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Saturday – It’s 07:30 and we’re back where it all started two weeks ago. Arcadia is a nightmare this morning, with 2,100 passengers desperate to start their journeys home (we’ve all been turfed out of our cabins and everything is closed, so there’s nothing to do but mill about, and the crew are largely busy preparing for the next cruise, which starts boarding passengers in four hours). Disembarkation starts at 08:40 and everyone’s been allocated a timed slot to try to ensure a relatively orderly departure, but this means that some people won’t get ashore until well after 10:00. Fortunately for us, having a suite brings a priority disembarkation pass, so we can leave whenever we want and we’re amongst the first group off Arcadia at 08:40. Our bags are already waiting for us in the main terminal building and it’s a short walk to pick up the car. We arrive home just over an hour later.
On the whole I would say that my first cruising experience has been more enjoyable than I expected and I would highly recommend that everyone try to give it a go at least once. I particularly enjoyed our spacious suite and terrace and that Arcadia is a child-free ship (although swapping children for 2,000 really old people is, at best, a marginal benefit). I think it’s likely that I will cruise again at some point, although when and, probably more importantly, where, I have no idea.
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