Any one on Arcadia now

[Fionboard]

No pre booking required on Arcadia. Have heard no complaints about full venues. Unlike Iona and Arvia. The venues seem to cope with the amount of pax on board, as they always have done. 

[snaefell]

Certainly for the current cruise the speciality restaurants were not bookable until on board,strange how the first night was seemingly still pretty full as soon as we got on board.

Booking with the app can be challenging as it sometimes isn't working.

[amajaa]

I can see it says about no pre booking but what about when onboard booking before a meal that day. When we were on Ventura recently we still had to book the MDR, you could book 1/4 hour before it opened. So does no pre-booking mean before you board or no booking needed full stop. 

[davecttr]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

That is wrong for Arcadia as we will be on her in two weeks and we have an email telling us speciality dining will not be pre bookable, or is that list showing what can be booked on your phone once you are on the ship?

 

  

Well IMO the P&O website does at times seem to have a somewhat tenuous connection with the reality aboard ship.

[Ardennais]

6 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Any chance that you could provide a link to that information please? I’ve ploughed through dozens of pages of the FAQs on the P&O website and cannot find it. My understanding is that Arvia is the only ship where freedom dining can be pre-booked (and then only prior to 6.30pm) and entertainment is only pre-bookable on Arvia and Iona (other than the Limelight Club which is pre-bookable on Britannia but always has been). It’s certainly very confusing so it would be good to see what the official line is!

Entertainment was also pre-bookable on Britannia last month - for the first week anyway. 

[amajaa]

5 hours ago, Fionboard said:

No pre booking required on Arcadia. Have heard no complaints about full venues. Unlike Iona and Arvia. The venues seem to cope with the amount of pax on board, as they always have done. 

Thanks. So if we want to eat when the MDR opens which I assume is 6 o’clock we don’t have to go onto the app any more and book it before we go? I need to eat early for medical reasons so don’t want to get there and have to wait an hour or so for a table. 

[Pippa04]

Is it just Freedom Dining on Arcadia now?  I can't seem to find an option for first or second sitting.

[gsmt47471015]

On 5/21/2023 at 9:09 AM, Fionboard said:

As I said, it is a "pop up",  not permanent fixture, that is why.

Could you confirm if the "pop up glasshouse" has the same varieties of wine that the "proper" Glasshouse has on other ships please? Been a while since we were on her and memory is not what it was !😂

[jh1809]

2 hours ago, Pippa04 said:

Is it just Freedom Dining on Arcadia now?  I can't seem to find an option for first or second sitting.

No. I was able to choose  first sitting for my cruise on her in August. Was your booking Saver, as I think you may have to book Select to be able to choose your sitting?

[Pippa04]

43 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

No. I was able to choose  first sitting for my cruise on her in August. Was your booking Saver, as I think you may have to book Select to be able to choose your sitting?

It was a Select booking made some time ago and I chose Freedom dining. In view of some of the delays I've seen reported I thought I'd try changing it to fixed. Thanks for the info, I'll try phoning as it doesn't seem to be fixable online.

[seapals2]

Are you able to use tenders now for todays stop in Corsica?   

[Jazzytelly]

17 hours ago, amajaa said:

Thanks. So if we want to eat when the MDR opens which I assume is 6 o’clock we don’t have to go onto the app any more and book it before we go? I need to eat early for medical reasons so don’t want to get there and have to wait an hour or so for a table. 

I have been trying to find the same out. No pre booking to me means before the cruise but do we have to go onto myholiday and book for the MDR specifically for the evening meal before we go. Also does the Freedom dining open at 6 or 5.30 as on the two big ships.

[Fionboard]

23 minutes ago, seapals2 said:

Are you able to use tenders now for todays stop in Corsica?   

No tenders, we are docked.

[Fionboard]

17 hours ago, amajaa said:

Thanks. So if we want to eat when the MDR opens which I assume is 6 o’clock we don’t have to go onto the app any more and book it before we go? I need to eat early for medical reasons so don’t want to get there and have to wait an hour or so for a table. 

Freedom MDR opens at 6. Queues start at 5.30 onwards. If you want early dining better to have fixed at 6.30. No queues for fixed dining. 

[tring]

2 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Freedom MDR opens at 6. Queues start at 5.30 onwards. If you want early dining better to have fixed at 6.30. No queues for fixed dining. 

 

Does that mean you need to queue before 6pm if you want a table for two, or can you just turn up soon after 6pm and find there is availability?

 

When we were on Aurora about 6 months ago, there were table for two available until about 6.30pm.

 

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by tring

[Fionboard]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

Does that mean you need to queue before 6pm if you want a table for two, or can you just turn up soon after 6pm and find there is availability?

 

When we were on Aurora about 6 months ago, there were table for two available until about 6.30pm.

 

 

Not many tables for two. Maybe that's why they are queueing so they don't have to share and talk to anyone! 

[lindylooellalouise]

Hi any one onboard Arcadia now can you please tell me if the photographers are on board thanks

[Fionboard]

23 minutes ago, lindylooellalouise said:

Hi any one onboard Arcadia now can you please tell me if the photographers are on board thanks

No, thank goodness. None on Aurora last month either. 

[lindylooellalouise]

Just now, Fionboard said:

No, thank goodness. None on Aurora last month either. 

 Hi Fionboard thanks for replying but  I’m disappointed we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last month onboard Queen Victoria and wanted a special photo but no photographer onboard, but I was hoping we could pretend it was our special day onboard Arcadia so we could have a photo taken together, never mind I’m sure there will be other opportunities.

[Fionboard]

2 hours ago, lindylooellalouise said:

 Hi Fionboard thanks for replying but  I’m disappointed we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last month onboard Queen Victoria and wanted a special photo but no photographer onboard, but I was hoping we could pretend it was our special day onboard Arcadia so we could have a photo taken together, never mind I’m sure there will be other opportunities.

Ask someone to take some pics of you with your phone. 

[lindylooellalouise]

25 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Ask someone to take some pics of you with your phone. 

Yes will do 

but there just not quite as good as one taken by a professional photographer 🫣

[jh1809]

I haven't seen a photographer on a cruise since before Covid. I imagine that, now that most people have smartphones and take their own photos, P&O no longer found that providing ship photographers was sufficiently profitable.

[jaydee6969]

21 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

I haven't seen a photographer on a cruise since before Covid. I imagine that, now that most people have smartphones and take their own photos, P&O no longer found that providing ship photographers was sufficiently profitable.

 

They had photographers on Azura on the repositioning cruise this March, with the usual set pieces for formal nights around the atrium.

[NewWestwardbound]

46 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

I haven't seen a photographer on a cruise since before Covid.

Not P&O, but there were photographers on Celebrity Silhouette last year sailing out of Southampton. 

[Fionboard]

1 hour ago, jh1809 said:

I haven't seen a photographer on a cruise since before Covid. I imagine that, now that most people have smartphones and take their own photos, P&O no longer found that providing ship photographers was sufficiently profitable.

Photographers were franchise and they all lost their jobs with covid.