The Arcadia is an old ship and it is starting to show. Leaky roofs and blocked toilets, stained carpets and scuffed creaky lifts. We found this Christmas cruise very underwhelming and thought there would be more activities and guest speakers. Our balcony cabin was kept reasonably clean by the steward, but I have had better standards on other lines. The food in the main dining room was monotonous. I am gluten free and as many of the meals were preprepared I was stuck with melon to start and chicken, steak or salmon as my main most nights. I was given wrong dish at least twice, all of which contained gluten! Luckily The specialist waiter who took my order each night noticed before I ate anything.The choice was slightly better in the buffet but uncovered gluten free cakes were next to standard cakes on the diet counter! Wrapped gluten free bread was available, as were individually wrapped cakes if you asked the right member of staff.

There was very little to do on sea days apart from a few quizzes. The guest speaker was an ex-Beefeater whose talks entertaining but wildly inaccurate historically. The ultimate Wi-Fi package was very expensive and kept logging us out after 45 minutes.

The ship was unable to stay in Amsterdam for a second day or dock in Zebruggge on the last day due to bad weather, so we had 2 extra days at sea with nothing to do but read or try to watch films on our tablets. The Headliners crew shows were excellent, but the guest comedian and singers were mediocre at best. Read more