My customer rang to complain about a recent 23-night round trip to the Caribbean from Southampton on the Arcadia in an obstructed view outside cabin on the E Deck. I wondered if anyone else had had problems onboard Arcadia with noise on E Deck. My customer, a very seasoned cruiser, apparently didn't get any sleep due to vibrations through cabin which she described as being “like a demolition ball”...She stated she even woke up one night to see her sister (with whom she was travelling) crying because she couldn’t sleep. They had other niggles with the cruise because when she’d sailed previously, she’d had breakfast delivered to the cabin but on this occasion, despite being too tired to make it to the main breakfast, they could not get food in the cabin, had to make their own cups of tea, and even missed lunch most days as they were so exhausted...
People apparently came to their cabin on the E Deck, and were standing there listening to the bangs while they were stood there in their pyjamas! “These chaps were looking at us as if we were second class citizens”.
The noises were described as an incessant BOOM, BOOM – causing vibrations to go through the beds, through the pillows...
They were offered another cabin 2 days before they got to the Caribbean, right at the front of the ship. While they were mulling over this choice of cabin, they met another chap on the ship who’d also complained about noise in his cabin. Apparently, they'd given him 3 options to change his cabin (which didn’t sit too well)! It transpired that his cabin was the one they were being offered – and he said he’d complained as there was too much noise from Palladium rehearsals! Obviously NOT the best solution.
Anyway, the banging continued... She suggested that P&O should check on how many times they went to dinner as she thinks less than half a dozen sittings in over three weeks. The whole cruise was “absolutely so terrible, I'd never have believed that a cruise could be so terrible, there was no answer to it, nobody said there was any answer to this constant banging... That section where we were, there were no cabins, there was machinery behind it and they should never let that cabin to anyone. They knew we were having no sleep; we were calling them up at 3am.”
They had hoped their return journey would be better but they were stranded in the same cabin on the way back to Southampton. Finally, at her wit’s end, my customer complained again to another man and mentioned that she'd just got over cancer and this was to be her convalescence – something she had not wanted to advertise. After hearing this, another chap apparently offered a cabin for them to sleep in – just 3 days before the end of the cruise. They decided by this stage and so close to the end of the cruise that it would be just too much packing and unpacking to bother...
She has a letter from P&O’s accommodation manager stating she should write to their Passenger Relations Assistant for the Arcadia.
“Dear Mrs X & Mrs Y, please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you due to the noise experienced due to inclement sea conditions. This has been investigated by our technical team and attributed to structural noise from the ship. (She doesn’t' believe this). I assure you that your comments have been passed to Helen Curston... etc. etc.... Despite your inconvenience, I hope that you continue to enjoy your cruise onboard.”She would like P&O “never to let those rooms out again until they rectify that noise” as she believes other people are going to have the same problem as them. She asked me to make a note of them being opposite what she described as “engineering works”. Another lady apparently staying across the way said they were hearing the same sounds - a noise of the engines. “BOOM, BOOM that's the sound all the way.”
“I’m currently considering never going on another cruise again. You could feel they were laughing at us. I don’t' know if they were officers; they were wearing white and looked official but nobody answered our plea for help, nobody would sort it out for us. Not a European onboard. A lot of the other people were infirm and may not have had the strength of character to complain - or may be it was their first cruise and they thought it was always like this. Something needed to be said and nothing was being done”
I was advised that if selling cabins to Cruise.co.uk customers, to demand other cabins – to say we're not going to have people book those cabins as our reputation is at stake! She hopes by us refusing those cabins, we'll make a stand and they might do something about it. I have certainly made a personal note for the benefit of my customers.
She's had little niggles before but it's the first time she's ever felt she's had to put pen to paper...Is Arcadia just too old? Is it time she was retired? Your thoughts!!!
Anyone with similar experiences on this or any other ship is welcome and in fact invited to add a comment!
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