas. Have just returned from cruise on

Emerald Princess, identical design to Azura, cannot describe the

difference, it was so much improved. Will not be going on Azura again.

Appalling service from Princess.  We applied for obc nearly three months ago. Kept sending a reminder and the investment company also rang

them twice.  Absolutely no response.

Arrived back from cruise today, guest services emailed them twice

whilst we were onboard. So we have had no obc. Cannot understand it.

We never have this problem with P and O. However, I have to say this

last cruise on Emerald Princess far exceeded anything P and O offer.

Such a shame.

On 7/20/2022 at 6:58 PM, Josy1953 said:

We are back from our latest Princess cruise and are now trying to decide whether to go ahead with the one that we have booked for October.  We have never been disappointed by a cruise on any line because we don't expect perfection but our experience on Emerald Princess was the worst we have had on any cruise.  I am now concerned about going on Emerald Princess again.  I am going to call our Princess contact tomorrow to look whether it is possible to transfer our planned cruise to a different ship.  Each problem was dealt with satisfactorily on board at the time but the number of problems was ridiculous, the worst being a broken pipe in the ceiling which woke us up at 5:40 am dripping on OH's head but it was just the final straw after so many minor problems.  We have been told that the ship will be having a dry dock for the 2 weeks before our next cruise, so either everything will be fine or there are likely to be snags following the dry dock work.

I have never been so desperate to leave a ship but we were off the ship 6:20 this morning as soon as we able to carry our own luggage off.

There were a number of Covid cases on board, we were told that it was around 200 cases but as is usual there was no official confirmation of numbers, we only know for certain that the 2 people next door to us were taken away and the cabin was deep cleaned by a team dressed in protective clothing.

Just to say we are on Emerald now and it has obviously improved since your holiday.

Cannot tell you how much better shape this ship is in than Azura at Xmas. No comparison.And

dont forget the ships are identical.

The food is great, the cabin very comfortable and the staff are superb.

Our next stop is Dublin and we have been blessed with good weather. Princess a step

up from P and O no doubt.

Terri

18 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Enjoy the Tattoo, it’s a really great night out but pack for it.
 

You need both sunscreen, hat and a lightweight rain jacket as the seats are exposed to the elements whatever they may throw at you. Also take a black polly bag for the seat in case it is wet before you get there - a damp derrière is no fun while watching a show.

 

Are  you eating on the ship before you go? If not then it’s wise to prebook a restaurant as they tend to get very busy during the festival.

 

 

Thank you so much for your tips. We were thinking a black bin bag with

holes cut out for the eyes! But your tip to take them for sitting on is

great, and we will just have a waterproof hoodie!

it is a Princess excursion and we leave at 5.30, so will not be eating

dinner on board. We will have a big lunch, I don’t think it will do us

any harm not eating for one evening! Evidently it takes a couple of

hours from Glasgow to Edinburgh and the ship does not sail until

02.00 am.  Really looking forward to it and thank you again.

Terri

8 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

We are back from our latest Princess cruise and are now trying to decide whether to go ahead with the one that we have booked for October.  We have never been disappointed by a cruise on any line because we don't expect perfection but our experience on Emerald Princess was the worst we have had on any cruise.  I am now concerned about going on Emerald Princess again.  I am going to call our Princess contact tomorrow to look whether it is possible to transfer our planned cruise to a different ship.  Each problem was dealt with satisfactorily on board at the time but the number of problems was ridiculous, the worst being a broken pipe in the ceiling which woke us up at 5:40 am dripping on OH's head but it was just the final straw after so many minor problems.  We have been told that the ship will be having a dry dock for the 2 weeks before our next cruise, so either everything will be fine or there are likely to be snags following the dry dock work.

I have never been so desperate to leave a ship but we were off the ship 6:20 this morning as soon as we able to carry our own luggage off.

There were a number of Covid cases on board, we were told that it was around 200 cases but as is usual there was no official confirmation of numbers, we only know for certain that the 2 people next door to us were taken away and the cabin was deep cleaned by a team dressed in protective clothing.

Hi Josy

Please let us have more details as you have me very worried!

We are due on Emerald around the UK next month, we were

looking forward particularly to the Edinburgh Tattoo for which

we have great seats booked.  We are in a mini suite on D deck

and have booked Crown Grill for several evenings. Would be really grateful for a follow up from you!

Terri