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Hoping to make the Arcadia lunch in January 2024 after missing the January 2023 Aurora one due to the farcical yellow fever scenes in Southampton 😡 We had the Baltic/Ligurian lunch on Azura in June and there were TWELVE of us in the MDR!!! It was however a beautiful meal and plentiful amounts of good quality drinks 👍

Totally agree 😀😀

We opted for the drinks package for the first time ever on our fourteen day Azura cruise and we used it to our advantage because we knew the wines we liked were available in the glasshouse and we had three or four port days ,, interestingly we pre booked and received 10% but did not receive our 10% loyalty discount as well ? We do not drink teas or specialty coffees so our drinks spend was used solely for soft and alcoholic drinks , I would say it appeared as though we were not out of pocket across the whole cruise so would consider it again on a shorter cruise (17 nights or less) but anything longer would be of no benefit to us

It is a real dilemma booking early, we booked the world cruise on the morning it became available , primarily because we wanted our first choice of cabin and dining, and of course chose select fare , never thought for one minute this cruise would ever reduce in price , lo and behold a few months ago the price for the same cabin as us , three doors away dropped by nearly £1,000 pp and with double on board spend than us , our feelings have now changed towards future booking practices although our choices may be diluted by holding back , also beginning to have doubts around booking select fare in future

The glasshouse is very popular on all the other ships in the fleet , it would be nice when she has a refit to try and work out a way of retro fitting one on board , one of the downside of Arcadia is her lack of dining options 😕

If the South Wales Argus cant even distinguish between a BOAT and a SHIP then there's no wonder people take no notice of them😆

If my comments regarding the use of lifts is seen as disparaging it was not meant to be ,it is purely an observation of peoples behavior, it does not impact on us as we very rarely use the lifts , if folks want to use them for short ups and downs that's fine but should be mindful that some passengers are reliant on them to move about the ship, its not about holding judgement as a casual observer either when the very same people can manage a good sprint to be first on shuttle buses. I stopped giving my opinions on these boards a long time ago as things can be misinterpreted and base my comments on personal observations only

While following your reports on this cruise it has just confirmed what we have witnessed on nearly all our cruises RE lifts, we personally do not use the lifts if at all possible ,( and we are nearly always on the upper decks) as we are still capable of using the stairs albeit at a slower pace than when we were younger, however we constantly see fit ,able bodied people waiting for a lift and in a lot of cases to go DOWN one flight and have witnessed wheelchair and mobile scooter users been unable to gain access to lifts due to people who cant be bothered to use the stairs taking up the space ,so I can only share your despair at the lift hoggers, it will of course be more of a problem on the larger ships due to the volume of passengers . It may take us a while but even when we have to get on and off the ship at level four we will still walk up and down the stairs, in some cases eleven or twelve flights, it keeps us fit and keeps the weight off but most importantly it frees the lifts for those like yourselves that have no choice but to use them.. Enjoy the rest of the cruise and hope the lift situation improves for you 😃

As mentioned above the prom deck does indeed go right around the ship ,however on a lot of the later evenings the bow section was often closed for no apparent reason ( no bad weather etc). We did the Malta Croatia, Malta Italy cruise and the locations were wonderful👍

I'm also very surprised as my understanding when we booked it earlier this year was that you received 10% for booking beforehand and that was all we got , no mention of also been able to use your loyalty tier to gain additional benefits, just wondering if this is a recent change ( we used it on Azura in June)

Well you learn something everyday, We booked the drinks package for the first time ever on our recent Azura cruise and obviously received the 10% discount but did not receive the additional 10% for been at Baltic level ? It only worked for us as we like a lot of the wines in the glasshouse, and we had a number of sea days

Can I just confirm that if you buy before you sail you are entitled to 10% discount , are you also able to add your loyalty benefit thus possibly getting a 20% discount in our situation ?

Ditto ,

Key west is a lovely place to visit but is becoming part of a number of ports who are trying to restrict the number and size of cruise ships

Can definitely confirm that 👍

Ah ,well that clarifies that ,thank you , the lady we saw on Azura was definitely from Hungary but for the life us we cant remember her name 🤔

If she is the lady from Hungary with blonde hair she is an exceptional pianist 😀

We also visited in the nineties and it appears as though they have managed to keep its charm and not over developed it , when we visited there was a lot of Russian investment happening and not many brits went there, we will always remember our kids clinging on to the seats of our car as I drove along the winding clifftop roads to get to it !!!

And as I’ve mentioned before the lack of other dining venues on Arcadia does make things even more congested , Unfortunately

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 ?

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 👍

They are a cut above all the other lines we have been on , the white night is quite something to behold , that been said two weeks is probably long enough for us as the evening entertainment can become a little limited , do agree that a lot of people prefer not to fly though 😀

We have tried all methods to get to Southampton with the exception of rail ,including overnight stays pre boarding. Cant say we enjoy any of them and it makes the journey home a chore , I know its our choice to live a six hour car journey away but we do get envious of people who will be sat at home with a suitcase unpacked before we are even a quarter of the way back. Its the same with flying, most holiday departures are centered around the south and to fly from anywhere north incurs flight supplements , even though in lots of cases the aircraft and crew are based in the north

Would definitely recommend Azamara , loved them and will look to sail with them again when a suitable itinerary and timing suit us , however they are more expensive

From recent first hand observations P and O appear to be leading the field in cancelling ports , either before sailing or during a cruise , all the more frustrating when other ships manage to dock with no apparent problem on a regular basis 😠