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.

When I went on Arvia I was surprised how little space is dedicated to pools. Well I suppose deck space in general seeing as though if you weren't up by 5-6am you wouldn't get a sunbed. Certainly not anywhere near the pools. I just don't think it would be feasible to not allow kids in the infinity pools. I mean there's only only 4 - you couldn't really have 400-500+ kids to 1 pool considering the forward one is adult only. Wouldn't be considered family friendly with 3 adult only pools - 4 if you include the swim up bar. Then 1 children's one in the dome

Depends on the ship. I was on Arvia in June. 1st time I haven't taken full formal atire. Both formal nights we ate in the Olive Grove. 1st formal night, you wouldn't even have known it was formal night. Everyone doing their own thing, people eating in the 6th Street Diner, Olive Grove, Horizon and Quays didn't seem to make much effort. 2nd formal night seemed to have a lot wider take up. I think traditional ships where everyone ate in the same restaurant, watched the same shows, drink at the same bars, if you didn't dress up you stood out. Ships like Arvia, younger crowd, people doing their own thing, means a lower compliance - there is a reason why its down to 2.

I think on the 2 cruises I've had with P&O, when I checked in online, it didn't let me complete the process unless I attached a payment card to each passenger even though 1 was a teenager and another aged 7. The 1st cruise I went to reception to remove the card from the children on the 1st day but on the last cruise I just left it. It shouldn't be like that though - surely must be some laws about minors having the ability to run up credit card bills - suppose its similar to stories I've heard with kids online games on tablets and mobile phones.

Am I right in saying Arvia should have been in Marseille today? All OK? My sister mentioned of work colleagues being on board but not heard any news

Without knowing all of the details, I think some people are allowing personal feelings to get in the way of common sense. Obviously everyone's situation is different and I'm sure the staff didn't take the decision lightly. People are referring to people they know or the fact that some people who are registered blind can lead 'normal' lives. None of us were there and we don't know what happened. I'm sure plenty of people would have to been quick to criticise had a serious accident happened after staff had seen previous minor incidents and not took any action. Damned if you do and damned if you dont

This is what I was thinking. We're on Arvia so would imagine no matter what time we arrive, there will be a big queue. Last July we were in a queue for about 45 mins for Ventura in the middle of that heatwave - very uncomfortable to say the least. Will follow the directions for taxi/ drop off then make our way to short stay car park after unloading. Sounds like slightly more inconvenience in exchange for a much quicker experience? Was definitely cheaper for C4P vs CPS. Think it was something like 150 vs 250

Hope someone can help. Only used parking at Southampton once before for P&O, last time was CPS. This time we're with parking4cruises. Was just checking what the difference is in process. From memory last time we waited in quite a long queue, eventually it was our turn, car was photographed, we unpacked and car was taken. Was just checking if the queue we were in was specifically for CPS? If so and you're with P4C instead, where do you head once you get to Southampton? Don't want to get in a queue behind 50 other cars, only to get to the front and the people say you're not with CPS. I know once we unload we head to the short stay car park, but where do we park whilst we unload the car?

To be fair you did say: "I have urged everyone I encounter who's had problems to report them, complain and keep on complaining. I've even given a couple some email addresses I have that not many others have"

Seems like more of the same to me. I only do the non fly cruises. Seems almost exactly the same as 2022, 23 & 24. Noticed Cagliari which have not been to before - but only 1 cruise covering June to September. Price said 1 particular price, clicked on secure your holiday and a different price comes up. Looking at the price, however, I'd say the 2nd price of about £800 more was correct. Are Naples and Sicily off the agenda at the minute? We were booked to visit both for 2020 and then 2021 but have disappeared since the re-start

I thought that would be obvious. They didn't just fly in to do 1 or 2 performances of Grease then go back to Broadway 🤣🤣🤣. The last RC cruise we went on also coincidently had a Grease on. Maybe they just flew in for us too? It had been advertised on the RC website for months in advance. As you've already said RC choose a Broadway show and then run it for x number of weeks and forms part of the cruise experience for that year.

Must admit I do like a late snack. Not much of a daytime eater, usually have a decent breakfast, a light lunch and early dinner. It usually means a bit peckish later on. The portion sizes in the mdr aren't massive and usually with so much walking, it does work up an appetite. It's the people who have a massive breakfast, then a couple of hours later stack their plates high with chips, burgers and hotdogs etc that I don't get. Each to their own I guess.

Tbh I think that argument has been done to death. People have pointed out that the standards and attention to detail are not what they once were - conveniently missing out the fact that the relative price of a P&O cruise is also not what it was either. When you compare the price to inflation or other cruise lines, there's no way you could expect the same experience. Imo, the reasonable conclusion seems to be that you shouldn't really book a cruise on such a large ship that will have such a wide range of people, then complain about the experience. There are obviously the older smaller ships and other cruise lines. I'm sure P&O are trying to charge the most they can to fill the ships, but its just not feasible to both fill them, but keep the class levels as they once were.

Sailing on Arvia in June, on previous cruises on P&O and RC we always opted for traditional dining - 6pm same restaurant, same table etc. Reading that Arvia has 30 bars and restaurants, it's going to be a vastly different experience for us We found the menus in mdrs on Ventura last year quite limited so wouldn't mind trying a few different places. We have 2 children and heard there is one called 6th Street Diner? So that might be an option for 1 or 2 meals. Do places like that get booked up quickly? Can you book restaurants like that in advance? If so how far in advance can you book? Onboard only or possibly 2 weeks before. It's not something we've had to put much thought into in the past and 1st cruise where we've got the freedom to choose, we're on a ship that probably has got the most options

Well it would be ok as far as I'm concerned. Think you could say anyone who is used to those sorts of facilities, you know it's a possibility when you walk in (what you may encounter). As a courtesy keep a towel with you in case someone does object? The difficulty is if facilities can be used by minors. I know on P&O Ventura the changing room where the sauna was is next to the gym where teens (14+) are allowed to enter. I'm not sure if there were separate rules for sauna use, but I often saw teens and teens with their dads in the sauna. If you're talking guaranteed 18+ audience however then don't see why not unless the rules state otherwise? Not for me personally, but live and let live is generally my motto

Thanks for that - obviously P&O going down the route of making the price of the holiday a basic no frills price and trying make the money back by charging for things like that. Shame, as like to do a bit in the gym followed by sauna and shower afterwards. I probably wouldn't have minded buying a package or paying a fair price per use on Arvia but can't justify paying £200-300 just to use the sauna for 20 mins a few times while we're away.

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.

Anyone used the facilities on Arvia yet? Pressume it's single sex and possibly all paid for? Was on Ventura last July which had shower room and sauna but steam room was out of action.

I think that's not really the point. Last year I paid about £130 to park for 2 week in July. This year they want about £240 to park in June. No doubt there are price differences for CPS for the same cruise at different times of the year, but that doesn't explain the massive increase from last year to this.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with the last sentence. What you know to be fact through seeing things with your own eyes is completely different to take hearsay as fact. You hear of trouble in London a lot - gun violence in America. Does that automatically mean you're going to run into issues if you went to either? It certainly adds to your worry, but I wonder just how many 'incidents' there are. I've only been on 8 cruises and have never seen anything. I overheard our neighbours on Ventura in July talking about an incident they had been told about - there was a lot of apparently this happened and apparently that - does anyone know for sure? Obviously it is up to P&O to ensure any incidents are dealt with and if it is becoming more of a problem they do need to nip it in the bud as you say. Same as you would expect local authorities to deal with anti-social behaviour if you were on a land based resort. I guess part of the trouble is that it's very much in P&Os interest to keep any incidents as quiet as possible. I very much doubt that you will be able to get any credible stats on 'incidents' as an industry as a whole, never mind specific lines??? Can't help but think it's yet another thing to bash P&O over the head with to go with the 1,000 other things people have brought up in recent times. Surely any incidents wouldnt be specific to P&O - although maybe not applicable to Saga but you never know

Surely it's just the dates and who the bigger ships are aimed at? I don't think there's many families or young working couples who would be able to just take off in December? Guess it's the main problem in building the massive ships, targeting a younger audience and then trying to fill them all year round. Arvia for example, in 14 days in August for 2 adults 2 kids for a balcony is 6k. For a lot of people, it's not really the price that's the issue, is just circumstances of work and kids etc.

I think you might be right about the reaction to the Q4 results. It's as if the market wants get back on track but there's a lot of negative factors and the financials aren't quite where they need to be. Although the market generally acts together, I see that RC share price is up 35% over the last 6 months, whereas Carnival is down 11%. Hopefully over the longer term Carnival will get there but looks like RC are a couple steps ahead??

Isn't that what happened right through the pandemic? You do a home lateral flow - you test positive so drive to a centre or order a PCR? The rules then changed to only go for a PCR if you had symptoms, before doing away with the PCR altogether. I thought the point was that a lateral flow might throw up a false positive and the PCR was more accurate

Quite eye opening regarding the pricing. Certainly a shame when people say "that will be my last cruise with P&O, its not what it once was". You very rarely hear with those comments the fact that the price they are paying is a lot cheaper than what it used to be and cheaper than other cruise lines that would get you the service you are after. Absolutely no point paying for one thing, expecting something else and then complaining about it. I do find the P&O board quite negative, but as a new P&O customer I don't quite get it. I wish the P&O ships had a few more facilities, I wish the dinner menu was a bit more varied but beyond that, not really too many complaints. I'm not looking for the perfect holiday and in all honesty I didn't pay for one either. We're booked on Arvia in June, and only thing really stopping me from booking more holidays is time restrictions with having children and found the itineraries very samey. I don't fly, no interest in the northern European holidays, so admittedly I am restricting myself a bit. Where's the cruises to Rome? We were booked to visit Sicily and think Naples pre pandemic, no longer on offer.

I guess most people would have been following the price over the last month? I bought my 100 shares just below £11. Unfortunately they fell quite quickly to £5.50. I was weary of the old betting advice of never chasing your losses. At that price however I thought what the heck surely they will go up at some point. The demand seemed strong, pre pandemic performance was strong and the investment needed to buy another 100 was obviously a lot lower. Took the plunge at £5.50 and bought another 90 shares for £495 - making a total investment of £1600. At 1st they went even lower to around £5.00 so the shares were then only worth about £950 = rubbish investment and the only saving grace was well at least I still had the shares and could get the benefits from future cruises. To my great surprise they have increased about 60% in just over a month to over £8.00. Sold the 'extra' 90 I bought for about 45% profit on those, but still about £70 short on my overall investment. Was just glad to get a bit back after falling so much but I would imagine some people will have made a fair bit if they bought at the right time. Anyone else increase their ownership when they 'dipped'. Just fear what might happen at the next business performance announcement - Q4 results?