My Arvia Review

[jrphotog]

We’re now 10 days into our Arvia Mediterranean cruise, and I thought I’d post my review of the experience so far, whilst everything is still fresh in my mind. 

 

 

A brief background…

 

We’re a family of four from London, on our first ever cruise. Loads of people told us how great cruises were, and we loved the idea of an all inclusive holiday, lots of entertainment, kids clubs, and various stops.

I’ve been in/around the hospitality industry all my life, so have a keen eye for what’s working, and what’s not.

 

 

Onto the nitty gritty…

 

First and foremost, we are seriously impressed with the ship itself, and the running of the ship. Arvia is a lovely ship, very modern, and on a par with a good four star hotel. Everything is well organised, staffing levels seem high and the staff are polite and helpful, the food is a high standard everywhere, shows are very professional, and everything is spotlessly clean. Overall a very slick operation.

 

The only downside to our cruise, and it is a big downside, is the sheer volume of passengers. I don’t know exact numbers, but being August I’m presuming the ship is at, or near to capacity. It certainly feels that way. Unfortunately Arvia’s main facilities simply can’t cope with this number of people. Horizon buffet often feels like a rugby scrum, the pools are ridiculously small (good luck trying to physically get in, let alone swim on a sea day, or get a deck chair within 100ft of a pool), and the lifts are often full and stop at most floors. We simply didn’t intend to spend many thousands of pounds of our very hard earned money to fight through crowds every single day. It’s also ironic how thoughtful they are about hygiene with auto toilets, hand gel everywhere etc, yet they’ve crammed so many people into such tight spaces, as though they forgot that viruses spread easily in highly crowded environments.

 

Other observations:

 

Kids clubs; our 9 year old loves Scubas, and spends most of his time there. Our 4 year old couldn’t settle into Splashers despite being a friendly outgoing boy. Splashers staff did try to settle him on a few occasions, but we felt (as did others we’ve spoken to) that there’s something missing from that club, and that they’re also a bit quick to page parents and get rid of the kids. There’s definitely not enough there (IMO) to entertain an active 4 year old.

 

Shows: 

Headliners theatre is a superb venue, large, comfortable and great staging. Some shows we pre-booked, others we just turned up and always got a seat. Always very high quality entertainment. 

Skydome: hmm, didn’t really take to it. I hear it’s better than Iona but still the acoustics are not great for singers and shows.

Smaller bars and clubs: all lovely, comfy, smart venues with good music and entertainment. 

 

Cabin: four of us coped pretty well in our regular balcony cabin. But if you’re larger people and/or have older kids it would be pretty tight. Nice smart cabin on the 11th deck, very quiet. Doors occasionally slamming and toilet flushes are the only thing you can hear.

By the way they should put signs in the corridors asking people to close cabin doors quietly. They slam very loudly, enough to wake you up. I also think the Captain should make the occasional announcement about ‘consideration for your fellow guests’.

 

Pools: I know I mentioned this above, but it’s worth reiterating - the pools are comically small. One of the draws was the fact that Arvia is marketed as having multiple pools. As it turns out there are only three available for kids to use, all of them smaller than the average private pool in a Spanish villa, and this is supposed to be okay for 6000 people (a significant proportion of whom are also, how shall I put this delicately, rather large)?! Personally, I’m extremely angry about this. Our kids love to swim, and apart from one shore day when we stayed on board (and the water was freezing btw) we’ve never been able to swim because the pools are too crowded. I was thinking of posting a couple of photos of the pools and whirlpools but I couldn’t be bothered with the blurring of people’s faces. Suffice to say they are rather amusing to look at. 

 

Toilets: There are loads of public toilets all over the ship, and all of them are well maintained and regularly cleaned. The automatic doors (along with hands free taps and soap) are very smart, although I did wonder why you’d go to the expense of all of the above and then have manual toilet flushes - and put them behind the toilet seats? Bizarre. 

 

Atrium: lovely place to sit and relax on any of the three floors, and never busy during the daytime.

 

Kids facilities: despite the size of the ship - and some might disagree with us here - we felt there wasn’t that much for our 4 year old to do. At first glance of Horizon there are lots of activities, but when you drill down they don’t last long, or don’t actually offer much. One case in point, the “circus workshop” was just a load of hoops and toys dumped on the stage for kids to play with. Most kids were pretty bored of it after 10 mins. There are also very few shows aimed at kids. Even the “Kids Party” show was basically just dancers. Yes, there is a splash area, mini golf, and deck games, but for a two week cruise it’s simply not enough to occupy younger kids who won’t stay in the kids club and who can’t get near a pool. Our 4 year old, despite being a VERY active kid and not being addicted to screens, ended up spending way too much time on big bro’s Switch. He actually got excited for the more adult orientated evening shows, just because it was something different to do.
P&O, some advice for you, take a visit to Disney, or even Butlins, and find out how to really entertain kids.

 

Packing list: We’d read up on essential cruise packing lists, and despite wondering if they were overkill we bought most of it. Magnetic hooks were very useful, as were towel clips. 

One thing I found myself was 5 litre Hydramate foldable water containers. These were brilliant for filling up at the filtered water stations and keeping in the cabin.

 

Water: That leads me to the filtered water stations. A great idea, but a bit of a half hearted effort. We only found four on the entire ship - Atrium 6\7 floor, and two in Skydome.

On a ship this size they should have one on every floor, at the very least. 

 

Shore days: we never did official excursions, but the buses were usually well organised. Marseilles was the only poorly organised stop, where passengers had to queue in the rain for over 20 mins to board a bus back to the ship.

 

Captain’s daily: we rather liked his daily spiel, and even found the corny jokes quite amusing!

 

SO…that’s my summary of Arvia. 

It’s certainly been a baptism of fire for our first ever cruise, and overall there have been plenty more positives than negatives. Unfortunately the biggest negative - the sheer volume of passengers in some of the spaces - is a major sticking point for us when it comes to future cruises. I don’t know if it’s just this ship (and by extension Iona), or if every ship is this over-crowded in school holidays. If the latter is true then this will probably be our first and last peak time cruise. And considering we have 14 years left of having to go away in school holiday time, that would be a great shame.

Edited August 29, 2023 by jrphotog

[Selbourne]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I’m pleased to hear that the positives are outweighing the negatives, but not at all surprised to hear that you feel that the ship is very crowded and that you are struggling with the lifts.
 

We had exactly the same issues on Iona last week and had the added problem of trying to get into those busy and tiny lifts with a wheelchair! From what you have seen, I’m sure that you can imagine what that was like!

 

We certainly wouldn’t entertain Iona or Arvia in summer school holidays again and, unfortunately, the experience has put my wife (the wheelchair user) off those ships altogether, even though I know that the problems wouldn’t be any where near as bad at other times. However, once bitten….

 

If you haven’t tried the Olive Grove yet I thoroughly recommend it. We really enjoyed it on Iona. 

[jrphotog]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I’m pleased to hear that the positives are outweighing the negatives, but not at all surprised to hear that you feel that the ship is very crowded and that you are struggling with the lifts.
 

We had exactly the same issues on Iona last week and had the added problem of trying to get into those busy and tiny lifts with a wheelchair! From what you have seen, I’m sure that you can imagine what that was like!

 

We certainly wouldn’t entertain Iona or Arvia in summer school holidays again and, unfortunately, the experience has put my wife (the wheelchair user) off those ships altogether, even though I know that the problems wouldn’t be any where near as bad at other times. However, once bitten….

 

If you haven’t tried the Olive Grove yet I thoroughly recommend it. We really enjoyed it on Iona. 

 

You have my sympathies. There are a number of wheelchair users here too, and I can see how challenging it must be. On the one hand they built ships that seem wheelchair friendly with lots of lifts and ramps, but they failed to consider the impact of actually navigating through a mass of people in small spaces.

[jrphotog]

Addendum to my original post as I don’t seem to be able edit it…

 

Wifi: we paid for one top package, with “faster speeds”. It just about does the job, although frustratingly slow at times. They state that it’s good for steaming, but I tried watching a couple of Netflix shows on my iPad, and it played at the lowest resolution. 
 

My Holiday ‘app’: despite the fact that I build websites, and am quite a tech-head, I’ve been unable to connect to My Holiday on multiple occasions on my iPhone 12. When it works, it works well, but considering the essential nature of the ‘app’ it should be a much smoother process. I also found that, bizarrely, I can never connect to My Holiday whilst also connected to the internet package on the same device. In the end I was able to figure it all out, but how on earth are older and/or less tech savvy people supposed to deal with it? 
They could also do with an on-board messaging system. When members of your party are spread around the ship there’s no way to get hold of each other on sea days. I believe other cruise lines have that.

 

Restaurant bookings; between booking half a dozen early dinners pre-departure, using Horizon buffet and the Quays, and a few virtual queues, we’ve never had any issues getting a table. 
 

Food: as mentioned above, we are impressed with the variety and standard of the food. Table service is generally quite efficient, although the MDRs and Olive Grove take quite a while, and the kids got very antsy.

 

Staff: a large proportion of the staff seem to be Indian or Asian, and they are unfailingly polite and efficient. Our cabin steward, a lovely man from Mumbai who’s been with P&O for 18 years, is incredibly friendly and helpful. We have found that in the MDRs the waiting staff are not particularly warm or chatty, but that could be down to the fact they always looked rushed off their feet.

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by jrphotog

[Thejuggler]

If you don't want overcrowding you need the 'space per passenger figure'. Arvia has a figure of just 29. Mid 30s is the figure to look for.

 

 

[terrierjohn]

11 hours ago, jrphotog said:

Addendum to my original post as I don’t seem to be able edit it…

 

Wifi: we paid for one top package, with “faster speeds”. It just about does the job, although frustratingly slow at times. They state that it’s good for steaming, but I tried watching a couple of Netflix shows on my iPad, and it played at the lowest resolution. 
 

My Holiday ‘app’: despite the fact that I build websites, and am quite a tech-head, I’ve been unable to connect to My Holiday on multiple occasions on my iPhone 12. When it works, it works well, but considering the essential nature of the ‘app’ it should be a much smoother process. I also found that, bizarrely, I can never connect to My Holiday whilst also connected to the internet package on the same device. In the end I was able to figure it all out, but how on earth are older and/or less tech savvy people supposed to deal with it? 
They could also do with an on-board messaging system. When members of your party are spread around the ship there’s no way to get hold of each other on sea days. I believe other cruise lines have that.

 

Restaurant bookings; between booking half a dozen early dinners pre-departure, using Horizon buffet and the Quays, and a few virtual queues, we’ve never had any issues getting a table. 
 

Food: as mentioned above, we are impressed with the variety and standard of the food. Table service is generally quite efficient, although the MDRs and Olive Grove take quite a while, and the kids got very antsy.

 

Staff: a large proportion of the staff seem to be Indian or Asian, and they are unfailingly polite and efficient. Our cabin steward, a lovely man from Mumbai who’s been with P&O for 18 years, is incredibly friendly and helpful. We have found that in the MDRs the waiting staff are not particularly warm or chatty, but that could be down to the fact they always looked rushed off their feet.

 

If you feel that Arvia does not have enough activities for your children, then, I would recommend you consider Royal Caribbean, however their pricing is generally much higher than P&O. Then there is MSC, their pricing is more in line with P&O and  although they ar multi lingual, their ships sailing from Southampton do apparently mainly use Endlish.

As regards the toilets, I have always assumed that the design is intended to make you close the lid because the vacuum flush works more efficiently that way.

[Gettingwarmer]

51 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

As regards the toilets, I have always assumed that the design is intended to make you close the lid because the vacuum flush works more efficiently that way.

Exactly. All ships toilets are designed in this way.

[jrphotog]

5 hours ago, Thejuggler said:

If you don't want overcrowding you need the 'space per passenger figure'. Arvia has a figure of just 29. Mid 30s is the figure to look for.

 

 

Interesting. Where does one find those figures?

[Thejuggler]

Just google 'cruise ship passenger space ratio'.  Add the name of the ship in the search if you want a specific figure.

[jrphotog]

4 hours ago, Thejuggler said:

Just google 'cruise ship passenger space ratio'.  Add the name of the ship in the search if you want a specific figure.

Thanks. So, according to reception we currently have 5804 pax, into 185k tonnage…giving a 32 ratio. 
Even at the ‘official’ max capacity of 5200 that’s still only 35. 
That certainly does seem considerably lower than most other ships. 
I wonder if those ratio lists that people publish are based on the ‘official’ capacity of ships or the true (plus kids) capacity. Because if it’s the latter then in reality the ratios will all be a bit lower. 
Either way, that will definitely inform any future decisions about who to cruise with. 

Edited August 30, 2023 by jrphotog

[JDB78]

We sailed on Arvia in mid June and ran into the exact same issues. Very nice ship but buffet rugby scrum in the mornings. People reserving sunbeds so all gone by 7am. Stories of people running down to the pool areas at half 5 or 6am. Most of the sunbeds left unattended for hours at a time with no-one monitoring or putting stickers on or anything. Not enough pools and far too small. Personally I'd get rid of the sky dome and open it all out if possible to create more space. Either that open the area forward of the dome up bit - I would imagine that would involve less cabins so no chance of that happening 🤣. Somehow P&O need to find a way of creating more deck space imo.

[laslomas]

Thank you for the review - following as I have a cruise booked on Arvia for April next year.

 

Referring to the post above, the crowding is something I am a little concerned about. But, surely, if ships keep adding more and more passenger decks beneath the pool deck this will always be a problem as the pool / lido deck is still the same size. The earlier ships I sailed probably had up to 5 passenger decks compared to 8 or 9 on current new ships. Sun beds were set out in two's with a small table between. It was lovely. I accept the cruise lines want to increase passenger capacity, so my choice is to always book a balcony cabin to ensure my own outside space. But the 'old days' were certainly less crowded. 

Edited August 31, 2023 by laslomas

[TMSA]

We're going on Sunday. I am a bit worried about my 3 year old. We went on Ventura last year and he did like the kids club but it was still operating under covid restrictions so one parent had to stay. Made no sense seeing as the rest of the ship had people rubbing up against each other everywhere. I guess it was due to staff shortages. We did Virtuosa in June and he didn't want to go at all. Not sure how we will entertain him if he doesn't go or like it and its hard to swim

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, laslomas said:

Thank you for the review - following as I have a cruise booked on Arvia for April next year.

 

Referring to the post above, the crowding is something I am a little concerned about. But, surely, if ships keep adding more and more passenger decks beneath the pool deck this will always be a problem as the pool / lido deck is still the same size. The earlier ships I sailed probably had up to 5 passenger decks compared to 8 or 9 on current new ships. Sun beds were set out in two's with a small table between. It was lovely. I accept the cruise lines want to increase passenger capacity, so my choice is to always book a balcony cabin to ensure my own outside space. But the 'old days' were certainly less crowded. 

 

Not only more decks underneath the pool deck,  but much of the top open space is not for sunbathing.  As well as skydome reducing available space , you have the theme park out door adventure where people could otherwise sit. Plus then the pay for retreat.

 

At moment sunbeds dont earn money. Perhaps the only way to get more sunbeds is to make it like continental beaches and charge by the hour. Hope no one from P&O reads this. Perhaps though one should put a deposit on sun bed which is forfeited if left empty for more than half hour. Could be a revenue earner.

[jrphotog]

4 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Not only more decks underneath the pool deck,  but much of the top open space is not for sunbathing.  As well as skydome reducing available space , you have the theme park out door adventure where people could otherwise sit. Plus then the pay for retreat.

 

At moment sunbeds dont earn money. Perhaps the only way to get more sunbeds is to make it like continental beaches and charge by the hour. Hope no one from P&O reads this. Perhaps though one should put a deposit on sun bed which is forfeited if left empty for more than half hour. Could be a revenue earner.

To be fair, between decks 8, 17 and 18 there are a lot of sun beds, and you’ll always find a pair somewhere. Just not always on the sunny side, and rarely by a pool on a sea day. 
P&O definitely need some system of (say) two hour maximum within x radius of a pool. 
Personally I’d also rip out the swim up bar and extend the pool there. And double the rear pool on deck 17 too. 

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, jrphotog said:

To be fair, between decks 8, 17 and 18 there are a lot of sun beds, and you’ll always find a pair somewhere. Just not always on the sunny side, and rarely by a pool on a sea day. 
P&O definitely need some system of (say) two hour maximum within x radius of a pool. 
Personally I’d also rip out the swim up bar and extend the pool there. And double the rear pool on deck 17 too. 

 

I think the major problem is towels left for hours on unused beds

[Son of Anarchy]

One of the things we noticed on Azura earlier this year was by late afternoon people left towels on loungers because they couldn't be bothered to put them in the used towels bins.  Possibly a result of not providing lounger towels in the cabins anymore?  Don't need to take it back to the cabin to get a fresh one, and too lazy to place in the appropriate bins.  We just removed the towels and used the loungers.

[Megabear2]

22 hours ago, jrphotog said:

To be fair, between decks 8, 17 and 18 there are a lot of sun beds, and you’ll always find a pair somewhere. Just not always on the sunny side, and rarely by a pool on a sea day. 
P&O definitely need some system of (say) two hour maximum within x radius of a pool. 
Personally I’d also rip out the swim up bar and extend the pool there. And double the rear pool on deck 17 too. 

Personally I disliked that a very large number of the "sunbeds" were in fact reclining chairs rather than sunbeds.  The number of actual "real" sunbeds around the two small family pools were very limited in number.  

 

I got the impression the relaxer chairs as I called them were to encourage people to not use them all day.

[Gettingwarmer]

10 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Personally I disliked that a very large number of the "sunbeds" were in fact reclining chairs rather than sunbeds.  The number of actual "real" sunbeds around the two small family pools were very limited in number.  

 

I got the impression the relaxer chairs as I called them were to encourage people to not use them all day.

I quite liked having upright chairs to sit on, something lacking on P&O's other ships. Maybe too many on Iona/Arvia but not enough on the others.

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, Gettingwarmer said:

I quite liked having upright chairs to sit on, something lacking on P&O's other ships. Maybe too many on Iona/Arvia but not enough on the others.

I like upright chairs too but found Arvia's to be a sort of half way house which reclined leaving your feet dangling. Just seemed a strange chair to me but I realise they are space saving as well.  

[terrierjohn]

26 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Personally I disliked that a very large number of the "sunbeds" were in fact reclining chairs rather than sunbeds.  The number of actual "real" sunbeds around the two small family pools were very limited in number.  

 

I got the impression the relaxer chairs as I called them were to encourage people to not use them all day.

I found the "relaxer chairs" on Iona very comfortable, and for the crinklies, like me, they were far easier to get on and off than a sunbed.

[Megabear2]

Just now, terrierjohn said:

I found the "relaxer chairs" on Iona very comfortable, and for the crinklies, like me, they were far easier to get on and off than a sunbed.

I'm sure they are great for some. On Arvia on a supposed sun cruise- we didn't get much - they were a bone of contention with the family groups particularly where people wanted to bundle the kids up and sit them around the pool.  

 

Comfort wasn't the issue from what I saw (although personally I wasn't keen), more suitably for sun bathing for families and younger people.

[Interestedcruisefan]

Great review 

 

As someone who is in the hospitality industry how do you find the value of an Arvia cruise compared to taking a family to a land based Mediterranean holiday in the summer holidays with similar dining and entertainment options, activities and facilities available as on Arvia?

 

It's been a while since I priced up a family holiday abroad?

 

But would imagine finding something land based with all the facilities and dining options to compare would be very expensive nowadays?

 

(I  know my friend just paid 10k for a family of 4 to go all inclusive in Egypt for 2 weeks)

 

What did 2 weeks school holidays for all family of 4 cost on Arvia (I realise it's not all inclusive)?

Edited September 14, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

Just priced up Arvia next August for family of 4 no fly Mediterranean for 2 weeks in a balcony cabin

 

5.8k

 

Interestingly all the inside cabins are sold out already so it appears people are putting low price before balconys in August next year on Arvia

 

It's rare to see inside cabins sold out so far in advance for a cruise ship that big?

 

Isn't it?

 

Would imagine inside cabins would have been 1k to 1.5k cheaper?

 

So maybe 4.5k ish?

 

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

In comparison Lanzarote for 2 weeks with travel republic in August decent self catering apartments but limited facilities and entertainment are  starting at 4k for same dates for a family of 4

Edited September 14, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan