The Arcadia was built for P&O by John Brown & Company at Clydebank in Scotland, at an estimated cost of £5 million; her keel was laid in 1952 and she was launched on 14 May 1953, just a couple of hours after the Orsova of the associated Orient Line went down the ways at Barrow in Furness.

In 1959, Arcadia was refitted (with refurbished cabins and air-conditioning extended to all the accommodation) and throughout the 1960s continued the pattern of line voyages interspersed with cruises from Britain and Australia, including trans-Pacific routes, some of which took her through the Panama Canal.

In 1975 Arcadia moved its base to Australia (replacing the Himalaya), making a final return trip to Britain and then cruising Asia-Pacific routes until in February 1979 she was delivered to a firm in Taiwan to be scrapped.

In June 1961 Arcadia hove to off Hawaii to embark a troupe of Polynesian dancers, and as she made way to dock failed to make the tight turn required and ran onto a coral reef, where she was stuck fast for two days but with little damage.

In the early hours of Friday 2 June 1978 the Arcadia ran into a wild storm coming back into Sydney and was hit by a rogue wave which caused extensive damage to the ship.