Arcadia mini suite - or Arcadia in general

[catperson02]

After much thought and family discussions we decided that even if our August Britannia cruise goes ahead it would not be the best time to be cruising. So we transferred the deposit to a Christmas cruise on Arcadia around the Baltic. There will be five of us in two cabins. My parents 70+ years old in one and myself and my 2 daughters who will be 22 and 20 in the other. The girls are aware and quite happy that this will be a very different beast to a summer in the Med on Britannia and are quite happy with a cocktail, dinner, a quiz or a show in the evenings. The itinerary looks fantastic and after all if bank of mum is paying...…… The prices are very reasonable too.

Anyway we decided to splurge on mini suite cabins. We have booked B82 and B84. We have sailed in superior delux cabins on Azura. Am I correct in thinking that these will be broadly the same? I am sure that I read somewhere that they get priority embarkation and come with the fizz and chocs. Is there anything else that I have missed? We mainly went for these cabins for the extra space and could not justify the cost of a full suite but hey you never know the upgrade fairy may call although she never has before. Any other advice or tips on what appears to be a beautiful vessel would be greatly appreciated. Looking on the deck plans I can only see one laundrette on board which will no doubt be needed as someone is bound to slip over and land in mud, puddles or snow. Is this true and do they get crowded? We always visit the Epicurean a couple of times, how does the ocean grill compare? I have one fussy pescatarian who won't eat anything spicy or that is "looking at her" or if it contains mushrooms or cauliflower (need I go on?)

After feeling very doubtful that our summer cruise would happen we are much more confident that this will go ahead and it has given us all a much needed lift. Mind you it has just been pointed out that I did say in a moment of weakness that if the summer cruise did not go ahead that we would get another cat after loosing our last elderly lady just before Christmas, and yes the rescue shelter in the village is taking phone calls and doing "telephone dating" to make a match.

Thank you

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, catperson02 said:

After much thought and family discussions we decided that even if our August Britannia cruise goes ahead it would not be the best time to be cruising. So we transferred the deposit to a Christmas cruise on Arcadia around the Baltic. There will be five of us in two cabins. My parents 70+ years old in one and myself and my 2 daughters who will be 22 and 20 in the other. The girls are aware and quite happy that this will be a very different beast to a summer in the Med on Britannia and are quite happy with a cocktail, dinner, a quiz or a show in the evenings. The itinerary looks fantastic and after all if bank of mum is paying...…… The prices are very reasonable too.

Anyway we decided to splurge on mini suite cabins. We have booked B82 and B84. We have sailed in superior delux cabins on Azura. Am I correct in thinking that these will be broadly the same? I am sure that I read somewhere that they get priority embarkation and come with the fizz and chocs. Is there anything else that I have missed? We mainly went for these cabins for the extra space and could not justify the cost of a full suite but hey you never know the upgrade fairy may call although she never has before. Any other advice or tips on what appears to be a beautiful vessel would be greatly appreciated. Looking on the deck plans I can only see one laundrette on board which will no doubt be needed as someone is bound to slip over and land in mud, puddles or snow. Is this true and do they get crowded? We always visit the Epicurean a couple of times, how does the ocean grill compare? I have one fussy pescatarian who won't eat anything spicy or that is "looking at her" or if it contains mushrooms or cauliflower (need I go on?)

After feeling very doubtful that our summer cruise would happen we are much more confident that this will go ahead and it has given us all a much needed lift. Mind you it has just been pointed out that I did say in a moment of weakness that if the summer cruise did not go ahead that we would get another cat after loosing our last elderly lady just before Christmas, and yes the rescue shelter in the village is taking phone calls and doing "telephone dating" to make a match.

Thank you

Glad to see positive stories, I really hope it works out for you. 

I love the sound of telephone dating to find a cat, good luck with that also. 

Andy 

[moonstone01]

Andy, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this but you do talk sense so I was wondering, I am looking at changing our cruise from September this year to September next year but I can not find any that are calling into Monte Carlo or Cannes.  Have they decided to take these ports of call off the itinerary.  Many thanks Andy.

[BrianI]

There are a few cruises calling in Cannes or Monaco. Just go on the P&O website “find a cruise” and select which ports you want under “All destinations”

 

Brian

[AndyMichelle]

5 minutes ago, BrianI said:

There are a few cruises calling in Cannes or Monaco. Just go on the P&O website “find a cruise” and select which ports you want under “All destinations”

 

Brian

Thanks Brian, your knowledge is better than mine. 

Andy 

[AndyMichelle]

22 minutes ago, moonstone01 said:

Andy, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this but you do talk sense so I was wondering, I am looking at changing our cruise from September this year to September next year but I can not find any that are calling into Monte Carlo or Cannes.  Have they decided to take these ports of call off the itinerary.  Many thanks Andy.

Hi, 

Others are better placed to advise than me, but thank you for asking. 

Andy 

[moonstone01]

Hi Brian, I have just done as you suggested and there aren't any going to the ports I mentioned, shame rally as Monte Carlo is a place we would love to go back to and Cannes was a new destination for us, HeyHo

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, catperson02 said:

After much thought and family discussions we decided that even if our August Britannia cruise goes ahead it would not be the best time to be cruising. So we transferred the deposit to a Christmas cruise on Arcadia around the Baltic. There will be five of us in two cabins. My parents 70+ years old in one and myself and my 2 daughters who will be 22 and 20 in the other. The girls are aware and quite happy that this will be a very different beast to a summer in the Med on Britannia and are quite happy with a cocktail, dinner, a quiz or a show in the evenings. The itinerary looks fantastic and after all if bank of mum is paying...…… The prices are very reasonable too.

Anyway we decided to splurge on mini suite cabins. We have booked B82 and B84. We have sailed in superior delux cabins on Azura. Am I correct in thinking that these will be broadly the same? I am sure that I read somewhere that they get priority embarkation and come with the fizz and chocs. Is there anything else that I have missed? We mainly went for these cabins for the extra space and could not justify the cost of a full suite but hey you never know the upgrade fairy may call although she never has before. Any other advice or tips on what appears to be a beautiful vessel would be greatly appreciated. Looking on the deck plans I can only see one laundrette on board which will no doubt be needed as someone is bound to slip over and land in mud, puddles or snow. Is this true and do they get crowded? We always visit the Epicurean a couple of times, how does the ocean grill compare? I have one fussy pescatarian who won't eat anything spicy or that is "looking at her" or if it contains mushrooms or cauliflower (need I go on?)

After feeling very doubtful that our summer cruise would happen we are much more confident that this will go ahead and it has given us all a much needed lift. Mind you it has just been pointed out that I did say in a moment of weakness that if the summer cruise did not go ahead that we would get another cat after loosing our last elderly lady just before Christmas, and yes the rescue shelter in the village is taking phone calls and doing "telephone dating" to make a match.

Thank you

Having been on all the P&O ships, most of them a few times, I’m afraid that Arcadia is our least favourite, but you will find that far more people feel the opposite to us. When we went on her we had an aft corner wrap suite which, although was old fashioned compared to the suites on Britannia, was very nice. Our daughters, who were almost identical ages to yours when we went, had the aft balcony cabin next to us. Our balcony had a nice balance of shade and sun, but one deck has aft balconies that are almost fully covered and, being deep, make the cabin oppressive and it’s like looking through a tunnel, so worth researching.
 

Our daughters didn’t like the fact that they were about 50 years younger than the average passenger (that’s factual, not an exaggeration by the way) and there were hardly any other passengers of their age. Thankfully they get on well together and enjoy joining us for meals. We didn’t like the design of the main dining room as there is a busy circular walkway around it that we kept getting seated alongside. It was the only ship we have been on where passengers were given pagers for lunch! Ocean Grill is lovely. Not quite as nice as Epicurean on Britannia but still well worth it. We went twice in a week and on the second occasion we were unimpressed to find a very loud live band playing in there, which spoilt the experience for us and seemed completely inappropriate, so worth checking in advance if that matters to you. Sindhu was good, although tables are a bit small and too close together, but we really enjoyed going there for breakfast which we were allowed to being in a suite (may well apply to mini suites as well, but double check). 
 

I contemplated not posting as we didn’t like Arcadia, but hopefully some of our experiences will enable you to adapt your cruise to have a better time than we did. We love the Baltic. It’s our favourite cruise destination, having done all the ex UK round trip options and going at the time of year you are going the cities will all look lovely. 

[Dorset cruise fan]

Arcadia is a beautiful, stylish, elegant ship. We haven't stayed in a suite but we did like the balcony cabins for space and facilities. The ship has beautiful glass sculptures, a gin tasting every night and a great promenade deck. We did find problems with the sight lines in the theatre and she doesn't have the equivalent of the aft show lounge which means that concerts and talks are often in the night club which isn't great. I agree that the layout of the main dining room is a bit odd but didn't cause any problems for us. So to conclude, her layout isn't perfect but the pros outweigh any cons and she's a lovely ship.

[lindyloo22]

Love Arcadia been on her a number of times, have always found that the ages of cruises varies not all oldies. Was going on her this year but sadly had to cancel.

[Dorset cruise fan]

I agree that certain cruises attract younger age groups. We met some Australians doing our Christmas Market cruise back to back with a Canary Island cruise and they said the age range was about halved for the Christmas Market cruise.

There is definitely more than 1 laundrette  on Arcadia.

[showingdiva]

3 hours ago, catperson02 said:

After much thought and family discussions we decided that even if our August Britannia cruise goes ahead it would not be the best time to be cruising. So we transferred the deposit to a Christmas cruise on Arcadia around the Baltic. There will be five of us in two cabins. My parents 70+ years old in one and myself and my 2 daughters who will be 22 and 20 in the other. The girls are aware and quite happy that this will be a very different beast to a summer in the Med on Britannia and are quite happy with a cocktail, dinner, a quiz or a show in the evenings. The itinerary looks fantastic and after all if bank of mum is paying...…… The prices are very reasonable too.

Anyway we decided to splurge on mini suite cabins. We have booked B82 and B84. We have sailed in superior delux cabins on Azura. Am I correct in thinking that these will be broadly the same? I am sure that I read somewhere that they get priority embarkation and come with the fizz and chocs. Is there anything else that I have missed? We mainly went for these cabins for the extra space and could not justify the cost of a full suite but hey you never know the upgrade fairy may call although she never has before. Any other advice or tips on what appears to be a beautiful vessel would be greatly appreciated. Looking on the deck plans I can only see one laundrette on board which will no doubt be needed as someone is bound to slip over and land in mud, puddles or snow. Is this true and do they get crowded? We always visit the Epicurean a couple of times, how does the ocean grill compare? I have one fussy pescatarian who won't eat anything spicy or that is "looking at her" or if it contains mushrooms or cauliflower (need I go on?)

After feeling very doubtful that our summer cruise would happen we are much more confident that this will go ahead and it has given us all a much needed lift. Mind you it has just been pointed out that I did say in a moment of weakness that if the summer cruise did not go ahead that we would get another cat after loosing our last elderly lady just before Christmas, and yes the rescue shelter in the village is taking phone calls and doing "telephone dating" to make a match.

Thank you

 

My favourite P&O ship by some way.  Have only stayed in a mini-suite (same one) but you will love the size of Arcadia's cabins.   If you do a simple video search on a certain site, you will find that there is a clip of your exact room B84.  

Also, as a fellow pescatarian who also thinks that mushrooms are the product of the devil, Ocean Grill has never disappointed.  I have never found anything too spicy and the one time I asked something to be omitted from a dish, they were more than obliging.

Arcadia is a very easy ship to get round (no complicated split decks or stairways) and the added bonus of the glass lifts for anyone not keen on the traditional enclosed ones.

 

[BrianI]

2 hours ago, moonstone01 said:

Hi Brian, I have just done as you suggested and there aren't any going to the ports I mentioned, shame rally as Monte Carlo is a place we would love to go back to and Cannes was a new destination for us, HeyHo

There are 15 cruises listed to Monaco and 27 to Cannes. Don’t know if any of these tie in with the dates you want.

Brian

[catperson02]

Thank you. Planning a cruise is almost as good as going on one and just what I needed to give me a real boost. 

[terrierjohn]

7 hours ago, moonstone01 said:

Andy, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this but you do talk sense so I was wondering, I am looking at changing our cruise from September this year to September next year but I can not find any that are calling into Monte Carlo or Cannes.  Have they decided to take these ports of call off the itinerary.  Many thanks Andy.

I don't think any cruise ships will be planning to call at Monte Carlo in September in future after the problems Azura had with tendering last year, and passengers being stranded ashore in a sports hall overnight, I know Azura is planned there again this year, but I fully expect it to be diverted if in fact it does sail.  The harbour berth there is closed to cruise ships during the Monaco Yacht show, so only tendering is possible, and Sept. can be very stormy

[wowzz]

I don't think you can say that any one ship has a specific age demographic,  although Arcadia as an adult only obviously wont have any children. The longer the cruise, the older the pax, in  my opinion. Personally, I think your daughters will be bored. OVMV.