doog442

I looked at this early doors and recall approx £6500k for two in a select GE balcony cabin with about £700 OBC.

I see the OP's on the Arvia. No such problems for us and we were in an aft cabin with tremendous views and a deeper balcony. We had no corridor noise at all and little movement despite heavy seas on a few days. Due to the cabin location we felt quite detached from the rest of the ship so have booked the same again.

As I said further up I'm not that fussed about PE on TUI as usually the seat pitch is decent.(I've been lucky I guess) However as an aside and out of interest price wise I contacted my TA about PE for our December cruise (TUI) and were told that they couldn't do anything until 14 weeks before departure. I recall using a different TA in the past and them offering PE well in advance. I'm just wondering if I'm being fobbed off, it's in their too difficult box or the 14 weeks is a thing. I appreciate its probably a requirement for choosing individual seats but allocating PE seats in advance as you've managed to do ? As I said we're with TUI and we even have a flight number. Just looking at their aircraft I see they operate a 787-8 without PE, might explain things I guess.

Captain Camby is a hoot. He must have run out of jokes by now surely😉 We're back on in Dec for another Caribbean, can't wait. Glad you enjoyed it.

We're on the Queen Anne for the Fjords next July, first time on Cunard. Their launch offer and OBC was pretty decent to be fair. The only decent 7 day itinerary was in school holidays so are hoping it won't be over run with screaming rug rats🤣

£700 OBC more than covered our drinks on our two weeks Arvia cruise (even managed to book a few shore excursions) That said we were able to bring a bottle of spirits on (purchased tonic water on board) and also topped up with a few beers in port. Are they checking people bringing alcohol on at ports now ? We had a drinks package on Princess and were simply drinking for the hell of it.

The same here on our Jan Arvia. It's a bugger when these fast moving or even non existent queues mess up the pre meal drinks 🤣. I hate being rushed damned system working too well !

No worries I should have sussed it having re- read your post 🤣. Premium appears to be 2-3-2 on the link which doesn't lean that heavily towards couples. That said clearly a better option than the disaster that was Maleth https://www.aerolopa.com/n0-789

3-3-3 For anyone flying Virgin they still have some right old sheds doing that Caribbean route. If you can, in economy upgrade to Economy delight, seat pitch up to 34". We flew economy classic - never again. We're flying TUI to the Caribbean from Bournemouth in Dec. We've never had a bad TUI long haul and never felt the need to upgrade to PE, perhaps we've been lucky.

On Arvia the centre two cabins beneath the pool were in the drop zone. We however were the next cabin over 11746 Iona equiv 11744. On our recent Caribbean we had no real issues - however on one day in heavy seas I heard a loud smack / crack next door. A substantial amount of water had come over and soaked that balcony, honestly it may well have knocked someone off their feet. I've actually booked a similar cabin on deck 14 for our next Caribbean but wouldn't touch either of the two beneath the drop zone. I can cope with the odd drop (as we had) but for the life of me I can't understand why they haven't addressed this issue as a whole.

Freds bar prices seem reasonable unlike Celebrity, Princess etc who are double. P&O seem stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment. Fred. Olsen Drinks Prices Price From Glass of wine (175ml) £6 Pint of lager £5 Cocktails £7 Glass of champagne £14 Spirits (25ml) £4 Soft drinks £2.50 Cappuccino £3 Americano £3

Princess have dragged the bog standard drinks package down until its almost meaningless and the premium plus puts its way above P&O offerings price wise. As you know P&O have tried to appeal to a new demographic and succeeded . People aren't daft, I know cruises are selling but if this is true there's not much difference now between that all inclusive in the Caribbean or Med and P&O attempting to squeeze things. 'Pre drinks' are almost part of UK culture, balcony, getting glammed up etc, yet the bars are still as busy as hell afterwards. If this happens and they rigidly enforce the policy at cruise ports (not been happening) it will be interesting to see.

We were allocated 8214 on Arvia last year on a last minute saver however we both caught covid so had to cancel. We went back this year but I splashed out on an aft cabin so we had a good look at what we 'might have had' on deck 8. We were on a Caribbean cruise so lots of traffic on that deck. However down here where I live people pay an absolute fortune to have a beach hut, on the promenade and don't bat an eyelid with hundreds of people walking by yards away. Just imagine you're in a posh beach hut 😉..because that's what its like...minus the beach of course. Firstly people might have a quick 'nose' when they arrive on the ship but after walking around the promenade deck within 5 minutes they lose interest, it becomes normal, people are there sat on their so called 'balcony' (*see below) like they're sat outside a beach hut, a cafe - whatever, no one cares. It's not a thing unless you're a blogger / vlogger with nothing better to do than scare people with daft vids. However I hate the way its marketed as a standard balcony because it isn't a balcony by any stretch of the imagination apart from marketing people on cruise ships pretending it is. To be fair its priced accordingly. Anyone booking a balcony cabin on a saver on Iona and Arvia needs to be aware in advance because trust me that's where you will probably end up and as we found out P&O will absolutely refuse to move you beforehand on a saver. That aside as others have said the location is absolutely spot on for amenities.

Hi Andy. I hope you're having a great cruise. I'm hovering over Britannia for a 14 nighter to the Canaries end of Aug. I'm just wondering what your opinion on the cabins and general areas of the ship are now after the refit. I think you said new carpets but does it all look quite uptogether (no yellow loo seats etc)🤣 cheers

They'd nail it if they followed Norwegians design on the Prima...a go kart circuit dominating the ship and drop slides but lets not give them any ideas eh 🤣...we just stared in disbelief. Yet they stick a Norway and Iceland itinerary from the UK for the summer.....? 'Here kids we're going to Norway and Iceland for your summer holiday but you have a race track to keep you busy'.

I don't think we ever ate a roast or spuds on our recent Arvia cruise, very easy to avoid plus we'd never entertain those dishes in the Caribbean. You think a new ship branded to specifically target a new younger family demographic would only serve roast and spuds ?

Yes we had ' DJ Griggsy' belting out his Ibiza chillout music from the sunset bar below on our Caribbean in Jan. We noticed he alternates between deck 8 and deck 16 so good to hear there's no noise when he's upstairs. Annoying as he was it hasn't put us booking another aft cabin, on deck 14 this time and just out of the pool waterfall drop zone. ☔ Those suites look lovely by the way.

Cheers Phil, we had the same although they've extended their response period to three working days. Anyone else with Hargreaves Lansdown ? I've uploaded a very minimal PDF which is about the only thing I can directly access on their site with a date on it.

Just to confirm with the app you 1. Register 2. Upload proof of shares 3. Then 'Redeem perk' ? Do you have to wait for them to acknowledge the proof of shareholding before 'redeeming perk'? cheers

We were next to the Norwegian Prima. It had a 'drop slide' on the port side...it looked like a water slide but the victims were sat on some kind of mat. Without fail they nearly all got stuck halfway down and had to be dragged out by staff at the bottom. It also had a very large go kart track dominating the top deck just to set things off as a ship to avoid at all costs. I just don't get it . If you want this go to Florida and do the parks with a nice villa for probably half the cost. Anyway back to the new carpet on Britannia.

We've booked the Fjords on QA for July 2025 and PG 1 wasn't that far off what you paid - it still isn't, same for July. As it's a Cunard taster for us I booked a BC grade balcony cabin for £2300, less $500 OBC and our shareholder credit and it was about the same as any P&O offering so a no brainer. 2024 was a different story. When I booked in Feb most QA offerings were double 2025 prices.

Dominica I believe. Regarding Tortola we did an official ships tour, the 'vehicle' if you can call it that I honestly thought was to transfer us out of the port area but no it took us around half the Island. No seat belts, bench seats, no doors, screaming brakes, horrific roads but fantastic views. That said I've done public bus rides down the Amalfi coast in Italy last year that were nearly as bad.

I've just quoted our Arvia aft cabin, same Caribbean cruise and date that we had in Jan this year (booked March 23) and the 2026 price is showing a 52.75% increase (this taking into account OBC as well) - no drinks package. These prices are exceeding decent land based all inclusive hotels on spectacular beaches territory with top shelf unlimited drinks. Their strength recently has been undercutting that particular market hence the recent very good value offerings. That said I don't blame them for making hay while the sun shines and /or perhaps the market is changing.

Having eaten in both Meridian and Zenith recently we didn't even notice what was on the table. I do recall one waiter trying to be quite artistic with his crumb cleaner on one occasion so I guess we were in Zenith that night. Third world problems I guess.

We were on Arvia in Feb in aft cabin 11746 which is one of the outers on the central four beneath the pool. On most days we'd get spots of water (not an issue as we're in the Caribbean). However on one day in heavy seas 11748 next to us got an absolute soaking, it sounded like a real 'smack' as it landed, fortunately no one was on the balcony. Having looked at the 'overspill thingy' I'm struggling to see what caused it, perhaps a combination of movement and a large guest jumping in. We'd have the same cabin again in a heartbeat but not one of the inner two beneath the pool.