AN UNEXPECTED CHANGE! P&O Arcadia vlog episode 1 - Embarkation Day

[@johnluvsluna]

Rolling clothes can result in less hard creases entering clothing. To save on ironing. Hanging clothes in the bathroom with a lot of hot vapor can remove creases on lots of clothing without the fuss of ironing. It would have been a good opportunity to do this post bath in this unusual balcony with bath.

[@FraserAtSea]

The bath would’ve been perfect for this! Thanks for the tips - watch this space…!!

[@katherinebrodie3371]

Thank you! I’m considering a first cruise on Arcadia next summer and wanted a fair review from a “regular” person.

[@FraserAtSea]

Hey Katherine, thanks for the positive feedback, and thanks for watching :) I’ve got a full vlog series from my time on Arcadia - hopefully you’ll find it useful!

[@christinenicholson5109]

must of been on the cruise we done as we was there when the new ship was in

[@mikeh2613]

Roll your shirts, t-shirts for packing. After you take a Bath hang in the bathroom, close the door and let the steam do the hard work! Hope that helps👍

[@FraserAtSea]

I do hate steaming everything, but until cruise lines make ironing a bit more accessible, I’m afraid it’s going to need to happen. Thanks for watching, Mike!

[@bezstarling8419]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. My daughter and I are on the Arcadia in June next year, 3 night cruise to Guernsey. First time cruisers. Excited but very nervous!

[@FraserAtSea]

Oh, amazing - thanks so much for watching! How exciting that it’s your first cruise - are you stopping in Hamburg? If so, I also went there on my Virtuosa vlogs - they’re on my channel within the MSC Virtuosa section :) Thanks a lot for watching!!

[@tammy_oh_nevermind]

Beautiful shots of Celebration! Disappointing not to go to your scheduled port. Certainly every company in every port is different, but in Alaska pretty much all will refund your money if the ship ends up not docking there. I always check their cancelation policy before booking outside the ship just in case. That's crazy with your dining! Wow!

[@FraserAtSea]

Celebration does look stunning - I’m trying to make that happen in 2023! Totally agree re cancellation terms - it’s SO important!

[@shawnryan8345]

Interesting to see the on board experiences on on seasoned low capacity ship. (as well as Rotterdam) - Brugge must be a re-visit - next to Alaska - was our favorite to experience! I liked the large open decks on the Arcadia (?) 👍 Sure as a traveler U will definitely make the best of it - Ty !

[@FraserAtSea]

Hey, glad you enjoyed the video! I loved the open decks on this ship - lots of space given the capacity numbers on this ship - really impressed! She’s a good size for the world cruise, for sure!

[@barnum4244]

We sailed on Arcadia shortly after you for the Christmas cruise. Regarding your change to itinerary - the crew called the Captain, "Captain Cancel" as not one of the sailings with him had completed without a change to the itinerary. That continued with our cruise. They bailed on Zeebrugge too and left Amsterdam a day early.

[@FraserAtSea]

Ah, that’s a shame that you were affected by changes too. To be honest, our change was for the better I think, as we got an overnight, but sounds like you had quite a few changes to contend with!

[@LucysMum-j1m]

Fraser, thanks for documenting my cruise which happened to be on the same ship dates as yours. It got sunny in the afternoon but I missed the sail-away and Carnival’s Celebration, tuning into Gary B’s live in my single and windowless cabin. So you stayed in your best room to date and went to the buffet for lunch. I missed the single meeting on the next day as I joined the Gouda tour. Did you make it to Amsterdam? I’ve been to Belgium and Holland so many times but they never failed to amaze me. You and I didn’t cross our paths but look forward to your next episode on Arcadia. June

[@FraserAtSea]

Hi June, great to see your name pop up - it’s so funny Gow we ended up having totally different days, isn’t it?! The weather on that first day was remarkable - my balcony actually felt warm(!) - a shame it didn’t continue… I missed the single meeting as I recall it being quite early - I had a later start to day 2 as we docked at lunchtime. I’ll show you Amsterdam in the next episode - next Sunday! :)

[@LucysMum-j1m]

@@FraserAtSea , now I remember the singles meeting was in the morning before we arrived at Rotterdam on the 2nd day. I was attending the dance class. And I forgot to check out the night club which was on the same (?) deck as my cabin.

[@elizabethgillingham8781]

We were on the Arcadia in 2011 for a Mediterranean cruise and we loved it. Even though there were a lot of older people on board the group we met that shared our table in the dining room were our age and we had a fantastic time. We’re looking forward to our next cruise in February on Coral Princess.

[@FraserAtSea]

Great to hear you had a good cruise - very jealous you’re in Coral in February. I think you’ve seen already, but I was recently on Coral so have vlogs on the channel if you’re interested :)

[@elizabethgillingham8781]

I’ve already seen your videos on Coral and really appreciated them. I didn’t know you had returned to the UK so I was surprised when I saw this video. I hope you enjoyed your time over here. 😊

[@stephenm8818]

Good video as ever Fraser, I'll need to keep watching to see if your guess about problems caused by staffing issues, pans out? More than a hour to wait to be served a meal is unheard of, in our 20 or so cruises. Glad it turned out to be a good night. Rotterdam/Amsterdam are fab to visit. Brits will understand the bath thing but most other nationalities think baths are unhygienic! Your product placement skills are coming along! 🤣

[@FraserAtSea]

Agreed re dinner - I had no idea what to do as I’d never come across that before. However, will cover more in the next few episodes - watch this space! Also, re product placement - be careful Channel 4… Haha!

[@stephenm8818]

@@FraserAtSea Ofcom has eyes everywhere! 🙈🙉🙊 🤫

[@cruisingwiththe4bs]

Hey Fraser, really enjoyed that, good pace to it. Great you had a bath although that bathroom looked dated, the buffet didn’t look great, interesting to see if it improves. Look forward to the next one

[@FraserAtSea]

Hey, thanks very much! The bath was an excellent addition to my usual cruises, but do agree that the bathroom is dated. I’ve recently uploaded a tour of this cabin, but also agreed on there that it was a bit tired… Thanks for following along as always guys!

[@patriciadalton4545]

Arcadia s bathrooms are larger though

[@pmbtravels]

Ill be on the Celebration in April out of Miami. You should try it.

[@FraserAtSea]

She looks remarkable - I’m trying to get booked for next summer, but not confirmed yet!

[@quicksilver2510]

My wife and I are sailing on the Arcadia in October for a 12 night cruise to Norway and back. We're Australian's and neither of us have been to the UK. We leave Southampton at 4pm and my wife would love to see the White Cliffs of Dover before it gets dark. Do you think that's possible?

[@FraserAtSea]

Hmm, good question - I haven’t seen the white cliffs from the cruise ship before, but have only done the Norway route once and wasn’t actually looking - sorry! 4pm in October will be starting to lose the sunshine in the U.K. though - it would be pretty dark by about 5.30pm I’d say, so potentially not…

[@Onbehaard]

Unfortunately, you won't see them in day light. We were coming back from the Baltic a few years ago, in August, and we saw them in the evening, at around 9, en route back to Southampton. We docked at 7 am the following day.

[@FraserAtSea]

@@Onbehaard thanks for answering this one!

[@johnsmith9246]

The answer to your shirt problem is simple, wear a jumper. 😀

[@FraserAtSea]

Ha, funny you suggest this John - I did think about this. Not sure it’ll work for summer cruising, mind you! Haha

[@johnluvsluna]

What a horrible dining experience in the MDR waiting an hour alone at a table and being told you're unable to order food. If I encounter anything like that on my Iona cruise, I will be dining in the buffet or specialty restaurants.

[@FraserAtSea]

Yeah, not ideal… My biggest bit of advice is to ‘stick with it’ - only my 2nd ever cruise, I had a terrible MDR experience and I’m so glad I didn’t give up on it! Thanks a lot for watching, John!

[@JourneywithJosh]

P&O would not be my choice after watching this. That dinner situation would have infuriated me.

[@FraserAtSea]

Don’t worry - there’s more episodes and a full ship tour to follow, so stick with it. I do aim to give a view of what the cruise is actually like, and wouldn’t have been a fair overview if I skipped the dinner part. I’ve just (yesterday) come back from P&O Azura, and will have videos from her coming soon too - will be interesting to see how the vlogs differ!