During her present cruise mv Arcadia had an extended stay in Barcelona due to a mechanical problem.

One report said it was the pods and another her stand-by generator !

Her call at Vigo was cancelled and passengers have received £100.00p in compensation.

She is due to arrive in Southampton about 06.00 hrs on the 5th Janaury 2009 and expected to sail for Palma at 17.00 hrs.

Hopefully the powers at be will have her all sorted before she embarks on her world cruise...otherwise we could have another Aurora debacle happening, when she didn't quite leave UK waters due to a technical problem.

Just done a check on the AIS maps for Southampton and mv Arcadia arrived in port at 02.30hrs this morning so she was about three hours earlier than usual.

P&O really do not want another Aurora round the Isle of Wight palarva...would not be a good advertising for them...maybe they should send Ventura round the world

Well it looks as if repairs are taking a lot longer than expected.

Arcadia should have sailed from Southampton at 17.00 hrs this evening but that time was changed to 18.45 hrs on the port authority information website.

Around 19.00 hrs tonight she was still alongside and her sailing time had been changed to 21.00 hrs.

At 21.30 hrs Arcadia still remains alongside in Southampton.

At least the Arcadia passengers will be able to see the special Saga firework display arranged for the joint sailing of the cruise ships Saga Rose and Saga Ruby from Southampton this evening at about 22.00 hrs.

Just re-checked at 21.35 and the sailing time for Arcadia is changed again to 23.59hrs tonight !

Now that doesn't sound good at all Neil...and she is still in Southampton this morning...

Name: ARCADIA
Callsign: ZCDN2
MMSI: 310459000
IMO: 9226906
Status: Moored
Destination: PALMA
ETA: Jan09 05:45
Type: Passenger
Size: 285m x 32m x 8m
Speed&Dir: 0.1 kts / 208o
Location: N50.904o / W1.428o
Range&Bear: 10.7nm / 335oT
AIS Class: AIS Class A

Received: 2009-01-06 07:35:21UTC
Share Code: lj

The press have the story now...

Arcadia stranded in Southampton Water instead of being on world tour (From This is Hampshire)

Anyone not aquainted with the Aurora Around The Wight Cruise of 2005...

BBC NEWS | England | Hampshire | Liner returns after cruise axed



Hopefully this will not be history repeating itself, Aurora did get away a couple of times...about as far as the Bay of Biscay was her farthest distance managed before returning to Southampton. It was an extremely embarrassing episode for P&O and CCL.

According to Soton ship movements, Arcadia is due to depart at 1600 GMT today...however, if she is still constipated, that might be changed again.

Southampton VTS - Shipping Movements

Scroll down to departures list...Arcadia is currently first ship on the list to go.

Oriana is due out at 1800 GMT...now that would be embarrassing if she left Arcadia behind

The elastic bands are holding, Arcadia is now underway at last for her World cruise...

Name: ARCADIA
Callsign: ZCDN2
MMSI: 310459000
IMO: 9226906
Status: Underway
Destination: PALMA
ETA: Jan10 05:45
Type: Passenger
Size: 285m x 32m x 8m
Speed&Dir: 1.4 kts / 138.7o
Location: N50.903o / W1.428o
Range&Bear: 10.7nm / 335oT
AIS Class: AIS Class A

Received: 2009-01-06 16:14:53UTC
Share Code: lj

Hopefully she won't experience any further problems. Her next stop remains as Palma and she has rescheduled that to January 10th instead of January 9th.