Arcadia arriving early.

[Fionboard]

Currently in Force 11 off Dover with weather deteriorating so Arcadia docking tonight (with assistance from tugs). Pretty lively out here. 

[davecttr]

Rough, 3.8 m waves and high winds, hope you are well 🤢

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Currently in Force 11 off Dover with weather deteriorating so Arcadia docking tonight (with assistance from tugs). Pretty lively out here. 

Take care @Fionboard

[yorkshirephil]

2 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Currently in Force 11 off Dover with weather deteriorating so Arcadia docking tonight (with assistance from tugs). Pretty lively out here. 

We came in the night before on the cruise before yours, tugs needed. We were told to sit down at a certain time for 15 minutes as there could be a sharp list due to a turning manoeuvre, however everything went smoothly, good luck.

[Josy1953]

We were on Ventura when a storm was blowing up and the captain  told us that we were going to make a fast run to Southampton because it was going to be so rough with force 12 gusts, we actually managed to get into Southampton by 8pm but we had to stay on board for the night because there were no port workers to do everything needed to make it safe for anyone to leave the ship.  

[purplesea]

We arrived back in Southampton in the evening at 10 pm when we were on Iona in January to beat strong winds and were not  allowed to disembark until the follow day. Seems to be a common occurance!

[Palaceman]

40 minutes ago, purplesea said:

We arrived back in Southampton in the evening at 10 pm when we were on Iona in January to beat strong winds and were not  allowed to disembark until the follow day. Seems to be a common occurance!

Whether it's a common occurance or not, I'd rather the captain uses his/her experience and does what he/she needs to do to ensure the safety of passengers and crew. If that means docking in Southampton a few hours early then so be it. Why is there a need to disembark immediately, when there is still food and entertainment to enjoy?

[purplesea]

13 minutes ago, Palaceman said:

Whether it's a common occurance or not, I'd rather the captain uses his/her experience and does what he/she needs to do to ensure the safety of passengers and crew. If that means docking in Southampton a few hours early then so be it. Why is there a need to disembark immediately, when there is still food and entertainment to enjoy?

|I was just stating a fact!!

[jeanlyon]

we left Southampton on Balmoral in a Force 12.  After 3 days at sea, which wasn't that uncomfortable, we were still south of Plymouth!  We missed Cadiz and went on to another port.

[carlanthony24]

They don't let you leave because you are not cleared by customs 

[FangedRose]

55 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

They don't let you leave because you are not cleared by customs 

And those travelling by coach, or other prebooked modes, would be stuck.

[devonuk]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

we left Southampton on Balmoral in a Force 12.  After 3 days at sea, which wasn't that uncomfortable, we were still south of Plymouth!  We missed Cadiz and went on to another port.

We could have waved to each other 👋😊

[Snow Hill]

We were returning from a Christmas/New Year cruise in 2013 on the Aurora, the Captain said he was putting his foot down and we might hit a few potholes on the way to get to Southampton before the storm hit the channel, we docked around 10pm on the Friday night. Had difficulty sleeping as ship was so still when docked.

 

We heard the next that a couple of ships didn’t make it into Southampton in time and had to anchor off Isle of Wight, one other ship from Saga, forget it’s name, had to divert to a port in Northern Spain as weather too bad for it to continue its journey. 

[Fionboard]

20 hours ago, Palaceman said:

Whether it's a common occurance or not, I'd rather the captain uses his/her experience and does what he/she needs to do to ensure the safety of passengers and crew. If that means docking in Southampton a few hours early then so be it. Why is there a need to disembark immediately, when there is still food and entertainment to enjoy?

Yes, we had a nice peaceful evening last night. Departure delayed today due to deep clean following norovirus. All back to normal now and looking forward to Hamburg (hopefully)!

[mike x ftc]

We were on Arcadia, got back this morning, we were supposed to be in Bruges yesterday but could not berth safely so we made our way back to Southampton early, it was a bit wild out there so it was nice to have the evening tied up and calm!  We missed the 2nd day in Amsterdam as well on the 27th as the wind was getting up we would not have got out of the locks - so 2 port days turned into 2 rough North Sea days!

[Cat_Woman]

Arcadia Christmas 2022 cruise was certainly very challenging.  Even the Captain acknowledged this numerous times.  Novovirus on board, severe plumbing issues meaning lots of cabin and public washrooms had out of order toilets and sinks, not ideal when being told to be fastidious in hygiene due to the virus.  Seemed to be a severe lack of staff in the dining rooms and staff looked stressed out, not surprisingly.  One day in Amsterdam missed and Zebrugge cancelled due to weather issues.  Arrived back in Southampton before 10.30pm night before scheduled arrival due to Force 11 gales and requirement to get a poorly passenger off for medical attention.  Not the best experience I've had but the great dancing with Diane and David in The Retreat certainly helped me come away with some great memories. 

[wowzz]

33 minutes ago, Cat_Woman said:

severe plumbing issues meaning lots of cabin and public washrooms had out of order toilets and sinks

Same problems as we had in April !

The age of Arcadia is showing !

[Goosebear Mum]

Or some passengers insisting of disposing of wet wipes, etc, down the toilets…  😞 

[wowzz]

17 minutes ago, Goosebear Mum said:

Or some passengers insisting of disposing of wet wipes, etc, down the toilets…  😞 

So the same public toilets that were blocked in April are still blocked due to wet wipes ?

Even P&O can't use that as an excuse!

[Goosebear Mum]

To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me, if people in both public and cabin toilets are flushing things they shouldn’t. A certain % of the population still believe that they can flush anything, and ignore any ‘advice’ to the contrary  😞  It’s scary what people try and flush away ‘out of sight, out of mind’…   

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, Goosebear Mum said:

To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me, if people in both public and cabin toilets are flushing things they shouldn’t. A certain % of the population still believe that they can flush anything, and ignore any ‘advice’ to the contrary  😞  It’s scary what people try and flush away ‘out of sight, out of mind’…   

So why is it always Arcadia that appears to have these problems  ?

[Harry Peterson]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

So why is it always Arcadia that appears to have these problems  ?

Quite. So P&O now seems to have older, smaller ships with civilised passengers, but charging high prices and in increasingly poor shape.

 

Or, at somewhat lower prices, big new ships with a very different clientele including, on recent feedback, a proportion of drunken louts.

 

What an increasingly attractive proposition Saga is looking.

[Goosebear Mum]

We had it on Aurora too, luckily it was fixed each time. It was frustrating when it was in the middle of the night, but luckily they fixed it first thing, by removing blockages (I feel sorry for those crew).  I have only been on Arcadia once (didn’t like her for other reasons) so maybe she has more of a problem, I don’t know. We did suffer badly on the Arcadia balcony with an awful sewage smell, which stopped us using the balcony one day. 

[mike x ftc]

Arcadia looks good in the bars etc but there have been plumbing problems for years that have just never been dealt with properly - yes she is an older ship - but not that old!! Other lines seem to maintain their older ships far more efficiently.   We had no toilet on 3 separate occasions - one of them was Christmas Eve and it was not working for the entire day, it started working again about 6pm after a few pointless visits to reception - they really need to work on looking like they care! Our friends had dirty water coming up out of their toilet on boxing day, it took a while but eventually it was fixed and sanitized.  You just lose faith a little..

[Happy afloat]

On 12/30/2022 at 11:27 AM, wowzz said:

So why is it always Arcadia that appears to have these problems  ?

It's not. Overflowing cabin toilets and no showers for two days on Azura a few years ago. Not nice.