A Grand Western Europe Cruise on Arcadia

The service from all staff was fantastic but people should realise there are some changes due to, I guess staff shortages. Ocean Grill was still not open, no silver service, everything in the main restaurant is plated, meal waiters served the wine, a shortage of drinks waiters across the ship (sometimes easier to go to the bar especially outside).

What was good? Everyone was helpful and trying to provide excellent cheery service. Sindhu was fantastic for food and service (if nothing else make sure you eat there). Food in the main restaurant was good but not outstanding, plenty of room to sit around and bars not overfull. Dancing Instructors were fabulous and led evening dancing on three of the seven nights. Cabin was great, albeit a bit dated now, we were in a full suite which meant we had breakfast in Sindhu every day (fantastic). All the staff seemed happy and hardworking and very friendly.

What was not so good. The buffet as usual seemed chaotic, and the main thing we noticed was the salads were made up into small bowls with little selection outside that. The main problem with the buffet was finding somewhere to sit outside the back of the boat. The rear swimming pool space had been completely filled with sunbeds, there were few tables outside in the sunshine, but the main problem was that half of the sheltered seating outside for eating was set aside for smokers so as the rest of the space was full of sunbeds it was almost impossible to find a space outside to eat your buffet meal. The Captain and other senior staff were invisible, possibly because they were keeping themselves apart because of Covid. Wi-Fi seemed much better than before as they had put repeaters/access points along the corridors and public spaces, the problem was that they weren’t powerful enough to work in the cabins, so to use WiFi you had to be in a public area. However, if you were in a public area it seemed to work much better than 3 years ago.

Overall, we had a great time and were glad to be back on board.