Ocean Village is returning to UK - CMV

[annie, Glasgow]

Hi All

She will be renamed Columbus and home port is Tilbury.

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articl...n-village-ship

Annie

[ilovesunshine, east yorks]

I liked Ocean Village. I hope it comes to Hull

[philhar, wallasey]

Interesting news,Annie.My Mum & Dad sailed on her when she was Arcadia and I know a lot of people developed a fondness for her as Ocean Village.Despite mixed reviews it seems CMV must be doing ok if they are still expanding.A ship with an outdoor cinema screen is certainly modern by CMV standards.
I see with an exception of a couple of sailings it will be adult only,that won't encourage me until my youngest decides she doesn't wish to holiday with us anymore(she's 14 this Friday so it won't be long...)
I see it will have 150 single cabins (that's a lot!) and cruises for 2017 will go on sale 31st March.
https://www.cruiseandmaritime.com/cm...to-their-fleet
Bad news ilovesunshine,it's operating from Tilbury year round

[Isis3, Canvey Island]

Ahh you beat me to it, according to the web site her home port will be Tilbury

https://www.cruiseandmaritime.com/cm...to-their-fleet

[annie, Glasgow]

Interesting news,Annie.My Mum & Dad sailed on her when she was Arcadia and I know a lot of people developed a fondness for her as Ocean Village.Despite mixed reviews it seems CMV must be doing ok if they are still expanding.A ship with an outdoor cinema screen is certainly modern by CMV standards.
I see with an exception of a couple of sailings it will be adult only,that won't encourage me until my youngest decides she doesn't wish to holiday with us anymore(she's 14 this Friday so it won't be long...)
I see it will have 150 single cabins (that's a lot!) and cruises for 2017 will go on sale 31st March.
https://www.cruiseandmaritime.com/cm...to-their-fleet
Bad news ilovesunshine,it's operating from Tilbury year round

I am too young, in cruising terms, to have sailed the OV. 150 solo cabins on a relatively small ship is an awful lot - JMO.

At the end if the day it is the itinerary that interests me primarily. I have a feeling it will be Northern European itineraries largely - of zero interest to me. They are clearly targeting the UK over 50s market and I like a multi-age and multi-national passenger mix.

Annie

Annie

[Wilba]

Interestingly a recent thread I started had the exact opposite effect on me when I sailed on her as Arcadia (II).

Here is my opening post........Your Worst Ever Cruise Ship

Whilst onboard the NCL Escape Invite I was asked by one of the Cruisedot staff, "What was the worst cruise ship you have ever been on".

I didn't really answer the question as I needed a bit of thinking time. Having been on a lorra' lorra' ships, some I only have the vaguest recollection of that are now firmly embedded in Neptune's Locker, it got me thinking.

I'm talking ship itself.

Leaving aside poor service, disorganised boarding procedures, lager louts and questionable food, which ship did not come up the expected standard of a modern cruise ship?

It would be around late 2002, we booked a four or five nighter English Channel hop, Soton, Amsterdam, Le Havre, Guernsey, Soton mainly for the benefit of family members who had never cruised before, who were always in awe of our Formal Night photos and the general impression of quality that cruising had to offer.

The weather wasn't stormy, just an average winters swell as we made our way around the Isle of Wight heading for Amsterdam.

The main dining room was on deck 2, close to the waterline, but you didn't need a map to find it. The cutlery jingle jangling on the tables could be heard as you approached due to the vibration of the propellers.
In fact the vibration was so bad the four of us played a game every night placing the wine glasses in the centre of table, and whoever's wine glass vibrated to the edge of the table first won the game.

Well the old gal rolled her way across the Channel, the propellers almost coming out of the water, the noise and shuddering was horrendous, finally making it to the other side. Sick Bags tactfully placed in prominent positions around the ship.

This ship was acquired by P&O from the Princess fleet at a time when P&O were at the top of their game, then one of the most respected cruiselines in the world. The ship was flat bottomed designed for pottering around the shallow, calm Caribbean waters, the English Channel a challenge too far. This was the third ship to be named/renamed Arcadia and to this day I clearly remember walking down the gangplank at the end of this little jolly thinking, 'What the hell were P&O thinking about buying this tug?'

A short time after that they parked it in the Med at Palma, hardly surprising as this ship had obvious limitations on anything more challenging than a duck pond. The final ignominy came when they ripped out the MDR and never replaced it, painted it in some God awful colours and renamed it yet again, as Ocean Village.

Incidentally, as far as I am aware, our family members who were so looking forward to their first ever cruise, have not set foot onboard a cruise ship since.

Anyone else with a worst ever cruise ship tale?.......Wilba

[spud, newcastle]

Arcadia was our first cruise too.
We had splashed out for our Silver Wedding and booked a suite. (yes she did have full suites)
The suite was fine, very spacious, as was the balcony.
The food was ok, shows were ok.
With it being our first cruise we had no idea really about how she should feel..regarding vibrations, creaking etc. Our suite was right at the front, right next to the bridge, in fact the crew could look onto our balcony from the little bit of the bridge that sticks out(I have no idea what that is called)
BOB was bad both ways and we had a bad storm on another night, we were sea sick .
It was not the ship that put my OH off crusing, it was the other passengers.
We were the young couple in our early 40's.
Because it had already been announced Arcadia was being turned into Ocean Village, all the old biddies were sailing on her for the very last time.
It was an adults only cruise, we were aware of that...but the majority of passengers were very old.
It was like a ghost ship after 10.30pm
We had a few shocks at the behaviour of some older passengers too.. regarding sitting in "their" seats on deck, in the theatre and in the bar..pushing in queues, bad manners. Not the same people of course..but we did feel like the odd couple, until a couple of members of the entertainment team took us under their wings and we socialised with them a bit, later on at night when everyone else was in bed!!!
The cruise was still enjoyable, we did meet some lovely people too.. and took some good tours, but it took me a good few years before I could convince my OH to cruise again.

Having said all that, still very fond memories.

[Guest]

Hi All

She will be renamed Columbus and home port is Tilbury.

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articl...n-village-ship

Annie

We have a few more details about the new ship here!

[Wilba]

We have a few more details about the new ship here!

No mention of reinstating a MDR though............Wilba

[Waterbaby, London]

We went on Arcadia beginning of 1990's with two children/young teenagers and we all loved it. I thought it was the first Arcadia but am now confused as I did not know there has been 3 in total. Also Spud says it was adult only which I know the current one is but obviously not the one we were on. We did hear onboard that it was going to be changed to Ocean Village sometime later and my kids were very disappointed that they would not be able to cruise on her again. Can anyone confirm which one we were on?

[A Vast Behind, THATCHAM-SUR-MER]

Been on OV in the Caribbean, i liked it a lot. If you dont fancy dressing up, it was a good offering. But will C&M try to take her up market?

[Topdeck, London]

The move of the old Arcadia to Ocean village in 2003 resulted in a very odd cruise passenger behavior.

A good number of fans of the ship under the P&O regime just carried on booking the ship.

As you can guess not all were happy Ocean Village was not P&O.

[philhar, wallasey]

No mention of reinstating a MDR though............Wilba

Hi the Waterfront restaurant seats 800 so looks like it was returned when it became Pacific Pearl .There is also a speciality(75 seat) extra fee restaurant will be interesting to see what CMV do with that.
It had a refit in 2013 and they put in a zip wire and walk the plank,not sure that will survive!

[Wilba]

Hi the Waterfront restaurant seats 800 so looks like it was returned when it became Pacific Pearl .There is also a speciality(75 seat) extra fee restaurant will be interesting to see what CMV do with that.
It had a refit in 2013 and they put in a zip wire and walk the plank,not sure that will survive!

The original MDR was at the rear of deck 2 which I understand became the Gym on OV

Isn't that Waterfront what was the canteen?...........or is it still the canteen?

Looking at the deck plans I cannot see an option for both an MDR and a canteen and thinking about CMV's passenger demographic, mature, traditional cruisers, they, like me are going to want to sit down to a white table cloth and waiter service...........Wilba

[philhar, wallasey]

The original MDR was at the rear of deck 2 which I understand became the Gym on OV

Isn't that Waterfront what was the canteen?...........or is it still the canteen?

Looking at the deck plans I cannot see an option for both an MDR and a canteen and thinking about CMV's passenger demographic, mature, traditional cruisers, they, like me are going to want to sit down to a white table cloth and waiter service...........Wilba

Hi Wilba,no the waterfront is definitely the formal dining room on deck 7 aft.the "canteen"(are you commenting on the standard of food? )is on Deck 12 aft currently called the Plantation.
If the deck plans are to scale the restaurant on deck 7 occupies the same amount of space as it did when it was on Deck 2.They probably didn't want to put it back there due to the vibration problems you mentioned.Your story of the wine glasses reminded me of dining on the Braemar where the juddering was so bad when we went at slow speed that most of the cutlery on our table fell off!