Quick Arvia Review

[Mad4WDW]

Hi All,

We’re on Arvia at the moment so here’s a short review of our cruise up to now(We’re in Martinique so I have mobile signal)

 

The stand out moment for me was the ridiculous couple next to me at reception who waited in line 30 mins to complain that they didn’t get good service in the mdr. Apparently they got no bread rolls served to them then when they did there was no butter on the table. Seriously what is wrong with people!

 

The ship is beautiful it’s a little nicer than Iona because of the warmer tones in the colour scheme I think.

 

We tried Mission Control on one of the sea days which I think at £20 each is overpriced.

 

The waiters around the pool have been superb. The waiters in the mdr when we’ve been in there have also been superb. I personally think the system now without wine waiters is a better faster service. The food has been ok as well not brilliant but 7/10 I’d say. We ate in 6th st diner which was nice with great service. We’ve been to sindhu and my meal was great but my wife’s was a bit average but good service still. Shame it’s not as good as it was before, it’s much less of an event now.

 

We saw Matt Terry in Limelight who was really good and we stayed in to watch the limelight house band after the main show and they were also fab, we’ve been back to see them a few more times since. Food was good with the main and desert fab but starters a bit meh.

 

Pulse are decent, but when the dj is on the place is way to big for the amount of people using it after pulse finish so lacks atmosphere.

 

The quays is good with so nice food, we’ve also had great food at the fast food place in the sky dome area.

 

For the buffet moaners, mushrooms are back.

 

Sun beds are a problem. There’s not enough and they go by 7am. On the sea days the crew come out to lay them out and it’s already been done at 7am by passengers who have untied them and situated themselves or their towel.

 

TBH I’ve been more annoyed by how some rude passengers think it’s ok to talk to the crew like they’re something they’ve trod in. I’ve left several shine cards filled out and posted in the box. 
 

Anyway I’m off to the glasshouse 👌👍

 

oh almost forgot Keel and Cow was fab as well

 

Greg

[zap99]

2 minutes ago, Mad4WDW said:

Hi All,

We’re on Arvia at the moment so here’s a short review of our cruise up to now(We’re in Martinique so I have mobile signal)

 

The stand out moment for me was the ridiculous couple next to me at reception who waited in line 30 mins to complain that they didn’t get good service in the mdr. Apparently they got no bread rolls served to them then when they did there was no butter on the table. Seriously what is wrong with people!

 

The ship is beautiful it’s a little nicer than Iona because of the warmer tones in the colour scheme I think.

 

We tried Mission Control on one of the sea days which I think at £20 each is overpriced.

 

The waiters around the pool have been superb. The waiters in the mdr when we’ve been in there have also been superb. I personally think the system now without wine waiters is a better faster service. The food has been ok as well not brilliant but 7/10 I’d say. We ate in 6th st diner which was nice with great service. We’ve been to sindhu and my meal was great but my wife’s was a bit average but good service still. Shame it’s not as good as it was before, it’s much less of an event now.

 

We saw Matt Terry in Limelight who was really good and we stayed in to watch the limelight house band after the main show and they were also fab, we’ve been back to see them a few more times since. Food was good with the main and desert fab but starters a bit meh.

 

Pulse are decent, but when the dj is on the place is way to big for the amount of people using it after pulse finish so lacks atmosphere.

 

The quays is good with so nice food, we’ve also had great food at the fast food place in the sky dome area.

 

For the buffet moaners, mushrooms are back.

 

Sun beds are a problem. There’s not enough and they go by 7am. On the sea days the crew come out to lay them out and it’s already been done at 7am by passengers who have untied them and situated themselves or their towel.

 

TBH I’ve been more annoyed by how some rude passengers think it’s ok to talk to the crew like they’re something they’ve trod in. I’ve left several shine cards filled out and posted in the box. 
 

Anyway I’m off to the glasshouse 👌👍

 

oh almost forgot Keel and Cow was fab as well

 

Greg

Sound good. It's now towards the top of our list. Thanks.

[TigerB]

Thanks Greg.👍

We too had a great cruise on Arvia apart from a few niggles.

I posted my initial thoughts here:

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2905927-arvia-ta-k301a-initial-thoughts/

I intend to update that but have been very busy since we got back.

 

I posted about the entertainment, starting at post #4 on this thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2909280-arvia-entertainment-restaurants/

 

I have also posted about the restaurants we tried, starting at post #4 on this thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2909585-arvia-dining-expectations-vs-reality/

 

I wonder how they compare to your experience thus far.

 

I totally agree with you about folk who are quick to moan about trivial things, and those that are simply rude. For us, the rudest were those that chose not to look below chest height when rushing towards an opening lift, thereby ignoring wheelchair users and other vulnerable folk. I was quite vocal about it to a few, I can tell you.

Oh yes, the sunbed pouncers! A couple of times I was awake at about 6am and had a wander onto our balcony, to see folk placing towels and books on sunbeds on the promenade deck.  It used to be a running joke about the Germans, but I swear that Brits abroad are the worst offenders.

 

Enjoy the remainder of your cruise. 🙂

Edited January 31, 2023 by TigerB

[majortom10]

All I can say if people on holiday get up at 6am especially to put towel/book on a sunbed are really sad and want their heads shaking. When ever you speak to people everybody agrees so where do these people come from as I am pretty certain that there are not many Germans on onboard.

[davecttr]

I do get up at about 6am but not to put a towel on a sunbed. I am horizontally challenged on a sunbed. Imagine a small beached whale. I like to be first in the buffet at 6.30. Really relaxing with about 6 customers. After breakfast 3 circuits of Iona's prom deck, 2 1/4 times round is a mile.

[TigerB]

3 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I do get up at about 6am but not to put a towel on a sunbed. I am horizontally challenged on a sunbed. Imagine a small beached whale. I like to be first in the buffet at 6.30. Really relaxing with about 6 customers. After breakfast 3 circuits of Iona's prom deck, 2 1/4 times round is a mile.

I should hope that, during your circuit, you are moving towels and books from loungers to others.😉🤭

[Megabear2]

5 minutes ago, TigerB said:

I should hope that, during your circuit, you are moving towels and books from loungers to others.😉🤭

My OH swims every morning as the pools open, normally at 7.00am so he wanders up to the pool around 6.40.  At Christmas the staff on Britannia very helpfully opened the pools at 6.45 to allow him and a lady who swam every morning to train for a sports event in as they were there.  Most mornings there were 30 to 40 people waiting to grab sunbeds at 6.40 and some of them moaned vociferously at the staff for opening the pool before setting up the beds.  

 

Never before seen so many hopping around and twitching like greyhounds in the traps.  Perhaps this is the future of cruising.

[davecttr]

22 minutes ago, TigerB said:

I should hope that, during your circuit, you are moving towels and books from loungers to others.😉🤭

The cruise is 10 days away so I will need a torch for my walk. It will be fun to see towels in the dark 😁

[Fionboard]

Another reason a balcony is worth the extra!

[Windsurfboy]

O 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Windsurfboy

[Windsurfboy]

Or even better a rear corner suite with sunbeds 

[Josy1953]

Reading about the reservation of sunbeds makes me glad that I don't do sunbathing due to burning very easily even with factor 50.  We invariably have a balcony because it is quieter than the public spaces and I can sit outside and move around a bit into the shader spots.  OH one of those annoying people who never burns and always gets a really nice tan Grrrrrrrrr. 

[Mad4WDW]

Hi All,

 

We're back now and had a great time! Arvia is a beautiful ship with its modern decor, the only thing I would change would be to give it a deck layout like Britannia with the central pools and bin off the roof. There's no great sailaways like we're used to on Britannia because of the way it scatters people around.

 

710 club band were awesome. There was a great version of Pulse onboard.Limelight club was great as were the limelight house band.

 

Oddly they no longer post the horizon menu up so you have to actually walk through the food area to see what's available.

 

Sunbed availability is a huge problem, there seems to be way too few loungers for the passenger count. There's space for more on the open decks. The sky dome pool is under utilised which doesn't help.

 

There's seems to be a huge problem with noise during the night in the deck 15 balcony cabins. Our friends were affected, the noise sounds like pipes rattling under pressure, really loud starting at approx 3:30am every night sometimes for hours. They were offered a different cabin, so were their neighbours.

 

Thats all I can think of for now

 

Cheers

 

Greg

[Sonyar]

6 hours ago, Mad4WDW said:

Hi All,

 

We're back now and had a great time! Arvia is a beautiful ship with its modern decor, the only thing I would change would be to give it a deck layout like Britannia with the central pools and bin off the roof. There's no great sailaways like we're used to on Britannia because of the way it scatters people around.

 

710 club band were awesome. There was a great version of Pulse onboard.Limelight club was great as were the limelight house band.

 

Oddly they no longer post the horizon menu up so you have to actually walk through the food area to see what's available.

 

Sunbed availability is a huge problem, there seems to be way too few loungers for the passenger count. There's space for more on the open decks. The sky dome pool is under utilised which doesn't help.

 

There's seems to be a huge problem with noise during the night in the deck 15 balcony cabins. Our friends were affected, the noise sounds like pipes rattling under pressure, really loud starting at approx 3:30am every night sometimes for hours. They were offered a different cabin, so were their neighbours.

 

Thats all I can think of for now

 

Cheers

 

Greg

We're arrived back this morning. No noise in our balcony cabin 15238.

Fully agree with you re the big open deck space on Britannia.

It's a shame the SkyDome roof was shut so often with aircon then blasting out. 

[Megabear2]

19 minutes ago, Sonyar said:

We're arrived back this morning. No noise in our balcony cabin 15238.

Fully agree with you re the big open deck space on Britannia.

It's a shame the SkyDome roof was shut so often with aircon then blasting out. 

Is that planned or was the roof stuck like it apparently was on the transatlantic crossing?

[Sonyar]

Just now, Megabear2 said:

Is that planned or was the roof stuck like it apparently was on the transatlantic crossing?

The roof was fixed part way through our first week. We watched an evening show in the rain (roof open), then it seemed to be open or closed on an ad-hoc basis.

On lovely Caribbean nights with a pleasant outside temperature it was cold in the SkyDome.

P&O keep banging on how green Arvia is, yet shut the roof and put the aircon on. Wasn't very good for the sound in there either.

[Fionboard]

If Arvia is anything like Iona, the sky dome is the most unappealing place for a drink or entertainment. Cold, with terrible acoustics. Reminded me of the swimming pool area at our local holiday camp! 

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Fionboard said:

If Arvia is anything like Iona, the sky dome is the most unappealing place for a drink or entertainment. Cold, with terrible acoustics. Reminded me of the swimming pool area at our local holiday camp! 

What's it like in the day on Iona?

[mickrory]

Greg many thanks for review and update, very helpful.

[Mad4WDW]

13 hours ago, Sonyar said:

We're arrived back this morning. No noise in our balcony cabin 15238.

Fully agree with you re the big open deck space on Britannia.

It's a shame the SkyDome roof was shut so often with aircon then blasting out. 

Our friends were in one of the large balconies with the extra side on view down the side of the ship, it was huge. They video'd the noise, it was horrendous, very very loud from about 3:30am every night and lasted a couple hours. It wasn't noise from the balcony it was what I'd describe as pipework noise. Almost like a pipe under sudden pressure then release that was causing rattling. They were in 15242 port side. Several of their neighbours had similar noise and were also moved. Sounds like you were right by them so were lucky if you didn't get the same problem. They need to take the room out of service IMHO and get access into the ceiling space, it probably needs rubber dampening fitter to stop the rattling of metal against metal. We were in 15235 and heard a little bit of noise at the same time, not enough to wake us but I heard it one night when I got up to go to the loo. 

 

I think P & O made things worse by lying to our friends about no one else complaining when they'd already spoke to several people about it. They were talking to all the cabins around them because their balcony overlooked them all 🤣

 

Yep skydome closed with aircon on is bizarre! It was really under utilised, the chairs in there don't help, having it open with actual loungers like on deck in at least part of it would help.

 

 

[Mad4WDW]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

What's it like in the day on Iona?

 

On Iona they actually have loungers in 2 rows around each side, it's pretty nice to relax and watch the scenery from there, we enjoyed it. If you're in the sun you feel warm even with a moderate ambient temperature in the space. Arvia has chairs the same as on the balconies in the centre and dining tables and chairs around the outside edges.

 

Because the skydome on Arvia has this layout it forces more people to the other pools which are already too small for the ship size. The Infinity pool area is first to fill followed by Beachcomber. These pools are VERY busy. 

[Sonyar]

1 hour ago, Mad4WDW said:

Our friends were in one of the large balconies with the extra side on view down the side of the ship, it was huge. They video'd the noise, it was horrendous, very very loud from about 3:30am every night and lasted a couple hours. It wasn't noise from the balcony it was what I'd describe as pipework noise. Almost like a pipe under sudden pressure then release that was causing rattling. They were in 15242 port side. Several of their neighbours had similar noise and were also moved. Sounds like you were right by them so were lucky if you didn't get the same problem. They need to take the room out of service IMHO and get access into the ceiling space, it probably needs rubber dampening fitter to stop the rattling of metal against metal. We were in 15235 and heard a little bit of noise at the same time, not enough to wake us but I heard it one night when I got up to go to the loo. 

 

I think P & O made things worse by lying to our friends about no one else complaining when they'd already spoke to several people about it. They were talking to all the cabins around them because their balcony overlooked them all 🤣

 

Yep skydome closed with aircon on is bizarre! It was really under utilised, the chairs in there don't help, having it open with actual loungers like on deck in at least part of it would help.

 

 

What a shame for them, amazing that we heard nothing.

I did notice the door to the crew area there was constantly open, could that have had something to do with it?

[Sonyar]

1 hour ago, Mad4WDW said:

Our friends were in one of the large balconies with the extra side on view down the side of the ship, it was huge. They video'd the noise, it was horrendous, very very loud from about 3:30am every night and lasted a couple hours. It wasn't noise from the balcony it was what I'd describe as pipework noise. Almost like a pipe under sudden pressure then release that was causing rattling. They were in 15242 port side. Several of their neighbours had similar noise and were also moved. Sounds like you were right by them so were lucky if you didn't get the same problem. They need to take the room out of service IMHO and get access into the ceiling space, it probably needs rubber dampening fitter to stop the rattling of metal against metal. We were in 15235 and heard a little bit of noise at the same time, not enough to wake us but I heard it one night when I got up to go to the loo. 

 

I think P & O made things worse by lying to our friends about no one else complaining when they'd already spoke to several people about it. They were talking to all the cabins around them because their balcony overlooked them all 🤣

 

Yep skydome closed with aircon on is bizarre! It was really under utilised, the chairs in there don't help, having it open with actual loungers like on deck in at least part of it would help.

 

 

What a shame for them, amazing that we heard nothing.

I did notice the door to the crew area there was constantly open, could that have had something to do with it?

[Sonyar]

1 hour ago, Mad4WDW said:

Our friends were in one of the large balconies with the extra side on view down the side of the ship, it was huge. They video'd the noise, it was horrendous, very very loud from about 3:30am every night and lasted a couple hours. It wasn't noise from the balcony it was what I'd describe as pipework noise. Almost like a pipe under sudden pressure then release that was causing rattling. They were in 15242 port side. Several of their neighbours had similar noise and were also moved. Sounds like you were right by them so were lucky if you didn't get the same problem. They need to take the room out of service IMHO and get access into the ceiling space, it probably needs rubber dampening fitter to stop the rattling of metal against metal. We were in 15235 and heard a little bit of noise at the same time, not enough to wake us but I heard it one night when I got up to go to the loo. 

 

I think P & O made things worse by lying to our friends about no one else complaining when they'd already spoke to several people about it. They were talking to all the cabins around them because their balcony overlooked them all 🤣

 

Yep skydome closed with aircon on is bizarre! It was really under utilised, the chairs in there don't help, having it open with actual loungers like on deck in at least part of it would help.

 

 

What a shame for them, amazing that we heard nothing.

I did notice the door to the crew area there was constantly open, could that have had something to do with it?

[Sonyar]

1 hour ago, Mad4WDW said:

Our friends were in one of the large balconies with the extra side on view down the side of the ship, it was huge. They video'd the noise, it was horrendous, very very loud from about 3:30am every night and lasted a couple hours. It wasn't noise from the balcony it was what I'd describe as pipework noise. Almost like a pipe under sudden pressure then release that was causing rattling. They were in 15242 port side. Several of their neighbours had similar noise and were also moved. Sounds like you were right by them so were lucky if you didn't get the same problem. They need to take the room out of service IMHO and get access into the ceiling space, it probably needs rubber dampening fitter to stop the rattling of metal against metal. We were in 15235 and heard a little bit of noise at the same time, not enough to wake us but I heard it one night when I got up to go to the loo. 

 

I think P & O made things worse by lying to our friends about no one else complaining when they'd already spoke to several people about it. They were talking to all the cabins around them because their balcony overlooked them all 🤣

 

Yep skydome closed with aircon on is bizarre! It was really under utilised, the chairs in there don't help, having it open with actual loungers like on deck in at least part of it would help.

 

 

What a shame for them, amazing that we heard nothing.

I did notice the door to the crew area there was constantly open, could that have had something to do with it?