The Return of Arcadia

[davecttr]

I presume Orkney means Kirkwall and is that a tender port?Also on the wrong side of the north sea for Alesund which is about 360 nautical miles away. Maybe the Faroes would be a better choice.

[cruisefan2012]

I should be on this cruise too, Circumstances means I'm not...

 

Original itinerary was...

Southampton...2 days at sea...Skjolden...Alesund...day at sea...Akureryri...Isafjordur...2 days in Reykjavik...2 days at sea...Belfast...day at sea...Southampton

 

Maybe next time, on Britannia 🤞

[Danamis]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

I presume Orkney means Kirkwall and is that a tender port?Also on the wrong side of the north sea for Alesund which is about 360 nautical miles away. Maybe the Faroes would be a better choice.

As the Faroes has been cancelled for our cruise on the 19th and on a couple of future cruises this year I doubt if that port was in the equation. Shame as we were looking forward to going there.

[paulatsea]

2 hours ago, Peppers mum said:

Yes this is a real cruise, I have friends on board although they haven't got WiFi until they go ashore so I'm relying on updates on here and the cruise tracker sites to see where they are! This was the planned itinerary. Due back into Southampton on the 19th.

Thanks peppers mum - that’s great that it is back in service . I lost track of when it was restarting.

hope your friends are enjoying.

[arlowood]

2 hours ago, davecttr said:

I presume Orkney means Kirkwall and is that a tender port?Also on the wrong side of the north sea for Alesund which is about 360 nautical miles away. Maybe the Faroes would be a better choice.

No, if you are lucky and get ahead of the game there is a relatively new docking harbour at Hatston, about 2 miles out of Kirkwall town center. According to the cruise schedule for Hatston, Arcadia is due there tomorrow. Only space for one cruise ship, so if your cruise company misses out then it would be a tender operation.

 

BTW, Kirkwall Town Council provide a very effective shuttle service between the Hatston harbour and the town centre using bendy buses.

Edited July 7, 2022 by arlowood

[Morgans]

But wonder what has happened to Stavanger and Alesund ? The winds don't appear to be too bad so why the change?

[arlowood]

3 hours ago, Peppers mum said:

Yes this is a real cruise, I have friends on board although they haven't got WiFi until they go ashore so I'm relying on updates on here and the cruise tracker sites to see where they are! This was the planned itinerary. Due back into Southampton on the 19th.

Will be interested to hear the reason for the schedule change and also how the rest of the cruise is going to pan out. Could be that for whatever reason they are planning to do the itinerary in a partial reverse direction. Maybe they'll do the circumnavigation of Iceland after Orkney then head for Alesund and/or Stavanger.

 

Having checked various port schedules, it appear that my supposition is correct. Arcadia is now due in Akureyri on 11th, Isofjordur on 12th and Rekjavik on 13th.

 

Not unusual as we were on a recent Saga cruise where they reversed the schudule of the ports due to the Spirit of Discovery being late and having to dock at Portsmouth rather than Dover. It meant doing Iceland first with Orkney as the final rather than the first stop.

Edited July 7, 2022 by arlowood

[PompeySailor]

My parents are on this sailing 

Bad weather was the reason for both Stavanger and Alesund being missed.

Confirm Kirkwall - Orkney is where they are at currently.

 

Only received a brief txt message as my folks typically turn their phones off when hey cruise.
 

They also said they are making up their own entertainment, that’s all I have .

If I get more messages, I will update all.

YMMV

Happy Days!

[PompeySailor]

23 hours ago, arlowood said:

Will be interested to hear the reason for the schedule change and also how the rest of the cruise is going to pan out. Could be that for whatever reason they are planning to do the itinerary in a partial reverse direction. Maybe they'll do the circumnavigation of Iceland after Orkney then head for Alesund and/or Stavanger.

 

Having checked various port schedules, it appear that my supposition is correct. Arcadia is now due in Akureyri on 11th, Isofjordur on 12th and Rekjavik on 13th.

 

Not unusual as we were on a recent Saga cruise where they reversed the schudule of the ports due to the Spirit of Discovery being late and having to dock at Portsmouth rather than Dover. It meant doing Iceland first with Orkney as the final rather than the first stop.

My parents and friends onboard have not been notified of any itinerary rescheduling for Iceland .

They were shocked when I messaged them and asked how I knew before they did 😳

[PompeySailor]

On 7/7/2022 at 9:19 AM, arlowood said:

No, if you are lucky and get ahead of the game there is a relatively new docking harbour at Hatston, about 2 miles out of Kirkwall town center. According to the cruise schedule for Hatston, Arcadia is due there tomorrow. Only space for one cruise ship, so if your cruise company misses out then it would be a tender operation.

 

BTW, Kirkwall Town Council provide a very effective shuttle service between the Hatston harbour and the town centre using bendy buses.

Can confirm they are docked, not tendered.

[Peppers mum]

[Peppers mum]

Hope everyone can follow my above post, I'm not great at technology (much better at cruising!! )

Anyway this is a summary of the information I got from my friends who are currently on board.

She did go on to say that the fellow passengers are lovely as are the crew and she is just happy to be away!! 

Will post further updates as and when I receive them.

[paulatsea]

20 minutes ago, Peppers mum said:

Hope everyone can follow my above post, I'm not great at technology (much better at cruising!! )

Anyway this is a summary of the information I got from my friends who are currently on board.

She did go on to say that the fellow passengers are lovely as are the crew and she is just happy to be away!! 

Will post further updates as and when I receive them.

Thanks  for updates

no cheese ?! That’s bad - I always used to have that - every night.

Sounds like they are still not up to speed.

 

 

[mickey1959]

30 minutes ago, Peppers mum said:

Are the virtual queues for freedom dining?

[Peppers mum]

Yes I'm assuming so as that is what they normally book 👍

They were originally booked on Aurora in June but transferred the booking to Arcadia when Aurora was cancelled.

[Peppers mum]

Apparently there's a comedy magic show on tonight!!! Could be interesting!!

[wowzz]

59 minutes ago, mickey1959 said:

Are the virtual queues for freedom dining?

Yes, according to another site.

And there seem to be service issues with fixed dining ss well. Those having early sitting have not finished eating when the second  sitting is due to commence.

[mike x ftc]

There have always been dining problems on Arcadia and long queues, they added all the extra cabins with no thought as to the impact on dining. These days there are just more issues to add into the mix!!

[wowzz]

10 minutes ago, mike x ftc said:

There have always been dining problems on Arcadia and long queues, they added all the extra cabins with no thought as to the impact on dining. These days there are just more issues to add into the mix!!

We have only been on Arcadia twice, and, to be fair,  never had any major issues with regards to service in the MDR.

[Eddie99]

Am I remembering correctly that you are late diners?  As members of the early brigade (medicinal) I must say that our 2 Arcadia cruises were notable for dining chaos

2 queues, one for those willing to share, one for people wanting tables for 2, every night.

We always seemed to be seated adjacent to a busy walkway, with waiters and other diners constantly passing

There are lots of things I like about Arcadia but its freedom dining arrangements do not feature in that list.  We’re I to cruise on her again (I did have E Med October cruises booked for 2020 and 2021) I would hold my nose and book club dining.  I thought I’d finished with queueing for meals when I left school

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

Am I remembering correctly that you are late diners?  As members of the early brigade (medicinal) I must say that our 2 Arcadia cruises were notable for dining chaos

2 queues, one for those willing to share, one for people wanting tables for 2, every night.

We always seemed to be seated adjacent to a busy walkway, with waiters and other diners constantly passing

There are lots of things I like about Arcadia but its freedom dining arrangements do not feature in that list.  We’re I to cruise on her again (I did have E Med October cruises booked for 2020 and 2021) I would hold my nose and book club dining.  I thought I’d finished with queueing for meals when I left school

To be fair, we always booked freedom dining, so may have been lucky. Personally we don't care if we share or not. 

However,  on the current cruise, the chaos seems to be more for those on fixed dining than those in freedom.

[gsmt47471015]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

To be fair, we always booked freedom dining, so may have been lucky. Personally we don't care if we share or not. 

However,  on the current cruise, the chaos seems to be more for those on fixed dining than those in freedom.

Arcadia is the only ship we have had to queue on for freedom dining , we usually like to dine about 8 to 8.30 but on  some nights it ended up been later , this was partially down to the fact we wanted a table for two and had to take a pager, were going as a party of four in September so it will be interesting if that works differently, agree about some of the tables for two been placed in or near walkways , not always the relaxing meal it should be

[Spike11]

44 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Arcadia is the only ship we have had to queue on for freedom dining , we usually like to dine about 8 to 8.30 but on  some nights it ended up been later , this was partially down to the fact we wanted a table for two and had to take a pager, were going as a party of four in September so it will be interesting if that works differently, agree about some of the tables for two been placed in or near walkways , not always the relaxing meal it should be

Yes, Arcadia is the only P&O ship where we’ve had significant problems with freedom dining. One time when we eventually got a table we looked down to the fixed dining and almost every table was only half full and some were empty - and this was mid service. Since there seemed to be be more tables downstairs, we wondered why they didn’t swap the two dining rooms over.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Spike11 said:

Since there seemed to be be more tables downstairs, we wondered why they didn’t swap the two dining rooms over.

The art of the obvious is sadly lacking in many of P&O managements actions.

[snaefell]

I'm encouraged so far that the only problems being mentioned seem to involve serving meals,nothing so far like the previous cruise where she appeared to be something of a floating wreck,I guess there is time yet,fingers crossed!