TMSA

Our Arvia Marseille stop for K318 has been replaced with Cartagena due to the Rugby World Cup. I was really looking forward to Marseille as I went on holiday there about 7 years ago and wanted to return. I haven't heard of Cartagena. Have we done well with the replacement, as I am presuming its not a regular P&O port, or have we been done over? 🙃

That's good. It would make a lot of sense to do that. I've looked and most of the available mini suites are on the cabins you might want to avoid list due to noise or the hot tub obstruction. Think I will save the money and put it towards another holiday one day when we might be able to treat ourselves to some more space. At least the outside cabins are the same size as a deluxe balcony

Thank you. I was reading your live thread from Arvia so know how bad the noise was for you. Now i need to research the bad cabins!

Yes all very strange. At least the first lady understood that cabins were available and wanted to get to the bottom of it. Second lady was very computer says no. She spent a lot of time telling me how amazing Arvia is and how good the whirlpools on the promenade deck are. She suggested once the kids were in bed that we go in one. I mean she didnt refer to the night nursery but let's hope she didn't actually expect me to leave my kids in bed on deck 4! I don't really get it, i made it very clear that i was considering just paying for the upgrade so that i could pick the room. You would think that would be more revenue or do they genuinely expect people to put in higher bids than point of sale? I wonder how likely it is that these rooms will sell now, especially given lack of kids spaces and the fact most are on deck 8. I want to bid out of curiosity more than anything now to see if it is accepted. Other half was in complete shock when i told him the minimum bid price and doesnt want to do it. I think i can convince him with the balcony space and fact that if it all goes wrong the kids are contained and we at least have some air 😁 Thank you for the help and advice

Spoke to P&O on Monday who told me i couldn't upgrade as they were sold out and it was waitlist only. I asked how i was able to bid for a mini suite and how 4 berth cabins were still showing as available. She tried it as a new booking and didnt understand what was happening and the technical team finished at 4pm so had gone, promised she would call back. Didn't hear anything so rang again today. Was told my only option is to bid to upgrade. I don't mind that but she didn't really grasp what I was getting at. She just said the system wouldn't let an upgrade happen whereas at least the first lady was trying to investigate and see if there was a way to change that. Nevermind. Now to decide if bidding is worth it. @Megabear2 the option to upgrade to the family suite was in the upgrade email too, that's minimum £800pp and it shows as the only suite available so that system knows which rooms they still have.

Thank you. Just had a nosey at the room and have been reading about the family suites. It is strange that they market them for families yet made the decision not to have a bath. I would be really annoyed if I booked a suite without a balcony so let's hope people do their homework! I will call them tomorrow although last time i phoned on a Monday i was on hold over an hour. Other half doesn't want to spend more money, I don't either but I would like to stand some chance of enjoying ourselves.

Thank you. That is really helpful. I did wonder if you could just upgrade normally but this bid system has thrown me. Thanks for the advice with the bid system too. I've looked a lot at the conservatories on YouTube and they look big enough to get the cot in. My son's bed would be the actual sofa in the room but just having any extra space would be a massive plus. Also it means that we could sit on the balcony in the evening rather than laying in bed wondering what we did wrong in a previous life 🙃. Also i know we sound like the neighbours from hell but can promise you we weren't. Our bedtime shenanigans were so early that most people hadn't even had dinner yet and once the kids were asleep they were quiet. Well my daughter was awake most of the night but she was with me so wasn't crying. Holidays will be fun again one day right!???

Advice appreciated please. We have just come off Virtuosa and although the ship was good the holiday was incredibly challenging thanks to my delightful 3 year old 😆. Turns out a 3 year old and a 6 month old in the same room just does not work. It was horrendous. We are sailing in September on Arvia. We would cancel but it's at 50% charge and we can't lose that much money. I have the option to upgrade and am considering the conservatory mini suite, its showing as minimum bid £520pp. Firstly is that just the adults that pay so looking at £1040 if accepted? I can't work out the cost it would be to book a mini suite now as there is no child availability so i can't get the final price but 2 adults is iver 5k. I can't really afford to pay more but I'm so desperate that anything which gives us more space, and a separate space to at least put one child in so they don't disturb the other at this moment in time seems worth it. I just cant work out if its a bad deal. I paid for an outside cabin and picked location for midship as i was very sick on Ventura last year but survived Virtuosa this time. You can pick a deck 9 cabin so don't need to worry about the promanade deck although to be honest that doesn't bother me, i never book a balcony as it terrifies me with kids so having the promanade deck outside actually feels safe. Sorry for long post. We paid roughly £3400 if that helps, select fare with OBC and parking. Thank you