Disappointing

I booked this cruise as a joint birthday treat for a special birthday for me and also my partner’s birthday (who had never been to the Caribbean before). The Arcadia ship was good (apart from the creaks and groans she made). The staff were brilliant, the itinerary was fine. The entertainment mostly was enjoyable. But the food was extremely disappointing. At best when served to our table often it was lukewarm, even cold. You could generally guarantee that a steak would be alright but the rest of the plate would be cool. In the buffet at breakfast time sometimes the food would not be hot, the fried eggs were ok but the scrambled again rarely hot, the baked beans the same, but the bacon was either undercooked or usually overcooked so much so if you wanted to eat it you had to pick the rasher up with your fingers you couldn’t cut it. I never had lunch in the buffet and only twice in the dining room, but I would have a sandwich at around 3pm. They were ok but only bread rolls or buns no actual sandwiches. The desserts etc were OK.
The bars had run out of Prosecco before the end of the first week, that shouldn’t have happened an alternative was given which was OK but again not every bar seemed to know what that was.. Later in the 40-night cruise, the bars ran out of draft lagers and beers (it was while the World Cup was being played) also the only alcohol-free drink they served, Heineken zero, that too ran out together with several food items.
The public areas were fine, but the air con didn’t work efficiently at all, some areas were cold, others ok and then some didn’t seem to have any at all. In our cabin, it was totally inadequate. The bedding also needs updating, the duvet was so heavy, for the whole cruise I only slept under it twice as we approached Southampton home. Really ancient duvet and there was no alternative it seemed, so slept under just a duvet cover the whole time, suppose it was a good job the air conditioning was poor. It was such a shame. It was my first time on P&O and it will be my last. I met a number of people who cruised a lot with P&O who said that other ships they had been on in the past twelve months were good to excellent, so perhaps with the Arcadia being an older ship, she doesn’t get the same attention etc as say Arvia does.