Western Med on Arcadia

We have just returned from a delightful 2 week cruise on Arcadia from Southampton to the Western Med. Arcadia is our favourite P&O ship and although she is showing signs of wear, still offers a very nice experience. The plumbing has entered that interesting stage where it is ready for an engineering refit but we were never particularly inconvenienced.

We did an Iceland cruise on Arcadia in August 2016 and booked thus cruise when on board thereby benefitting from lots of spending money for this cruise.

The choice and range of food in the Meridien Restaurant was significantly improved from 12 months ago. We always opt for Freedom Dining when it is available and never had to wait for more than 30 minutes for a table for two in the evenings. We went to both specialist restaurants Marco Pierre Whites Grill and Sindhi. Both were outstanding and good value for the cover charge. The service in all areas of the ship was excellent throughout the cruise.

Our favourite bar at sea, the Crows Nest was as good as ever and the introduction of rum whiskey and gin flights to the menu was a very nice alternative.

We enjoyed all of the entertainment on board. P&O’s tradition of having a classical musician on board is something we particularly enjoy and Petra Casen a concert pianist was superb. Although we have seen all of the Headliners shows before we still enjoyed them and the introduction of a new show “Money makes the world go round” a musical theatre piece specially written by West End Star Ruthie Henshaw was very welcome.

We were blessed with very good weather and enjoyed all the ports of call.

Arcadia has received a lot of critical reviews recently and we can understand that when you get a cabin with no hot water or malfunctioning toilet but we were spared any of these problems.

Competition is very strong in the cruise industry but we feel the very British offer that P&O offer is still an excellent value for money experience.