TigerB

Yes, you can. On our recent Arvia cruise we travelled with my sister and brother-in-law, and I made all the advance bookings in the MDR for us all. We shared the bookings for the speciality restaurants, booking two each. You don't require cabin numbers at that stage, just link them with the restaurant host when you attend. In September we travelled as a party of eight, but the maximum table size available to book in the speciality restaurants was six. I simply booked two tables of four and, once onboard, visited the restaurants to link the bookings and make sure we were sat together.

We'll, you've got eight hours to work it in as a tax expense!😄

Epicurean: £24 is what you pay pp, you won't pay any more, unless you get drinks. If you booked onboard it would have been £30. So, you have essentially received a 20% discount for booking ahead. Sindhu: As you have booked ahead, you will get 20% discount on each item of food; then at the end they also knock your £10 pp from the whole bill. Usually, at least a suit or jacket is required in the MDR, including Chef's Table, on formal nights. That said, lots of fellas enter the dining room wearing a suit, and then remove their jacket when the sit down. I suppose it's down to your restaurant host / head waiter on the evening in question.

Nice!👍 Hope you enjoyed your pancakes because the ones on Arvia are rubbish, even in the 6th St Diner. Did you get sat together? If so, have you got your calculator at the ready? 😉

Have a safe flight and a fantastic cruise 🙂

When were walking along the front at St Maarten, there were a group of about eight outside a bar, the lads just in shorts, and the lasses in bikinis that didn't leave much to the imagination; all lobster red and well inebriated, singing (badly) and jumping about. I remarked that they must be off our ship.🙄

Given what they charge regular punters, that is a poor show from CPS.😠

I'm not surprised; there were one or two right bevvied-up Brits Abroad on that cruise.

Talking of confrontation, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the selfish folk involved choose to take it out on the staff tasked with removing their items. It is likely that the crew so tasked are not members of the security team. With that in mind, I would hope they are provided with BWV, and any passenger recorded as displaying abusive or violent behaviour is dealt with robustly.

A litre bottle of Bombay Sapphire was £15 on Arvia. I was holding out for it being on one of the daily special offers, but it sold out towards the end of the cruise. I will try again in June.

We're using CPS for the first time in September, but only because the trade off of £120 OBC worked out cheaper than other suppliers. I hope we don't have a bad experience.

I concur with Selbourne about Parking4Cruises; we used them for the first time last September and they were great. We gave them a time of 09:30 for return, and when we docked a lot earlier than that, I was concerned my estimate was too late. I need not have been; when I checked my dash cam later, it had been brought back at 07:00. I have a feeling that Olive Grove is now on the virtual queue system. If you fancy the 710 club, I would suggest you try and book whilst in the terminal or as soon as you board, as it was booked solid on Arvia last month. Have a fantastic cruise🙂

Of course, there's that too. Coming back next year, we'll have several shorter days, but at least we won't suffer the jetlag we do when flying.

If it is true, I hope so too.

4 litres each now, so with three cruises in the next year we'll do alright 👍

I agree, particularly if it's in the Caribbean

We looked at that when we were on Arvia last month but decided upon a Britannia one this September and the Arvia repositioning cruise next March. We may well look at a similar cruise in the future.

We had our first Transatlantic cruise in January, on Arvia's maiden voyage to the Caribbean. We weren't sure how we would get on with the six sea days between Tenerife and St Maarten. As it happens, we loved it. The weather was beautiful and the sea was relatively clam, and we we so chilled out by the time we reached St Maarten. Thereafter, it was busy, busy, busy, with a port day everyday, followed by a very stressful flight home. We are doing the same next March, but in reverse; flying out to Antigua and getting all the ports out of the way before cruising back. We're probably looking forward to that more, as we'll arrive back in Southampton relatively stress free. And, we'll be able to bring more booze back without worrying about weight or breakages!😉

Further to the above, on our recent Caribbean cruise and on the day we hit our first island, St Maarten, all the Hawaiian shirts were on display at dinner in the MDR, some worn with shorts.

From the Cruise Planner: Evening casual Be as creative as you like! After a busy day exploring ashore (or lazing by the pool), there’s so much to look forward to on board. For Evening Casual nights, dress as you would for dinner in a nice restaurant. Think smart-casual trousers and tops, shirts and skirts, or midis, maxis minis and mules. And darker denims too. But no tracksuits (unless you’re in the gym). For Caribbean holidays tailored shorts may be worn in the buffet areas and open deck bars. What to pair them with is up to you!

👍 We'll see if we can manage to book one or two when we're on Iona in June.

Was it any good? Did we miss anything?

We'll, if you really want me to explain myself; I meant to quote the two of you - the OP because they asked the original question, and you because you made reference to the app. But I hadn't done it correctly. Don't worry, it's not a conspiracy you know.🤭

Meridian doesn't have tablecloths, apart from the formal nights; they are wooden tables, but look cleaner than those in 🥄🥄🥄 . It also has a few tables next to the picture windows at the stern, whereas Zenith looks down onto those. Both have a good mix of different sized tables. We only ate in Zenith so I cannot compare the experiences; both though were busy on formal nights so book ahead.

When we were on Arvia last month these were titles given to the shows across the two weeks: Supergroup Sound Handwritten (singer/songwriters) American Vinyl The Nation's Number 1s On The Rocks (Gary says, "My vision was to recreate your rock favourites with an intimate edgy spin") Essence Of The 90s On two nights the resident band had a break and were replaced by Maddison A, the singer that was usually in Brodies. We would have gone to a couple of them but had no chance as all shows, apart from a couple of the ones at 00:15, were booked from the start of the cruise. And at quarter past midnight I was usually in my bed with my water bottle (our lass)😴