Megabear2

Am I imagining it or does Britannia have some 2 pin American style plugs as well? Can't remember if it was her but I had an American style plug on a hairdryer! Incidentally to add to the holidays other than cruise theme I've arrived in Kefalonia and my hotel room's private pool is almost the size of Arvia's deck 16 pool. Not sure if that's a plus for me or a minus for her!

I actually meant standing in a queue after joining the app queue and being buzzed your table is ready. This was happening regularly on Arvia while I was on board. It was a queue after a queue so to speak. Very few people were allowed in the physical queue at a time. Staff were based in the corridor in an attempt to stop to big a build up. I cannot speak.historically about Oriana etc but certainly in the past six years or so physical queues do occur but most times they have been small. Unless the app fails completely (I see you said it had on your Arcadia cruise) the staff on the ships other than Arvia generally clear the queues quite well in my experience. I have also physically queued on Azura and Britannia, mainly for a table for 2, but never for more than 10 to 15 minutes. Arvia is nothing like the other P&O ships, not even Iona, and as Purplesea said you are asked to leave the area and go to Anderson's or wait in the area at the end of the corridor with your pager. There is seating available. All this talk of physical queues has I believe led Onelung to believe he will be required to stand in a queue on Iona for 60 to 90 minutes every night. Although I haven't sailed on her I have not seen anything to indicate this is happening in 2023 and do not think he should be unduly worried about such a thing happening. Several on this thread alone have stated how well the app works on Iona and how they did not encounter queues.

Bit more here as well. It's beginning to break elsewhere, seen mention in a Florida paper as well. https://www.cruisehive.com/faulty-safety-materials-may-put-dozens-of-cruise-ships-at-risk/105929

Hopefully I can post this, but Cruise Radio mentions the problems. https://cruiseradio.net/fire-hazard-delay-cruise-ship-delivery-impacted/ I believe Molecrochip's post above was the first to mention the Rotterdam and Queen Anne despite the FT stating one Carnival ship. I assume that was to suggest which two ships could be the one under discussion.

Very true but sometimes you can get lucky. My 24 nights solo on Sky to Canada was actually £700 cheaper than Arcadia was going to be and was with the package. I also looked at Ambassador, same destination but over £1,000 more expensive. I've seen a few Princess cruises with better than expected solo fares, particularly on specialist t/a sites.

Iona seems to have far less problems with the app than Arvia and also has 4 dining rooms. I cannot speak personally but I do not think you will have a problem and the app will work fine for you. There are lots of posts from recent Iona passengers and no one has mentioned the same sort of problems. The physical queue on any ship should not mean standing waiting for a table, these queues on Arvia are unprecedented elsewhere and hopefully being addressed. I'm sure you will be fine on the app but the worst you can expect is to have a pager, definitely no long physical queues.

The app on the two big ships is intended for use at every meal. The Glass House and Keel and Cow are exclusively app based at every time. I note you mentioned the speciality restaurants as one of your alternative choices rather than queue. These are fully booked on Arvia every night almost from the point of sailing. The buffet became extremely busy during my two weeks due I understand to it becoming many people's only option. I appreciate others have different opinions on the situation and a lot depends on a particular cruises clientele, however P&O confirmed to me last week they are receiving lots of complaints and comments on the app and queues for dining. I note the OP is actually sailing on Iona so a lot of the comments on this thread may not be applicable although it shares a lot with Arvia on how booking works. The 4 dining rooms appear to make a difference according to other posters.

No, nothing to do with table size. There are actually plenty of 2 tables. Pagers were for everyone who couldn't get in the app queue. Until you've actually experienced Arvia it is very difficult to understand the set up. I'd expected the app to offer reasonable times before calling however 1 1/2 hours wait is pretty much the normal. The app queues also fill up for dinner almost immediately they open and a log jam then ensues. The physical queues are constant, there are two such queues, one with those called by the app but who find their table unready on arrival and those who are walk ups because they either couldn't get a booking or might not have a phone with the app. The wait with a pager could vary but I understand from people I spoke to you were.just as likely to get a 2 or an offer of a shared table if you took one and if you wanted to eat you just accepted the offer! The dining from 5.30 to 6.30 was fully bootable before sailing and therefore very few if any availability was there for people to "swan in". A few did get taken from the walk up queue but this was generally if a booking wasn't honoured within the 15 minutes. The conversation I had last week was enlightening in as much as the caller admitted they have a problem that is proving virtually impossible to solve. As you are aware only two dining rooms on Arvia plus the Olive Grove and Diner. Both of these very popular but again actually getting in is problematic.

Arvia is undergoing a change to allow extra times to open before booking for the app opens. I believe it is to be 50/50. I spoke at length to a young lady in the Executive office last week when she called and the issue of apps and restaurants was high.on her list. It was admitted during this call.they have a "big" problem with dining on that particular ship - emphasis on big is because that's the word she used. I was asked in detail about my personal experience and also any observations I'd made on dining on the ship. My comment on the latter was the app.wanting to.offer shared tables in Olive Grove and the Diner , neither of which restaurants in my opinion offered themselves as venues you'd be likely to want to share a table in unlike a MDR. It was indicated in the conversation that they are rather painted into a corner as to.how to solve the problem. Personally I got the impression that running as a full.ship.is causing a big challenge on the dining front. It was stated they know the app isn't going to iron out or remove the problem with booking. Going forward with the 50/50 thing I'm told they are trying to iron out all the problems which have led to virtual queues closing down and not reopening as happened on Arvia on my May cruise. With regard to Tring's comment on backhanders to staff I doubt this would be possible on Arvia because there simply isn't capacity to do this. The virtual queue showed full at both MDRs very shortly after 6.45pm every day and the physical queuers at that point were being given pagers. In fairness to the staff they actually didn't have any seating capacity for either the physical or app queue a lot of the time. Eating on Arvia can be very challenging if you haven't got reservations for the early times and that includes the alternative dining venues. I waited over 90 minutes for a call to dine in the Glass House after using the app. That call never materialised and I removed myself from the queue. The app works well for breakfast but only in non peak times - I never had a problem but spoke to others on my shared tables who confirmed they had ended up asking to be walk ins. It may all be great on the other ships but Arvia is currently the wild west of dining - and that again is from my telephone conversation!

My experience doesn't bode well I'm afraid. Boarding on Saturday most specialty restaurants were gone in advance but it was Christmas. We could book Limelight in advance but everything else was seat of the pants stuff - we did get Epicurean for Christmas day but I think mainly because it was £65 each and it put others off. We are also due on early January arriving on a Saturday but I'm not hopeful but fingers crossed. The system on two day boarding cruises is unfortunately heavily weighted against Saturday arrivers at present.

NCL brought them back but apparently have now dropped them again so assumedly not a regulatory change.

I'm so sorry to hear your tragic news. Sending deepest condolences and prayers to you and your family.

They seem to change like the wind! Booked two Britannia 14 night cruises whilst onboard Arvia in May, £50 deposit each plus extra £100obc.

From P&O website explaining different saver fares. Yes, they normally change from Early Saver to Saver around final payment date for a cruise. Saver Saver is a last chance for deal-seekers to get a last-minute holiday with P&O Cruises • Only available on selected cruises, at selected times • Only available on selected cabin grades (we’ll assign your cabin number, which once allocated cannot be changed) • Dining allocated upon boarding • Full balance to be paid at the time of booking • 100% cancellation fee if cancelled at any time before sail date Early Saver Early Saver offers a great price but without the benefits of Select Price. • Available on selected grades of cabin (we'll assign your cabin number) • Possible upgrades (where and if available, after non-Saver bookings) • Flexibility required for your desired dining style, dining time and table size in the main restaurant

Weymouth first day we were allowed to travel out of our immediate area ... I was the only car on the road from Blandford Forum into Weymouth to be treated to this sight. I started a fortnightly visit to Weymouth, Bournemouth and Teignmouth just to check up they were still there!

Y

The confusion is between Early Saver and Saver. As you say you take early saver you just pay a deposit and then the normal cancellation terms are in place. The Saver is what was a late saver, ie offered much closer to sailing. This is 100% payment at booking and also 100% cancellation charge.

Be careful with the suite. Don't forget the family suites on deck 8 are included. There was a case mentioned elsewhere of someone being upgraded to one of these as a couple and being unhappy as there's no balcony. Certainly on quite a few Arvia cruises these as the remaining suites.

Sorry, only just seen this. It was my P&O one. I refused the first offers as I felt they did not value the fact they ignored my mental health issues. Eventually without much prompting I received the final offer before it went higher up the chain. The health issues were the thing they were worried about having not acted on. Very much appreciated how reasonable and apologetic they were. Despite all my "discussions" about insurance etc I'd never actually made a formal complaint to a cruise line so was very surprised how nice they tried to be. The Princess cruise, one year on, is actually my aunt's complaint as my bit was sorted last year. That has been with the insurance Ombudsman for five months and she told me last week a decision has been reached and the Ombudsman and insurer are discussing it. To give Princess their due a full apology was received by both of us with an explanation as to what went wrong. I did not ask for anything other than that so was very happy.

Yes.

I'm currently in Torquay on business having spent a lovely day on a boat yesterday. Chatting to the boatmen they reminded me It was almost two years to the day they took me on a trip to see the cruise ships at anchor. Sure enough today Google sent me the attached. How we've moved on from those sad days when the ships looked so forlorn. What a joy to know they're all off on new adventures.

I'd guess they're banking on that not happening. I notice that those on here who have argued their case have in fact in a lot of cases kept their cabins which were actually supposed to be unavailable. Trouble is a lot of newbies will believe they've no choice. Incidentally (big smile!) I got my money back!!!

That's how it used to be... but over an hour discussing dodgy cabins on Arvia led to a general discussion on how this upgrade thing is going to work and who's getting preference. Remember I had booked a select fare and asked for no upgrade, not asked if I wanted it but got upgraded anyway? Well that's apparently the computer looking to source upgrades for those who've bid to move and trying to free up any popular cabins in the lower grades. I asked why saver passengers got preference over my select fare and was informed no one actually did get preference apart from the computer looking at grades. The very nice lady told me there's very little human control.over these allocations and it's computer driven. Therefore if your cruise and cabin type is particularly sought after the computer may select you to be offered a move no matter what fare type. I queried this for a better explanation and was told basically the computer looks at monetary offerings on bids and tries to satisfy them. Having listened to this I recalled the thread currently running where certain people in select fare aft cabins have been asked to move when they had no upgrade ticked and were offered no explanation as to why. Upon mentioning this the lady went very quiet and informed me It was business sensitive and she couldn't discuss other individuals' cases. Make of that what you will but all sounds very odd to me. As an aside she did tell me they know they have some pretty major issues to rectify on Arvia both organisationally and with physical aspects that are proving "stubborn" to iron out. App, shuttles and big queues were mentioned under the first of these and restaurants, swimming pools and noise under the second. All in all I got the impression there's just a hint of things aren't quite how they should be yet.

Delighted you got the result you were entitled to.

I had no problems forward on deck 4 or deck 15 and talked to a lot who had decks 11, 12 and 14 without problems. Met several people who were unhappy with noise from decks 5 and 9 (i was aft 9) and also deck 15 mid due to the dome noise - we were all in a room together airing our complaints! My conversation with the executive office today indicates they may be considering marking these noise cabins with some sort of warning as they do with obstructions, no doubt we will see if it occurs. They were very accommodating on my problems and admitted they need to organise themselves a bit better.