First Timer Questions about Arcadia.

[BrisbaneGran]

We are not new to cruising, but have never cruised with P & O, so I will have a few questions!

We are looking at booking a month long cruise on Arcadia, for February 2015. It is a segment of the World Cruise. Hope to make the booking some time over the weekend.

Firstly, does anyone know a site where you can make a "dummy" booking, to get an idea of what cabins are still available? I would like to be able to ask our TA to try to book certain cabins, instead of just taking pot luck with what they may come up with.

It seems all suites and mini suites are sold out, so would have to be a balcony cabin. Probably try for a midship although forward would not really be a problem. Are any decks better for location than others? I probably wouldn't want to be directly below the pool deck for noise reasons.

 

Any advice gratefully received!

[BrisbaneGran]

just thought of another question! :D

 

Looking at the deck plans of the Arcadia, it seems it only has one main dining room. Are there any "casual" dining areas on board? A lot of the cruise we are looking at is sea days, so dressing for dinner is not a problem on those days but some of the shore days have 9 hour excursions! I couldn't think of anything worse than having to get dressed up after that many hours out and about! What options are there for dining in a casual venue? or maybe room service?

[davecttr]

just thought of another question! :D

 

Looking at the deck plans of the Arcadia, it seems it only has one main dining room. Are there any "casual" dining areas on board? A lot of the cruise we are looking at is sea days, so dressing for dinner is not a problem on those days but some of the shore days have 9 hour excursions! I couldn't think of anything worse than having to get dressed up after that many hours out and about! What options are there for dining in a casual venue? or maybe room service?

On formal or smart-jacket required nights the Belvedere buffet and East cover charge restaurant welcome evening casual dress.

Edited June 4, 2014 by davecttr

[daiB]

just thought of another question! :D

 

 

 

Looking at the deck plans of the Arcadia, it seems it only has one main dining room. Are there any "casual" dining areas on board? A lot of the cruise we are looking at is sea days, so dressing for dinner is not a problem on those days but some of the shore days have 9 hour excursions! I couldn't think of anything worse than having to get dressed up after that many hours out and about! What options are there for dining in a casual venue? or maybe room service?

 

 

Hi Brisbane Gran.

 

On a cruise with a lot of sea days and long port days all of the formal and

jacket required nights will be on sea days. All long port days will be smart casual. So you should have no trouble at all. If your cruise is round Australia I do believe they relax the code to two. That may depend on the cruise.

 

Remember everyone is in the same 'boat' :) So on port days they are not going to have any kind of formal wear. The only time they have formal or jacket nights when it is a port day is when they run a port intensive cruise. Eg Ventura in the Med, only has one sea day and two formal days so one in that case has to be a port day.

 

 

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[BrisbaneGran]

On formal or smart-jacket required nights the Belvedere buffet and East cover charge restaurant welcome evening casual dress.

 

I will have to have another look at the deck plans, I didn't think there was a buffet....that would be perfect.

Thanks for the info

[the english lady]

We are not new to cruising, but have never cruised with P & O, so I will have a few questions!

We are looking at booking a month long cruise on Arcadia, for February 2015. It is a segment of the World Cruise. Hope to make the booking some time over the weekend.

Firstly, does anyone know a site where you can make a "dummy" booking, to get an idea of what cabins are still available? I would like to be able to ask our TA to try to book certain cabins, instead of just taking pot luck with what they may come up with.

It seems all suites and mini suites are sold out, so would have to be a balcony cabin. Probably try for a midship although forward would not really be a problem. Are any decks better for location than others? I probably wouldn't want to be directly below the pool deck for noise reasons.

 

Any advice gratefully received!

I would make a note of the cabin numbers you are interested in and when you speak to your TA give them the number and ask them to try and book one of them. I personally book direct with P and O and chose a pile of numbers (in preference) and say which one of these can I have.

I am assuming this would be a select fare (deposit and balance type) so you can pick numbers.

We were on Arcadia this year and loved her. Main dining room is 2 tiers ,bottom is club dining, top is freedom. Plus the Belvedere deck 9 at the back. We actually quite like the set up in here..never seemed like a total bunfight to us...plus as has been stated East, the East bar has stunning views.

Finally there is the chargeable Ocean Grill, which we loved-ate there twice.

[Host Sharon]

You can do a dummy booking on the P&O website to see how many cabins are available.

[annieuk]

Just be aware that P&O don't have all the vacant cabins on the site when you do a "dummy" booking. We were booking a balcony cabin on Adonia and when I did the same thing only three balcony cabins of the grade we were looking at showed as being available. I phoned my TA who looked on her system and there were lots of balcony cabins available - so just because the cabin(s) you are interested in don't show on the site it may not mean they are not free - if you see what I mean.

 

The only real way to find out is to call your TA or P&O direct. Good Luck.

[jeanlyon]

Yes agree, ask a good Travel Agent. They have direct access to the P&O booking system.

[BrisbaneGran]

You can do a dummy booking on the P&O website to see how many cabins are available.

 

Unfortunately that doesn't work for me. I've tried, and have no idea how these technical things work, but when I try, somehow "it" know I am in Australia, so a pop up appears telling me I have to phone or call my TA. Guess that's what I have to do!

[the english lady]

Unfortunately that doesn't work for me. I've tried, and have no idea how these technical things work, but when I try, somehow "it" know I am in Australia, so a pop up appears telling me I have to phone or call my TA. Guess that's what I have to do!

From what other Australians have posted on here I don't think you have the same deals as us Brits, so do ask your TA for the best deal they can get for you. Also remember to pick out the cabins you would like, or ask your TA to tell you which ones are still available..sit there with a deck plan in front of you and discuss with them which one suits you best. That is what they are there for.

If you stay on this site you will also discover that nearer to sailing date the price will drop..however with the price drop comes different T and C, you need to decide if you would like to choose where you will sleep /eat or if these are at all important to you book now.

While the Brits on here moan about they booked a cruise and the next day the price dropped etc, they ought to consider themselves lucky (in one way) that they are not trying to book from Australia. I do not think your T and C are as good as ours.

We did a river cruise a few years ago that had a few Australians on board, and talking to them we discovered that you tend not to get the deals ,as we do.

[artemis10]

 

If your cruise is round Australia I do believe they relax the code to two. That may depend on the cruise.

 

 

We were on Arcadia world cruise this year and as far as I was aware they did not relax the code, nor should they, it's part of going on a P&O cruise.

[BrisbaneGran]

I phoned the number for P & O that popped up on the pop up, when I tried to do a dummy booking, and the girl I spoke to was very helpful. She read out the numbers for all the available cabins. Not a lot left. None on A deck, only the very front 3 on B deck (I'm talking about Balcony Cabins) 8 on C Deck, all Forward and quite a lot on D Deck, both Forward and Aft. C looked to be our best bet so we have booked C29. I don't suffer at all from sea sickness so being forward wont bother me, and on such a big ship I doubt we will feel it much anyway!

We think we got a good price, and it included two nights in Singapore and flights home.......so all is booked! Now just have to work out my next lot of questions. I am reading everything I can find......but still some things not covered!

The cruise goes from Australia to Singapore, via Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia....and lots of sea days.:D

[P&O SUE]

That sounds wonderful! Glad you're all booked.

[BrisbaneGran]

now this is a question I know sparks all sorts of "advice and answers".......TIPPING!!! From what I have read, it seems that there is an automatic tipping thingy added to your on board account? so much per person per day? That sounds great to us......for people from a place that doesn't tip as a way of life.......this seems to take care of the problem for us.....BUT....I also imagine that many also tip their steward extra? The cruise line we usually sail with is Seabourn......no gratuities are expected at all....but we still always tip our stewardess extra.....now for the question of how much!!! I know the usual answer is "whatever you feel is right".......but we have no idea "what is right" and don't want to do the wrong thing......sooooo for a month long cruise, what would you imagine the "average" tip would be?

[the english lady]

You do not have to tip over and above the auto tip that is added to your account.

I feel one starts heading in the wrong direction if you have auto tips, then tip over and above. People start to feel they have to.

On our last cruise in the dining room (club dining) others on our table left auto tips on and gave extra on the last night. We left auto tips on and did not tip extra.

It is entirely up to you if you want to do the over and above-but please please do not feel you have to.

[gadabout60]

You do not have to tip over and above the auto tip that is added to your account.

I feel one starts heading in the wrong direction if you have auto tips, then tip over and above. People start to feel they have to.

On our last cruise in the dining room (club dining) others on our table left auto tips on and gave extra on the last night. We left auto tips on and did not tip extra.

It is entirely up to you if you want to do the over and above-but please please do not feel you have to.

 

Of course you don't have to but if you have good service then what is a relatively small sum for us means so much to stewards / waiters etc who are sending most of their salary back home. Most P&O cruises I have been on the waiters and the wine waiters have been friendly and helpful and attentive. I always leave the automatic tips on and give the two waiters and the wine waiter an extra £10 each, and £20 for the cabin steward. I also give £1 every time I order room service.

Edited June 7, 2014 by gadabout60

[the english lady]

Of course you don't have to but if you have good service then what is a relatively small sum for us means so much to stewards / waiters etc who are sending most of their salary back home. Most P&O cruises I have been on the waiters and the wine waiters have been friendly and helpful and attentive. I always leave the automatic tips on and give the two waiters and the wine waiter an extra £10 each, and £20 for the cabin steward. I also give £1 every time I order room service.

Which is the slippery path I am on about. The auto tips are a thank you.

We will just remain with leaving auto tips on.

The lady who started this has a very long cruise to look forward to...

On a 7-14 night cruise-doesn't seem too bad.

However if you are on a very long cruise does your extra tenner and twenty seem quite so good spread over lets say 50 plus nights. So then you start thinking ooh shall I make it 30 and 50...then the slippery slope starts.

Should also add the wine waiters are going,so will your waiters get the wine waiters tenner.

[gadabout60]

Which is the slippery path I am on about. The auto tips are a thank you.

We will just remain with leaving auto tips on.

The lady who started this has a very long cruise to look forward to...

On a 7-14 night cruise-doesn't seem too bad.

However if you are on a very long cruise does your extra tenner and twenty seem quite so good spread over lets say 50 plus nights. So then you start thinking ooh shall I make it 30 and 50...then the slippery slope starts.

Should also add the wine waiters are going,so will your waiters get the wine waiters tenner.

 

Sorry English lady - I am by no means wealthy but if I can afford a cruise, given how low the autotips on P&O are, I will try and give the staff something. Very little to me in the scheme of things, a helluva lot to them

[BrisbaneGran]

thanks for that advice.......I do tend to agree with the English Lady about starting a slippery slope, but think we would probably still give our Steward a bit extra. Of course that depends on their performance! We have only ever been on one "big" ship before, and our steward was wonderful, well he was until the day we were leaving! Then is was pretty much, out with the old and in with the new, and he couldn't even be bothered speaking to us! I was really mad about that treatment and of course immediately disbelieved all his "stories" about all the poor family back home......I wont fall for that line again!

 

 

So for Room Service would others also tip something like 1 pound? I suppose I should also make sure I have some UK money!!

[lindyloo22]

I also tip room service £1 whenever I use it

[BrisbaneGran]

I also tip room service £1 whenever I use it

 

Must remember to get some UK notes! :D Sometimes we just feel like "something simple" in our room for dinner, so I would imagine we will use Room Service a few times.

Well I think that just about covers my tipping questions......now to think of the next one!

[2irisheyes]

BrisbaneGran - British £1 are coins. The smallest notes we have are £5 same as Euros. If you wish to tip for room service in small notes I guess other countries notes would be acceptable - of the major currencies anyway.

[Elderflower]

I always have room service breakfast so I tip the room service waiter on the day before we get off at the rate of £1 per day and round it up to the nearest £5. (Hubby always goes to the buffet so the breakfast is only for one person). When we did a World cruise, I tipped the room service guy at the end of each sector, We don't tend to use room service at other times.

 

One thing you may not be aware of when sailing with P&O is that there is a kettle with tea & coffee making facilities in the cabin. We find this more convenient than calling room service when you need a cuppa after returning from a long day out.

 

We have also sailed with Seabourn and they have a no tips policy as the crew are paid proper rates of pay, without the need for tips to make up their wage. On P&O, they rely on tips to make up their wages. All the crew are wonderful and I have found no difference in attitude since automatic tips were introduced on P&O. The auto tips can be removed if you prefer to give those people who have served you an individual tip in person on the last night. My understanding is that the crew know which passengers have removed the auto tips.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Pat

[BrisbaneGran]

oh dear....I am so far behind the times!! I don't think I can get UK "coins" here.....I still thought a pound was a bit of paper! Suppose I can get them on board though.....I wouldn't dream of removing the automatic tips......to us that is the easiest way for us to "do it right".