PO Cruises

Cruised the Eastern Cardicians on the Azura 06 to 20th March, even thought the second week we where unable to land on any of the destinations due to Covid-19, the Captain, Neil Turnbull and crew kept the passenger informed, entertained and well looked after, making the second week thoroughly enjoyable. It's a shame that P&O decided that after the 16th March any refunds would take a minimum of 60 days to be processed, blaming the virus!
The ship is a little tired and was supposed to go for a refit in April 20 but I guess that will be cancelled now. The food in the main restaurants and entertainment were excellent, the buffet was disappointing, more like a continental motorway buffet than a cruise ship one.

Captain Turnbull and Emma, the entertainment manager deserve a special mention as they are excellent at their jobs.

Extremely dissatisfied, rowdy groups of fouly spoken teenagers, could never get in jacuzzis sit was full of teenagers all the time, bedding in cabin was not changed for the first 4 days, food and tea stains over cabin walls, shower area was full of soap scum, balcony floor had next doors dirt washed into ours the balcony glass was dreadfully dirty hand prints every where of Grece maybe sun cream. Our main Christmas Day dinner was a total ruin meat came out raw and pastry raw mixed up all our deserts, staff were rude when asked to rectify problems, etc etc long list,

Booked premium no lounge access at Manchester no priority boarding at Barbados, meals on board average had to book at a supplement restaurants on board to get that special feel

Under difficult circumstances due to the Coronavirus you had to redirect our cruise which you handled exceptionally well, although we were disappointed not to go to Manilla, Shanghai and Hong Kong which we understood.

Everything was excellent, our table waiters, Raja and Henry were superb and it was great to meet our favourite wine waiter Rahul once again

Considering the fact that cruise ships were banned from certain islands The captain did his very best to get us an island to go to The time on the ship cruising around for eight days made as pleasant as possible

We have been on Arcadia 3 times and have never been disappointed,the staff were fabulous,from the cabin lady to al, the dining staff ,the entertainment team were really good to us so thank you to them all

We were having a wonderful cruise before the COVID-19 threw everything into turmoil but I have to say we had the best treatment from P & O and the captain and crew on Arcadia. Our first and only world cruise but absolutely gave us memories for the rest of our lives.

We book from SAN Fran to Sydney,
I found that the ship was in need of a face lift not the best of ship’s we have been on, it was also geared up for the over 70s and not for anyone below that age group,
Which is probably the age group that can have that amount of time off, we didn’t get to the islands that was Advertised due to measles outbreak which was a shame which meant a lot off sea days witch couldn’t be helped. Regards to the the staff on the ship and the food it was fantastic.

Significant issues with suite not resolved in a timely manner and in the end, after 8 weeks had to change suite

I embarked on this around the world trip 3 January, and have seen some amazing sites, the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. Due to the coronavirus outbreak we did not make it to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Colombo, Dubai and other places, but toured around Australia, I even managed to see Hobart! It was delightful to see all the major cities of Australia.

On leaving Freo, we headed back to Southampton via Durban and the Cape where we were not allowed on land due to South African government port closures while we were en route, made our way to the Canaries where we stopped for some fuel, not in the harbour, but some distance away.

The captain Luko Vojvoda and crew have been marvellous. The crew comes mainly from India and the Philippines. They know that they will be furloughed at the end of this trip. I saw the worry on their faces when they read the letters from the captain, yet, like super troopers, they tended to us passengers with utmost professionalism and kind care. They are a fantastic bunch of guys, with guys meaning males and females in our modern parlance.

I am over 70 and find it so sad that the livelihood of these guys will be compromised because of silly arguments that every life is ever so precious that we must ruin the lives of future generations It is time for some serious soul searching about priorities.


I have two additional comments to make: -
-I am hard of hearing and found the public announcements very difficult to follow. It would be useful if a transcript of the announcements could be published on the ship’s TV channel. Modern speech to text programmes makes this very easy to do.
-I had to report blocked public toilets on at least three occasions to various ships officers. On each occasion a notice was posted that objects that should not have been flushed down the toilet caused the blockage. I thought about this and think I have a very easy solution to this problem. It is only the male public toilets that do not have a special sanitary box for the disposal of health products. Looking at the demographic profile of the men on the ship I am convinced several uses what the Americans call depends. Try fitting sanitary boxes in all toilets and see whether this doesn’t stop the blocked toilet problem?

It was my first cruise with P&O and I must add that I am impressed.

The support of all the crew - medical team, reception, steward, butler, waiters was amazing and the quality of the service exceptional.
Already booked another cruise on Arcadia next August 2021

I am a seasoned cruiser on MV Arcadia, but it was my fiancee's first experience with an extended (half-world) cruise. We were both impressed with the standard of housekeeping and the service and food on offer in the Meridian Restaurant. One of the highlights was the transit of the Panama Canal with an excellent commentary during the day. We have already booked another two cruises for 2020 and 2022.

In very difficult circumstances (cover 19 pandemic) and world ports closed, P&O still managed to give us a wonderful cruise with good entertainment, plenty of activities and, of course, wonderful food.

Although we were cruising at a very difficult time due to corona virus the captain on the Arcadia and his crew brought us all back to the UK fit and healthy.
It was a cruise with a difference and we shall remember it well having missed most of the ports of call on the original itinerary we were taken to some good ports of call in Australia which we enjoyed.The sail from Australia back to the UK was enjoyable even though we did not call at any ports apart from the refuel stops.We were entertained fed and watered the ship was kept exceptionally clean and the general atmosphere was good all the way home.Well done P & O.

Very saddened by the overall poor condition of the ship, leaks and buckets everywhere, carpets in bad state inc trip hazards no voiles on balcony windows and no robes in bathrooms is so totally tacky and insulting , the entire Pursers Desk staff were disinterested , could not careless , but the head of Pursers was totally arrogant and especially over the 6 hour wait forced on new passengers wanting to get off for the day in San Franscisco ...they were departing home next day so should not have been treated with such disdain ....

Even though we didn't call out a number of destinations of the 'world' cruise, the way that P&O head office and the ARCADIA ship's Captain treated us was WONDERFUL!! All the crew on board were simply FANTASTIC! Full marks for the food, entertainment and all of the crew. particularly I would like to thank Clyde & Ferdinand (waiters in the Meridian) and Mark (wine steward' & Rhey (trainee wine steward) for the wonderful service every night of the 99 night cruise. Well done to the captain, officers and all the crew on Arcadia...You were all BRILLIANT! In fact we were so pleased the overall performance on this cruise,(our first!) we have booked another P&O cruise from Southampton on the 6th January 2021 to South America on the Aurora!!!
Thank you once again for an unforgettable experience!

Susan & Martyn Hill

Arcadia World Tour 2020 was quite fantastic - in many, many ways. Sure, we missed more ports than we found - due to the Coronavirus Pandember and even Measles Epidemics in Samoa and Tonga - but all the changes were handled extremely well. We were into Social Distancing for the last month but we all got back to Southampton without a single case of the Coronavirus. Congratulations to the entire crew from Captain Luko to the young lads who sanitised the lift buttons every time you touched them!

In very difficult times P&O did everything they could to continue to make the experience at sea for 32 days enjoyable

From the embarkation until we disembarked, P&O did not meet our expectation of what we would of expected of the Arcadia 2020 World Cruise. The ship was a rust bucket with vast amounts of leaks into a large quantity of plastic buckets. They were many other circumstances that you would not expect but these will be summarised in depth in a follow up letter to the Chairman of P&O