P&O MV Arcadia; Friday, 24 October, 2025

The difference between the South and North journeys across the bay was night and day with it at times difficult to even tell that you were on a ship and it sailed calmly north across the bay, albeit still with waves at 2m high, but with the wind now directly behind us rather than hitting us side on, it was all very calm.

As this was a sea day it meant just a day of movement from one meal to the next, from breakfast to Lunch and then in the early afternoon a highlight of the cruise P&O High Tea.

Unlike afternoon tea in the previous days which had been self-service in the buffet, this was in the main dining room with the full works of trays of cakes and sandwiches served on silver platters and waiters coming round to force an amount of tea on you only previously seen in an episode of Father Ted.

Following on from High Tea there was just enough time to digest it before it was time to get dressed up again like a penguin for the second formal night of the cruise, and once again we’d decided to book into a speciality restaurant, this time the Marco Pierre White Ocean Grill. If Sindhu had been the best meal on the trip then this turned out to be the most disappointing. The food was still excellent, if a little bland, but the service was just a little too over the top with at least four different people checking in on us during the course of just the mains to make sure everything was OK.

With dinner complete it was off to bed, via a couple of indigestion tablets.