In an e mail sent to booked visitors, P&O Cruises has introduced the cancellation of seven sailings of Arcadia, in purchase to reassign crew customers to other vessels owing to COVID-19 situations impacting crew availability. Nevertheless the ship only restarted passenger functions 12 times in the past, all sailings until eventually July 5 have been canceled.
7 Cruises Canceled
The Vista-course Arcadia only reentered service on March 27, 2022, with a 16-day spherical excursion sailing from Southampton to the Canary Islands. The cruise has frequented ports in Spain and Portugal as well, and will conclude the present sailing back in Southampton on Tuesday, April 12.
The existing sailing is not impacted by the cancelations, but long run voyages by the planned June 23 departure will no more time take put.
The canceled sailings variety from 3-19 working day itineraries, with “Short Break” cruises as effectively as Baltic, Norwegian Fjord, and Mediterranean sailings.
COVID Scenarios Impacting Crew Availability
The cancelation is owing to mounting COVID figures that are impacting crew members available to function, and hence producing it difficult for the cruise line to provide their signature exemplary assistance.
P&O Cruises responded, “The current and amazing effects of COVID-19 in the United kingdom, in the wider hospitality, provider, and airline industry as a complete, has resulted in a short-term disruption to crewmembers accessible to join our ships.”
Even if crew customers are not promptly screening constructive for the sickness, quarantine and isolation durations are building it demanding to sufficiently team vessels.
Staffing challenges could also be a consequence of crew customers getting not able to vacation to meet up with their several ships to begin contracts, and redirecting crew members from 1 ship can help fill staffing gaps on other vessels.
“As a final result, P&O Cruises will be re-deploying crew from Arcadia to other ships in the fleet. This is remaining done in order to sustain the company’s higher specifications of service of which we are pretty happy, throughout the other 5 ships in the fleet,” the comment ongoing.
Arcadia can accommodate 1,952 guests when booked at double occupancy, and up to 2,388 travellers when totally booked. The ship carries 976 crew users when fully staffed, but it is not very clear at this time irrespective of whether all crew users are aboard.
Compensation Offered
Guests booked on the now-canceled sailings are reporting that P&O Cruises is giving a complete refund for the influenced sailing, including any pre-paid shore tours.
The cruise line is also offering a cost savings on a potential cruise and a foreseeable future cruise credit (FCC) for onboard costs. The percentage off a long term cruise and the sum of the FCC differ based mostly on which cruise the passenger experienced canceled as effectively as the fare paid out.
All refunds will be quickly processed back to guests’ initial sort of payment.
Lots of attendees are understandably dissatisfied at the short recognize, particularly for the upcoming cruise or two as there may possibly not be time to rebook identical voyages on diverse vessels as demand from customers for travel has been growing considerably for spring and summer season sailings.
Very last P&O Cruise Ship to Return
Arcadia was the last P&O Cruises ship to return to provider after ceasing passenger operations in March 2020. There was fantastic fanfare as the vessel restarted, together with a exclusive information from Paul Ludlow, P&O Cruises president. That concept claimed, in component:
“Our purpose is, usually, to guard your health and wellbeing and preserve the best benchmarks onboard so you can simply loosen up and appreciate your getaway.”
With crew shortages, it can be tough to adequately retain these superior specifications. All P&O Cruises crew members are entirely vaccinated and travellers are also essential to be entirely vaccinated, but breakthrough circumstances and exposures can produce staffing complications.
P&O Cruises will continue sailing with the remaining 5 ships in the fleet, and Arcadia is scheduled to return to services with a July 5 sailing. That voyage is scheduled to be a 14-day roundtrip Iceland itinerary from Southampton, also contacting on ports in Norway and Eire.
In December, the P&O Cruises fleet will develop even more with the scheduled debut of the 184,700-gross-ton Arvia, the largest ship at any time built for the cruise line. Arvia is now beneath construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.
