Los Angeles was for the first time in history honoured by a visit of the 83,700 ton cruise liner Arcadia on Thursday 26th May 2011. The Los Angeles visit formed part of a 72-night round-trip cruise that started in Southampton immediately after the ship finished a world cruise and a two-week Mediterranean trip.

This specific cruise is particularly noteworthy for it is the first time in 37 years that P&O will be offering a cruise that includes Alaska.

Before P&O bought Princess Cruises, the company regularly offered summer cruises to Alaska starting in Los Angeles. Many of these cruises were aboard the then s.s. Arcadia of 1954.

The last time P&O offered cruises from Southern California was in 1974, but they continued this tradition under the Princess flag.

The current Arcadia was launched in 2005 under the Carnival Corporation banner. It is 936 feet long and has a beam of 106 feet. The maximum number of passengers it can accommodate is 2,016 (based on two passengers sharing a cabin).

Compared to the other ships of the seven-ship P&O fleet, the Arcadia’s interior is definitely more stylish and modern. Even the exterior is somewhat sleeker. This can at least partly be attributed to the rather complex route the ship followed before her 2005 christening as the Arcadia.

Holland American Line originally ordered the ship as the fifth in their Vista Class. Carnival then made the decision to have it refurbished and turned it into a Cunard Line ship with the name of Queen Victoria. The original “Vista” plans were not significantly altered.