thornegirl

The drinks menu on the P&O website from May 2023 has a Merlot from Chile 250ml £7.50.  I photographed the wine list in one of the bars and the 250ml Merlot, Chile was £8.80 in April 2024!  

I also thought that wine and spirits onboard were duty and VAT free, (except for 10% added in Spanish waters) unlike pubs and restaurant in the UK.  

6 minutes ago, vitrocmax said:

 

I expect the increase will kick in today on Arvia, I wouldn't expect them to change mid cruise. If we manage to board today we'll find out this evening. 

That would be helpful as the drinks menu prices on the P&O website are from May 2023.

Anybody seen menus with the price increases since the drinks package uplift?

I'm assuming that prices have increased across the board.  

But if you have to divert the cost of the fuel to do so is picked up by the guests insurance. 
we were told that by an officer when the ship we were on had to divert to St Lucia, £40k.  

47 minutes ago, doog442 said:

 

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.

No DJ on the Easter cruise at the sunset bar. 

Were there no other suites on the aft left?  

We were in deluxe balcony 14742 on Arvia at easter and could see that the suites on deck 15 didn't get much sun because of the overhang of deck 16.  I would also be wary of the noise from the sunbeds being moved and put into position in the mornings.

We disembarked Arvia today with 6200 onboard which included 1200 children.  It was very, very busy. An experience which we will not do again.  

We were on Arvia last Easter holidays and I don't remember it being this busy.

29 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

is there anything you need to do to get the “dine my way” or is that included same as p&o s virtual queues are? I’m not paying the full amount until I really have to but it won’t let me book dining until I pay 

If you want to book speciality restaurants before you go you have to pay for them at the time of booking. 
Included dining you don’t pay for. 

We are on this cruise, our second cruise on Arvia. We did exactly the same Easter cruise last year in the same superior deluxe cabin at the rear of the ship. These are my observations on this years cruise comparing them to last years cruise. We have to travel during school holidays as our daughter is a primary school teacher and we take and pick up her children to and from school and also look after her red fox Labrador puppy ( the pup is a lot more hard work than the kids are). 
As I said before these are our observations, so don’t shoot the messenger.

Ship very busy again. 6200 passengers with 1200 children onboard. To be fair the children are well behaved. 
Last year the Keel and Cow was open for food all day, we used to go for breakfast most mornings and sometimes lunch as well. This year even though it says all day dining it’s only open from 5.30 pm. Same for the glasshouse, asked why the reply was the ship is full! Well it was full last year and was open. There are only 2 outlets open in the quays which means less choice.  6th street diner is almost impossible to get in at any time. 

We went to Epicurean for the celebration night which we pre booked , it was ok husband had the smallest scallops ever and filet steak with 3 chunky chips, 1 stem of tenderstem broccoli and 2 leaves of spinach. He had a filet steak the night before in the Keel and Cow and he said that was much better. I had rack of lamb which consisted of 2 lamb cutlets and an inedible lamb belly with 2 tiny potatoes and the same tenderstem broccoli and  spinach. The couple who sat next to us also had the scallops and he said that he was on Arvia in October and these were half the size as they were back then. .

The staff in there were as always superb.  
 

Overall there is not enough choice for food options and cutbacks in portion sizes and quality is now very noticeable in the included dining venues. 
 

we have been loyal P&O customers for the last 15 years but I think now might be time to jump ship as the prices for the smaller ships are getting very expensive.  We are looking at a cruise to Iceland and the difference between the saver and the select fare is £1000 to choose the cabin, you do get £500 obc but it’s still your money being paid out. 
 

Love the modern ship and the room we have is fabulous, two of the waiters in the glasshouse recognised us and  came over to say hello which was lovely.   But they are the only staff that we recognise from all the other ships that we’ve been on.  
 

Would we cruise on Arvia again , no I don’t think so. 

1 hour ago, Somerset Cruiser said:

Drink prices went up on Iona on 28th October. 

So how many times is that this year 2 or 3?

50 minutes ago, Sussexboy said:

We always use Boots anti viral foam, it has anti viral and anti bacterial ingredients. Seems to be kind to our delicate office hands as well.

That's the one that we use, and as you say it's not as drying as the gel ones.  

1 hour ago, Educator69 said:

Any advice about Aurora or P&O Christmas cruising warmly welcomed. The only tour we have booked is a Northern Lights one out of Alta.

Take some heated hand and foot warmers.  We were on the 2019 northern lights cruise and did the Alta trip, my hands were like toast as I had bought a really good pair of gloves but my feet were so cold.  I had to keep going into the tent to get my feet warm. I’ve since bought some really good sheepskin lined boots as we hope to go to the northern lights again in 2025. 

17 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Yes I’m afraid that all the ships have forward and aft thrusters and they can indeed shake you out of bed at times 😂. I don’t mind them because they don’t keep us awake at night.  We like aft cabins but they do often suffer from vibration that you don’t get elsewhere. 

We have been in an aft balcony on Arvia on deck 14, no noise or vibration at all.  Booked the same cabin for our next cruise to the Med in March '24.

1 hour ago, Sarah1974 said:

No, we didn't.  There are fewer speciality restaurants than other ships.  We met a couple who said the Ocean Grill was amazing, and their food pics looked fab.  There's a Sindhu and on sea days a pop-up Glass House in one of the bars

Thanks for your reply, will do some more research 

We are looking at this cruise for next year,  can I ask if you went to any of the speciality restaurants?

Arcadia is the only P&O ship that we haven't been on, good to hear that you enjoyed the ship and the cruise.

54 minutes ago, elmsliebev said:

On Oceana my creme brulee was liquid and didn't have a crunchy caramel top. I complained and was told "that's how Marco likes it" 🤣

Bit similar on Aurora, beach house cesar salad no croutons and no Parmesan cheese.  Told by the manager “that’s how beach house does it”. Also eggs Benedict in MDR the sauce was the consistency of single cream! Horrible. 

1 hour ago, kevboy said:

I know it has been on this forum before but I cannot find it now. Can anyone please advise if I can restrict the spending power of a teenage child using their card onboard?

Ideally, I would like to give them so much every few days. Is this something that can be arranged with customer service desk? Has anyone experienced this?

many thanks, kev

I put some cash on our grandchildrens cards when we were on Iona last year.  Went to reception desk and paid in cash there and put that as their limit.

1 hour ago, CruisingSarah said:

Apparently you can (and need to)  book any of the paid extra speciality restaurants in advance.

It’s a good idea to book Epicurean and the Limelight club before boarding as they get booked up pretty quick.  You can’t prebook the Keel and Cow or the Glasshouse you can join the virtual queue for those restaurants but we didn’t have a problem with the queue when we were in Arvia at Easter. 

Arvia is all freedom dining, no set dining.  

8 minutes ago, studentcruiser23 said:

Ah okay - the thing is, I don’t have exact figures, I just remember that is what it was. The only exact figures I have are for the week before we booked and they are lower than what it was at the time of booking. Will the travel agents have the costs of the time when we booked?

Yes they will have, and that's the price that they have to go with.

1 hour ago, studentcruiser23 said:

I have contacted the travel agent and unfortunately at the moment it is £1000+ to upgrade to a balcony and £900+ just to upgrade to seaview which just isn't ideal when at the time of booking it was only £200 extra per person for the seaview and  £150 for balcony 😞 

You should have been given the cost at the date of your booking, not what the cost is now.  I would go back to your travel agent and remind them of that.

It was on the whatinport website, dropdown box for Norway then click on the town and then it says cruise calendar for this port the information is there usually date order and details each ship in port.  It's also useful to check if there are any other ships in port when your ship is in.  You can then see how busy it will be.

Oh I didn't realise it was Alesund in place of hellisylt.  We were on Aurora last week and our timing for Alesund was 7am - 5pm.  Will be similar to those times, also Aida Nova is in Alesund the same day.

Ive checked for Olden, arrives at 9am leaves at 6pm.  Stavanger 8.30 - 5pm, Hellisylt 7 - 4.30, Haugesund will probably be 9am arrival and leave 4.30.  

whatsinport.com should have the information you need.

57 minutes ago, cruzadict said:

Have they brought back Muster drill today? Last week you just scanned your keycard in your muster station when you boarded.

We were told when we boarded about it.  Asked one of the crew and he said they have to do a physical drill every 6 months and today was the day!