Advice please on cruising on Arcadia

[jamie lee]

We have booked our first cruise on Arcadia over New Year but we are concerned that we may have made a mistake. Friends have recently returned from a trip and said it was the worst cruise they had been on. They were disappointed in their cabins, the food and the general decor of the ship. They also said everyone was over 65.

Do we cancel?

[LEESRE]

Just depends, is this your first cruise, if so you will have nothing to compare with.

Have sailed on Arcadia and we will not sail on her again, did not like the set up of the ship. But again this is personal tastes.

 

You seem to have to pay for everything, ie sauna and steam rooms, extra charge, on most ships this is included. Gary Rhodes restaurant and the Oriental but I think the Oriental is worth it but not the Gray Rhodes, we had a terrible meal in there.

Just go with an open mind and I am sure you will enjoy your cruise.

[libra-sue]

Well, we loved her. Iam 44 , she is contempoary, and modern not glitzy and OTT. Beiges, Chrome etc. Have a look at my photosite: www.sveale.photosite.com.

 

The cabins are lovely! THE SHIP IS ONLY A YEAR OLD, SO THE CABINS ARE SPOTLESS!

The food was very good too. We had great meals in AR and Orchid - sailed 3 weeks ago.

We have booked again to go on her next year.

Sue:)

[richardj]

We were on the Arcadia in December 2005, having previously cruised with Princess we found her decor to be understated. Lots of browns, beige etc. The service and the food on board was excellent as was our cabin. Two areas we found disapointing were the atrium and the pool ( chrome loungers that did not recline and plastic conifers). Its all a mater of personal taste. Go and enjoy!!

 

Richardj

 

Golden Princess, Sun Princess, Coral Princess Caribbean Princess(2), Arcadia, QM2

[karmac]

Well, we loved her. Iam 44 , she is contempoary, and modern not glitzy and OTT. Beiges, Chrome etc. Have a look at my photosite: www.sveale.photosite.com.

 

The cabins are lovely! THE SHIP IS ONLY A YEAR OLD, SO THE CABINS ARE SPOTLESS!

The food was very good too. We had great meals in AR and Orchid - sailed 3 weeks ago.

We have booked again to go on her next year.

Sue:)

 

This will probably sound like a silly question to you brits (and hey, I'm one of you lot but have lived in Oz for 36 years). but why do people refer to Gary Rhodes as AR?

 

Karen

[Glenndale]

Arcadian Rhodes

[karmac]

Arcadian Rhodes

 

Thanks for that.

 

Karen

[Sparkle 123]

Jamie lee

I can understand your concerns as we are booked on the Arcadia for the Xmas sailing. I booked back in April 2005 before the ship ws even launched. I was impressed by the brochure desciption of the ship and the fact that it is child free, plus the early booking discounts made it pretty irresistable!

Like you I have also read negative comments about the ship, however if I had cancelled a cruise after reading bad reviews then I wouldn't have experienced any of the wonderful cruises that we have been on. I have even read bad reports about the same cruises we were on and wondered if we were on the same ship!

So we are going to go on the Arcadia with an open mind and I'm sure we will have a fantastic time, spending Christmas cruising the Panama Canal sure beats staying at home any day! As for everyone being over 65, maybe on the fly cruises there will be younger ages due to the long haul flights. (I will be 37 and my hubby is 44).

So my advice is don't cancel, go with an open mind and enjoy!!

Lisa

[jamie lee]

Thank you for all your replies - I am tempted just to go for it as we have nothing to compare to but we have paid a lot of money ( balcony seems to cost a lot more) and we did not want our first cruise to put us off. Just one more question to help us decide.

Has anyone any experience of the charter flight from Manachester to Acapulco - I have read stories of no leg room and delays on the runway while they refuel

[richardj]

We flew from Manchester to Fort Lauderdale (should have been New Orleans) and back to Manchester from Barbados. A lot of flights were late leaving Barbados for a variety of reasons which were not P&O's fault We had seats with extra leg room at the front of the plane on both flights and even these were rather cramped. The other thing that can cause a problem is the 25Kilo weight restriction, you really have to think hard about what you pack! A word of warning about hand luggage, you are limited to 1 piece with a 5 kilo limit and they actually weighed the hand luggage in Manchester, cause all sorts of problems for some people!

 

Regards

 

Richardj

[darchorse]

I took a 17 night cruise on Arcadia earlier this month (Voyage To Venice) and, despite also having seen various negative posts about the ship before I went, it was the best of the 5 cruises I've taken with P&O. I'm 36 and was definitely one of the youngest (but not the youngest, my partner is 34) on board. Initial disappointment about the mini-atrium soon gave way to delight about the rest of the ship, and esp. the NEW HORIZONS programme (£90 for as many classes as you like for 17 days). I took language lessons and Tai Chi every day. Used the hydropool once (free with my New Horizons pass) and the Kinesis Gym once, which I thought was enough. There is a free steam room/sauna thing too near the larger pool and free gym facilities too. Decor is very tasteful and I liked it a lot - but I'm not a SHOUTY type (Royal Carribean? Yuck!) There's an excellent selection of art and some of the public rooms (the theatre, Orchid Bar and dining rooms for example) are quite lovely. My C deck balcony cabin was spotless, spacious and had the best balcony I've seen). LCD TV too and full size bath. Only lasting disappointment was with the limited golf facilities (no simulator and even the chipping comp was cancelled virtually every day on our cruise!) Some of the things that annoyed me about other P&O cruises have been sorted out (the art auctions are less intrusive, the photography better, the alt dinning worth the money). The food was excellent, both in the Meridian (we had table 142 on level 2) and in the alt dinning. We had both lunch and dinner in Arcadian Rhodes and Orchid and each experience was exquisite. The food in AR was best, the service was best in Orchid (it definitely pays to befriend the waitresses here - we got some extras!) In Arcadian Rhodes be sure to try the english sparkling wine they have on the menu (Chapel something...) I didn't use the buffet dining much (maybe two breakfasts, one lunch and a couple of snacks) but it seemed like the food was good if you don't want the ambience of the other dinning options. I'm on Oceana next, since it had an itinerary that fits a gap I have in my schedule, but when I get round to planning a longer voyage I'll definitely look at Arcadia again. It's a BIG step in the right direction for P&O as far as I'm concerned.

[pretenda]

She is lovely in my opinion. We have cruised on her a couple of times now and have 4 more booked. Enjoyed Arcadian Rhodes - have eaten there twice. We weren't too keen on the Orchid I think we made a poor choice from the menu but the service was excellent. Food in Meridien is great - was always hot and service never rushed. All the staff I met were fabulous. Couldn't have been more helpful.

Staterooms are very spacious and the balconies useable. Plenty of storage space, even for me and I take the kitchen sink believe me!!! Small sitting area with settee. vanity and tv. Bath is a little small (I fit in OK as I'm not too tall) but there is a power shower over so no probs. I do hope that you enjoy your first cruise. Best Wishes

[libra-sue]

I had my first cruise on Arcadia in May this year, loved her so much have booked a Med cruise next year on her, She is new, contempoary and child-free, brill!

PHOTOS OF MY CRUISE, WITH PICTURES OF THE BALCONY, GYM, CYBER ROOM ETC. can be viewed on : www.sveale.photosite.com

 

sue:)

[Heads !!!!]

Arcadia is a ship you will either love or hate. You won't know until you get there.

 

Get to the theatre early for the shows as there are not enough seats if all the passengers want to see that particular show. Plenty of restricted view seats with pillars in front of them as well.

 

Don't sit down too fast on the individual seats in the globe. You may know the resulting flatulant noise was the chair and not the curry you had for lunch but those around you will not unless they have done the same. Has led to a few embarrasing moments for some of the elderly guests and some wonderful comic material for Mike Doyle.

 

Do take advantage of the new horizons program. It's great and well worth the cost.

 

Phil

[libra-sue]

We had no problems atall getting a seat in the theatre. We were on 2nd sitting, finished our meal at 10.30pm and strolled from one side of the ship to the other...... takes 5-10mins... and always got our favourite seats in the 'grand circle'. Show starts at 10.45pm, we went to a show 10 out of 13 nights - the 3 missing nights they were cancelled due to rocky seas... inc. cirque aracadia which was a disappointment.

(In the 1st sitting performance a elderly gentleman fell on the stairs as it was rocky, and fell into 4 elderly ladies, they were seriously hurt - saw them on disembarkation with arms in slings/ in wheel chairs... also it would of been dangerous for the performers on cirque no doubt!)

 

Because it is quite a late performance, and a lot of the cruisers are elderly prehaps the earlier performance is busier, but 2nd certainly was ok for us.:)

 

Sue

(booked again for Med CRUISE on Arcadia June 07.)

[Heads !!!!]

We had no problems atall getting a seat in the theatre.

 

It was such a problem when I was on there last year that they had to make announcements every few minutes from 1/2hr before up to showtime that the reserving of seats was not allowed. That was following several blazing rows with people reserving seats. Maybe it's calmed down now but I remember when Mike Doyle played at least 200 people were standing for each show.

[PAULNJILL]

We have just returned yesterday from Arcadia to the Canaries

 

In our opinion we can offer you

 

Ship - ok - no atrium , no cinema, very plastic , will not be anyones favourite ship

 

Cabins - wonderful biggest and best of any ship we have been on

 

Food - main restauraunt , reasonable choice and decent food , - Belvedere court - a Joke !

 

Entertainment - Best at sea by far , Neil Oliver cruise director fantastic , shows and productions world class

 

Pool area - never enough sunbeds to go around as people reserve them and leave them

 

Photos - very expensive

 

Crew - generally very freindly and helpful

 

Hope this helps

[itsmeyetagain]

Hi there,

We went to Norway last year on Arcadia. You have to accept it is a British ship...understated...not glitzy, but we liked that. The food in Meridian is fab. didn't bother to pay extra for anything else. Cabins are spacious and quite excellent.

Our biggest gripe was the queues...it's a big ship and getting on and off can take time, also occasionally the buffet... but you can always go to an alternative restaurant.

Don't cancel...you'll love it.

[cruiseluvva]

We have just returned yesterday from Arcadia to the Canaries

 

In our opinion we can offer you

 

Ship - ok - no atrium , no cinema, very plastic , will not be anyones favourite ship

 

 

 

It is my all time favourite ship. I think it is sophisticated, understated elegance with tasteful decor and not garish and "in your face" like so many of the others! We've not had a cabin so can't comment on those but both suites we have had were wonderful.

[elaine61]

We too have just returned from J615. As this is 6th P & O ship that we have been on, it was inevitable that comparisons were going to be made. The lack of an atrium everyone goes on about!! I didn't seem to miss an atrium. At the top of the "atrium" was the piano bar with a stunning ceiling feature. Reminded me of the ceiling on the Oriana in Tiffanys!! If you were not down at the piano bar, intermezzo and spinnakers bar by around 7.45pm then you had trouble getting a seat. The rising sun pub was also very nice. I'm not really into the pubby type bars on the ships, but this bar was nice with the smoking and non smoking sections seperated by a partition wall. Loved the casino!! But not really into land based casinos, only play when were away. Maybe it just appealed to me after the casino on Oriana at Xmas!! One of the bars that really is a hidden treasure is the orchid bar. Lovely views. Crow's nest we found was not very busy prior to dinner but busy after as this is where the individual quiz was held. I guess it was not so popular before dinner as it's a long trek to the dining room. The dining room was very nice. Just one dining room on two levels. We had a lovely table for 2 (next to rowdy table of 8 he, he, he, paulnjill)!!!!!!!! No seriously we had a lovely table for 2, with PaulNJill on the table of 8 next to us. They all seemed to be having as much fun as we were!!!!!! Two honeymoon couples, one soon to be honeymoon couple :-)) and an older couple. One of our waiters was OK, the other my husband gave a nickname which I shall not mention on here!! But they were very good at their job and that's all that matters!! They soon got to know our likes and dislikes!! Wine waiter very good. Cabin was magnificent!! Made the most of what will probably be my first and last experience in a suite!! Mind you I'm working on that one!! Trouble is once you've had one it's difficult to go back to anything else (well that's what I'm trying to persuade hubby)!! I was worried about the age range on board from postings I've read. There was a varied age range, but I would say the majority of the passengers were probably middle aged (whatever middle aged is, I say anything between 45 & 55)!!!! There were also a number of youngsters on board (18 - 25)!! Also to my knowledge 3 weddings. Felt sorry for one bride who got married on the first sea day back to the UK (we had 3 full sea days on the return journey). I don't know if she'd had too much alcohol or if the particularly rough weather had her looking a bit green under the gills at dinner!! Of all the other days when the weather had been so calm. I guess it didn't help with her table being right at the back of the ship where there was a certain amount of movement!! Made me feel a little light headed but I was much better after taking the trusty stugeron tablet!! My husband felt that the ship lacked a certain something. Couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but I have found in the past that both Aurora (which is my favourite and still is) and Oriana both had the same problem in the early days. It takes a while for a certain ship to get it's own personality. Of course it could just have been the company he was keeping (ME)!!!!!!! I would go back on Arcadia tomorrow given half a chance. Which considering her older namesake (now Ocean Village), which I swore I would never go on again and never did!!

 

Elaine

[Kindlychap]

Well, I'll preface my comments about the ship with the intial observation that our cruise was a two nighter to Bruges, and therefore that it is perhaps difficult to judge a big ship so quickly.

 

But our first thought was how badly embarkation was managed. Huge queues in the walkway to the ship, having been dragged up from the terminal far too early. P & O could usefully learn from Cunard, where you wait seated, and are then called up in small groups. The "getting on" photo was simply a P & O flag on the wall in the walkway, so we didn't bother.

 

Once in the ship she looked uninspiring. I think you enter into the atrium, which isn't desperately impressive and certainly doesn't match up to the one on the 20,000 grt MS Midnatsol from the Norwegian Coastal voyage. Announcing that we were staying in a suite (the Barcelona Suite - rear starboard on the C deck) someone was fetched to take us to the cabin, implying that not everyone is taken to the cabin personally. Not the case with Cunard - it makes not a jot of differnce to your arrival as to whether you are in the top suites or a tiny cabin on deck 5.

 

The ship itself we found confusing, and insipid. Everything was spread around in a way that made no sense at all. The Meridian Restaurant was very poorly sited - we had a table for two on the lower level which was right at the rear and there was a constant throb from the pods. It certainly didn't help converstion. Of course the ship was new - newer than the Midnatsol, but it somehow didn't feel it. There was something almost dowdy - no, that is not quite the right word, but uninspired perhaps is. If a 90,000 grt cruise ship is less cohesive and luxurious than a 20,000 grt high class car ferry (MS Midnatsol) then something is wrong somewhere.....

 

Our cabin. I can't call it a suite - it wasn't. I don't know how they measure these things, but it was tiny. Too much furniture doesn't help either. The balcony was huge - I think we counted nine chairs - but far bigger than I would have said was necessary. It was overlooked as well. There were marks in the bathroom, itself fitted out in an interesting shade of beige. Good points included very generous helpings of Moulton Brown and a pair of binoculars - the latter something that Cunard could (and should) pick up for their suites.

 

The food varied from uninspired to dreadful. The vegetables were uninteresting and overcooked, the steak we had on the second night worked hard to raise the general standard, but had a lot of work to do. Quite why my steak came with a red plastic cowboy stuck in it is beyond me.

 

All in all? Underwhelmed. Now looking at my travels below I'm sure that you're all thinking that I have the idea that there is only one ship worth her salt. You're probably right. But a friend of mine has only ever taken two cruises. Both P & O. The first was Aurora, to the Mediterranean. She tells me this was superb. The second - the Arcadia to the Caribbean. A disaster, for many of the reasons that I have said. And the flights home (P 7 O) sounded a nightmare that P & O did their best to increase.

 

By the way - she isn't a British ship. She was built in Italy, and flys the flag of Bermuda. A British ship would be built here and registered here. Not many of those left now of course.....

[Heads !!!!]

By the way - she isn't a British ship. She was built in Italy, and flys the flag of Bermuda. A British ship would be built here and registered here. Not many of those left now of course.....

 

She was originally built for Holland America then was due to become the Queen Victoria for Cunard. After the success of the QM2 Cunard decided they wanted a panamax vessel to their own design so the ship was given to P&O as the Arcadia. Strange that when I worked for Seabourn (when it was still part of Cunard) I was due to go on the Queen Victoria but ended up working on it anyway as the Arcadia.

 

A little story you may find interesting. The theatre has a very impressive but tempremental lift to the orchestra pit. It has 4 sensors which can easily go out of alignment showing up as a fault when the ship rolls. This has led to a lot of problems since the lift is used for effect in a lot of the shows. I remember one time Elton John and his grand piano took 1 1/2 songs to get to the top although Brian (who played Elton) rose to the occasion admirably, really playing the part and had us all in stitches. On the HAL ships they've had the same problem but on one of them they just kept over-riding the error messages and carrying on. P&O take safety a bit more importantly than that and will stop the show if there is a safety warning. Anyway, one day on the HAL ship they are bringing the orchestra truck with all the instruments on it down in to the pit on when there was a catastrophic failure caused by them constantly ignoring the errors and the whole pit lift collapsed dumping thousands of pounds worth of instruments at the bottom of the shaft and taking the ship out of service for a couple of weeks while a whole new pit lift was installed. Luckily nobody was hurt but they could have been if it happened during a show.

[Kindlychap]

She was originally built for Holland America then was due to become the Queen Victoria for Cunard. After the success of the QM2 Cunard decided they wanted a panamax vessel to their own design so the ship was given to P&O as the Arcadia.

 

My understanding, and this comes from Cunard, is that the design for Arcadia was impossible to link with the level of luxury and space inherent in the Cunard Grill class. Certainly there are much larger suites in the upcoming Victoria than there are in the Victoria, but basically both are Visa class vessels.

 

You can see from the published plans of Victoria that the main Britannia Dining room will suffer from the same position as the Meridian in Arcadia.

 

We'll have to wait and see if the new ship proves to be a realistic Cunard. Ulimately, of course (and say this quietly) she'll take over the duties of the Queen Elizabeth 2. She will never replace her - nothing could.

[Heads !!!!]

We'll have to wait and see if the new ship proves to be a realistic Cunard. Ulimately, of course (and say this quietly) she'll take over the duties of the Queen Elizabeth 2. She will never replace her - nothing could.

 

Nostalgia is one thing but have you seen the QE2 lately? She's REALLY showing her age. No doubt she'll end up as a floating hotel in the next couple of years now that she's had her last refit. No, the QV can't replace her in people's minds but I'm sure she'll be a much better ship in terms of passenger facilities etc.

 

Got an email this morning from a friend who has just finished performing on the QE2. He's said never again after finding a tray of leftover sandwiches that were at least a week old in his "dressing room" backstage.

[PAULNJILL]

Hi Kindlychap

re your comments we can add / comment as per below

 

We wew on the previous cruise ( Canaries) to your Bruges cruise and actually had the cabin at the aft right next door to your suite. - we found this cabin to be the biggest and best equipped and the balcony also the biggest of all the cruises we have been on.

 

Re embarkation and disembarkation we can again onyl say its the best we have had ,we arrived at the terminal car drop off point at 1245 and from then we were on board and in our cabin by 1340 less than an hour , re disembarkation our ticket was for 0850 but we were actually off the ship by 0840 got the luggage and car and out of the terminal by 0930

 

We did QM2 last year and had a balcony cabin (No suite) but found that we were not escorted to our cabin so perhaps Cunards standards are not all the same all the time.

 

We to also had a dinning table at the aft of the ship in the main restaurant and although we were on the upper level had no problems with noise or vibration actually if was a great table overlooking the wake

 

Food yes we do have to agree with you pretty miserable all round especially Belveder court which was like a cafe in a supermarket - really awful , the food in the main dining room was reasonable but not as good as one would expect on a cruise and the steaks were always very tough.

 

Perhaps you had a plastic cowboy because you were on a party cruise this party cruise may also of been the problem with embarkation we were told by a lot of staff that the party cruises were usually full of hen and stag parties we were glad to be getting off !!!

 

P&O again perhaps ? Arcadia dont think so - trying Holland America next year