Arcadia wifi, and taking children on an adults-only ship

Arcadia is normally adults only — about 84,000 gross tonnes, 11 passenger decks and around 2,000 guests. From 21 December 2026 P&O is opening eight of its sailings to families, and some of them are long: 16 nights over Christmas, 24 nights in August. On those sailings there is reportedly no kids’ club and no babysitting. That is a long time to keep track of children on a ship built for adults.

The eight family sailings

Arcadia and Aurora are P&O’s two adults-only ships. On 7 October 2025 P&O opened 20 sailings between December 2026 and September 2027 to all ages — 12 on Aurora and 8 on Arcadia. The rest of the year both stay adults only.

The Arcadia sailings that have been reported by name:

• 21 December 2026 — 16 nights from Southampton, Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands over Christmas
• 10 May 2027 — 3 nights from Southampton to Zeebrugge
• 20 July 2027 — Norway and Iceland from Southampton; children must be at least 12 months old
• 3 August 2027 — 24 nights, Eastern Mediterranean, including Sicily, Malta, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt

The other four have not been named in the reports we could find. Cruise Mummy also mentions a 14-night Northern Europe sailing in May 2027 without a date.

Sources: Cruise Hive and Cruise Mummy, both 7 October 2025, checked 24 October 2026. These are secondary sources and the announcement is a year old; P&O’s own site refuses our requests, so confirm your sailing with P&O.

No kids’ club, on a long sailing

Cruise Hive reported that Arcadia’s family sailings will not offer children’s clubs or babysitting. What is provided: children’s menus, baby-changing, bottle-warming, and entertainment and activities for all ages.

On a three-night break that hardly matters. On the Christmas sailing it does. Southampton to the Canaries and back means days at sea in each direction, with everyone aboard and nowhere organised for children to be. Families with older children and teenagers will find them roaming a ship laid out for adults, for sixteen nights, and the usual answer on a family ship — “they’re at the club” — does not exist here. Most of what works with teenagers is agreeing things before you go: setting up the group at home, and a time and place to check in each day.

What the ship gives you

The same as everywhere in the fleet. The onboard network is free and runs My Holiday for the daily programme, bookings and your account, and it works with your phone in airplane mode — which is where it should be at sea. Internet through it is paid, per device. What P&O charges, and what each tier covers.

My Holiday has no guest messaging, on Arcadia or any other P&O ship. On a 16- or 24-night sailing, a package on every phone so the family can message each other is the most expensive way to solve this. Work out what it would cost your group first.

Long for its size

Arcadia carries about the same number of guests as Aurora but is a longer ship, at roughly 285–290 metres against Aurora’s 270 — nearly as long as Ventura, which carries half as many again. So:

• Fewer people, more ship. Around 2,000 guests is a quiet ship, and fewer people share the satellite connection than on Arvia or Iona. Evenings are still the slowest time.
• Checking somewhere is a walk. End to end is close to a third of a kilometre, across 11 passenger decks.
• Steel between decks stops radio signals going up and down far better than along a deck. That is why walkie talkies disappoint people onboard.

Agree a meeting point and a time anyway. Naming the deck is the trick. If someone does go missing, here is what actually works.

One of Arcadia’s last seasons with P&O

Arcadia is leaving. Cruise Industry News reported on 7 October 2026 that her farewell season with P&O ends on 21 August 2029, when she moves to Holland America Line — the line she was originally ordered for. The family sailings are unaffected, but if you are booking one partly for the ship, it is worth knowing.

What CruiseLink does here

CruiseLink passes messages between your group’s phones over Bluetooth and the ship’s local network — no wifi package, no account, free, every phone in airplane mode. It has a “looking for someone” alert that every phone in the group joins in on.

The limits, plainly. Everyone has to install it before you sail, because without buying a wifi package nobody can download it at sea. It reaches only your own group, not other passengers or the crew. And it is not instant across a ship: a message travels when phones come near enough, directly or carried by someone else in the group. On a ship as long as Arcadia, with a child at one end and you at the other, that can mean waiting until somebody moves. It is text, not a walkie talkie — there is no push-to-talk.

The 15-minute setup to do at home, and how the P&O ships compare.

Get CruiseLink

Free, no account, nothing to set up beyond your group. On iPhone and Android, and the two work together.

Not affiliated with P&O Cruises. Ship figures are approximate and from Wikipedia (84,342 GT since 2014, 289.9 m, 1,952 guests regular and 2,094 maximum, 11 decks, Fincantieri Marghera, P&O service from April 2005) and CruiseMapper (84,342 GT, 285 m, 2,094–2,458 guests, 11 decks). Fincantieri’s own figures differ again. Checked 24 October 2026.