Arcadia

[cockneyjock]

I am booked on the Arcadia next March, which, if she survives will be her first cruise since returning from her world cruise.

Are they going to let her rot off the south coast? The crew on board must be going stir crazy, with only occasional visits to Southampton.

Alan.

[Son of Anarchy]

3 minutes ago, cockneyjock said:

I am booked on the Arcadia next March, which, if she survives will be her first cruise since returning from her world cruise.

Are they going to let her rot off the south coast? The crew on board must be going stir crazy, with only occasional visits to Southampton.

Alan.

I would have thought that P&O could have come up with some sort of alternative itineries as they did with Aurora.  Maybe P&O will review that decision in the light of how quickly Aurora's new itineries sold out. 

[Britboys]

She is only 16 years old and has plenty of balcony cabins, so I doubt they will be too keen to offload her just yet - although with P&O and Carnival Corp, you never know these days...

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, cockneyjock said:

I am booked on the Arcadia next March, which, if she survives will be her first cruise since returning from her world cruise.

Are they going to let her rot off the south coast? The crew on board must be going stir crazy, with only occasional visits to Southampton.

Alan.

We are on that cruise as well.

There will only be a skeleton crew on board at present, who will be pretty busy with essential maintenance. 

I'm surprised  that P&O didnt slip in some European/Canary cruises for February and March, but perhaps they felt that the demand wasn't there,  and also that they wanted to slowly resume cruising, with a limited number of ships initially. 

[molecrochip]

Returning a ship to passenger service is a massive logistical operation. The plan to bring back one ship at a time is very intentional. Broadly one ship every two months plus Cunard.

 

June - Britannia; July - QE; August - Iona; October - Ventura; November - QM2; December - Azura; February - Aurora; March - Arcadia; April - QV.

 

The plan to leave every fourth month empty is intentional for unplanned changes. 

 

Recruiting, relocating staff across the globe in a safe manner whilst countries are still suffering under the pandemic is not easy. Also staff all need to quarantine, their training has generally run out, they need to learn new procedures. There is only one set of shore staff to undertake this process for all ships. 

 

Additionally, you're looking at availability of ports and having robust and necessary back-up plans. Finally, the Aurora cruises have sold well but this is based upon significantly reduced capacity. As has happened with Britannia and Iona, extra capacity has been added as government guidelines have changed.

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

Returning a ship to passenger service is a massive logistical operation. The plan to bring back one ship at a time is very intentional. Broadly one ship every two months plus Cunard.

 

June - Britannia; July - QE; August - Iona; October - Ventura; November - QM2; December - Azura; February - Aurora; March - Arcadia; April - QV.

 

The plan to leave every fourth month empty is intentional for unplanned changes. 

 

Recruiting, relocating staff across the globe in a safe manner whilst countries are still suffering under the pandemic is not easy. Also staff all need to quarantine, their training has generally run out, they need to learn new procedures. There is only one set of shore staff to undertake this process for all ships. 

 

Additionally, you're looking at availability of ports and having robust and necessary back-up plans. Finally, the Aurora cruises have sold well but this is based upon significantly reduced capacity. As has happened with Britannia and Iona, extra capacity has been added as government guidelines have changed.

Than you Moley, very interesting and sounds sensible.

[Windsurfboy]

The demand for summer UK cruises has been very good. The key question is come October will sunnier climates open up. Hopefully Med, but this will mean fly cruises or minimum 14 days 

[molecrochip]

9 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

The demand for summer UK cruises has been very good. The key question is come October will sunnier climates open up. Hopefully Med, but this will mean fly cruises or minimum 14 days 

There are no fly cruises to the med scheduled until next Summer on P&O now.