Arcadia -- what is she like ?

[ps646566]

I recently sailed on Arcadia. For the benefit of those who may be booked to go on here, or are just interested, here are my thoughts :-

 

Big, long, narrow ship. Not as stable in choppy water as Oriana or Aurora.

 

Was designed for Cunard and this shows in terms of Cunard style decor (very understated) in some areas.

 

Cabins and balconies are large and well appointed. Some complained about lack of drawer space, but there are plenty of cupboards/closets. Cabin service flawless.

 

Two tier main dining room is excellent. Food and service perhaps not quite up to the standard of the other ships, but still very good and this may be due to 'teething troubles'.

 

The buffet restaurant (the Belvedere) however is awful. It looks good, but there is far from enough seating, a totally confusing and non user-friendly layout, and poor passenger flow. You end up taking forever to find what you want, queue several times, and then can't find anywhere to sit.

 

Did not use the alternative dining options -- Arcadian Rhodes and the Orchid. Too expensive at £12.50/£8.00 a head cover. But they were apprently well subscribed.

 

Two tier theatre is stunning and the production shows were fantastic. A real plus point for this ship. All entertainments were good (except for a dreadful string quartet who could not play !) and the Cruise Director and entertainments staff were first class.

 

Plenty of good bars. Always easy to find somewhere to drink. Crows Nest a bit small, Rising Sun pub very popular. Bar service a bit lumpy at times but again this could be teething troubles.

 

An excellent indoor (retractable roof) pool and area and a decent outside pool. Extensive sun decks, and a wrap-around promenade deck (3 times round = 1 mile).

 

Hairdressers too small and clients visible to passing traffic. Too much space perhaps devoted to expensive spa and gym facilities and the Hyrotherapy pool (a glorified giant jacuzzi for £10 an hour).

 

Good library and cyber cafe. Much space devoted to the 'Horizons' initiative, which looked like a mini hotel business and conference centre. If you want to sit in front of Microsoft Powerpoint and a flip chart doing a 'Life Audit' then give it a go, otherwise save your money. The space would have been better devoted to a better buffet restaurant.

 

All in all a very nice ship which will no doubt get better as things bed down. Not traditional P&O in some respects, probably because she was not designed for P&O. I would go on her again, particularly to a hot climate location, but I would still prefer to go on Oriana or Arcadia.

[Druke I]

Glad to finally see a post about the ship.

 

Not surprised to read about the shortcomings - often the case when at least three different design teams (and cruise lines) have tried to style the ship.

[ps646566]

Last sentence I mean of course to say "... Oriana or Aurora". Doh !

[Shalee]

Just a few observations regarding Arcadia. Arcadian Rhodes and Orchid restaurant are, in my opinion, well worth paying the cover charge as they are excellent with a unique atmosphere. Food is superb.

Hydropool gets cheaper the more you use it. We had two sessions which cost £15 each for 2 hours. The thermal suite, which is part of the Hydropool is wonderful.

 

Once you've sussed the Belvedere (self service buffet) out it's fine. The separate food stations is a good idea but you still get the normal scrabble for tea and coffee.

 

Crows Nest is not small - it's very nice and the service in the bars is excellent as always.

 

Inside Cabins are awful. Decent size bathrooms though but not enough drawer space.

[ps646566]

The Crow's Nest seems smaller than the ones on Oriana and Aurora. Apparently they did not initially plan it be a bar initially in the Cunard spec. But yes it's quite nice and we used it several times.

 

Didn't persevere with the Belvedere long enough to get used to it, just one breakfast and one lunch was enough. Heard many complaints about it on the ship, but it was still very busy apparently. Some people just prefer buffets for their daytime meals.

 

Whether the alternative dining and Hydropool etc are worth it is of course a matter of personal preference. Arcadia apparently tries to satisfy a wide range of tastes.

[elaine61]

Personally we prefer to get something light from the self service restaurant for our lunch. We don't have very much!! I expect they are all the same no matter what ship you are on. The self service restaurant on QE2 was the same kind of scrabble as the orangery or the conservatory.

 

Elaine

[johardy]

I've heard rumblings that Arcadia are charging for room service can anyone confirm this

[seabourndt]

don't know of anyone charging for it is there?

going on long weekend 3rd-7th june.

looking forward to it

dave

[elaine61]

Room service does carry a charge. It is only small. On the maiden cruise they started charging to have the continental breakfast delivered to your cabin and tea and coffee, but I believe for now this has been removed. However in the new brochure that I received the other day they have changed the wording on the section what is included in your fare and continental breakfast in your room does not appear. In my opinion I can forsee that they will introduce this across the fleet by next summer!! Might be wrong. I have got a copy of the room service menu and it is quite a nice menu. For instance Burger and chips £2 supplement. Sandwiches (which are more cafe in style, baguettes wraps etc) £2 approx!!

 

Elaine

[ps646566]

Whether they introduce a charge across the fleet will I think depend on the "success" of it on Arcadia. You can bet your life that the bozo at Terminus Terrace who thought it up did not reckon on a reduced number of takers when he sold the idea to his bosses.

 

If people on Arcadia boycott the cabin service breakfast, then P&O might think twice about extending the charge to other ships.

 

However, unfortunately there seems to be enough people on every cruise who are so loaded that they really don't care what they pay for anything (and wonder why anyone else does) to make this unlikely.

[Albannach]

Going on Arcadia soon - thanks for all the advice from those who have already been.

 

Charging for room service - P&O brochure 2005 (page 184) what's included - "early morning fruit juice, tea or coffee and biscuits or spoil youself with continental breakfast in bed" so if they try to charge for room service for a continental breakfast don't pay. The brocuhre doesn't say anything about whether there's a charge for room service at other thimes so legally they might be allowed to - though if all the passengers vote with their feet thye might have to change their minds.

[bonni99]

Room service does carry a charge. It is only small. On the maiden cruise they started charging to have the continental breakfast delivered to your cabin and tea and coffee, but I believe for now this has been removed. However in the new brochure that I received the other day they have changed the wording on the section what is included in your fare and continental breakfast in your room does not appear. In my opinion I can forsee that they will introduce this across the fleet by next summer!! Might be wrong. I have got a copy of the room service menu and it is quite a nice menu. For instance Burger and chips £2 supplement. Sandwiches (which are more cafe in style, baguettes wraps etc) £2 approx!!

 

Elaine

 

is it just me or does it seem a cheek to charge for in room meals like a burger and fries?

[ps646566]

I agree with you entirely. Please see my post on the thread entitled "Room Service Charges"

[elaine61]

I suppose it only really matters if you use room service. About the only thing I have used room service for is a nice pot of tea in the afternoon on the odd occasion and I would not pay a £1 for a delivery of tea. I'd take myself off to the self service buffet.

 

I suppose it is all about choice. I don't know why they are introducing the charge (to create revenue, I think not as the British are so tight they just wouldn't pay or just to cut down on the already overworked cabin stewards maybe??) But on all the ships there are a number of different places to obtain food any time of the day if one so wishes.

 

As I've never had room service before, I cannot see me using it in the future either. In the new brochure it now states on page 202 under what's not included in your holiday fare - Room Service - Should you order from the room service menu there will be a charge for the items ordered.

 

All I can say is from January 2006 which is when this brochure runs from room service will be chargeable on all the P & O ships. It also says that special shuttle buses and city transfers are not included. To date though I have never been charged for a shuttle bus.

 

Elaine

[mancunian]

I may be wrong but I suspect it is not just to raise revenue - I think it is more likely they want to cut room service altogether and charging is just the first stage. If not many people use it because of the charge this may be exactly what they are hoping for.

[Albannach]

Back this evening after two weeks on Arcadia in the Norwegian fjords. As a first time cruiser I obviously can't make comparisons with other ships but here are my thoughts. Food - good in the main Meridian restaurant though it didn't always look like you would expect having read the menu - especially with desserts. Some experienced cruisers said the menus showed much less imagination than on other ships. Service in the Meridian was generally OK though on one evening they really raced us through our meal. A quiet word with the maitresse d' and the problem was never repeated. The Belvedere self service buffet can get busy, though I thought the congestion was more down to passengers choosing to stand in the worst possible place while deciding if they want chips or salad. As people learned where everything was, it improved. The layout of the Belvedere is very, very long so if like me you like to mix & match different kinds of food you could have a long walk. Wine waiters in the Belvedere and several of the bars don't have assigned tables so you can end up sayng "no thank you" several times in quick succession - eventually we worked out that if you asked the first waiter for one of the little paper coasters everyone else would asume you were being served and leave you alone. None of us ever sussed out how to get the drinking water dispenser in the Belvedere to give you a whole glass in one go. Finding a table could be difficult. Occasionally we had to share, but most days the weather was good enough for us to eat out on deck just aft of the restaurant.

Cabin - we had a balcony which was well worth the extra for this trip. Our cabin was allegedly big enough for three adults but this would be very cramped. Storage space would also be very tight with three sharing. The fact that they spent 200 million GBP on a ship and couldn't get the coat hangers to fit in the wardrobes didn't escape the notice of the visiting stand-up comic. We never used room service, though I noticed that an extra bit of paper had been added to the cabin information folder to tell us that they would not after all charge for bringing breakfast to your cabin. Room service at all other times carries a charge, as do various other things you might not expect, e.g. "specialty" morning coffees in the downstairs bars, and even a charge for espresso or cappuccino in the Meridian.

Entertainment - the string quartet have improved! Not world class but pleasant enough to listen to. They did a recital of Edward Greig's music in the Crow's Nest as we glided out of Geraingerfjord and it was one of the highlights of the cruise for me. Most of the time they were stuck in the Piano Bar which is not a good place for performers, far too much through traffic and background noise. The house show team were good, the resident pianist knocked spots off the big name celebrity pianist who did a couple of concerts in the Palladium. In fact most of the big name celebrities were disappointing, the exception being the stand up comedian who did a briliant impersonation of the captain. We also had two young ladies who did classical piano duets, though I think they were only booked for the one cruise.

The gym is exceptionally well equipped, though bad layout means they sometimes have to switch off the noisier machines to avoid drowing out the fitness classes. Mrs attended several of these - I stuck to the machines. I liked the idea of having the gym so high up and forward with a big window, you could persuade yourself that the ship went faster when you pedalled harder.

The "Neptune Pool Bar" with th retractable roof was well used though I found it all a bit artificial. It was also very noisy with the roof in place. It's close enough to the Belvedere to gt a burger (I'm told the vegetarian ones were excellent) and take it through to the Belvedere.

I suppose the acid test is, would I go back? Definitely. But be aware that P&O are deliberately setting out to make the Arcadia something completely different from the Aurora or Oriana. When I've had a shot on one of them I'll tell you which I prefer.

PS I nearly forgot to mention that the scenery in the fjords and on our shore trips (both organised and independent) was mind blowing, the temperature in the Arctic Circle was in the 20's celsius, and the advertised midnight sun sail past North Cape was unforgettable - and timed to within 5 seconds of midnight.