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Yes people should obviously wash their hands frequently and use the hand gel, but that only partly tackles the issue. It doesn't tackle the issue of say someone licking their fingers after they have washed them and then touching something which is going to be then touched by other passengers who have also washed their hands - tongs, condiments, chair arms, etc. What is needed is better proactive steps from the cruise line - removing self-service and serving customers in the buffet (which other cruise lines manage to achieve easily), replacing condiments with single use portions, and lots and lots of cleaning - none of which P&O is doing.

Having previously sailed a couple of time on Iona and having returned today from Arvia I would make the following points on the differentiation between the two. The change of the two mid-section MDRs on Iona into the Sixth Street Diner and Olive Grove on Arvia is partly a good idea and partly a bad idea. The Sixth Street Diner was incredibly popular but I don't know if it was meeting its desired aim of diverting passengers from the two rear MDRs which are the only ones on the ship, or was bringing traffic down from Horizon - however whatever it was doing they need to up their game on service as it was taking 45 minutes to deliver a simple hamburger when it was busy. The expanded Olive Grove is partly a good idea because it can serve a far larger group of people who want to sample the Olive Grove menu, but... that menu is only served in the evenings and not at lunchtime as on Iona as at lunchtimes they just serve the MDR menu AND on celebration evenings it also serves the MDR menu so again restricting choice AND the menu has been 'dumbed down' from the Iona menu. The Green and Co pay restaurant that occupies the space that Olive Grove does on Iona is an utter waste of space as it is ignored by the vast majority of people onboard - I never saw more than a dozen people dining in there at any one time so 95% of the tables were empty. On my cruise I didn't have an issue getting a table in the reduced MDR space for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but then I tend to eat early (8am) for breakfast and late (towards 9pm) for dinner. The added pay entertainment over Iona of the 'high wire' walk, mini golf, and Mission Control seemed to be popular as they always seemed to be fully booked.

Just got off Arvia this morning (9th June). Embarkation was theoretically delayed by two hours for a deep clean a fortnight ago, but when I arrived an hour after my original 12:15 time preparing to wait another hour the embarkation had clearly been underway for some time and we were just ushered straight on, so perhaps they finished the deep clean earlier than expected... Anyway the deep clean didn't work and a few days into the voyage the menu cards in the bars vanished, the menu covers in the restaurants disappeared, there were cards to the cabin with vague mentions of hand hygiene, and a single similar announcement from the captain about sanitising your hands on boarding from ports and pressing the lift buttons with knuckles. Although there seemed to be a slight uptick in cleaning in the public areas, it did seem to be lip service as tables were generally not cleaned in bars or restaurants between customers, and those items handled by different customers such as condiments remained on the table. And by the end of the cruise the cleaning had really fallen below par with paper towel waste bins regularly overflowing onto the floor - although the upside was perhaps that was due to more people washing their hands. And of course there was no mention at all officially of norovirus - god forbid that anyone should actually mention that. Thus the vast majority of passengers went around blithely unaware that there was any particular issue, behaving as they might if there wasn't any problem - unless they saw the 'space suited' staff members wheeling trolleys laden down for the many cabins who had been quarantined.

Having just disembarked from Arvia, I can certainly find fault with P&O, even though we managed to avoid it. Before embarking a week ago we had the "a few guests have experienced symptoms of gastrointestinal illness" email telling us that embarkation was delayed by two hours for a deep clean. For goodness sake, why dance around the issue with "gastrointestinal illness" instead of saying what it is to actually get people's attention. A few days into the cruise all the cabins got a 'please be aware of hygiene' card, but again no mention of norovirus rampaging through the ship. Then a day or so later the menu cards disappeared from the bars and the restaurants went to the menu cards without the holders, and the laundry had a 'we recommend you wash at the highest temperature' notice, but again no mention of norovirus rampaging through the ship. Then at one of the captain's (cringeworthy) announcements there was another 'please be aware of hygiene' piece, but again no mention of norovirus rampaging through the ship. Meanwhile the salt and pepper pots remained on the tables, the condiments remained on the table in the Sixth Street diner, some tables were occasionally wiped down in the bars and restaurants by the staff after they were vacated, but most were not. I have no idea what was going on in the usual 'lick your fingers and then use the tongs' horror show that is Horizon. And the end result was that the vast majority of passengers were going around in blissful ignorance that anything was wrong - I spoke to many people and overheard many people who had no clue why the menus had been removed from the bars. Then when we were disembarking this morning I overheard mention that embarkation was again delayed for a few hours for a deep clean... If P&O actually want people to sit up and take notice then they need to stop pussyfooting around and actually tell people what the issue is, rather than hiding behind vague terms. Maybe if they told people that there was a serious norovirus outbreak onboard and that the implications of touching anything and then touching your food or your face would potentially result in serious issues, then perhaps, just perhaps people might pay some attention. But the chance of them doing that and not continuing with the box ticking 'keep us out of court whilst not upsetting the customers approach' is absolutely zero.

Having just got back on Arvia ten minutes ago at Cadiz then you would have actively had to seek someone out if you wanted to hand over any alcohol bought onshore, and the same was true of all the other ports that had shoreside scanning, as they seem to have given up with the (bored) staff sitting at an ‘honesty’ table at security.

The trouble with mean averages they can be a bit misleading. From looking around this cruise (which admittedly is a school holiday cruise) there seem to be some distinct peaks of age groups - lots of families in their 30s with children and lots of couples in their 60s - which together would make an average of 40ish, but actually not too many real 40ish people around. What does seem to be missing from cruises in the past is lots of the very elderly - there are a few but not many.

The only show that is definitely repeated is the Thursday ‘guest night’ when they get the atrium singer in instead of the 710 band, and then the ‘app’ says you can’t book it if you booked the prior Thursday as it is already booked. Other than that, the daily themes are repeated, but from previous cruises they didn’t play the same set for that theme on the second week that they did the first.

That wasn’t possible on the cruise I am currently on. Horizon stated that the first night’s booking was only possible after 5.30pm and that was the case as it wasn’t present on the My Holiday ’app’ until that time. It also advised that the whole of the following two weeks would became available at 10.30pm which was also the case. I guess they are experimenting to stop the early boarders grabbing everything before anyone else has a chance.

Not one two litre bottle, but two litre bottles (plural).

It isn’t, which is why there has been the well reported closure of many vegan restaurants.

When I boarded Arvia a week ago nobody questioned or asked to look at the two litre bottles of squash that was in my hand luggage, so maybe it is selective checks.

Well it isn’t on this cruise, and half full on some cruises and less on others is hardly a success. And how many years has Arvia been sailing…

That is still a success for P&O getting people to spend, and spend heavily, as the drinks packages are damned expensive. A high quality fish restaurant being popular? No chance - there are damn all of those in the UK, so it is incredibly unlikely such a restaurant would appeal to those onboard, the same as a vegan/vegetarian restaurant isn’t.

Frankly I can’t see P&O keeping that location with its current menu for the long term. When I walked past at lunchtime yesterday there were fewer than ten people eating there and at 8pm in the evening there were only around a dozen - and that’s in a venue capable of seating more than a hundred and would be packed as the equivalent Olive Grove on Iona - it certainly isn’t earning its keep. And that isn’t because people on board are not spending, because I have never seen queues for the bars like it with them being 20 people long - the tills are going ‘brrrr’

Yes. The choice is far wider than the full ‘roast meat and two veg’ that the dinner menu is, and for example yesterday I had a delicious beef rogan josh, that had some interesting flavours and obviously had been cooked slow and long so the meat was falling apart.

Not quite. On Iona a small number of items have a supplement, but most don’t.

Currently sat on Arvia and agree with most points, but not all. MDR evening meals are as usual not as good as the MDR lunchtime meals, both a poorer selection and a more rushed delivery - I guess they are just under more pressure in the evenings. Disappointing that the version of the Olive Grove is not the same as Iona, so the same menu as the MDR at lunchtimes which reduces choice. And then the evening menu is a ‘dumbed down’ version of that on Iona, presumably because the food is prepared in the MDR kitchen and not a dedicated kitchen.

Well my prize was this!

A beautiful day here, the location of which I am sure some will be able to identify.

Sorry, but you are utterly, utterly wrong. There are two completely separate rules that are independent of each other. Rule 1 - Was your passport issued within the last ten years Rule 2 - Is your passport valid for three months after the date you intend leaving the EU. The two rules are not related, and an expiry date is an expiry date irrespective of when the passport was issued. A passport issued on 11 Jan 2016 that expires 11 October 2026 complies with rule 1 all the way up to 10 Jan 2026. A passport with an expiry date of 11 October 2026 complies with rule 2 until someone is returning up to 10 July 2026. Thus someone could travel on that passport on the 10th January 2026 for three months travel to the EU and return on the 9th April 2026 and it would be perfectly fine as there was more than three months before the passport expired. However would I suggest that someone did that - no I would not, because it is quite possible that someone with such a passport might encounter someone at an airport or cruise port check-in desk who has a poor level of training and so has the same misunderstanding of the rules that you do.

The part I have bolded is interesting phrasing - Do they really mean "declined" as opposed to 'not required'. On the cruise line you sail with, can someone 'decline' assistance and if someone 'declined' any assistance even though it was likely they would need it in an emergency, would the ship's crew say "bye" and simply let the passenger drown? I rather doubt it, and it is likely that they would put themselves at risk trying to evacuate the passenger even though they didn't have the staff numbers to do it. Is that fair to the ship's crew putting them at that risk? To reduce the risk to the crew and protect passengers from themselves, P&O seems to be taking the position that in some specific circumstances such as asking to rent a wheelchair during the cruise or turning up with an undeclared wheelchair, that whatever you say they consider that it is likely you will need mobility assistance in the event of an emergency and they won't let you board unless they have capacity for the crew to safely provide it without risk to themselves. Is that a sensible approach - personally I would say yes.

You said that every passenger needed to complete the form. If that was true then a passenger who didn't complete the form would not have complied with the requirements to board so would be denied. You are not seeing thousands of people denied because it isn't necessary for every passenger to complete the form, only those that cannot evacuate unaided. It is sensible to collect detailed information from every passenger? That's going to be fun for P&O when they need to recruit hundreds of new staff to review all those forms.

If that was the case then 99% of the customers would be denied boarding for not completing the form.

Not on the many ships I have been on they haven't been. So exactly the same as now and no change? The pop up asks you to complete the pre-registration if you need assistance. If you don't then there is no form to complete. Quite possibly, but that just means that even more people should be challenged and even more hassle for P&O when they enforce the safety procedures.

You want every passenger on board to complete an accessibility needs form, 99%+ pointlessly doing so, and with the vast majority of the remaining <1% doing so anyway, just to capture the one or two people who either didn't follow the instructions or had a poor travel agent. Hmmm...