Just Disembarked Arcadia

[Sleeptastic]

Returned home earlier from a fabulous 19 night cruise on Arcadia.  This is our 1st on her since 2018 (ish) and our 2nd since Covid (we were on Ventura last year). Seeing a few queries re Arcadia recently on here I hope my observations/comments are useful

 

We had a great holiday and, to be honest, after the comments I saw on CC last year I wasn’t expecting it to even happen!  With regular talk of her being sold and thoughts that her time with P&O apparently coming to an end.  We felt she was in great shape (better than Ventura last year). Gone were the sewage smells we encountered on the Promenade Deck on our last cruise and there were no obvious drainage issues unlike our last cruise.

 

Staff levels were much improved vs our 2022 cruise and seemed to be back to normal (if not even increased staffing), no waiting at all to order drinks in bars or around the pool at any time of the day.  There was 1 Afternoon Tea held in the MDR and on a sea day there was a pop up Glass House in 1 of the bars.

 

We thought the food was very good with minimal repetition, unlike last year.  We no longer had to take our unfinished wine bottles away with us post dinner, any unfinished ones were on our table waiting for us for our next evening meal.  The waiters took the wine/drinks order and they were swiftly delivered by the bar staff.  This seemed to work much better than previously when on numerous occasions we were half way through our main course before the drinks arrived and ordering a port at the end of the meal was simple as the waiters were so much more available than the previous wine waiters used to be.

 

I’ve seen comments on here about the temperature on Arcadia and, as a result, took a number of pashminas with me for the evening.  These stayed in my case as they weren’t needed, we didn’t find the temperature cool in any way of an evening.  

 

Staff seemed to be very happy and I didn’t pass 1 that didn’t acknowledge me with a smile and a greeting.  There was a group of cleaners constantly working hard, sanitising bannisters, cleaning windows etc alongside the constant painting/varnishing that you always see.  I also spotted some new carpets being laid. 

 

The light in the vanity area of the cabin wasn’t working on the 1st night and we mentioned it to our steward when we saw him on our way to dinner, by 10 am the next morning this had been rectified.  

 

We would always turn up at Southampton for 12ish regardless of our embarkation time but reading comments on here about them being stricter with ‘people like us’ we dropped our cases when we arrived and nipped to a local hotel for lunch and then got back to the terminal for our designated arrival time. We got straight through check in and security with no hold ups and our cases were waiting for us in our cabin when we arrived so we will definitely go down this route next time, it was much more civilised!

 

Hopefully this answers some of the queries that I’ve seen pop up on her over the last few months and puts paid any concerns anyone may have of travelling on her.  If you only have half the experience that we had on her then you’re in for a great time!

[Slugsta]

Thank you for your input. We have a long cruise on Arcadia next year and sincerely hope that the state of affairs continues as you describe it.

[Britboys]

Good to hear you had a great cruise. Thanks for posting your thoughts.

[Winifred 22]

How refreshing to read such positive comments. Glad you had such a lovely time. 

[AndyMichelle]

Fantastic, sounds just like how a cruise should be, for us anyway.. 

Glad you had a great time, thank you for reporting back. 

Andy 

[paulatsea]

Thanks for posting - good news !

[Son of Anarchy]

Another thank you for posting.  Good to hear that things are going well on Arcadia, we're also on board next year.

[Selbourne]

Thanks for the review and how nice to read that you had such an enjoyable cruise. Our recent Britannia cruise was also much better than we had expected, given all the reviews that I had read before we went!
 

Good to hear that the ability to leave unfinished bottles of wine for your next dinner has returned (on Arcadia at least). Do you know if this was for both fixed and freedom dining rooms?

 

[gsmt47471015]

Many thanks for a positive report , we are on her for the world cruise in January so hopefully all the good things you have mentioned will still be in evidence then, and also glad that they appear to have sorted out the temperature issue which we have fallen foul of before 👍 

[Sleeptastic]

26 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks for the review and how nice to read that you had such an enjoyable cruise. Our recent Britannia cruise was also much better than we had expected, given all the reviews that I had read before we went!
 

Good to hear that the ability to leave unfinished bottles of wine for your next dinner has returned (on Arcadia at least). Do you know if this was for both fixed and freedom dining rooms?

 

No idea I’m afraid although I didn’t see anyone walking around the ship with half empty bottles post dinner.

[timeforme]

We were on Arcadia in July and on Freedom, people were walking out with bottles of wine then. 

[Sarah1974]

@Sleeptastic - thank you for your views on Arcaida.  I'm due to sail on her for the first time at the end of this month and you have set my mind at rest 😀

[Cruiseferret]

I've just come of the same cruise and can only echo the feedback - an outstanding break with good service and great staff.

[Chrisdriving]

Thanks for the good feedback, we await Arcadia’s return from it’s current cruise j310 then it’s game on.

[snaefell]

Likewise,we had a 19 night cruise on her in May & loved it,great ship,great crew,after reading so many negative comments pre cruise.

We booked our cruise in January 2022 & just knew that it wasn't going to happen,everybody just knew that the 'old tub' was already sold,just to make it look more certain Arvia was scheduled to start a cruise to the same area on the same day,what more proof did anyone need,so glad it wasn't true!😎

[Cathygh]

I'm on J310..all ok so far. 1400 passengers and 800+staff. Some niggles like tea and coffee in the MDR is not hot enough for me. Chicken and steak have been on the menu 2 nights running and again tonight. But overall a positive experience 

[zap99]

13 hours ago, snaefell said:

Likewise,we had a 19 night cruise on her in May & loved it,great ship,great crew,after reading so many negative comments pre cruise.

We booked our cruise in January 2022 & just knew that it wasn't going to happen,everybody just knew that the 'old tub' was already sold,just to make it look more certain Arvia was scheduled to start a cruise to the same area on the same day,what more proof did anyone need,so glad it wasn't true!😎

Some of the ' in the know ' insider ,nudge,nudge, wink, wink,gossip is from a bloke named Jon Snow.😉

 

[Selbourne]

21 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

I'm on J310..all ok so far. 1400 passengers and 800+staff. Some niggles like tea and coffee in the MDR is not hot enough for me. Chicken and steak have been on the menu 2 nights running and again tonight. But overall a positive experience 

I think you may find that the chicken and steak appear every night of your cruise! In the past you may recall that in addition to the daily menu, there was a list of ‘always available’ items at the bottom (e,g. Prawn cocktail, chicken, steak etc). Now the main menu choice is less and it’s padded out by some of the always available items now being included - every day 😂 

[Cathygh]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I think you may find that the chicken and steak appear every night of your cruise! In the past you may recall that in addition to the daily menu, there was a list of ‘always available’ items at the bottom (e,g. Prawn cocktail, chicken, steak etc). Now the main menu choice is less and it’s padded out by some of the always available items now being included - every day 😂 

Yes you are right but it gets a bit boring if I don't fancy anything else. I had a very good steak but the chips aren't anywhere near as good as on Iona

 

[heatherb1958]

We disembarked Arcadia on 20th July . I loved the ship , our cabin , no issues at all with service but Freedom dining was chaotic . We like to eat early and the queue  was round the corner and as far as the actual bar in Spinnaker some evenings . We prefer a table for 2 but there was no chance , saw a couple of irate people return the pagers back to the hosts in a not so gentile way. In the end we went the sharing table route and met some lovely people but the dining experience was not a relaxing affair . We booked last minute so getting our preferred early fixed dining wasn't going to happen but we had a lovely cruise on the ship and would go back on her again if the itinerary and price was right .

[gsmt47471015]

1 hour ago, heatherb1958 said:

We disembarked Arcadia on 20th July . I loved the ship , our cabin , no issues at all with service but Freedom dining was chaotic . We like to eat early and the queue  was round the corner and as far as the actual bar in Spinnaker some evenings . We prefer a table for 2 but there was no chance , saw a couple of irate people return the pagers back to the hosts in a not so gentile way. In the end we went the sharing table route and met some lovely people but the dining experience was not a relaxing affair . We booked last minute so getting our preferred early fixed dining wasn't going to happen but we had a lovely cruise on the ship and would go back on her again if the itinerary and price was right .

We have always opted for freedom dining whatever ship or company we sail with , however every time we have sailed on Arcadia we have always encountered waits of varying times as we prefer to eat around 20.15 onwards, felt it was worse on our last cruise since they moved freedom downstairs in the mdr ? 

[tring]

We also found freedom dining a pain on our 16 night June cruise, the first night was really busy and we did not go in until quite late.  Seems the main problem was that they were letting people who had been allocated set dining into the freedom dining restaurant because they did not want to go to their set sitting!  They should have been sent to the buffet.  After about half way through the cruise we either turned up at or soon after it opened and shared a table (queue's for table for two started very early), went in very late, or used the buffet.  Quite a lot of nights we just used the buffet, which was OK and made for a relaxing cruise.  We tried having lunch in the MDR at times and it worked OK if we went in late for lunch, but going in earlier meant we could be sitting their for two hours, just for a two course lunch.

 

I could not fault anything else about the ship though, our cabin was in very good condition with obviously new sink and toilet and the wall panels in the main part of the cabin looked new as well, they were certainly not as old as the ship.  Other things generally working well, there were public toilets that were out of order, but I never went into a loo to find none of them were working, which I remember happened a lot on a summer 2019 cruise. 

 

Ports and weather were also very good, so overall an excellent cruise as long as we were prepared to accept the dining situation, which we were. 

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by tring

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

We have always opted for freedom dining whatever ship or company we sail with , however every time we have sailed on Arcadia we have always encountered waits of varying times as we prefer to eat around 20.15 onwards, felt it was worse on our last cruise since they moved freedom downstairs in the mdr ? 

It should have been better, since the lower level has more covers than the upper tier.

[lindylooellalouise]

We’ve always opted for freedom dinning where possible on all our cruises, and just can’t fathom out why we only have a problem with freedom on Arcadia 🤔 we are boarding Aurora on Tuesday and Arcadia again in December so hopefully it will be better organised by then, we did speak to a couple of couples who had managed to get ( fixed dinning) same table  for two, same time at 7.30 in the freedom restaurant, and that’s not what I would call freedom dinning.

[Selbourne]

2 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

We have always opted for freedom dining whatever ship or company we sail with , however every time we have sailed on Arcadia we have always encountered waits of varying times as we prefer to eat around 20.15 onwards, felt it was worse on our last cruise since they moved freedom downstairs in the mdr ? 

According to the regular reviews and feedback on this forum, Freedom dining seems to experience problems of varying degrees on all the ships these days, with the possible exception of Aurora (unless I’ve missed something), especially for those who prefer to eat later.
 

Pre Covid we had used Freedom dining since it’s inception on all the ships and, other than some waits of up to 45 mins on Britannia in peak school holidays (for a non-sharing table), the only ship that we ever experienced a problem on was Arcadia. It could have just been our particular cruise, but it seemed incredibly disorganised and it was the first time that we had ever encountered being given a pager for lunch!