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Click
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M/S Arcadia vital statistics
Company: P & O Cruises
Home Port: Hamilton, Bermuda
Gross Tonnage: 83,000 tons
Cruising Speed: 22 knots
Passenger Capacity: 1,952
Passenger Decks: 11
Built: 2005
Voyages sailed on this ship:
Caribbean,
Central America |
M/S Arcadia was built at the
Fincantieri shipyard in Italy, and was originally
going to be the Queen Victoria for Cunard Line. Due
to the success of the ocean liner Queen Mary 2, however,
Cunard decided to built the Queen Victoria to a similar design
(albeit smaller) and so this ship was transferred to Peninsular
and Oriental (P & O) Cruises as the beautiful Arcadia.
We greeted the year 2007 on board the Arcadia during an
amazing voyage in Central America, through the Panama Canal and
into the Caribbean. The pictures on this page are taken
from that trip. Click on the small pictures to open a
larger version in its own window.
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The Panama Canal was opened in 1914, and joins the
Pacific to the Atlantic, reducing the journey by ship
from New York to San Francisco by 8,000 miles.
The Arcadia docked at Balboa which allowed us to
explore the area and Panama City, before commencing her
transit of the Canal. The map shows the various
locks along the way, along with Lake Gatún,
which was the largest man-made lake in the world at the
time of its creation. We were surprised to see
crocodiles in the lake! |
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Here the Arcadia approaches
the Pedro Miguel lock. As you can see, the ship is
still quite low down in the water as the gates begin to
open. The Arcadia is one of the largest
ships that can transit the Panama Canal; in fact there
was only 18" clearance each side of the ship!
The ship is towed along by eight locomotives; two at
each side at the front, and two at each side at the
rear. The locomotives use tight chains which keep
the ship straight. |
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In this photo, you can see how much
the Arcadia has risen up in the water before
passing through the Pedro Miguel lock gates. You
can also see, on the right hand side, one of the
locomotives that tows the ship.
The toll fee for a Panama Canal transit for a ship of
Arcadia's size is approximately £115,000. |
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Here you can see along
the side of the ship looking aft. The tracks
on which the locomotives run are clearly
visible. They need to be able to go uphill to
allow for the different levels created by the
locks. When the locomotives go up the hill, they
do so by a series of gear wheels, so they don't
roll back down again! Likewise they go
down the hill in a controlled way. |
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