Sussexboy

The Perez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon in the glass house is pretty good. It’s not Jam Shed (thankfully) but I liked it very much, as did my beloved.

We were on board Arvia a few weeks ago. No one was allowed to wander through the chef’s table area. Our only gripe was that the tables were very close together. We were sat next to a lovely Scottish couple who were on their third back to back on Arvia, this was their 6th week on board. They were a hoot and kept us very entertained!! They did say though that they found it tiresome that you were so cheek by jowl with your neighbours, and were glad that we got on…

At least they kept the 7 layer chocolate cake….that would be a travesty to drop that from the menu.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on board as well. The virtual queueing worked painlessly for us, the food varied between perfectly acceptable and really quite good, and the bar prices were reasonable (but we do live in the South East). We did all of our specialty dining, and all drinks, for less than the cost of one drinks package. The only negative thing I noticed was that compared to other cruise lines she did seem a little understaffed in some areas, and some of the cabin stewards who double as MDR waiters were a teensy bit grumpy.

I think that Captain Camby is a connoisseur of vintage joke books! Having just returned from Arvia myself, I agree with much of the original post. One thing I would add, and it has been said before, is that the ship is understaffed. Having recently been on NCL Prima, the staff there were more numerous, and smiled a lot more. That said I cannot fault the team in the Crows Nest and the Epicurean. They were magnificent, and treated my wife and I like a King and Queen for the fortnight. After reading many comments we were unsure about the dining arrangements. We found the virtual queueing to work very well, and the food was a very acceptable standard. In some cases it was very good, and not a green bean in sight. Right, I am off to look for Captain Cambys grandmother who has been walking 5 miles a day for the past few years. He apparently has no idea where she is…….

Just got off Arvia this morning. We did not get the drinks package as it did not seem to offer good value for money. We like a glass of wine with dinner, a cocktail or two before and after, and various sundry drinks scattered here and there. According to my calculations from the final bill, we saved £630 by pay as you go rather than having the drinks package. That is a considerable difference. There were several off piste drinks that would not have been covered by any package, that Remy XO was just too tempting.

This is our first post pandemic P&O cruise. We were on NCL last September and they used the usual little numbered stickers, I was just mildly surprised that they have not been evident on this cruise.

I am having my post lunch siesta in my cabin on Arvia. We are currently in Marseille along with Norwegian Pearl and Costas Deliziosa and Toscana. We went on an excursion to Aix-en-Provence this morning. There were obviously other tours from the aforementioned ships also in town. I noticed that the other tour groups had their numbered stickers and us Arvians did not. Is this yet another example of cost cutting? (Disclaimer: my tongue is very much in my cheek as I write this)

We sail on Arvia this Sunday coming in a full suite and have been given an arrival time of 11:45. It’s a lottery of how long to get there though as the M25 is closed at the A3 junction so the world and his/her/their canine companion will be driving along the coast…..

We sail next Sunday, I have not received any email or other correspondence relating to the taking on board of drinks of any variety…….yet.

I am on Arvia in 26 days time. Mine still say coming soon for the bookable venues.

I watched her sail away from Southampton yesterday after lunch on the Solent Ships live webcam on YouTube.

On Prima last year we just filled drinks bottles from the tap and left them in the refrigerator with no caps on. The water tasted fine after a few hours.

Mrs SB and I have happy memories of Oriana. As I have a significant birthday this year, I suggested that she should buy me the old girl as a project to keep me from being under her feet all day. She declined somewhat forcefully…..

I think you may be getting mixed up, apparently P&O is meant to be Butlins-on-sea, not Butlers-on-sea….😉😂😂 I’ll get my coat

Thanks everybody, lots of reading to do!

Thank you very much for that. We will be there on a Monday so miss the tour, but the itinerary on Google maps is very helpful. I will show it to my better half and see what she thinks.

We are on K410 in May. We have no plans yet for Valencia, Barcelona and Alicante. Are they easy places to DIY in? We are little restricted in walking too far as Mrs SB has dodgy ankles (from a functional rather than aesthetic point of view I hasten to add!). Thanks in advance for your insights.

We are on Arvia in May. For the first and probably last time we are in an aft suite. Two days ago I received an email asking me to bid for an upgrade. I don’t think we can do much about that. I know it’s probably an automatic process that drives the email, but it seems such sloppy admin. As a former quality and business process manager it the sort of sad thing that annoys me. It could quite easily be managed out of the process.

I am pretty sure that the public toilets in Olden only took cards as well.

I think you have hit the nail on the head there, it appears that there is no contingency plan, and a serious lack of communication to the end customers who actually pay for this fiasco. Here’s hoping that Yorkie69 has a great cruise once they can get there…..

I agree it’s a shambles, and in your place I would be extremely angry at being messed about like that. I also agree that the decision to use Maleth has probably lost customers. However that must be weighed against what would have happened if they didn’t use Maleth. With so little air passenger capacity available P&O would have been forced to cancel many customers dream Caribbean cruise, which would have been disastrous. So they took the least worst option. The question that springs to my mind is why did Maleth have that passenger capacity when others did not? That should have rung some alarm bells when setting up the contract.

I showed the pictures to the sainted Mrs SB and she declared the paving as manageable. So it looks like we have a go situation.

Thanks, every picture tells a story!

Mrs Sussexboy and myself are on Arvia in May trolling down the coast of Spain. Our first port is A Coruña where we are looking to take the excursion to Santiago de Compostela. Has anybody done the guided tour excursion? If so, how much walking was there and how was the terrain? Mrs SB has both ankles fused after an early onset arthritis and her mobility is decreasing. She can manage several hours walking but steps and uneven ground or cobble stones are getting to be show stoppers for her unfortunately.