WG’s Christmas Cruise 2025 – Part One

The Prologue

I really enjoyed last year’s trip to the Caribbean but, there is always a but, I had to settle for a standard seat on the TUI Boeing 787. Despite the huge cost of Premium seats, they were all sold out, so it was standard or nothing. The daytime flight out was OK, but the overnight coming back proved to be the straw that broke this camel’s back. Trying to sleep in a seat that only reclines a couple of inches was horrible. I arrived back in the U.K. before dawn, got my luggage and my car back quickly, but the shortish drive from Gatwick to Worthing was where I began to feel my age.

I was knackered, my back ached, and I got cramp in my foot. I got home, lugged my case into the front room and went to bed. It was about noon when I woke up, still with back ache, even if it was a bit better. It was then that I decided not to go to the Caribbean again unless I could get a premium seat. I immediately started looking at alternatives. I wanted another cruise; it is easy once you are onboard, no bed making, no cleaning and no cooking.

I like P&O; their cruises suit me. They are very ‘British’, from the food to the entertainment via the beer in the bar, so it was to their brochure I turned. I suppose I could have tried the Caribbean again; P&O have two ships out there this Christmas and New Year, the giant 5,200-passenger Arvia and the smaller, 3,647-passenger Britannia. But they wanted an extra £500 each way for Premium seats on the Christmas flights and £85 each way to reserve a seat. They also only allow for return bookings, so that meant adding nearly an additional £1,200 to the already extortionate cost of a twin balcony cabin for one.

OK, they do have a dozen or so single balcony cabins on both ships, but they cost only a little less than a double cabin for one. I nearly forgot this year P&O have chartered a Virgin A330 that flies out to Bridgetown from Heathrow on a Saturday morning for Arvia cruises. Now I understand that these planes are regular scheduled service planes and are laid out as Economy, Premium and Upper Class, and P&O are offering upgrades on the normal Economy. I would love to upgrade to Virgin Upper Class with a lie-flat bed, especially for the journey home, but can I justify the extra couple of thousand pounds it would no doubt cost? Maybe when I win the jackpot on the Euromillions!

So, I looked at what else was available. I could fly to Tenerife and board the P&O Azura, but it was only doing 7-day cruises. So, for my Christmas and New Year cruises, I would have to book back-to-back cruises and visit some ports twice. Other ships were going up to Norway, and I prefer something warm rather than snow and ice. Eventually I settled on either Iona, the sister ship of Arvia, or the smaller ship, only 2,094 passengers, Arcadia. Both were sailing out of Southampton on return trips to the Canaries, departing within days of each other, and both ships suited me, so I undertook a comparison of what was on offer and the cost.

The cost was virtually the same even though Iona was a 15-night cruise and Arcadia a 16-night cruise. Iona is a ‘family’ ship which means hundreds, possibly thousands, of kids onboard, and it is 100% ‘Freedom Dining’. Now, I am not a huge fan of turn up when you want to eat Freedom Dining, because if you want to eat at a popular time you need to either join a virtual queue on their ‘My Holiday’ app, or turn up and take a chance that a table is available. If there is a wait, you will be given a pager that goes off when your table is ready.

As I mentioned, Arcadia is a smaller ship, but it has most of the facilities of the bigger ships, like a theatre, cinema, spa, grill restaurant, buffet and a retractable roof over a pool. But it also offers the choice of Freedom Dining and traditional Set Dining, where you choice the early or late sitting and your table size when you book the cruise. With fixed dining, you get to know your table companions and your waiters get to know you and your likes and dislikes.

Now I was 90% decided on Arcadia when I realised that Arcadia was an adults-only ship. That almost decided it for me. I don’t dislike sailing with children on board, but Christmas, Easter, the summer holidays and half terms are best avoided if you are on your own. I have been on a ship where a gang of teens roamed the ship at night looking for something to do. But what swung it finally in favour of the smaller ship was that it was scheduled to be in Madeira for the New Year’s Eve fireworks, something I am told is spectacular and something that has long been on my bucket list.

Of course, I have been looking forward to this cruise; it is a bit different for me. Crossing the Bay of Biscay in winter can be challenging. The weather in the Canaries is not as warm as the Caribbean, and you must get there and back. But this is my first adults-only cruise and I don’t know if Father Christmas will be aboard, or the Captain will be reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’, as occurs on the family ships. I do know the Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve menus; they are the same on all P&O ships, and I think I will be having the fillet steak on Christmas Day. I like turkey, but I think I like fillet steak more.

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Preparations

Of course, going away on the 21st of December means that I have some things to get done early and some things that I don’t have to do at all, like Christmas food shopping! With a week to go, I had my preparations well in hand. I had purchased all the presents I was buying and got the long-distance ones dispatched. I had written and posted all my Christmas cards and put any special clothes I wanted to take with me in the washing machine, so I have plenty of clean stuff to put in my suitcase. Travelling from Southampton, I can take as many suitcases as I like, but from experience I know I can get everything I need in a single case.

A couple of months ago, my paper shop gave up delivering and passed all their accounts over to a company called Pipers. I have had no problem with them so far, so I have filled in their online holiday form and I will hope for the best. I have printed off my parking permit at Southampton port; you get free parking from right outside the cruise terminal with the cruise.

My next task was to check in online and to print off my embarkation documents and my luggage labels. The embarkation document is always a sod. It downloads as a .pdf into the files. On an iPad this should be easy to find and print, but for some reason it wasn’t in my ‘downloads’ file. So, I checked my iPhone; once again, it was not to be seen. However, there it was in ‘downloads’ on my Apple Mac laptop. The odd thing is there is only one downloads file and it is shared by all the Apple devices. This document tells me my boarding time, 12:15, and that I have ‘priority boarding’. This is worth having, as it means I can jump the queues of all the plebs waiting to board, and the early boarding time means I can have lunch while waiting for my case to be delivered to my cabin.

Now I don’t have much left on my ‘to do’ list, although it does include a couple of fairly big items, like packing and wrapping the remainder of my presents. I do also have a couple of minor items still to finish, including getting some more euros and getting my hair cut.

***

Monday 15th December

I don’t have a huge amount planned for today. I need to get a little bit of shopping in Tesco and, while I’m there, I will use their currency exchange to get some additional euros. I also have an appointment for a haircut. That’s the morning done. After lunch, I have pencilled in the afternoon for Christmas present wrapping.

Tuesday 16th December

I got most of my presents wrapped yesterday before my back was aching so much I had to call a halt. Only 3 parcels left to do! So, after that, I will start my packing; there is plenty of time to do that as I don’t travel until Sunday. I have a holiday packing list which has evolved over the years. It used to have things on it like my camera. That has been replaced by my iPhone, which can be tucked in a pocket and takes excellent photos. I now need to ensure I have my medications, which were not on my original list, as the list has been about years.

One thing I have thought about is I had better fill up the car with petrol. When I was on my way home from Tesco yesterday, I noticed I only had about a third of a tank. That should get me to Southampton and back, but it might be a bit close. I hate filling up at one of those petrol stations on the A27; they all charge 4 or 5p a litre more than the local ones to me.

Wednesday 17th December

Today is the day my cleaner comes, so I don’t have big holiday plans for today. But I did sort out a few things to pack and piled them up on the bed in the spare single bedroom. There are a pile of socks, pants, trousers and pullovers. I also have a Christmas pullover for dinner on Christmas Eve. They have become a tradition on ships I have been on recently. I only hope I am not alone this year.

I have got my suitcase out and I have found a few things in it from my last cruise which I will leave there and probably not use. There are a load of cables and plugs for charging my iPhone, iPad and Kindle, loads of travel packs of paper tissues (it’s Man Size at home), face masks (which have been there since Covid) and a whole load of plastic bags (always handy to put dirty socks in!).

Thursday 18th December

I have finally started packing and am about halfway through my list, but I have called a halt as my back is beginning to ache. I seem to have picked a good day, as it is wet and miserable outside. Of course, packing is quite easy; I am just picking things up off the spare bed and arranging them in my case.

Occasionally I come across something on my packing list that makes me think. I have just reached the ‘Spare Watch’ item, and it has reminded me that nearly all the places I am visiting are on GMT (only A Coruña and Vigo are on GMT+1). Anyway, I have sorted out a spare watch just in case my regular one’s battery runs out. For some unknown reason, they don’t sell watch batteries on board. I have decided that I will be taking a couple of standard sweaters this year; we will be in the cooler seas off northern Spain and France for a few days at either end of the holiday.

Back to a bit more packing this afternoon, and I had just had a dozen or so shirts left to fold and pack when I decided it was time to get my dinner sorted. They can wait until tomorrow.

Friday 19th December

Friday is my normal big shopping day, but today I only have five things on my shopping list, and they are all things that will keep until I come home or will be consumed before I go. I arrived at the local Tesco Extra before 10:00, and gosh was it busy. There was even a queue to get into the car park. Somehow I seem to have purchased more items than I had on my list; that’s the danger of walking round a huge supermarket and seeing something I fancy.

Of course, the LGND’s Friday chocolate was on the list. Today, as I wandered round the shop, I picked up a bag of mint Aero balls, something I know she likes. But a little further on were bags of Cadbury’s mini Snowballs (chocolate balls with a crispy white coat) and mini chocolate Christmas puddings. I couldn’t decide which to add to the Aero, so she got both (well, it is Christmas).

After a pigs in blankets sandwich for my lunch, it was time to finish my shirt folding. Add my dress suit in its carrier on top, and that’s my packing done. I only need to sort out the luggage labels and put the case in the boot, and I am done.

Saturday 20th December

I have very little left to sort out; in fact, I am ready to go a day early! I popped to the local convenience store to claim the £2.50 I have won on the EuroMillions and decided to buy 3 weeks’ worth of Lucky Dips for while I’m away.

I had only just sat down to get this log up to date when the front doorbell rang, and there was the LGND and her Daddy. She had come to say thank you for her chocolate and bring me a Christmas card she had coloured especially for me, and a plaster Santa on his sleigh. Santa had given it to her at school yesterday and she had painted it in traditional Santa red and white.

She also had brought round my Christmas present, which I told her I was going to put with some other presents and open them when I got home. Daddy also had 3 Christmas cards for me to take for friends working on the ship. I’m a lot cheaper than buying a stamp. She’s now off to the library with Mummy and Daddy to get enough books to last her over Christmas. She is a prolific reader.

In Part 2 – The Cruise Begins
 

© WorthingGooner 2026