Will Arcadia be one of the summer UK Coast cruises?

[sidekick180]

I am hoping that P&O will announce the UK cruises for this summer by the end of March. If they do, I am seriously considering booking one. Ideally, I would love to do one of these cruises on Ventura, Azura or Britannia, but I get the feeling that it's more likely to be Aurora or Arcadia.

I did a ship visit a few years ago on Aurora (when they still did ship visits). I can't say I was too impressed with Aurora. It felt really dark and dingy to me, but that's just my personal opinion.

I have never been on Arcadia, so I would love to hear some feedback for this ship, especially how it compares to Ventura and Azura. I have been on both of these once and preferred the Azura (apart from the sewerage smell). I look forward to some lovely feedback.

[Adawn47]

As of now Arcadia's first cruise is October 9th, so they could feasibly use the Round Britain  Cruises to iron out the kinks so to speak, before her 19 nighter. All will become clear in a couple of weeks. I'm afraid I can't give you an unbiased report on Arcadia,  just to say that you can't compare her to the larger ships, she's completely different. She's my kind of ship, as is Aurora, which you didn't like. It's just a matter personal choice.

Avril

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Adawn47

[tring]

Dark and dingy was our thoughts of Arcadia on a Baltic cruise in 2019 and also for a ship visit to Aurora a but earlier.  A sales rep on board Arcadia did say what she called, "the older ladies" are darker as they have darker wood etc. 

 

Must say our outside cabin on Arcadia was very dingy with a faded smoky pinkish colour of walls/bathrooms.  It appeared there had been no re fresh of cabins/bathrooms since she was built.  Even a coat of white paint would have done a lot. A good half of the ladies public toilets were out of action for all of that Arcadia cruise as well.  I know the systems can be vulnerable to blockage, but there was no attempt to unblock them over the 16 days we were on the ship.

[Britboys]

I have sailed on both the smaller ships and enjoy them both, although it has been some time since I was on Arcadia. I can understand why someone might feel Aurora is dark even though I don't feel the same. My memories of Arcadia however are that she is generally a lot lighter than Aurora. Most of her internal walls are beige but soft furnishings and artwork add quite a lot of colour. Her internal style is however restrained rather than exuberant.

If you haven't already done so, check out that well-established video hosting site as there are plenty of video tours that will give you an impression of what she is like. On neither of the two cruises I have done on her did she feel crowded to me - unlike the two I have done on Azura. She has a decent-size covered pool and spacious aft pool area too. There is a nice wrap-around Promenade. If an atrium is important to you, you will be disappointed. Personally, I'm not remotely bothered with a ship having a big atrium as it basically takes away public space in favour of a big hole and staircase.

I did find lighting poor in the cabin but it was an inside, so I can't speak for the outside or balcony cabins.

[wowzz]

We like Arcadia for a number of reasons. The full promenade, the larger than normal balcony cabins, complete with sofa, a bath, so that you can have a shower without becoming intimate with the shower curtain, and the the excellent theatre.

As Britboys said, some people find the atrium disapointing,  but I too have never understood why having a big glitzy atrium is of any importance. Its certainly not a consideration when it comes to choosing a cruise for us.

Edited March 8, 2021 by wowzz

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

We like Arcadia for a number of reasons. The full promenade, the larger than normal balcony cabins, complete with sofa, a bath, so that you can have a shower without becoming intimate with the shower curtain, and the the excellent theatre.

As Britboys said, some people find the atrium disapointing,  but I too have never understood why having a big glitzy atrium is of any importance. Its certainly not a consideration when it comes to choosing a cruise for us.

Wowzz, You have picked out the most enjoyable features on Arcadia, and highlighted the poor design of the Atrium, which is what put us off ever re-booking on her, now its the poor size of the accessible cabins that prevents us including her in our considerations.

Anyway I hope your Princess cruise goes ahead in September, as I hope after seeing the Atrium on Sky(?) Princess, and the way Princess use this as the focal point of their ships, will maybe change your mind.

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Wowzz, You have picked out the most enjoyable features on Arcadia, and highlighted the poor design of the Atrium, which is what put us off ever re-booking on her, now its the poor size of the accessible cabins that prevents us including her in our considerations.

Anyway I hope your Princess cruise goes ahead in September, as I hope after seeing the Atrium on Sky(?) Princess, and the way Princess use this as the focal point of their ships, will maybe change your mind.

Thanks John. Personally,  I couldn't care less about the atrium on any ship. Why do you dislike the Arcadia atrium so much? 

[terrierjohn]

23 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Thanks John. Personally,  I couldn't care less about the atrium on any ship. Why do you dislike the Arcadia atrium so much? 

It's a total non event, it might as well not exist, and it in no way resembles a focal point of cruise ship activity.  Or at least it didn't back when we sailed on during her first winter season in the Caribbean.

Anyway do take a table in Alfredos Pizzeria on Princess and let me know what you think, or maybe you are just too busy to people watch when cruising.

[wowzz]

9 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

It's a total non event, it might as well not exist, and it in no way resembles a focal point of cruise ship activity.  Or at least it didn't back when we sailed on during her first winter season in the Caribbean.

Anyway do take a table in Alfredos Pizzeria on Princess and let me know what you think, or maybe you are just too busy to people watch when cruising.

OK, perhaps it's just us then.

Yes, it will be good to get back to Alfredos. It's 5 years since our last Princess cruise!

[janny444]

Afraid I can't offer any comment on the Arcadia....never cruised on Arcadia but as far as atriums are concerned I much prefer Princess 's atriums over P&O. They really feel like a focal point ....maybe it is because of the international cafe and also the different " acts" they have on during the day but it gives a real " buzz" to the feel of the ship. To be honest if it is going to be a cruise in British waters going nowhere in weather that could be damp and bleak  then I would choose Princess over P&O every time .

[Selbourne]

Having been on all the P&O ships we have our own ‘pecking order’ and have to say that Arcadia is our least favourite ship. I fully appreciate that this is subjective and that, for many people, she is their favourite ship, but she wasn’t for us. It’s not a big ship versus small ship thing as our two favourite ships are Aurora and Britannia!

 

Thankfully we had an aft corner wrap suite which, although a bit dated, was lovely. We didn’t hear a sound from other guests at night and being able to start the day with breakfast in Sindhu was very civilised. So what didn’t we like?

 

Main Dining Room - The circular layout, with a walkway through the middle (Freedom Dining), made it feel like Piccadilly Circus rather than a relaxing experience. This was made worse because my wife is a wheelchair user and they kept seating us by the side of the walkway. Apart from the poor layout, Arcadia was the only P&O ship that we have ever been on where they gave out pagers and made you wait for a table for lunch some days, even though there were countless tables available. 
 

Bars - We like to go for a drink before dinner and annoyingly the entertainments team were doing quizzes in the bar that we liked to use at peak dinner times and it was deafening and made the bar unusable. 
 

Theatre - We didn’t like the layout and style of seating and arrangements for wheelchair users were poor.

 

Live Music in Ocean Grill - The Ocean Grill isn’t quite the standard of food and service as Epicurean on Britannia, but is still very good. However, on one of the two occasions that we dined there the entertainment team had decided that it was a good place to put a mediocre singer with accompanying band playing at deafening volume. We hadn’t been told when we booked and it somewhat spoiled the experience. 
 

As my kids would say, these were ‘first world problems’, but we hadn’t experienced any of these issues on any of the other ships so wouldn’t rush to return to her. In the interests of balance, I can’t say that we felt that she was dark and we aren’t bothered about atriums!