Arvia Appreciation Thread

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

It was very noisy in our Iona cabin, 

We're you having a party?.🤣

[Selbourne]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:41 PM, Ardennais said:

We must have been lucky - never heard drawers being opened and shut! 

You have indeed been lucky. We seem to have the ‘open and shut every drawer at every opportunity’ type next door to us every ruddy cruise!

[Angel57]

35 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

You have indeed been lucky. We seem to have the ‘open and shut every drawer at every opportunity’ type next door to us every ruddy cruise!

I agree……

If I return to the cabin after 1030pm I wouldn’t dream of putting things away and disturb my neighbours. 

[terrierjohn]

42 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

I agree……

If I return to the cabin after 1030pm I wouldn’t dream of putting things away and disturb my neighbours. 

Possibly one of the reasons for Iona and Arvia having shelves and not drawers.

[Fionboard]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Possibly one of the reasons for Iona and Arvia having shelves and not drawers.

Or less carpentry work and materials!

[Interestedcruisefan]

5 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Possibly one of the reasons for Iona and Arvia having shelves and not drawers.

It's the same in a lot of hotels now

 

 

[Britboys]

3 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Or less carpentry work and materials!

Sssshhhh - don't give them ideas for cutting costs more or the next ship might have just hanging rails and no wardrobes...😉

[Fionboard]

Just now, Britboys said:

Sssshhhh - don't give them ideas for cutting costs more or the next ship might have just hanging rails and no wardrobes...😉

Actually I prefer the hanging rail arrangement on Ventura.

[Britboys]

1 minute ago, Fionboard said:

Actually I prefer the hanging rail arrangement on Ventura.

Yes, that arrangement works well. The Ambassador Ambience is an old (30+ years old) Princess ship and has the same walk-in wardrobe design. Probably not used now as it takes up too much space...

[alpha whiskey]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Yes, that arrangement works well. The Ambassador Ambience is an old (30+ years old) Princess ship and has the same walk-in wardrobe design. Probably not used now as it takes up too much space...

I am a fan of the open walk in wardrobe too, and very happy that Princess have carried this forward to Sky and Enchanted too👍

[doog442]

21 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Most ships you cannot turn the aircon off, you can only adjust the temp setting. 

 

Neutral is off as far as I'm concerned but if I really wanted to turn it off I'd leave the balcony door open. 

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

It's the same in a lot of hotels now

 

 

Yes, in the Premier Inn type. Easier to clean I suppose and reducing the risk of accidentally leaving stuff behind. I actually don’t mind in a budget hotel as we only stay 1-2 nights but I did find it a nuisance on Iona. I like being able to keep the room tidy and having drawers for jewellery, paperwork etc. The narrow open bedside cabinets were useless too. Too small to be of any real use. 

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Actually I prefer the hanging rail arrangement on Ventura.

Me too! It was a real tight squeeze between the bed and the wardrobe on Iona. The cabins could definitely have been better designed. 

[Ardennais]

My comments about the cabin would have been the only real negative comments about our cruise on Iona had we received a post-cruise questionnaire, and then only slightly negative. Otherwise, we really loved Iona. I really don’t think they want any meaningful feedback! 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

Yes, in the Premier Inn type. Easier to clean I suppose and reducing the risk of accidentally leaving stuff behind. I actually don’t mind in a budget hotel as we only stay 1-2 nights but I did find it a nuisance on Iona. I like being able to keep the room tidy and having drawers for jewellery, paperwork etc. The narrow open bedside cabinets were useless too. Too small to be of any real use. 

But Iona has wardrobes with shelves, where you can stack clothes, and keep paperwork and your costume jewelry, I assume any expensive jewelry is kept in the safe. Or at least our accessible cabin had 2 wardrobes one with hanging, and the other with shelves, which was plenty of space for far more clothes than we had taken. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by terrierjohn

[Gettingwarmer]

9 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But Iona has wardrobes with shelves, where you can stack clothes, and keep paperwork and your costume jewelry, I assume any expensive jewelry is kept in the safe. Or at least our accessible cabin had 2 wardrobes one with hanging, and the other with shelves, which was plenty of space for far more clothes than we had taken. 

I did not find there were enough shelves in the wardrobe. I took thin bags to put underwear socks etc in and stored them on top of clothes on the shelves so I could pull them out to get to what I wanted. The shelves by the bed would have been ok if they were as large as the units used to be but they are very small and things kept falling off of them. 

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, Angel57 said:

I agree……

If I return to the cabin after 1030pm I wouldn’t dream of putting things away and disturb my neighbours. 

You are considerate. Unfortunately others are not, both in the evening and in the early morning. 

I just don't understand why people need to keep opening drawers. 

Perhaps Selbourne and I should start an ADOS  group ( Anti Drawer Opening Society).

 

[Ardennais]

31 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But Iona has wardrobes with shelves, where you can stack clothes, and keep paperwork and your costume jewelry, I assume any expensive jewelry is kept in the safe. Or at least our accessible cabin had 2 wardrobes one with hanging, and the other with shelves, which was plenty of space for far more clothes than we had taken. 

Our shelves were full of clothes. 
I never take expensive jewellery, just my usual every day collection which is quite extensive. 
We won’t agree on this, but to me it was a pain. As noted by Gettingwarmer, things kept falling out of the bedside unit.

You might have had additional space due to it being an accessible cabin. Ours was very narrow on Iona and when I remarked on it to the steward, he agreed that the cabins were narrower but longer. The sofa was huge so I can’t understand why the bedside units were so narrow. My A4 plastic folder kept falling out. 

[Ardennais]

I have never heard drawers being closed and opened, day or night! 

[Gettingwarmer]

18 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Our shelves were full of clothes. 
I never take expensive jewellery, just my usual every day collection which is quite extensive. 
We won’t agree on this, but to me it was a pain. As noted by Gettingwarmer, things kept falling out of the bedside unit.

You might have had additional space due to it being an accessible cabin. Ours was very narrow on Iona and when I remarked on it to the steward, he agreed that the cabins were narrower but longer. The sofa was huge so I can’t understand why the bedside units were so narrow. My A4 plastic folder kept falling out. 

The cabins are indeed very narrow, every time you passed someone on the sofa they had to move their legs. We had a deluxe balcony which at least had a turn around circle in the middle to pass each other. The sofa was bench like and hard and uncomfortable. 

[Ardennais]

Every night, we removed our bulky winter coats which were hanging on the hooks opposite the bathroom door, and placed them on the sofa. The first morning, room service had great difficulty getting past them with the breakfast tray as the space was so narrow. It’s a shame that the standard balcony cabins are narrower than usual. These are all small niggles, but could have been avoided, 

[JDB78]

Regarding the gym facilities on Arvia, presumably there are changing rooms? Shower and lockers? Just without the sauna / steam room?

 

My only other experience was on Ventura where the gym was part of the spa area so could use the sauna for free. I believe this is not the case on Arvia as its chargeable.

[Interestedcruisefan]

7 hours ago, JDB78 said:

Regarding the gym facilities on Arvia, presumably there are changing rooms? Shower and lockers? Just without the sauna / steam room?

 

My only other experience was on Ventura where the gym was part of the spa area so could use the sauna for free. I believe this is not the case on Arvia as its chargeable.

There was definitely an accessible toilet in Arvia gym

 

However, I didn't see or use changing rooms or showers in there

 

That  doesn't mean there aren't any. I didn't ask tbh

 

The spa and gym are reasonably close to each other but opposite sides of the ship. The gym was definitely on deck 5 and the spa on deck 6 (I believe). We didn't use the spa

 

On disembarkation day I googled about shower rooms for getting changed In before leaving the ship and the suggestions for Arvia were to use one of the many outdoor showers on the decks

 

That doesn't mean there aren't internal showers and changing rooms you could use but they distinctly do not promote them  if they are available

 

I used to go to the gym changed and head back to my cabin for showers or get changed etc when needed. 

 

I didn't see lockers. I only had my phone with me in a small bag with a charger when I went to the gym. And found it was a good place to charge the phone using plug sockets in there whilst I trained. Just on the floor near where the gym equipment was 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[stocktonmackem]

Thank you for the review, It has certainly made me look forward to my cruise in June. It will be the first one I am doing solo (hubby not well enough to go ) but it's good to know that there are plenty of shows and entertainment venues to keep me happy. 

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 hour ago, stocktonmackem said:

Thank you for the review, It has certainly made me look forward to my cruise in June. It will be the first one I am doing solo (hubby not well enough to go ) but it's good to know that there are plenty of shows and entertainment venues to keep me happy. 

Yes I didn't really mention the atrium much but there was always a lot happening in there  as well (lots of pianist events) also Brodies seemed to have lots of quizzes happening. And there was always entertainment in the Club House and skydome as well in the evenings 

 

You certainly won't have any time to get bored!

 

The talks organised by the Art Gallery were also very interesting

 

As was a talk by the fitness instructor that I attended. About improving your health

 

If you enjoy the cruise just half as much as we did it will be great

 

We are re-booking the same cruise on arvia next year

 

I've just this morning confirmed a May cruise on Iona

Edited March 15, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan