Pink and Perky goes around the world on the Arcadia Blog

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 1 5th January 2011.
Arrived by taxi at the Mayflower cruise terminal at 13.00pm.
Long line of people waiting to check in.
After one and a half hours we finally arrived at the check in desk having done the "conga" up and down many lines.
Have to say we and others spent a long time in line outside the terminal entrance.
It was cold and l was not very impressed at this. The staggered boarding did not appear to work on this day.
After we joined the line 5 coaches arrived leaving around 250 passengers pushing to join the line.

Check in was easy and quick.
Security control was a typical mess, no better than at airports.

Arrived at our cabin around 15.30pm.
What a beautiful room, check out our photos.
Our Cabin Steward Grace called by to say welcome and check everything was OK for us.
Next to call in was Ashok our Butler, checking we had everything and telling us he was on call 24/7 for any request. Nice touch.
Muster drill and when we returned our luggage was placed in our cabin.

Arcadia pulled away shortly after 18.00pm with the band playing on the quayside "Sailing".
We passed Saga Ruby and Black Watch and held back next to Balmoral as fireworks lit the sky.
What a lovely memorable departure.
Both Queens' exchanged long and almost musical blasts on their horns and Queen Elizabeth slipped away to start her first World cruise.
We slowly moved past Queen Victoria exchanging a blast or two (Carnival to Carnival!) and we followed Queen Elizabeth down the Solent.


Dinner was second sitting which we prefer.
Food was excellent, really good choices and very attentive service.

Then off to bed exhausted, but very, very happy.

Some photos to follow.

Popeye and Olive

[Pinky and Perky]

Welcome to our new home for 3 months onboard Arcadia.

The front door.



The room.











Bath room/ dressing room.



Bathroom area.





Olives favourite!!! a jackooozeee

The bed is now a double!!
Weather not good to show a photo of the balcony, will post when we hit the sunshine.

Bye for now.

Ponta Delgada on the 8th Jan.

Popeye and Olive

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 2 6th January 2011.
A cold wet start to the day, but it did not hold us back from a lap of the sun deck before breakfast.
And what a feast it was too.
Bye the time we returned to our room, Grace had cleaned the room and supplied fresh fruit and flowers.
Also Ashok had been in and restocked our bar and supplied fresh ice and bar snacks. Well come on it was our departure evening!!!

Missus O went to see a cooking demonstration and l found the internet café and asked about the "new"wifi service on Arcadia.
8 "hotspots" are around the ship, one being in the internet café room, but not in your cabin yet.
Funny Missus O said, most of the hotspots are in the bars!!! Never noticed that did l!!
Lunch was amazing, going to have to watch the old weight.

Arcadia is really a beautiful ship.
We still have a few decks to explore, but she has impressed us no end.
Dinner was fantastic again.
Few people made it for dinner tonight as we have a gale force 8 at the moment and likely to strengthen over night.
For me not much movement really, but for others they are feeling it.


Off to see a show tonight. That is if the cast can perform in this weather.
Another full sea day tomorrow and then Ponta Delgada on the 8th January.
Looking forward to that call very much and taking lots of photos.

Bye for now,
Popeye and Olive.

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 3 7th January 2011.
It was a rough night and now very rough today.
Bridge tells us we are in a force 11 likely to prevail until tonight.
Arcadia is now moving around a lot.
Speed has been reduces for the comfort of passengers.
Meal time last night and for breakfast today had few people venturing out of the cabins.
All outside events have been cancelled and no access allowed on to the outside decks.

We feel for the less able passengers which we saw a lot of at check in and those with walking difficulties.
The staff are helping by sending food to cabins (no service charge) and assisting those who want to get to a particular point in the ship. Wonderful to see and hear.
The Medical centre is very busy with sea sick passengers and some who have taken a tumble.
We are fine so far.

So far (early days l know) we are impressed by P & O and Arcadia
The major areas for example, accommodation,food,service,entertainment , we expected and can confirm area 5 star.
What surprised us have been the small personal touches.
Just one example..our Steward(l say Stewardess, but not P & O!) Grace is from the Philippines.
She has told my wife she is home sick and looking forward to being "paid off" in Singapore.
Knowing Kanya is from Thailand and guessing she is also missing Thailand, places an orchid on her pillow every night at turn down(with a chocolate).
A sweet and very thoughtful touch.
I have tried to tell Grace that l am missing Thai beer, hopeful she will place a can of Thai beer on my pillow at turn down time. No luck yet!!! But l still have 80 nights to go!!

Next update after Ponta Delgada.

Popeye and Olive somewhere in the south west North Atlantic.

[Pinky and Perky]

I have had some emails from friends asking if l have some of the photos in an non resized format.
Yes l only reduced the size for ease and speed of uploading.
All the photos are saved on my computer are 3080 x 2000.
If you like an original at this size, let me know and l will send, no problem.

Popeye.

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 3 7th January 2011.

Update.

Passengers have just been informed that due to our reduced speed(11 knots) the call at Ponta Delgada has been canceled.

We are now heading directly to Barbados

Popeye

[Pinky and Perky]

Hi,

2 photos from Southampton l have found l did not post.

2 Queens.
Queen Elizabeth left Queen Victoria right.



Queen Victoria.



Popeye

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 4 8th January 2011.

We are all getting over the disappointment of missing Ponta Delgada.
One thing for sure, man is no match against the mighty Oceans.

Ships clocks went back 1 hour this morning.

The movement of the ship is back to normal and full operating speed now being achieved.
Captain believes we will reach Barbados on schedule, fingers crossed for good sailing weather.

Tonight at around 18.00pm local we passed the Azores (just made out the lights) and this was the time we should have been departing, so you can see how much time was lost due to the horrendous weather conditions.
With Ponta Delgada being canceled, we now move to 7 full sea days since departing Southampton before arriving in Barbados.

The really good news for us is it is getting warmer and we may be able to use our balcony soon and take a nice photo for you.

This is sun rise from our balcony today, the first time we have seen the sun since 5th January.



P & O (Popeye and Olive).

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 5 9th January 2011.
Clocks went back early this morning again by 1 hour. Just when we were getting used to UK time and waking up at 06.00am, we now find ourselves waking up at 04.00am.

Captain says today will be a nice sunny calm day.
Today is Sunday.
2 really strange events today, but this may be the P & O way or events that had to be rescheduled due to the poor weather.

Firstly tonight we have been invited to a "Captains Welcome Reception" in the Neptune Pool.
Secondly tonight there is a "Welcome Aboard Ball" in the Globe.
This is day5 of our cruise!!! No problem for us, we go with the flow. That is free champagne flow we hope!!!

I can confirm the functions tonight were in fact rescheduled due to the storm conditions.
Both events were wonderful, very memorable too.
Formal dress always makes the evening special; we even had 5 gentleman passengers wearing the full Scottish kilt (Missus O still wonders what they wear under the kilt!!!  I know having lived in Scotland for 6 years!!.
Our Captain is Captain Ian Walters. He is taking us as far as San Francisco and then a new Captain takes over taking us all the way back to Southampton.
The Captain told us that Arcadia handled very well the force 12 conditions which he said was about as bad as it gets!
(We have seen a number of crew undertaking maintenance work yesterday, but some work looks more like repair following the storm,3 lifts went out of order due to the violent shaking, happy to say 2 are back working now but still 1 broken, may need to wait for spares and the next port to fix).
The Captain introduced his Officers and Executive staff team. All British except for the Doctor who is from South Africa.
Lovely champagne flowed all evening.
Had our photo taken with Captain Walters, may have to wait until we are home to post as l will need to scan.

I will do an overview of the ship covering its Officers, crew and main facilities over the coming weeks to give you a flavor of Arcadia.

Here is our first sunset from Arcadia and a few other snaps.





Aquarius Pool Bar at night.
I will try posting some of Arcadia from the inside as time allows,
Bye for now.

P & O.

[Pinky and Perky]

Arcadia.

Aquarius Pool Bar in day light.





Making up for lost time!!.



We have all seen this from various cam shots, but it great to see it up close.



More when l have time .

Bye

P & O

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 6 10th January, 2011

One point of information from last night.
Just over 800 passengers are taking the full World Cruise. That surprised us.
Others are taking segments, i.e. Southampton to San Francisco, San Francisco to Sydney, Sydney to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Singapore and Singapore to Southampton.

We have now settled into a routine on board.
We are loving the cruise very much. Kanya is really happy which pleases me no end. She is even talking about a cruise next year.
Here are a few more photos from around Arcadia.

Firstly l have been able to take a photo of our embarkation photo.
We have it on a shelf in our cabin. The "thing at the back (left-hand side of Popeye) is my world map, forgot it was there!!!
The 2 ornaments will mean something to our friends in the UK and Thailand. It is the "Vicar" left and "Doris" on the right!!!  Yes they made it gang!!



Next is a photo of a beautiful gift from P & O.
It is a Dartington Crystal Flora Vase.
The card reads.
This Flora Vase has been specially commissioned, by P & O Cruises, to commemorate The Arcadia 2011 Round The World Cruise.
Each unique piece has been handcrafted in Britain by Dartington's skilled craftsmen, and exclusively personalized to mark this special occasion.
All we have to do now is get it safely back to Thailand!!.



View from one of the outside lifts.



A seat on the deck.



Each deck have wonderful statues.
Here is one we love from deck 6 starboard side.





P & O.

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 7 11th January 2011.

Hard to believe one week has passed since our departure from Southampton and we still have not seen land.

There has been so much to do on Arcadia during the week and we still have special events lined up.
1)   An invitation to join the Captain for drinks on 12th January.
2)   An invitation to a special Arcadia World Cruise 2011 luncheon on 19th January.




I have managed to take a photo of P & O with Captain Walters from the Gala evening.



That is enough of us for now C.C. 13!!.
.
Next is Barbados, we cannot wait to see this lovely Island.



P & O.

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 8 12th January 2011.

Phyllis correctly posted it was Popeye's birthday today.
I was hoping to keep it low key, but no chance.
Tonight was  a private drink with Captain Walters for around 15 people(plus spouses) who have had a celebration  since departing Southampton, again no hiding away from the fact that l am another year older!!.

We booked a Champagne continental breakfast in our cabin for a special treat. So here is a photo l will share with you.



A tour is booked for Barbados so will be posting again will be in a few days.
Sure lots of photos of Barbados.

Bye.

P & O.

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 9 13th January 2011.
We have arrived in Barbados, yes it really is land!!.
I watched the pilot boat arrive at the crack of dawn, with Arcadia berthing around 7.00am.



Thomson Dream was also in port.



More photos later also of our excursion on Atlantis the submarine!.

We have had a wonderful day on Barbados

P & O.

[Pinky and Perky]

Day 10 14th January 2011.

What a day in Barbados.
The weather had showers, high winds, a swell and brilliant warm/ hot sunshine all mixed together. What crazy weather.
We left Arcadia around 10.00am.
Some photos of Arcadia and Thomson Dream in Barbados port.

     

     

     


Then a short welcomed stroll from the ship to the Terminal building passing a local steel band playing Caribbean music.




Onto a bus and a 10 minute drive to the ferry port area.
Then onto a small ferry and a further 10 minutes sailing out to the submarine "Atlantis".

Here are just some of the views of the sea life over the coral and seabed.

     

We dived down to 149 feet below the surface. Here is our Captain (he called himself the pilot!!) at the front of the submarine.




This is the submarine ready for its next dive after we left.




View of Thomson Dream and Arcadia as we made our way back to shore on the ferry



We were served soft drinks or local rum punch and did it have a punch.
Back on the bus and back to the terminal.
We elected to try a local restaurant and had a great local spicy fish dish (Bajan fish cakes, with a very, very hot pepper sauce), Missus O loved it!! and lots of local "Banks" beer, Popeye loved it!!
Some shopping (compulsory!!) and back on Arcadia around 16.00pm. She sailed shortly before 18.00pm, Thomson Dream was still berthed.
This is just a small sample of the many photos l took of this wonderful port call.

This photo for you Frank....Arcadia's troublesome webcam.



Sure l could see on the lens a black disk with red lines on it!!! Looked like they put on and take off (sometimes) just to annoy the "bridge cam watchers"!!
Happy viewing.


Sea day today and then Aruba.

P & O.