devonuk

Only these will do…

My wife has one particular dress which cost more than an average ex UK inside 7 night cruise and I for one would be livid if drips from a glass ruined it due to not having coasters 🤬

Arvia in St Maarten on my trip listed as ‘depart evening’, left in the afternoon 🤷‍♂️

Guys… can you realistically feel confident enough to pre book ‘private’ excursions if you don’t know the actual times you will arrive and depart? I rest my case 😊

Absolutely 😳

So you’ll get all stressy and book their shore excursions of course 😎

I was on an inside cabin on 15 deck under the Sky Dome and I can with authority tell you 2 things. 1. You don’t need to actually go to the Sky Dome to listen to the acts and 2. You don’t need to set an alarm to wake up if you’re happy to wake up when the Sky Dome chairs and sun beds are rearranged every morning! The worst we had in the 2 weeks was an 04:40 Sky Dome sound check/rehearsal 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Just printed off the latest P&O luggage label for my Feb cruise and there is a prohibited items drawing of a suitcase with a pair of scissors therein which I’ve never noticed before 🤔 This throws the debate open I guess 😳😊

My daughter informs me that a few weeks ago Cunard provided a shuttle bus from the berth next to the bridge, into the Centre, despite it not being to far away.

The ship should pretty much moor up in the City Centre.

What they’re looking for is cruise specific cover but to be fair they’re not checking.

Ray Quinn and a drag artist 😬

As stated above it means ‘do not cut off’.

Leaving Arvia later today and I can certainly say that ‘freedom dining’ is a very loose term. I’d use ‘take it or leave it’ dining 😂 As a footnote the Sky dome is knackered and won’t retract 🤦‍♂️ So much for the advertising blurb 🙄 All in all a great trip but I’d I have been mightily hacked off if I’d paid what some of my ship mates had paid 😬

If you had brought it into the UK and ‘declared’ the tax and custom fee would have made the watch cost approx £610 😳

Just remember that what ever you purchase above your UK allowance has to be declared and the VAT etc paid on the item(s). Yes the watches etc are Tax and Duty free but that doesn’t include what you have to pay on bringing it home. For instance I bought a $9000 watch recently and the UK fee was £1615 😳 Of course you can try and not declare it. But beware the items can be seized and you’ll still have to pay the fine, VAT and the custom fee. Also, with regard to insurance any loss adjuster would check the provenance of the watch and if it’s held ‘illegally’ the insurance company won’t pay 😬 Buyer beware 👍

Arvia put on a 23:00 show in the Sky Dome last night called ‘X’ OMG we may as well have taken our bed up to see the show as the cabin was ‘bouncing’. Anybody who has seen this show will know what I mean 😬 Noise aside we’re still enjoying our trip and despite a few issues it’s been pretty damn good considering what we paid. To clear up an earlier enquiry, yes, the balconies on 15 deck near the Sky Dome are noisy too.

It’s all hours of the day and night but more noticeable during the early hours when the crew are ‘banging around’. The worst for us was a Sky dome sound ‘check’ at 04:40 on the first full morning on board we wondered what the hell and more so, why? We would sail again on the Arvia but most definitely nowhere below the sky dome on 15 deck and I guess the balcony cabins will have some of the same issues with chair and sun-bed movements but I’ve not asked anyone yet.

Book well in advance as it’s sold out on the current cruise and it wasn’t cheaper on board. Surprisingly no pro rata return of fees was available for days when the retreat was out of bounds due to the sea state recently 🤷‍♂️ I know some passengers are taking this further.

A good 30 inside cabins are effected by the noise unfortunately 😧

Update… Mostly okay now re dining. A few issues with iPhone users losing some functions on the my holiday app. A change of time was required to reset the ‘system' 🤷‍♂️ A few products such as Weetabix, grapefruit juice etc are in short supply but not the end of the world 😀 All in all now things are settled it’s been an enjoyable week and the weather now makes everything seem okay, even with the 7am sunbed rush 🤦‍♂️ I’d never book a 15 deck cabin anywhere near the sky dome though, the noise is unbearable at times and continues through the night 🤬

It goes into another corridor and ‘shops’.

It’s been a swell 😂

19:36 exactly and we’d joined the queue at 19:00. We’ve also left it much later and found the same. The pic was taken on the ‘celebration’ black tie event and by the time we ate they’d run out of Amuse Bouche 🤦‍♂️

Booked on the left walk ins on the right… the queue at one stage reached the length of this particular corridor. No drinks or chairs offered, very hot and claustrophobic and this led to arguments between guest unfortunately 😳