The wife and I are in our late 60's and have been travelling internationally, and extensively, for the past 35 years, but we'd never been on a cruise before. We chose this cruise to Singapore for a "toe in the water" experience (pun intended). We specifically chose Arcadia because of its medium size and adults only status.
Boarding the ship at Circular Quay could not have been easier. Our car dropped us and our luggage off just a few metres from the entrance and we ran the usual gauntlet of customs and immigration officials, and P&O staff very quickly. So quick indeed that there was no chance of our luggage reaching our cabin before we did. We did a quick tour of the ship and then adjourned for lunch at the Belvedere.
Our deluxe balcony cabin was midships on A deck. The cabin was very comfortable with huge storage space. Décor was uninspiring though. There was a large flat panel tv but the quality and variety of programs was poor. Anyway, who wants to watch tv when there's so much else to do? Our only real complaint about the cabin was that the balcony was often unusable because of the smell of cigarette smoke blowing in from adjacent and nearby cabins. We were staggered to learn that P&O still allows smoking in cabins and on balconies, its time they caught up with the rest of the civilised world.