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Having spent 99 nights on her in January its fair to say that in that amount of time you tend to notice things you probably wouldn't on a normal length cruise, there is no doubt she has lacked serious investment in certain areas (seating in the rising sun were way past their useful life ,in fairness we did not frequent that venue often) the public toilets' were a constant issue ( not working or blocked) carpets in some areas were ready for replacing and paintwork again in certain areas needed refurbishment , one major problem was leaking ceilings in the belvedere with towels often laid out on the floor, the upper decks had water under them and the mock flooring did bubble up when it rained , and our balcony was in a poor state with severely worn fixtures. All this should not detract from the fact that she is an older ship and has been mentioned is due a refit ,quite what will be done during this work is an unknown factor but mention on our cruise was that most of the work was to be mechanical not cosmetic. This was our fourth time on Arcadia and we did enjoy our cruise but it has to be said that upgrading needs to be done for her to compete with other lines who appear to have bigger budgets to keep their older vessels in good repair. We are on Aurora next which appears to have aged better than Arcadia. Hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy all Arcadia has to offer😀

Good to hear, no pun intended🤣🤣🤣🤣

Tbh that has now become the norm , more so on crowded city tours , and have to say very welcome

Thank you ,really looking forward to trying Fred after listening to so many other cruisers opinions of them ,which were nearly all positive. We have sailed with various other lines ,both big and small .old and new, have no problem with older ships as they do have character ,as long as they are maintained to a decent standard. Totally agree about the North/South issue, there must be quite a large untapped market to be captured with the right destinations other than Northern Europe and Great Britain .

We too have booked our first fred cruise out of Newcastle after years of procrastinating, our dealings with them up to now have been a pleasure and the reviews of the ship ( Balmoral) are mostly positive , we always approach a new line with an open mind and it will be interesting how we feel after it , also greatly looking forward to the two hour journey to Newcastle as opposed to the long drag to Southampton😃

If your into sunbeds then Aurora and Arcadia well suit you fine as there is plenty of deck space to find a suitable spot which is not hemmed in on the other ships

Roatan is a lovely port of call .we were blessed to be the only ship in on the day we called and one of the abiding memories was of at least half the crew having the most fantastic time for a few hours and was a pleasure to be on the same stretch of beach as them , they were polite and made sure they did not interrupt or disturb any of the guests, however quite a few passengers saw what a good time they were having and joined in with them !!! There is a chair lift from near the dock which takes you to the beach area and cost $2 ( may have gone up now) but in all honesty the walk was really nice through well kept gardens , the only downside when we called was the departure time of 4pm ,even though our next port was less than half a days sail ,most people agreed we could have stayed for at least another couple of hours without it making any difference.

Thanks ,we will be applying for the extended cover shortly for our January 2025 65 night cruise as we have been informed if we renew before the expiry date of our world extension we will receive the same charges as last year , hopeful this is information will be correct

We applied for our missed ports when we arrived home and were paid out within two weeks with the full amount for the seven missed ports , well impressed with the NW policy which we only started using two years ago, wished we had known about it years ago as our other policy did not cover missed ports ( we found this out after trying to make a claim) we then paid for the cruise cover and tried to claim when we missed ports on a later cruise , only to be told we could only claim if we had a shore excursion booked!!. So pleased with the policy we now have and very easy to add on for things like the world and longer cruises 👍

We do feel its an area that really lets P and O down , same with e mails ( no reply after ten weeks now) as our bookings are with a TA we usually leave it up to them , in context we have had to contact Fred twice in the last three months and the call was answered within two minutes and our query dealt with immediately, as this will be our first time with them it bodes well for our upcoming cruise

Indeed on the longer cruises they SOMETIMES give vouchers for in cabin consumption at a greatly reduced price , however the problem is that the most popular brands get sold out quickly and are seldom restocked , if you drink gin it does not appear to be an issue, if you don't its tough luck

There are only two port presenters left and they are only on the world cruise and the 65 night cruises ( or 75 night ) ,Speaking to one of them it would appear that its only a matter of time before they too are gone, regarding the condition of Aurora I agree that things will need to be updated if the high prices are to be justified , although it is our favourite both it and Arcadia need some serious money spending on them to bring them up to a standard that warrants the high prices ( personal opinion )

well after years of procrastinating we have booked for the Balmoral later this year and as we like to try other lines we will go with an open mind, the sailing from Newcastle was the thing that tipped it for us

I’m afraid to say it’s a massive issue across the whole fleet , something really needs to be enforced with relation to personal hygiene in eating areas. As for leaving restrooms, what can you say? 😟😟

Mine were ordered and paid for three months in advance , unfortunately neither shoreside or on board would accept responsibility