Sleeptastic

Porters were at Mayflower Terminal 3 weeks ago unloading vehicles and taking your luggage for you.

No idea I’m afraid although I didn’t see anyone walking around the ship with half empty bottles post dinner.

Returned home earlier from a fabulous 19 night cruise on Arcadia. This is our 1st on her since 2018 (ish) and our 2nd since Covid (we were on Ventura last year). Seeing a few queries re Arcadia recently on here I hope my observations/comments are useful We had a great holiday and, to be honest, after the comments I saw on CC last year I wasn’t expecting it to even happen! With regular talk of her being sold and thoughts that her time with P&O apparently coming to an end. We felt she was in great shape (better than Ventura last year). Gone were the sewage smells we encountered on the Promenade Deck on our last cruise and there were no obvious drainage issues unlike our last cruise. Staff levels were much improved vs our 2022 cruise and seemed to be back to normal (if not even increased staffing), no waiting at all to order drinks in bars or around the pool at any time of the day. There was 1 Afternoon Tea held in the MDR and on a sea day there was a pop up Glass House in 1 of the bars. We thought the food was very good with minimal repetition, unlike last year. We no longer had to take our unfinished wine bottles away with us post dinner, any unfinished ones were on our table waiting for us for our next evening meal. The waiters took the wine/drinks order and they were swiftly delivered by the bar staff. This seemed to work much better than previously when on numerous occasions we were half way through our main course before the drinks arrived and ordering a port at the end of the meal was simple as the waiters were so much more available than the previous wine waiters used to be. I’ve seen comments on here about the temperature on Arcadia and, as a result, took a number of pashminas with me for the evening. These stayed in my case as they weren’t needed, we didn’t find the temperature cool in any way of an evening. Staff seemed to be very happy and I didn’t pass 1 that didn’t acknowledge me with a smile and a greeting. There was a group of cleaners constantly working hard, sanitising bannisters, cleaning windows etc alongside the constant painting/varnishing that you always see. I also spotted some new carpets being laid. The light in the vanity area of the cabin wasn’t working on the 1st night and we mentioned it to our steward when we saw him on our way to dinner, by 10 am the next morning this had been rectified. We would always turn up at Southampton for 12ish regardless of our embarkation time but reading comments on here about them being stricter with ‘people like us’ we dropped our cases when we arrived and nipped to a local hotel for lunch and then got back to the terminal for our designated arrival time. We got straight through check in and security with no hold ups and our cases were waiting for us in our cabin when we arrived so we will definitely go down this route next time, it was much more civilised! Hopefully this answers some of the queries that I’ve seen pop up on her over the last few months and puts paid any concerns anyone may have of travelling on her. If you only have half the experience that we had on her then you’re in for a great time!

Hi Does anyone know when the next Refurb of Arcadia is planned Thanks

Just dug out the letter from the captain (25th September) which stated ‘……. You are required to wear a Face Mask that covers your nose and mouth when moving around indoors on board…..’ From memory this arrived in our cabins shortly after the announcement that he made earlier on the same day. Hope this gives you the info you needed..

Excursions on the Ventura cruise that arrived back in Southampton today were cancelled by the port authorities in the Canaries due to the weather (lots of rain last weekend as a result of a storm nearby). It had nothing to do with COVID. Excursions were in operation post the bad weather. Members of staff were reminding people to wear masks so it definitely wasn’t optional but agree with the earlier post that passengers were wearing masks within minutes of it being requested and that anyone not having one on was due to them forgetting rather than not wanting to do their bit.

Thanks all. Yeah, realise that it’s impossible to guess what the situation is going to be like in September but as the deposit is soon due I was just hoping for a view on the current situation and peoples experiences from their recent trips so we can make a decision whether we’re happy to go ahead or not. Completely get that things may well change between now and then.

We’re due to do a Canary Island cruise with my parents in September on Ventura. This will be our 1st since COVID. My parents don’t fly and are concerned about being asked to leave the ship if they test positive and worried about how they would get home. My understanding is that once we are on ship we won’t need to be tested and, therefore wonder how P&O would know if anyone has tested positive. Can anyone advise if this is a reasonable thought process and, whether P&O may be likely to do random testing if, for example, there is an outbreak of COVID on the ship and if this is the case would we be asked to leave mid way through the cruise if we did indeed test positive. Thanks for your help!