Well be did it, no longer are we Cruising Virgins ! P&O Arcadia from Acapulco to Barbados, 15 nights and what a trip of a lifetime
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The flight out courtesy Thompson’s was not too bad, we left on time and arrived on time,. However at the same time as our departure there were some 6-7 flights whose passengers had the same destination! Most of these flight had real problems, one even had borrow Oxygen off a returning flight while at the scheduled stopover. On other flights toilets were blocked and others had little or no food and other complaints.

On arrival we were quickly shown our cabin and met our delightful steward. I shall not go into the cruise in full but mention some of the interesting parts we found. On the negative, we both were disappointed in the food although excellent it was, not quite what we had expected. We had hoped that there would have been a Central American theme, a good amount of sea food and fish, but we had none of these, what we mainly had was excellent designed menus which quite honestly we could have had in any good classed Hotel in UK.

We also felt that the excursions were, in the most a rip off, out of the 7 we had booked, at great expense, 2 were worth the price, the rest, could have been arranged on the dock, with a taxi driver especially if you had another couple with you.
We did go on one tour to the tropical Rain forests in Nicaragua which was excellent and also had a trip on a Sub in Aruba which was great fun.

The ship was just brilliant the staff excellent and entertainment second to none, bar prices were tolerable and company wonderful.

The trip through the Panama Canal was both aw inspiring and educational. We had a dedicated pilot who was posted in the Crow’s nest bar and who gave us a very comprehensive talk as we passed through the area, we even got to see the freshwater Crocks on the way.

In all we loved our time onboard the Arcadia…Especially as it was our first and that we had no comparison to make with past cruises.

To cap it all we had an extra 4 nights in Barbados, just to chill out before returning home

We liked cruising so much so that we are booking our next trip with Fred Olsen for the September sailing of the Boudicca to the Western Med and Black sea…

See you there

Mike & Barbara O’Rourke
Moke