Arcadia Marks the Return of the Entire P&O Cruises Fleet

Another cruise line is completing its restart plan today as Arcadia resumes service for P&O Cruises in England.

Returning after a three-month operational pause, the 2005-built vessel is welcoming guests in Southampton for a cruise to Iceland, Norway and Ireland.

The 14-night itinerary visits six different ports, such as Reykjavik, Akureyri, Alesund and Belfast.

Continuing its restart program, the Arcadia is set to offer different itineraries departing from Southampton, with cruises visiting the British Islands, the Baltic, Western Europe and more.

In September, the 83,000-ton vessel is also sailing a special 30-night voyage to the United States and Canada. The roundtrip itinerary features visits to New York City, Boston, Halifax, Corner Brook, Bar Harbor and more.

After being taken out of service due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Arcadia is returning to guest operations for the second time.

The ship previously resumed service in March 2022, offering a few scheduled cruises before entering another operational pause due to crew shortages

At the time, P&O cancelled seven additional departures on board the ship, which offers an adults-only product.

Built in Italy, the Arcadia originally entered service in April 2005 and has a capacity for 1,968 passengers in double occupancy.

In 2018, the vessel was subjected to a major refit, which, according to P&O, improved the onboard experience with a fresher and more contemporary feel.

Following guests’ feedback, the company updated several parts of the ship, including cabins, suites, public areas, bars, main dining restaurants and speciality dining venues.

With the Arcadia now sailing again, P&O Cruises’ entire fleet is once again in service.

After a 14-month gap, the UK-based company first welcomed guests back in mid-2021, with a series of domestic cruises onboard the Britannia and the new Iona.

The Carnival-owned brand later returned to more destinations, gradually adding the rest of the fleet back into service.

Carnival devotes more resources to travel agents

Carnival Paradise

Carnival Cruise Line will carve out four new sales territories in fast-growing areas of the country, each to be headed by a business development manager.

At the same time, Carnival made other changes to its sales structure, including the formation of a program to focus management attention on independent agents.

The four new territories are Boston and Rhode Island; Jacksonville, Fla.; western Texas; and the four corners region that includes parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

Carnival also highlighted the formation of a new groups desk that was inaugurated earlier in October. The desk is designed to provide additional technical support for travel agent questions related to group bookings, Carnival said. It can be reached at (800) 327-5782.

“We created these new sales regions and the independent agent program to provide added business development support for travel partners,” said Carnival vice president of sales and trade marketing Adolfo Perez. “The growth in these geographies and the independent agent channel, combined with our recent preferred supplier agreements with Travelsavers/Nest, Signature, and Ensemble, make this the right time for us to expand our field team resources.”

Norwegian Dawn on schedule for next voyage

Norwegian Dawn

The Norwegian Dawn is structurally sound and will sail its next scheduled cruise from Boston on May 22, Norwegian Cruise Line said on Wednesday.

The Dawn ran aground on the sea bed near Bermuda after departing King’s Wharf on Tuesday. Norwegian Cruise Line said there was a temporary malfunction of the steering system.

Later on Tuesday, the ship was refloated to Heritage Wharf in Bermuda to be assessed by a team consisting of cruise line personnel; an independent dive team; and inspectors from the Dawn’s classification society, DNVGL.

“The team confirmed the structural integrity of the ship, and the technical issue which caused the steering malfunction was identified and corrected,” Norwegian said Wednesday on its Twitter account.

The ship is expected to depart Bermuda at 3 p.m. on Wednesday and resume sailing to Boston.

All guests on the current voyage will receive a credit of 15% of their cruise fare to use toward a future sailing.