Pull-down beds

[Ryohei1956]

Hi. We're booking on the Arcadia for the 21-day cruise to Iceland & the North Cape. Looking at the deck plan, we noticed that  a lot of cabins were marked with one or more icons (1 asterisk, 2 asterisks etc), thankfully there was an explanatory key nearby.

 

We're looking at balcony twin cabin A2, which has a 1 asterisk icon. According to the key, this signifies that there is an 'additional bed in the form of a pull-down sofa bed'. Now, this might be a stupid question (I absolutely excel at those), but if there are only two of us in the cabin, is it the case that the pull down sofa bed can be used simply as a sofa? I'd think this would be the case, but thought I'd check. Presumably other balcony cabins that have no asterisk, like A14 for example, have a sofa that functions solely as a sofa.

 

Please feel free to have a wee chuckle before answering 🙂

 

Alan S.

Edited August 12, 2022 by Ryohei1956
Needed to correct what i said

[Eglesbrech]

Welcome to the forum and absolutely no question is stupid.

 

Yes the bed can simply be used as a sofa.

 

Happy cruising.

[Ryohei1956]

Thanks Eglesbrech. We're still kind of new to this whole cruise thing. Our only experience to date was on Britannia, on the Cruise That Never Was, back in 2020. Flew into Barbados on Day 1, the cruise was cancelled that evening and we ended up sailing back to Southampton and the newly discovered joys of Covid. It wasn't quite the same as a tour of the Caribbean.

 

However, we rebooked for a second try, and unless some other pandemic starts up we will hopefully be Caribbean bound In Feb '23 to join the Arvia. Then, in just under a year from now, we should be on the Arcadia, bound for the Faroes, Iceland, the North Cape and various other ports of call on the Norwegian coast. You know what's really weird? We had initially looked at the same North Cape cruise but for 2024, and were rather surprised to see that the first stop was at Greenock, to the west of Glasgow!!!! We live on the east coast of Scotland - if I left now I could be in Greenock in under two hours. Greenock is many things, but a tourist destination? Not by any stretch of the imagination, though my wife did point out that we could have taken in some primo football as apparently Greenock Morton F.C. have their ground in the town. That's why we ended up plumping for the '23 cruise instead.

 

Cheers again for replying

 

Alan S.

[Eglesbrech]

53 minutes ago, Ryohei1956 said:

Thanks Eglesbrech. We're still kind of new to this whole cruise thing. Our only experience to date was on Britannia, on the Cruise That Never Was, back in 2020. Flew into Barbados on Day 1, the cruise was cancelled that evening and we ended up sailing back to Southampton and the newly discovered joys of Covid. It wasn't quite the same as a tour of the Caribbean.

 

However, we rebooked for a second try, and unless some other pandemic starts up we will hopefully be Caribbean bound In Feb '23 to join the Arvia. Then, in just under a year from now, we should be on the Arcadia, bound for the Faroes, Iceland, the North Cape and various other ports of call on the Norwegian coast. You know what's really weird? We had initially looked at the same North Cape cruise but for 2024, and were rather surprised to see that the first stop was at Greenock, to the west of Glasgow!!!! We live on the east coast of Scotland - if I left now I could be in Greenock in under two hours. Greenock is many things, but a tourist destination? Not by any stretch of the imagination, though my wife did point out that we could have taken in some primo football as apparently Greenock Morton F.C. have their ground in the town. That's why we ended up plumping for the '23 cruise instead.

 

Cheers again for replying

 

Alan S.

Greenock would not be a place I would rush to however it is actually popular as a cruise stop. People head from there into Glasgow, up to Stirling or over to Loch Lomand.

 

The locals in Greenock offer (free) tours to those coming off ships and they are very well received. I remember reading an item on here from some tourists from the USA who enjoyed the local tour and raved about the brilliant “craft” beers they had sampled. They could not believe how excellent the beer was for the incredibly low cost compared to craft ales in the US.

 

They were drinking 60 shilling at Wetherspoons! What is pedestrian here is exotic elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tring]

13 hours ago, Ryohei1956 said:

Thanks Eglesbrech. We're still kind of new to this whole cruise thing. Our only experience to date was on Britannia, on the Cruise That Never Was, back in 2020. Flew into Barbados on Day 1, the cruise was cancelled that evening and we ended up sailing back to Southampton and the newly discovered joys of Covid. It wasn't quite the same as a tour of the Caribbean.

 

However, we rebooked for a second try, and unless some other pandemic starts up we will hopefully be Caribbean bound In Feb '23 to join the Arvia. Then, in just under a year from now, we should be on the Arcadia, bound for the Faroes, Iceland, the North Cape and various other ports of call on the Norwegian coast. You know what's really weird? We had initially looked at the same North Cape cruise but for 2024, and were rather surprised to see that the first stop was at Greenock, to the west of Glasgow!!!! We live on the east coast of Scotland - if I left now I could be in Greenock in under two hours. Greenock is many things, but a tourist destination? Not by any stretch of the imagination, though my wife did point out that we could have taken in some primo football as apparently Greenock Morton F.C. have their ground in the town. That's why we ended up plumping for the '23 cruise instead.

 

Cheers again for replying

 

Alan S.

 

As mentioned Greenock is a well used cruise port, remember the cruise lines like to sell excursions as well 🙂

 

Some smaller ships use it as a departure port and we have stayed overnight a few times pre or post cruise.  We had train tickets and a couple of nights in the Premier Inn, Greenock booked at very good prices for last August, since we were booked on a tall ship (a cruise vessel), to go to Liverpool, via an Irish port.  However Nichola did not have the same idea so, sadly, the Scottish cruises were cancelled on that ship.

 

Hence we added a week in a Glasgow hotel and return train tickets to Liverpool, resulting in a very good August staycation and the weather was excellent as well.  There is a promenade to the west side of Greenock and the Premier Inn itself is on the river - we had brilliant views from our room and the outside bar area, especially at sunset.  Our Glasgow hotel was a Hilton with a large river front patio area (near the centre which held the climate change conference).  There was lots to do in Glasgow and we had a really great time.  Nothing wrong with the town of Greenock either, which has some quite old buildings, though I suspect it has changed over the years.  I can see that as a local, Greenock would not be of interest to you as a cruise port though.

 

We have seen a lot of change in Liverpool, even over the last 15-20 years, so it is now a very popular cruise port and holiday area.  Sadly means if we want to spend an overnight in the city because we are attending an event and do not want to drive home, we cannot get the cheap deals we used to.

 

I hope you have a really good cruise,

 

Barbara