Arcadia sailing from Southampton on 19
July.
WILLIAM MAYES
As the P&O Cruises’ ships have gradually returned to service, a problem with recruiting sufficient experienced crew became apparent, a challenge that has faced many of the large cruise operators since the end of the pandemic. P&O Cruises’ approach was to lay Arcadia up just a few weeks after she had resumed service and to distribute some of her crew around other ships in the fleet.
Now, after three months, Arcadia is back in service, sailing on her first cruise on 5 July, which focussed on Iceland. Arcadia, which first entered service in 2005, is one of two adult-only ships in the company’s fleet and has just slightly fewer than 2,000 lower berths.
With the recent return of Cunard’s Queen Victoria, all of the Carnival Corporation & plc UK fleet is now operational again, albeit with the disposal of one ship, Oceana.