bee-ess

We are in a minority but would like it if club dining was available on these 2 ships or at least the option for same table same time every night 

On 8/1/2023 at 5:34 PM, Presto2 said:

We've just checked and now have times leaving 11.05am Manchester and arriving 15.50h. Can't book our seats yet though. 

Looks like we'll have to race you to the speciality dining ....can't see .any left by the time we board. Any idea what time we will be leaving Barbados that day?

Pps The speciality restaurants are now saying coming soon not please enquire on board like it did for our Norway cruise so fingers crossed.

Scheduled to leave at 21:00 on the Saturday if all the planes are in, if not they wait for the planes. These are the times P&O gave me for our cruise in Feb - we are Fri-Fri.

24 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thanks to all who have posted.  Out of interest I asked which ship the affected passengers are/were sailing on - my gut says Arvia - could I kindly ask if people would mind confirming this please?  I know ICF is definitely on Arvia for instance but no idea on the other folks plans.

We are on Arvia Feb  2024 flying from Gatwick 

We have Tui flight details on the CP saying TUI 12 out at 10:35 and TUI 13 Home

15 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

On our personaliser it says the time of the flight and the flight number and carrier. TUI.

Is that a good sign .. please say yes as this cruise has been one headache after another and we have just managed to chill it will be ok !!!!!!! 

Ours shows the same, so we should be OK

We have our details for next Feb, we are on TUI12 and TUI13 from Gatwick. Won't be keen to fly if that is changed to a Maleth Aero flight.

But I guess they won't tell us until after we have paid our Balance in November and they have our money.

22 hours ago, Lee117five0 said:

Me and my partner cruised on arvia in June/July. The epicurean menu changed at the half way point of the cruise.

Thanks, was it the same for Sindhu ?

Does anyone know when Epicurean switches it's Menu from A to B on a 2 week cruise, we want to go twice but once on each menu 

15 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Perhaps if they charged a bit more for the cruise, served better quality food in the MDR and reduced the long waiting times then people would not feel the need for multiple bookings in speciality dining.

I would happily go back to when there were no speciality restaurants when the MDR food was far superior to now and we had proper wine waiters and silver service, although I am probably in a minority. Dinner then was a far better experience than it is now.

59 minutes ago, Maamgu74 said:

I totally agree with you Cuatbar58 

2x costas each morning 

2x beers lunch 

2x ciders afternoon 

2x berry coolers

costa 

2x procescos

2x red wines Dinner 

2x Beers

2x cocktails  

4 x bottles water 

then the kids 

4x sodas a day 

2x hotchocs

6x bottled water 

this adds up to more than £40 pp per day 

and you’re getting your extra 7.5% off

making it £ 37 PDPP 

 

great choice Mate !!! 

 

 

Isn't there a limit on the amount of alcoholic drinks you can have on the package ?

3 hours ago, mitooki said:

Can you reach the ship's WiFi from the bag drop off area? Our boarding time is not until 15:15 but will be dropping bags off early.

Nor sure about outside the terminal, I did ours sat outside of the security bit waiting to get hand luggage checked. They told us there would be a short delay so I did it them then. We were in the first lot through after the suites and Baltics though. Worth trying outside the terminal though.

3 hours ago, bronzevernis said:

 

 

 

We will try and book the 7/10 club on board though.

Best tip I had from here was to book 710 from the terminal before you board. You don't need to wait to get your cruise card on board for the 6 character code, it is the same as the last 6 characters of your boarding pass. We did this when we were on Arvia.

The sessions do get filled very quickly as the venue is quite small. If you cannot get a booking they do have a queue outside the venue 30 mins before show times where you can get tickets that are available from the no-shows.

33 minutes ago, Waju said:

I'm loving reading this too DamianG, you write really well.

 

I do have some concerns though - we've been on Iona a couple of times when she sailed far from full  and I was really surprised how much I enjoyed the larger ship.  I thought we might try Arvia one day - maybe out of school holidays - but the talk of queueing to get into dining rooms, booking (or trying to book on the app) and using pagers worries me!  I'm supposed to be on holiday and probably just an old f*rt but I want to leave my phone in the safe until I get to a port.

 

I'm just better suited to MDR's that offer club dining so I know what time I'm eating and where my table will be 🙂 

You sound like me !

We have been on nearly 50 cruises and Arvia in June was our first Freedom dining ever and I must admit we did not really like it. I don't think it is as bad on the other ships as Arvia, our first night we could not get in anywhere and ended up in the buffet, My problem is that you have to guess when to join the queues to eat when you want to, we did eventually manage to get a fixed table and time after about 5 days. Like you I realise that we are fixed dining people but how much longer that will last, who knows. We are back on Arvia again in February, we tried to change to Britannia but the increase in cost was too much as we had a good price for Arvia.

I must say that apart from the faffing about with the dining we loved everything else on the ship and hopefully we learned enough in June to deal with Feb better.

30 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I was reading an Arvia blog ‘elsewhere’ a few weeks ago - the blogger was in a party of 6, and said that the maitre d’ of one of the dining rooms had given them a fixed table at 8pm every night because the maitre d’ ‘liked’ them. I rather suspect that money may have exchanged hands, but I was wondering if it was worth you asking if this was possible for your party. 
 

They must want people to use the virtual queues, so it seems bizarre that they close the queues so early - it just means more people having to mill around at the entrance to the dining rooms as they try to get a pager.

 

At this point, I think I’d be feeling slightly dispirited by the situation, so I hope it becomes easier for you as the cruise progresses.  On the positive side, the actual dining experience, once you are seated, looks great. 

In June, we asked our waiter for a fixed table for 4 for 8PM every night and got it OK

41 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Thanks for a really entertaining and interesting travelogue, which I am following with interest.  I can't help but wonder whether long waits / queues for dining on these ships are partly a result of erroneous assumptions about how long passengers would take over their meals.  It would be very interesting to know when they were doing their throughput and flow calculations when designing these ships how long P&O estimated passengers would spend having dinner in one of the non-MDR 'casual' eateries, especially the no-cost ones.  Perhaps they assumed that dinner in Olive Grove, the Diner etc would be on average a one hour event and based their calculations on that?  If they did but, in reality, many passengers, like you, spend nearly two hours (roughly the same time as they would spend in the MDR?) the number of times they can turn over each table in these restaurants and thus the overall number of pax they can handle per evening would be reduced significantly.  Hence the queues.

 

This is in no way a criticism of your (or anyone else's) dining habits!  But, it might explain some of the long waits for tables that still seem to be happening.

My observations of using the MDR in June was that it took a long time for the waiters to turn the tables around between guests and that must of had a big impact on the virtual queues. Probably this delay was caused by staff shortages in the MDR's. Maybe the same is happening in the other restaurants.

Hi Damian

We were on Arvia in June and found it difficult to find anywhere to eat on the first night and ended up in the buffet. We like to eat at 8 to 8:30 and found that after the first night debacle that if we joined the MDR queues at 7:30 we got in OK somewhen between 8 and 8:45. After 5 days in we asked the waiters if we could have the same table every night at the same time and he said yes, so that may be worth asking the waiters (not the Managers that sit out the front), especially as you are a large group.

I would recommend you try to book some Club 710's if you get the chance, great entertainment. If you cannot get booked they start a queue from 30 mins before the show for people without reservations as there are always no-shows.

Sun beds were hard to get at the Infinity pool when we went  - 7pm was too late. I am an early riser so it was no problem for us to get beds. Be warned though, one random sea day morning they came round about 8:30 and cleared all the beds with towels and no-one sitting on them !

Have a great cruise!

48 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

On Arvia you could book 710 for multiple days. I booked ours from the terminal using the last 6 characters trick for the App and managed to get several. For me it was the best entertainment on the ship. You can Q 30 mins before the shows for entry if there are any no-shows, we got 3 of those.

This worked OK from Southampton but we are flying to Caribbean next and that will be a lottery, it will all depend on getting an early flight on the Friday, Saturday people will find everything booked up I think.

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. Yes, my intention of the post was to help others to understand that you have to pounce very quickly if you want to secure the days and times that you want, which I guess is especially important for those celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. I can’t say that I like it, as it’s a level of hassle that holidays are meant to alleviate, but it’s satisfying when your strategy pays off 😂 

 

Unfortunately, as mentioned on another thread, bookings for the show still haven’t been activated yet, even though we are now 13 days from departure. It’s anybody’s guess what’s going on there. 
 

As you say, at least I won’t have to be pouncing on the app the moment that my bum hits the seat in the embarkation lunch (as I did on Britannia recently) - assuming, of course, that the theatre shows eventually activate pre cruise. I will take a look at the 710 Club, as we found the Live Lounge to be too crowded on Britannia, whereas I know that the 710 Club is limited. Am I right in thinking that you can only book each day on the day, rather than the whole cruise on day 1 as you can with the main theatre and restaurants?

On Arvia you could book 710 for multiple days. I booked ours from the terminal using the last 6 characters trick for the App and managed to get several. For me it was the best entertainment on the ship. You can Q 30 mins before the shows for entry if there are any no-shows, we got 3 of those.

We have only done the TA home once in 2017, we usually do it going out in October.

The time we did it home, it was v warm until the day before PD when it was overcast and a bit chilly on deck. PD day itself rained all day.

Pretty sure we saw a handful of children in there on Arvia 3 weeks ago, but I would phone P&O to be 100% sure.

So sorry to hear this sad news, our condolences to you and your family at this sad time.

I think that contributing to CC is probably the last thing on your mind at this time, but I hope that you return at a later date when you feel ready.

2 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

Well I will just add that the opening poster themselves who claimed that all 8 bookings were now sold out when questioned

 

Has now confirmed that's not  the case

 

So should the thread be closed or deleted?

 

As it was false alarm?

 

 

 

 

I take offence to this post

I have never said that anything was Sold Out - I said that they were not available when I got up and that was 100% True.

I confirmed nothing - I said that more timeslots came up in the afternoon

The purpose of my original post was to describe my experience, not to cause alarm.

Who are you to ask if the post should be deleted or closed as a false alarm, that implies that I have deliberately spread false information.

I find your attitude of 'correcting me' and 'advising me' in other posts equally offensive and condescending.

You have set yourself up as the font of knowledge as far as Arvia is concerned and woe betide anyone who has a different opinion

Please do not refer to my posts anymore

8 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

The poster himself went and checked after I questioned him and then corrected it?

 

 

If it is my.post you are incorrect - please not post anymore inaccuracies about my posts

I booked my slots after midnight

I checked when I got up this morning and they were not available

This afternoon more timeslots opened up

You make it seem as though I corrected something on your say so ?

41 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

This is a thread about the suggestion you have to book other stuff at midnight 2 weeks before the cruise or you will miss out

If you look at my original post I didn't say this anywhere in the post - please don't imply that I did

I never said that it was sold out - I said that my slots were not available this morning

I posted to explain the situation that happened and is backed up by others on other social media

I was advised by a friend to book at midnight as he did not get the bookings he wanted on the ship

I am not saying if this was right or wrong, just what I chose to do.

You then say that when extra timeslots turned up this afternoon that you thought that would happen

As I said you keep grinding on and on to prove yourself right

This is my last and final word on the subject

15 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

This is a thread about the suggestion you have to book other stuff at midnight 2 weeks before the cruise or you will miss out

3 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Because I honestly  believe it's scaremongering others on here. In your case maybe unwittingly. Because you genuinely thought everything sold out last night 

 

Until you just checked again. 

 

I've seen a poster last week cancel a cruise on Arvia and another say they  will no longer book a cruise

 

You yourself said if you have to do this again you will stick to smaller ships

 

If I didn't ask the questions and just took your word for it others would read this thread and avoid a great ship due to incorrect information 

 

I've seen it before on here 

 

I've told you you wont need to book theatre at midnight next week when it's released 

 

That's good advice but you can  ignore it  if you wish 

 

No hard feelings

I Give Up

21 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I'm OCD about getting  to the bottom of stuff

 

 

No, I think what you want to be is to be right.

I posted originally to describe my experience/problems last night in case it helped anyone else, but have found myself arguing with you and justifying why I tried to book at midnight.

Every one of your posts is trying to prove yourself right and the rest of us wrong.

Why does it matter to you.