We were aware of some of the negative feedback about Arcadia before we set sail; however, we decided to be open minded about everything. It's fair to say, there will always be parts of a cruise that could have gone better, but for us, the 17 day Eastern Med cruise went without a hitch. Arcadia was spotlessly clean, with attentive and helpful staff wherever we went on board. The passenger areas are vast on this ship, and we were never aware there were around 2000 people on board. There are an array of quiet lounges, coffee bars etc, together with an excellent choice of food served in the Meridian and Belvedere Restaurants. The evening shows in the Palladium Theatre were both varied and of a very high standard, with the Arcadia cast really giving their all at each performance. Our overall impression of Arcadia is that she is a lovely ship with great facilities, but lacks any 'wow' factor compared to other cruise ships which is shame.

All ports of call were excellent and bar Gibraltar, we had enough time to see everything we wanted to. When we booked this cruise, the itinerary said that departure from Gibraltar was early afternoon, where in reality, we were told to be back on board for mid-day! I know P&O will say that it reserves the right to change the times, but we really did not have anywhere near enough time. The ship left late anyway owing to the numbers of passengers queuing to rejoin the ship.

A few things we would mention. P&O need to be mindful of trying to extract every last pound out of their passengers. We seem to be besieged by the ship's photographers wherever we went, whether disembarking at the ports, at sail-a-way parties or at dinner. That's OK to a point, but it did become a little annoying at times! The photographs then appeared in the gallery at £11.80 each. A member of staff told me that around 60% are not sold and are destroyed. Perhaps if they were priced more sensibly, sales would increase and it might reduce wastage at the same time! We felt the biggest rip-off of all was a 'behind the scenes' tour, which was advertised in the Horizon paper. As this was something that really appealed to us, I rang reception only to be told the tour was priced at £75 per person! Come on P&O, can't you at least give something back to your loyal customers, rather than view them as cash-cows! We sailed with Celebrity a couple of years ago where such a tour was complimentary, and we didn't pay a dollar to be on the bridge for half an hour with the Captain! Shame on you!