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On Arvia room service was definitely free in the suite when ordered via the butler, we did this several times on our April cruise. He also mentioned this during his initial introduction.

They've known about chickenpox on Arvia for at least 3 weeks - a letter was passed around at kids club saying it was onboard and cases had been found during the cruise that began April 2nd.

On 4/25/2023 at 6:48 PM, terrierjohn said:

It is charged per port, but you can use each shuttle a second or third time for free.

You're misunderstanding. We only ever did a return trip in each port. But some ports we didn't get charged even though we were scanned, and in one port they didn't scan us on the return trip only the outbound.

20 hours ago, TigerB said:

 

They only charge you for a maximum of two journeys each; all others after that are free.

I assumed that was per port, not for the whole cruise?

Child fare was 50p less than adult - although charging for shuttles was... hit and miss shall we say. We took two return shuttles but only got charged for 2 journeys total not 4 even though we were scanned (this is across two ports, early saver fare).

All three sessions for kids club tomorrow went in under a minute this morning. Relaxing!

I’m not sure I can recommend arvia during the school holidays. They seem woefully unprepared for the amount of kids onboard. It’s the ship that likes to say “no”. Kids club fully booked (and a half hour queue to drop kids off at a two hour session - except you need to pick up 15 mins early so it’s really 1:15), no seats left at trivia, not enough paints at face painting, escape room fully booked, no room at restaurants if you didn’t book before you got on etc.

Quality seems lower across the board. Epicurean breakfast has zero presentation in the food any more although the service remains good. 

A single drink at sixth street last night took them 25 minutes and that was at half five with many tables empty. God help them when they’re busy.

On the plus side staff are good, decor is nice, the suite is very spacious and has been quiet despite being below the bridge. 

17 hours ago, wowzz said:

Because so many people do not take the trouble to do the research, as you have done. They go for the easy, and expensive, option !

It's also the cruise line scare tactic of "If you take anyone else's excursion you'll definitely be mugged, murdered, miss the ship back and it'll cost you a fortune..."

Equally I've only been late back from an excursion once in my ~15 or so cruises, thankfully a ship's excursion and they waited or it would indeed have been very, very expensive.

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

Problem is if you have booked just the parking option and you are scheduled to embark, disembark from Ocean that is fine. But if they change terminal schedule especially if happens whilst on your cruise and you return to Mayflower which does happen you will have to get a taxi back to Triangle car park.

It would be quite the taxi ride to make up the £100 difference 😉

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I find that they roll out the NDA when you have declined the first one or two offers to settle!

Funnily enough the NDA that I may or may not have signed on Britannia was due to a noise issue (and we had a 3 year old with us so it was really causing us grief), and it was presented with their first offer (admittedly their first offer was very reasonable).

There's no chance I'm paying what they're asking for Arvia in April. Absolute joke so will have to investigate alternatives although even Penguin is asking £189 for 2 weeks. 

We’re booked in a suite in April and if it’s anything like this then they’ll never see any of my business again. Hopefully at least the epicurean for breakfast is competent!

Getting worse PR wise

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-64120526

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/p-o-cruises-arvia-ship-ruined-christmas-day-b2252867.html

Full disclosure - am booked on Arvia in April so hope things pick up!

Anyone who got onboard compo won't be able to talk about it anyway, P&O make you sign an NDA. Or so I've heard...

Archive link to article in Times - https://archive.vn/EHfwT

There's a journalist on twitter fishing around for a negative article certainly. 

We got £150 (£75 for first two passengers) yesterday for arvia in April (suite) which felt odd as I’d already paid full balance so they didn’t have to!

It does make me consider cutting my losses (the deposit) on my Arvia cruise for next April. If they can't staff a smaller ship adequately, what will happen to something much bigger. On the other hand, we're in a suite so I guess can avoid the breakfast queues by going to Epicurian and the dinner ones by having the butler bring it? Never sailed in a suite before.

2 hours ago, GSPG said:

Thanks.

If this is the case however, in our travel group why have the two who did not visit reception receive the survey?

Is this a random coincidence?

Basically yes. You're assuming far more of a joined up system than I expect exists here. (Although sometimes when doing customer satisfaction work you might also get what they call 'background variables' that are later used in analysis, like previous customer spend, number of times they've bought a product etc...)

6 minutes ago, GSPG said:

The four of us returned home yesterday on Iona and all had separate cabins and booking refs . There were issues and observations which I will raise in other threads as I still digest our two weeks aboard, but let’s start with the post cruise survey.

 

It popped up in two of our accounts yesterday shortly after we arrived home. As I type, two of us have still not received the survey. It may still be making it’s way towards them, but is it a coincidence the two not receiving yet had issues with their cabins and visited reception at least a couple of times each.

 

I’m hoping I’m wrong but is it possible P&O are being selective who they send feedback to? Surely the best form of feedback for companies is receiving constructive feedback so they can improve in certain areas, that’s if they want to.

 

I’ll post of course if their survey does come through. If it does, will it be the same?

 

 

This is the industry I work in, and there's a number of totally non-conspiratorial reasons you might not have got one when they did. Most surveys have a set number of completed responses they want - let's say they want 100 per cruise, so they'd send enough invites that they think they need to get these 100 - at random. Then if they don't get enough they'd send another batch at a later date, and then another until they reach that target. It doesn't mean they're cherry-picking who to ask.

They may also have quotas set - so they might want to speak to a certain number of people in each age group, or travel group (families / single travellers etc) - all again could lead to you not getting one when someone else does. 

Reviving this topic just to say in my payment page, I now have a cabin number - can't see it anywhere else! Does this mean the cabin is confirmed? If so it was the one remaining cabin that I could see when I booked.

Wrong thread

33 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

I am so surprised about that.  Never thought that would happen.  So what do they do if you tell someone - take you to court?

Pass. My suspicion is it's to stop people running their mouth while they're onboard and causing a queue of people wanting the same thing from guest services. I don't think I have the paperwork any more, and if I did, I guess I couldn't share it as it has details.

On 1/2/2022 at 4:05 PM, Harry Peterson said:

Non-disclosure agreements certainly exist. A number of us here have had experience of them and can confirm that, but they’re more commonly used by cruise companies to avoid having to defend a claim in court which they know they’re likely to lose, and which might bring bad publicity. Court decisions at that level aren’t in any way binding, but they can be embarrassing when publicised.

P&O absolutely use NDAs onboard. We had an issue onboard which was resolved to our satisfaction but part of that was signing an NDA.

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

B6 on Iona should be a full suite. If your booking confirmation says otherwise then I would call your travel agent or P&O if you booked direct. 

Booked direct. The confirmation says B6 it’s just on my payment portal it says mini. I’ll email them to clarify. But suites did sell out immediately I bought mine which I guess is a good sign!