Advice & thoughts please - Aracdia to Iceland

[Sarah1974]

I'm thinking of booking a 16 night cruise on Arcadia to Iceland this August.  Does anyone have any tips / thoughts / advice they can give? With P&O I've cruised on Oriana and Britannia.  We're likely to be a group of 3-4 ladies from the ages of 49 - 69.  And, if there's only 3 of us can we have a balcony e.g. twin beds & sofabed? 

 

Thanks for any assistance

[happy v]

I love Iceland. It is a fantastic place to visit. You will need lots of money though, because you will want to go on loads of excursions.

You can have three adults in a cabin.

I can't advise on the ship as August will be our first time on her 

[terrierjohn]

Arcadia has some 3 berth and 4 berth balcony cabins, the 3 berth has a sofa bed, and the 4 berth also has the sofa bed and a pull down bunk, which means the main bed can only have single beds, to accommodate the ladder for the Pullman bunk.

[david63]

Arcadia is a bit of a "marmite" ship - you either love her or hate her, and there are many in both camps. It's style and size is more akin to Oriana than to Britannia and does not have the range of facilities that Britannia has.

 

The age demographic for Arcadia is higher than that for Britannia due to being an adults only ship.

 

I have sailed on all three of these ships and would sail again (except for Oriana) if the itinerary was right.

[Britboys]

Yes, Arcadia is much closer in size to Oriana than Britannia. Her decor however is much more contemporary than was Oriana's more classic style. She has a decent size covered pool which, if you enjoy a swim is important as good weather is certainly not guaranteed on that itinerary. She also has a nice (extra charge) spa area with thermal suite and thalassotherapy pool.

Iceland is a fantastic place to visit and I think Arcadia is probably a good ship to do it on. 

[No pager thank you]

We are also going on this particular cruise having booked a little while ago, wanted to go for a while... we noticed that by booking a balcony cabin, we had more in extra OBC than the equivalent, cheaper, cost of an inside or outside cabin...no brainer!

 

What I would say is the same cruise has bumped in price since by £1000 like for like, however it appears to be much better value for money than the preceding one still, which goes to Norway, Iceland and the North Cape.  Worth keeping an eye on.

 

Notably, the excursions on this cruise are amongst the most expensive I have seen on P&O, however that seems mainly due to the very high cost of living in Iceland.

 

We don't mind Arcadia, neither our favourite (Aurora and Britannia) or least favourite of the fleet (Iona).  Key issue for us is if the food and service debacle has got sorted, have heard mixed reviews, but fingers crossed!

 

[wowzz]

We have been on Arcadia twice. Round trip to Caribbean,  and a Canaries cruise in 2022.

Adults only, but the ship is old, and shows her age. Lovely theatre though.

 

 

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

We have been on Arcadia twice. Round trip to Caribbean,  and a Canaries cruise in 2022.

Adults only, but the ship is old, and shows her age. Lovely theatre though.

 

 

Why is that with P&O ships, most Voyager class Royal caribbean ships are older than Arcadia, but they are no where near as scruffy.

[wowzz]

Just now, terrierjohn said:

Why is that with P&O ships, most Voyager class Royal caribbean ships are older than Arcadia, but they are no where near as scruffy.

Can't answer that, obviously. But the phrase " sweating your assets" springs to mind.

[david63]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

Lovely theatre though.

Just as long as you avoid the pillars!

[Thejuggler]

We did a similar trip to that on Celebrity.  Saw orca from the ship.

 

Just a shame that trip doesn't go to Faeroe Islands, rather than UK ports, as we found them fascinating.

 

We much preferred Akureyri over Reyjavik.  Much better trips, including standing across the continents where the US and European plates meet.

 

 Crew did a crossing the line 'blue nose' ceremony one evening as overnight we were to cross the Arctic Circle.  All passengers received a certificate with the date and time it was crossed.

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, Thejuggler said:

We did a similar trip to that on Celebrity.  Saw orca from the ship.

 

Just a shame that trip doesn't go to Faeroe Islands, rather than UK ports, as we found them fascinating.

 

We much preferred Akureyri over Reyjavik.  Much better trips, including standing across the continents where the US and European plates meet.

 

 Crew did a crossing the line 'blue nose' ceremony one evening as overnight we were to cross the Arctic Circle.  All passengers received a certificate with the date and time it was crossed.

If you go to the Faroes. sometimes you will see lots of pilot whales.🤮