Arcadia Compulsory Disembarkation

[Hampshire Steve]

Nothing is P&O's fault - they remind us all the time.

 

After spending two days at Southampton due to weather, then instead of our first three Mediterranean ports we end up in Le Havre, can't find much nice to say about that!

Cartegena  added in as a stop, nice place but we ended up doing a tour of Cartegena that was actually to a small strip of beach without any facilities, looking across to the Mar menor then back on the coach to the town centre - only across the road from the ship - what a waste of effort.

Today at Genoa, our tour was cancelled last minute so we did an alternative down the motorway to a village that in the summer would be a delight but in the winter that's a different matter.

Back on board to be told the Norovirus that has been on board since last cruise is getting worse so everyone must disembark at Civitavecchia between 10.00am and 4.00pm, pain if you are on a 1.45 tour so just hanging around while waiting for what will be a long day and possibly in the rain tomorrow.

 

Then of course we have the industrial action to look forward to at Lisbon on the 16th (possibly)

 

Not sure if I am finding cruising as relaxing as I used to!

 

Just a whinge because I know nothing is the fault of P&O - they remind us weather is beyond their control as is the illness us nasty people bring on board.

Although as was pointed out to me the other day, on this forum,  all these water leaks on board are because of foreign objects flushed down the loo, so does that mean all the puddles we pass are from sewerage not clean water🤢

Edited November 10, 2023 by Hampshire Steve

[Ardennais]

It doesn’t sound good.

 

I think we’ve dodged a bullet as we were booked to go on this cruise. However after our so-so cruise on Britannia in April, and the fact that 3 of the ports would be repeats from that cruise, we decided to cancel and forfeit out small deposit. 
 

Hope things improve for you. 

[Dobbers]

Sounds like an absolute nightmare and I’m really sorry that you’re having such a poor cruise. Have you been offered any kind of recompense for all the problems?

 

We were on the cruise before yours and were not aware of any issues with norovirus, though I doubt they would announce it if there was.

 

[Hampshire Steve]

As it's mostly weather related that will be a conversation with insurers later. P&O have given £20 to each guest of OBC to cover lunch today

[Hampshire Steve]

8 hours ago, Ardennais said:

It doesn’t sound good.

 

I think we’ve dodged a bullet as we were booked to go on this cruise. However after our so-so cruise on Britannia in April, and the fact that 3 of the ports would be repeats from that cruise, we decided to cancel and forfeit out small deposit. 
 

Hope things improve for you. 

4th cruise this year and being fair mostly went to plan, just this one playing on my mind, we have four more booked over the next 18 months, two of them quite special and we are looking at the company attitude to missed ports and wondering if we should invest further.

[BouncingWheel]

We had the same issues on Arcadia in January. Wonder how often P&O ships are impacted by Norovirus and compulsory disembarkation for cleaning. Don’t often hear much of it on here so twice in a year is unfortunate and maybe unusual.

[nosapphire]

Missed ports are a fact of cruising - alas. Weather, strikes,political unrest....

There was an earlier thread with discussion about cruise insurance, many of which include payouts for missed ports. Although if a particular port was the whole point of the cruise, not much consolation there.

Many lines will also try and soften the blow by offering freebies (drinks with dinner,etc).

It might console to know that missed ports and alternative arrangements probably cost money for the cruise line - to say nothing of all the midnight oil making the alternative arrangements.

 

As far as noro goes, outbreaks on all lines happen (more frequently than I really like to think about), often nobody knows until you spot the "hazmat team" entering a cabin. Never been turfed off mid cruise for cleaning - maybe they are calling in a company to do a full ship fogging?.

It is so annoying, as Noro is probably the one thing that could be contained if everybody washed their hands after certain activies before touching anything on the ship.

[jeanlyon]

20 hours ago, Hampshire Steve said:

Nothing is P&O's fault - they remind us all the time.

 

After spending two days at Southampton due to weather, then instead of our first three Mediterranean ports we end up in Le Havre, can't find much nice to say about that!

Cartegena  added in as a stop, nice place but we ended up doing a tour of Cartegena that was actually to a small strip of beach without any facilities, looking across to the Mar menor then back on the coach to the town centre - only across the road from the ship - what a waste of effort.

Today at Genoa, our tour was cancelled last minute so we did an alternative down the motorway to a village that in the summer would be a delight but in the winter that's a different matter.

Back on board to be told the Norovirus that has been on board since last cruise is getting worse so everyone must disembark at Civitavecchia between 10.00am and 4.00pm, pain if you are on a 1.45 tour so just hanging around while waiting for what will be a long day and possibly in the rain tomorrow.

 

Then of course we have the industrial action to look forward to at Lisbon on the 16th (possibly)

 

Not sure if I am finding cruising as relaxing as I used to!

 

Just a whinge because I know nothing is the fault of P&O - they remind us weather is beyond their control as is the illness us nasty people bring on board.

Although as was pointed out to me the other day, on this forum,  all these water leaks on board are because of foreign objects flushed down the loo, so does that mean all the puddles we pass are from sewerage not clean water🤢

Hmm, doesn't sound good.

Edited November 11, 2023 by jeanlyon

[Hampshire Steve]

Another day of joy!

 

Having been asked to vacate the ship early today we strolled around until our designated tour time of 1.45, joined the coach, drove for an hour an half to find the venue had closed and entry was refused, so a whole coach load of unhappy cruisers took a slow drive back to the ship.

 

Tour refunded and £38 compensation each.

 

Trying to keep smiling 

[CarlaMarie]

28 minutes ago, Hampshire Steve said:

Another day of joy!

 

Having been asked to vacate the ship early today we strolled around until our designated tour time of 1.45, joined the coach, drove for an hour an half to find the venue had closed and entry was refused, so a whole coach load of unhappy cruisers took a slow drive back to the ship.

 

Tour refunded and £38 compensation each.

 

Trying to keep smiling 

 

 

That's bad, I am not surprised you were all unhappy passengers. Do you mind sharing the venue with us, and were you given a reason why it had closed? 

[Hampshire Steve]

Tour due to leave the ship at 1.45pm, because of the sanitation process there was a last minute change to leave at the bus station in town, so that's where we all went only to find out that there were no arrangements in place for tour coaches to enter so we all bussed back to the ship to pick the coach up there. Difficult to write this stuff without it sounding like a joke.

 

Anyway left the ship a little late, encountered a small traffic diversion and then met Mr Happy in charge of himself at the Ostia Antica archaeological site who refused entry as we were 4 minutes past entry time, even though there were plenty of visitors still on site.

[charlie7]

I personally would never cruise on Arcadia again after being on her in May.

I and a vast number of passengers succumbed to some virus described as norovirus. This was the first time in almost 20 years of cruising I had ever picked up anything as nasty as this as I am very careful hygiene related. I have my doubts that the virus’s  which circulate on Arcadia can be blamed totally on passenger hygiene, more of a concern to me was the wet carpets and foul sewerage smell midship, particularly in the Retreat Room used by the people who enjoyed participating in the ballroom dancing there. Throughout that cruise “deep cleaning” was carried out but they never seem to eradicate the source. I have been on other cruise ships where there have been small “norovirus” outbreaks but these seem to be contained so as not to have an impact on other passengers but something appears amiss with Arcadia.

[gsmt47471015]

It wouldn’t be a lie to say we are reading this with a certain amount of trepidation as we are going on the 99 world cruise in January on Arcadia , although we have cruised on her a number of times without incident this is the first time of hearing a full disembarkation has been necessary 😟

[heatherb1958]

We were on Arcadia in July for the British isles cruise , our  balcony cabin was aft on deck 4. I didn't see any issues with leaks or smell bad smells , believe me if there were any my nose would detect them, it is very sensitive to obnoxious  smells 😆. 

 

What concerns me about this post is when the OP says they all had to disembark , am I reading that right ? A zero count of passengers for a deep clean ?? That is shocking if so.  The clientele on our cruise were average age 75 +.... lots with walking difficulties .

We have done over 150 cruises with several lines over 23 years  , I am only saying that so readers know we are experienced cruisers not for bragging purposes. In all those years we have only ever been on one ship , Adventure of the seas , that had an issue with Noro. All crew served guests , there was no handling of anything in the buffet. Even the sachets of salt and pepper were handed to you, the singers and dancers were serving too . No salt and pepper pots on tables in MDR.. 

At the end of breakfast the buffet was closed and men in haz suits would fog the whole place down. At no point were all guests asked to leave the ship in a port so cleaning could be done... what they had done  on turnaround day was delay embarkation  in Southampton to fog every cabin , I remember walking up the gangway  and seeing the mattresses in the OV cabins on their sides ... 

Night and day corridor rails were washed down by the crew. I must say we never got sick or saw anyone being ill. 

I feel for the guests onboard now.. 

 

[yorkshirephil]

11 minutes ago, heatherb1958 said:

We were on Arcadia in July for the British isles cruise , our  balcony cabin was aft on deck 4. I didn't see any issues with leaks or smell bad smells , believe me if there were any my nose would detect them, it is very sensitive to obnoxious  smells 😆. 

 

What concerns me about this post is when the OP says they all had to disembark , am I reading that right ? A zero count of passengers for a deep clean ?? That is shocking if so.  The clientele on our cruise were average age 75 +.... lots with walking difficulties .

We have done over 150 cruises with several lines over 23 years  , I am only saying that so readers know we are experienced cruisers not for bragging purposes. In all those years we have only ever been on one ship , Adventure of the seas , that had an issue with Noro. All crew served guests , there was no handling of anything in the buffet. Even the sachets of salt and pepper were handed to you, the singers and dancers were serving too . No salt and pepper pots on tables in MDR.. 

At the end of breakfast the buffet was closed and men in haz suits would fog the whole place down. At no point were all guests asked to leave the ship in a port so cleaning could be done... what they had done  on turnaround day was delay embarkation  in Southampton to fog every cabin , I remember walking up the gangway  and seeing the mattresses in the OV cabins on their sides ... 

Night and day corridor rails were washed down by the crew. I must say we never got sick or saw anyone being ill. 

I feel for the guests onboard now.. 

 

Albeit we haven't as many cruises as you we have had noro/gastro bugs onboard on several occasions although we have never had it, we do a lot of our cruising in winter when noro tends to be more prevalent which may or may not be a factor, we have had deep cleaning a couple of times but fortunately never had to disembark. I would imagine in this instance an anti fogging viral spray has been used? which is not a nice product, it would be interesting to know how staff were treated and weather the air handling around the ship was stopped.

[CarlaMarie]

2 hours ago, Hampshire Steve said:

Tour due to leave the ship at 1.45pm, because of the sanitation process there was a last minute change to leave at the bus station in town, so that's where we all went only to find out that there were no arrangements in place for tour coaches to enter so we all bussed back to the ship to pick the coach up there. Difficult to write this stuff without it sounding like a joke.

 

Anyway left the ship a little late, encountered a small traffic diversion and then met Mr Happy in charge of himself at the Ostia Antica archaeological site who refused entry as we were 4 minutes past entry time, even though there were plenty of visitors still on site.

 

Thank you for letting us know. Must have been very frustrating for you all.

[BouncingWheel]

It was the 2023 world cruise for Arcadia where Freeport’s Bahamas denied entry to Arcadia due to Norovirus (which started on the previous cruise) and full disembarkation at Fort Lauderdale ensued afterwards.

 

After this, cases gradually reduced of Norovirus though Covid cases did begin to creep up (though I feel that was to be expected).

[davecttr]

4 hours ago, charlie7 said:

I personally would never cruise on Arcadia again after being on her in May.

I and a vast number of passengers succumbed to some virus described as norovirus. This was the first time in almost 20 years of cruising I had ever picked up anything as nasty as this as I am very careful hygiene related. I have my doubts that the virus’s  which circulate on Arcadia can be blamed totally on passenger hygiene, more of a concern to me was the wet carpets and foul sewerage smell midship, particularly in the Retreat Room used by the people who enjoyed participating in the ballroom dancing there. Throughout that cruise “deep cleaning” was carried out but they never seem to eradicate the source. I have been on other cruise ships where there have been small “norovirus” outbreaks but these seem to be contained so as not to have an impact on other passengers but something appears amiss with Arcadia.

I can confirm the Retreat Room smell on deck 10 as in August I and others were whale watching outside. The Retreat glass doors were propped open in an attempt to keep the room ventilated.

Edited November 11, 2023 by davecttr

[Hampshire Steve]

A zero passenger count onboard was the desired position by the Captain, he did say if it was not possible (rather than a disinclination) for you to go ashore you could spend the day at the neptune pool but with limited seating it was not preferred. As we left the ship it was like a ghost town, all internal fire doors were closed and as we departed on a shuttle there were no people visible on balconies.

 

As to smells on board, can't say I have ever noted them and have to say this is our third trip this year on Arcadia with a number of previous as well. This is just the bad one, started by weather issues.

[Selbourne]

Whilst (sort of) understanding the logic for this, having to be offloaded for 6 hours would be a major problem for us. My wife’s disability means that we have to find fully accessible toilets that are large enough to accommodate a wheelchair (with room to manoeuvre) and me (to assist). Nigh on impossible to find these in most ports, hence why we tend to only spend 2-3 hours ashore in each port. 
 

We were on Aurora when her lines broke in Civitavecchia and passengers were stuck ashore for much less than 6 hours, yet even able bodied passengers struggled with the lack of facilities. Thankfully, we were on the ship when it happened. 

[gsmt47471015]

9 hours ago, davecttr said:

I can confirm the Retreat Room smell on deck 10 as in August I and others were whale watching outside. The Retreat glass doors were propped open in an attempt to keep the room ventilated.

I wonder if this why the ship often feels cold ( as in too often)

[jh1809]

26 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Whilst (sort of) understanding the logic for this, having to be offloaded for 6 hours would be a major problem for us. My wife’s disability means that we have to find fully accessible toilets that are large enough to accommodate a wheelchair (with room to manoeuvre) and me (to assist). Nigh on impossible to find these in most ports, hence why we tend to only spend 2-3 hours ashore in each port. 
 

We were on Aurora when her lines broke in Civitavecchia and passengers were stuck ashore for much less than 6 hours, yet even able bodied passengers struggled with the lack of facilities. Thankfully, we were on the ship when it happened. 

I was on that cruise too. Luckily I'd gone on an excursion to Rome and only learnt about all the excitement I'd missed after returning to the ship. The high winds  must have come suddenly and completely out of the blue, as the weather was unremarkable both when I left and when I returned to the ship.

[Snow Hill]

5 hours ago, Hampshire Steve said:

A zero passenger count onboard was the desired position by the Captain, he did say if it was not possible (rather than a disinclination) for you to go ashore you could spend the day at the neptune pool but with limited seating it was not preferred. As we left the ship it was like a ghost town, all internal fire doors were closed and as we departed on a shuttle there were no people visible on balconies.

 

As to smells on board, can't say I have ever noted them and have to say this is our third trip this year on Arcadia with a number of previous as well. This is just the bad one, started by weather issues.

It would seem they were planning to use biocidal fogging of some description in order to kill the virus if it was lurking on carpets, curtains etc, where it can survive for a long period.

 

My brother who owns and runs a cleaning business has often said you can’t clean a cruise ship infected with Norovirus in a few hours, to to do it properly would take more than a day and effectively require completely evacuating a ship. 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Snow Hill

[molecrochip]

3 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

It would seem they were planning to use biocidal fogging of some description in order to kill the virus if it was lurking on carpets, curtains etc, where it can survive for a long period.

 

My brother who owns and runs a cleaning business has often said you can’t clean a cruise ship infected with Norovirus in a few hours, to to do it properly would take more than a day and effectively require completely evacuating a ship. 

Believe that they were planning on cleaning a number of public areas etc.

 

If you had a disability that meant 6 hours away from the ship was not possible, I believe arrangements were being dealt with on a case by case basis.

[CarlaMarie]

I assume that any passenger with noro, or any who had concerns they may be developing symptoms, remained onboard?