GSPG

With 5,700 on board, you are likely to experience the best and ‘not so best’ behaviour of fellow guests at times, but at least the latter should hopefully be in the minority. Having done Iona (Canaries), and Arvia (Med), I don’t think I would go on them again. You can experience most of the same things on a ship roughly half the size (Britannia), but have more overcrowding in certain areas and times on these bigger ships. To me and of course it’s a business but these extra large capacity ships are just for the company to make money, with little extra benefits for the guest. I saw a mention these largest ships are like being in a shopping mall, and I get that!

You were lucky to get in these seats, around 30 teenagers took over this area in the evenings before moving to other areas of the ship. But this was their favourite hang out!

On week 2, on our Arvia cruise on the 9th July the lifts had glasses and food strewn across them on every night and drunk pint glasses of coke left on hand sanitiser stations.

Yes it seems bonkers how quickly time seems to go now. One week seemed to be nothing, now 2 weeks feels little different.

Seems they don’t want to ‘upset’ people by challenging them. The same with sun beds, all the talk about removing items if the bed hasn’t been used for an hour or so just isn’t followed up. The management just don’t want altercations and causing scenes. Like children, there are always people who push the boundaries, give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. While many of our upbringings from proper parenting did see us ‘conditioned’ to respect, be decent and understand rules, I see it some adults were taught to abide by their ‘own rules’. While it’s difficult for management to confront those who don’t respect rules on ships, I suspect those who do follow the rules set will respect the company more for ‘calling these people out’. This will lead to more respect between others. Examples need to be set. Why should they get away with it.

Thanks Damian, does it feel like ‘Butlin’s at sea’ at times? I was on Arvia second week of July, and I don’t know, reading your posts makes me remember how repetitive the days seem after a while.

I don’t mind shuttles as I see these as an opportunity to see part of the country visited for a few pounds.

Sorry to buck the trend, and just my opinion of course but we much prefer Marseille over Cartagena. Once into town from the shuttle, much more interesting walking around the harbour with literally hundreds of boats and sailing vessels, countless waterside bars, and our favourite is the little land train (9 euros) that takes you around part of the beautiful coastline, up and down steep narrow streets, and to the top of the hill where the Basilique Notre Dame is with spectacular views across the whole of Marseilles. There’s no comparison in our opinion, sorry!

As Megabear says, it’s all down to affordability. But if money isn’t too much of a problem it’s definitely Celebrity for us. Found it a totally different experience, but in this case you get what you pay for.

Haha! I’ve still got mine from the 80’s! I do it, but shame in a way you have to keep checking your spend, but it’s piece of mind.

Thanks. It’ll be interesting to read your ‘qualms’ over the next two weeks, and the experience sharing with nearly 6,000 people. I was on Arvia the cruise before last which had a different itinerary. La Coruna, Majorca, La Spezia, Marseilles, Barcelona and Cadiz. I’m not going to list our ‘qualms’ as we never expected the cruise to go 100% okay (prob should not expect that anyway), but at the end it’ll be interesting to compare yours to ours and if there are common themes.

It’s all working well then! All I can do is once we book the cruise (it won’t be for a while yet probably) and Holiday Inn, I’ll try to contact you again.

Just tried to message to test it as I have never tried this before, but it said the function was disabled?

Okay will do. I’ll send you a message to follow up this.

Once you disembark from Anthem, and if it’s the City Cruise terminal berth 101, depending on luggage my suggestion once off the ship is to turn right and walk to the Holiday Inn which is the nearest building to this berth. Inside the doorway there is plenty of seating, a bar, food (if you need it!), toilets and possibly an area that may look after your luggage for a while so you can wander around. As an aside, we are looking to book the same cruise on Britannia to the Baltics, and will be staying overnight in this hotel so could even say hello to you if we see you in the reception foyer.

I see Arvia has stayed at port in Barcelona overnight. Whether there were any overnighter’s scheduled on her itinerary?

With 5 big ships due out today, I suspect things will become very busy soon with possible tailbacks back to the M27. Careful if you going that route. En route to the New Forest one day, we were on the inside lane of the M27 one lunchtime/early afternoon, but the traffic in that lane suddenly came to halt with what I think was due to cruise day tailback.

Something for next year, perhaps October but from the UK I was going look at combining both of these into 1 holiday. For the cruise, although I will be 62 then I wanted to experience a sailing on one of the RC mega ships before I get too old! Anyone have any tips, recommendations how I would go about booking this, what to look out for? Thanks

I would say people just get up and go and get more if they want to. See what they are doing/eating then 😀. I remember though on my first cruise which was on Celebrity on embarkation day. This was in 2017 and I had never experienced such vast choice in a buffet. I had small portions from about six different countries on my plate. It must have looked horrible, chops with spaghetti, a mini steak, anything! Like a kid in a candy shop! Learnt then I wasn’t on a timer, but by the time all the different foods were on my plate it made the rest of the cruise more difficult for choice as I had attacked everything on the first day. Pig!!

Seems to me if firms were actually serious about viruses of any form on their ships, they would crack down on this in this area.

Just thinking about it, the Med will be much warmer than our North Sea in my example, so suggests there won’t be too much relief out at sea?

Leaving from Southampton, I am going on a two week med cruise as far as Italy in a couple of weeks time. Looking at temps for certain stops, places like Cadiz can get to 40c plus. On a nice day on our East coast it can be 23c, but a few miles inland rise to 32c. While out at sea, will it be a little cooler on the ship in the Med than on land? Or just a heat fest, it won’t make any difference? Thanks

I do wonder what % of ships are leaving port now fully laden with people? On the very limited number of sailings I have observed recently, just about all the accommodation has sold out. Could be what was a deal before just isn’t much of one now as the company’s are doing very nicely and don’t have to entice!

Interesting, and assume your sense of smell is okay!😀 I have been hearing two sides of the coin, but whether that is a matter of luck and area(s) to avoid. As it’s mentioned quite often, it suggests it’s there, but also suggestions of stinky ports themselves perhaps?

The bigger issue in my view is the smell. That would truly wreck my holiday and I was thinking of booking two weeks on Azura next year. Going to have rethink strongly on this one. Just why hasn’t it been sorted? Have the crew become immune to it?