Arvia - Impressions from Maiden

[No pager thank you]

Hello all, Further to my last post, we have now returned from Arvia and wanted to follow up with some impressions from the Maiden Voyage. 

 

Overall, we didn't enjoy the cruise and had a very mixed experience.  What we would say is that impressions on board vary - you will find just as many saying "no complaints, best cruise ever," as you will find those with a string of issues.  We've tried to be fair!

 

Good and Great

 

-- Ronan Keating on NYE was excellent and there were a few high quality acts in The Limelight Club.

-- The 6th Street Diner concept was, for us, a success and a welcome alternative to the MDR breakfasts.

-- Although not for us, the ship was particularly family friendly, with children's facilities, clubs and venues the best in the fleet, particularly at Christmas. 

-- In her dining rooms and public areas, there is much better use of colour than Iona, she feels less corporate and clinical throughout.  That said, she feels distinctly Carnival, not P&O.

-- Gelato afternoon tea was excellent and a good concept.

-- Same can be said of The Quays.

-- Escape Room "Mission Control" surprisingly entertaining and picking up guests right across the age range.

-- On board retail offer has been upped several notches.

-- Some good excursions, not bad value for money.

 

Bad - Cabins

 

-- The shape of the cabins are now squarer to achieve the "inboard" additional insides, and are around a third smaller than on the "traditional" ships. 

-- In practice this means that inside cabins have service corridors directly adjacent to the walls with poor movement and sound insulation (the cabin shaked) when cages were banged against the wall.

-- Insufficient wardrobe space, one wardrobe for a multi-bed cabin.

-- No bedside cabinets/drawers.

-- Cabin TV not facing the seating area/bed and lost all signal to TV channels, for most of the cruise, although in cabin films are there. 

-- More cuts - glass for toothbrush in bathroom; flannels have gone; turndown service not offered (change from bed to sofa); now Nescafe and the kettle no space to make a brew.

-- Changing area in bathroom now very small such that we had a few bruised knees from the protruding sink/vanity unit.

-- No sound insulation at all, in the bathroom (could hear kids screaming from above and word for word conversation).  Worst experience on this front.

 

MDR Food

 

-- Essentially, if you choose not to pay, then the quality has definitely gone down.  Our experiences included uncooked egg, raw sausage, and "fresh" fruit salad which was "off," on different occasions.

-- However, if you choose to pay, then you can get attentive service, good quality food, and an enjoyable dining experience, "Select Fare plus" if you would.

-- All issues with the app are "baked in."  App-based dining has replaced Freedom Dining, except if you would like to dine before either 7.45am in the morning, or 5.45pm in the evening respectively.  This is a combination of poor table allocation, IT issues, zoning of the restaurants to mask waiting on staff shortages, and gaps in the kitchen staffing provision.  Wine waiters - gone.

-- We won't go on about Christmas Day, but suffice to say the worst stories of that were true from our point of view and whilst the service improved on NYE, we were still sat on a long table, food was again poor (carefully selected to reduce delays), and we left early.  We wouldn't have been happy paying for it in a restaurant for comparison purposes.

-- Worryingly, this cruise did not appear to be operating at full capacity.

-- Large areas of the ship understaffed (I.e., a total of three in the Keel and Cow) - staff were complaining.

 

Lifts

 

-- On average three out of eight lifts in each section were out of service and there were several incidents reported of passengers becoming stuck in the lift, and one, although we cannot verify, of a passenger sustaining an injury. 

-- We are aware of one incident of passengers being stuck in a lift, missing their shore excursion as a result, and then being asked to pay for a taxi to complete their excursion, without compensation.

 

Photographer

 

Not offered once at our table or at Port Side.  Price has doubled.

 

Drinks

 

Another 20% inflation on most of the prices within a year.

 

Bingo

 

Price up to £20 for six tickets, "Snowball" feature taken away, this communicated to customers mid cruise after previously being told that the £5k jackpot would be won on the final day.  In truth, unless spectacularly lucky  the jackpot is £450.

 

Retail

 

Some ridiculous pricing - Benylin £23.  Even the staff counselling the customers not to buy!  All value shopping taken away (I.e. the £10 sale).

 

Library

 

Gone  Also, Sports Court, no activities planned; Deck Games same; Syndicate Quiz ended; Darts and Pool Table broken within a week; "Traditional" Sea Day Entertainment pared back.

 

Ugly

 

We have picked out here only what should have been avoidable:

 

Guest Services: We witnessed (and in a couple of cases experienced) the following:

 

1) Reception staff starting arguments with passengers and queues more than 50 deep.  A few quotes:

 

"Hooray, someone not coming to complain."

"You can't expect it to be resolved the first time you raise it sir, what do you expect?"

 

Senior Member of Staff:

"Why do you think you are in anyway special?"

 

2) My Holiday reception line - Not answered for more than 1 hour on several occasions.

 

Passenger queries - not responded to throughout the voyage, this added to customer frustration and usually, and to be fair, from all of our past experiences, the ship's company make up for shortcomings elsewhere.  However, there are a number of "bad apples," on Arvia, whilst most were friendly and approachable, the above was not the exception. 

 

At one point, we asked if we could go home - we are aware that some passengers left early from the Canary Islands and we understood why, particularly those paying for deluxes and suites. No point in bothering with Shoreside, who the on board team ripped to shreds over the Christmas debacle.  Yes, we pointed the above out (more than once), most issues weren't sorted.

 

Our Conclusions:

 

-- We gave the cruise 4/10.

-- It's a question of accepting what you pay for, but the direct rudeness and poor service was unacceptable, irrespective of the price point.  No real learning from Iona to be honest, this feels like the new normal for P&O big ships.

-- We do doubt whether we would risk the larger ships again, unless we paid for almost all meals in advance and factored this in to a direct price comparison.

-- It's four star surroundings, a two to three star cruising experience - this was worse than Marella.

 

Happy to give any advice / tips which we can to others, sorry we can't be more positive, but just wanted to be honest.  We don't think much learning will go on, much of the above is the "new normal."  For some, willing to look past the foibles they will have a great time, for the traditionalists, time to consider looking elsewhere.

 

[Cristaltips]

Have you seen the recent Feefo reviews? They’re pretty poor. Hopefully P&O will take notice - or will they? Who knows? 

[Camberley]

A fascinating, balanced review. What a real pity it wasn’t a good cruise for you overall. I hope your next cruise - with whoever it is - will be such a success that it banishes memories of this one for you.

 

I would love to think P&O would take proper note of all the complaints (those raised during the cruise by passengers and post cruise) and I hope any issues that were teething problems do get sorted. But I suspect they just don’t really care enough for the lower-brow tone they’ve been going down.

[Dentist at Sea]

Likewise we are now home and dry after what can only be described as an abysmal 14 days cruising on P and O ARVIA     65 cruises and still counting on various cruise lines around the world, this wasn't the worst cruise we have been, it was by far the worst we have been on. It was almost as if it was P and O maiden cruise.. You can gloss over minor complaints what you cannot gloss over is that 61% ( a figure given to me by a senior officer" of dining room staff had never set foot on a cruise before  and boy did it show. Overwhelmed unsure and completely taken by surprise.was how I would put it. The poor service was reflected throughout the ship, from the restaurants to the reception desk. An area so unfit for purpose with such long lines that people if they waited long enough could celebrate their next birthday. I kid you not. Add to this an IT and App system that went terribly wrong and created a perfect storm. I didn't see people leave the ship but I believe a good number decided enough was enough by the time we got to Madeira.  We had the standard outside cabin with balcony which we find  average with glaring omissions No shaver socket, no USB ports a distinct lack of everything in the bath room including glasses and face cloths. Breakfast in bed costs delivery service of £2.50 but don't ask for toast they don't do it. What about some morning tea in a pot? sorry sir not possible make your own with the kettle provided. In truth if I wanted to go camping I wouldn't have brought my Tux  nor would I have spent thousands.!!!!

Lets not forget the no turn  down service or the small chocolates  or towel animals all the nice touches that made cruising so enjoyable. Then the straw that broke the camel's back .a telephone system that any overseas call centre  would have been proud of. Three days into the cruise the cabins were supplied with a telephone directory. A piece of card with three numbers on !!! If you want toilet  rolls or you had a flood . there is no number for housekeeping. Get through to reception ( or as they call themselves the "My holiday experience" who then relay  your message on to housekeeping  who forget all about it. 

Ronan Keating was very good but no matter how many ovations he received didn't make up for the cold soup and the lack of any urgency by P and O to rectify the situation.

Marks out of 10  just 1   It would have been zero  but at least the beds were comfy

D@C

 

[P&O SUE]

Blimey, thanks both for your reviews. The service by staff sounds horrendous.

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, Camberley said:

A fascinating, balanced review. What a real pity it wasn’t a good cruise for you overall. I hope your next cruise - with whoever it is - will be such a success that it banishes memories of this one for you.

 

I would love to think P&O would take proper note of all the complaints (those raised during the cruise by passengers and post cruise) and I hope any issues that were teething problems do get sorted. But I suspect they just don’t really care enough for the lower-brow tone they’ve been going down.

Lower-brow tone there going down that's very pretentious of you

Edited January 6, 2023 by Bazrat

[Dentist at Sea]

14 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

Blimey, thanks both for your reviews. The service by staff sounds horrendous.

Horrendous we could have managed. It was far worse than that !!!!! The basics were all wrong. Permanently  cold toast, stewed tea, an omelette made from one egg. Lack of clean cutlery, sometimes no cloth napkins at the buffet replaced by small square pieces of paper and for Christmas dinner  a communal  salt and pepper that went around the restaurant. 

[P&O SUE]

Just now, Dentist at Sea said:

Horrendous we could have managed. It was far worse than that !!!!! The basics were all wrong. Permanently  cold toast, stewed tea, an omelette made from one egg. Lack of clean cutlery, sometimes no cloth napkins at the buffet replaced by small square pieces of paper and for Christmas dinner  a communal  salt and pepper that went around the restaurant. 

😞 a sad state of affairs.

[Bazrat]

1 minute ago, Dentist at Sea said:

Horrendous we could have managed. It was far worse than that !!!!! The basics were all wrong. Permanently  cold toast, stewed tea, an omelette made from one egg. Lack of clean cutlery, sometimes no cloth napkins at the buffet replaced by small square pieces of paper and for Christmas dinner  a communal  salt and pepper that went around the restaurant. 

I am surprised that there was not complete uproar amongst the thousands on board about the conditions.

[Megabear2]

4 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

I am surprised that there was not complete uproar amongst the thousands on board about the conditions.

But apparently there was ... if people were asking to leave and go home, if people were injured, if Captain Cambey had to make a personal apology it must have been large number upset. 

 

I'm interested in what reports we hear about P&Os response now this one is over and hope to goodness those joining today get better. 

[doog442]

We're on next month 🤣

 

For the price we're paying as a last minute saver I'm not expecting much, perhaps a 3 star hotel equivalent, anything else will be a bonus but its a means to an end...the Caribbean.

 

Nice to hear the beds are comfy but sorry to hear you had a bad time.  There really is no excuse. That said we went on the Enchanted Princess in July and that was a complete mess...massive queues for the MDR, new staff, broken lifts...usual stuff. We'd said we'd never cruise again but here we are   

[Ardennais]

8 minutes ago, doog442 said:

We're on next month 🤣

 

For the price we're paying as a last minute saver I'm not expecting much, perhaps a 3 star hotel equivalent, anything else will be a bonus but its a means to an end...the Caribbean.

 

Nice to hear the beds are comfy but sorry to hear you had a bad time.  There really is no excuse. That said we went on the Enchanted Princess in July and that was a complete mess...massive queues for the MDR, new staff, broken lifts...usual stuff. We'd said we'd never cruise again but here we are   

I hope that you have a good time and that things have improved. We’ll be on Iona soon and I’m really hoping that the dining arrangements will run smoothly and that the ‘app’ behaves itself! 
 

We were on Enchanted Princess last week of June last year, and had a wonderful time. We were really impressed. There were indeed massive queues first night for the MDR and a few problems with the Medallion App, but apart from that we had a great time. Lovely cabin, lovely ship, good meat and fish (desserts so so), turn down, free breakfast in the cabin, etc. It was a fairly last minute booking at a great price and exceeded our expectations to be honest. 

[Bazrat]

42 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

But apparently there was ... if people were asking to leave and go home, if people were injured, if Captain Cambey had to make a personal apology it must have been large number upset. 

 

I'm interested in what reports we hear about P&Os response now this one is over and hope to goodness those joining today get better. 

It hearsay about people asking to leave unless your one of them and people being injured would have made the newspapers, the only thing we know for sure it was a very poor cruise for some.

[Megabear2]

21 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

It hearsay about people asking to leave unless your one of them and people being injured would have made the newspapers, the only thing we know for sure it was a very poor cruise for some.

The OP stated he wanted to leave and knows others did for certain, that's not hearsay: he was there.  The injured person in the lift did make the national newspapers and also some cruise related websites.  

 

It's very easy to be defensive of P&O, I often do it myself. However as you say some had a very poor cruise and clearly that is not good enough.

46 minutes ago, doog442 said:

For the price we're paying as a last minute saver I'm not expecting much, perhaps a 3 star hotel equivalent, anything else will be a bonus but its a means to an end...the Caribbean.

I hope you have a great cruise without mishap.  Your expectations will hopefully be exceeded as according to our P&O mole your experience should be 4* plus as that's the aim for these ships.  

 

I note that all Britannia and Arvia remaining Caribbean cruises have been cut to a starting price of £999 with some specialist cruise agents undercutting that price.  I really hope it doesn't mean more problems for people like the ones we faced with the difficult passengers and also that they actually put enough stock onboard to last the full cruise length.

 

[Bazrat]

1 minute ago, Megabear2 said:

The OP stated he wanted to leave and knows others did for certain, that's not hearsay: he was there.  The injured person in the lift did make the national newspapers and also some cruise related websites.  

 

It's very easy to be defensive of P&O, I often do it myself. However as you say some had a very poor cruise and clearly that is not good enough.

I hope you have a great cruise without mishap.  Your expectations will hopefully be exceeded as according to our P&O mole your experience should be 4* plus as that's the aim for these ships.  

 

I note that all Britannia and Arvia remaining Caribbean cruises have been cut to a starting price of £999 with some specialist cruise agents undercutting that price.  I really hope it doesn't mean more problems for people like the ones we faced with the difficult passengers and also that they actually put enough stock onboard to last the full cruise length.

 

The op said he wanted to but didn’t I wanted to leave work today but didn’t, I just did a search cannot find the articles about the injury if you can put a link up, and I am a member of the Arvia other site forum and strangely members who was on that cruise Christmas aside had a good cruise, it’s not being defensive of p&o because I have no loyalty to any cruise line, I just like a balanced view.

[Megabear2]

6 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

The op said he wanted to but didn’t I wanted to leave work today but didn’t, I just did a search cannot find the articles about the injury if you can put a link up, and I am a member of the Arvia other site forum and strangely members who was on that cruise Christmas aside had a good cruise, it’s not being defensive of p&o because I have no loyalty to any cruise line, I just like a balanced view.

Leaving a cruise and leaving work are two very different matters - one costs thousands, one hopefully provides thousands for you to spend on the former so there's absolutely no comparison to be drawn.  I’ve no idea why the OP remained onboard if he wanted to leave, but Christmas and full flights do spring to mind.  I note the second passenger who commented also mentioned passengers wishing to leave in Madeira.  

 

Im  certainly not prepared to get in petty squabbling over this I'm afraid.  It's not my problem and I'm certainly not going to trawl back through my browsing history to satisfy you, I was away myself when my husband showed me the posts about the injured person. If you wish to call me incorrect, that's fine by me.

 

Clearly you are very excited about your forthcoming Arvia cruise later this year and I wish you well.

 

 

[wowzz]

51 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

The op said he wanted to but didn’t I wanted to leave work today but didn’t, I just did a search cannot find the articles about the injury if you can put a link up, and I am a member of the Arvia other site forum and strangely members who was on that cruise Christmas aside had a good cruise, it’s not being defensive of p&o because I have no loyalty to any cruise line, I just like a balanced view.

Baz - over the years you and I have been on this site,  I always felt you were even minded, but in recent days you do seem to have come over as a "do no wrong" apologist for P&O. 

From various media forums,  there is no doubt that the  Arvia criuse was a shambles. 

Why pretend it was perfect? 

[Britboys]

5 hours ago, No pager thank you said:

Hello all, Further to my last post, we have now returned from Arvia and wanted to follow up with some impressions from the Maiden Voyage. 

 

Overall, we didn't enjoy the cruise and had a very mixed experience.  What we would say is that impressions on board vary - you will find just as many saying "no complaints, best cruise ever," as you will find those with a string of issues.  We've tried to be fair!

 

Good and Great

 

-- Ronan Keating on NYE was excellent and there were a few high quality acts in The Limelight Club.

-- The 6th Street Diner concept was, for us, a success and a welcome alternative to the MDR breakfasts.

-- Although not for us, the ship was particularly family friendly, with children's facilities, clubs and venues the best in the fleet, particularly at Christmas. 

-- In her dining rooms and public areas, there is much better use of colour than Iona, she feels less corporate and clinical throughout.  That said, she feels distinctly Carnival, not P&O.

-- Gelato afternoon tea was excellent and a good concept.

-- Same can be said of The Quays.

-- Escape Room "Mission Control" surprisingly entertaining and picking up guests right across the age range.

-- On board retail offer has been upped several notches.

-- Some good excursions, not bad value for money.

 

Bad - Cabins

 

-- The shape of the cabins are now squarer to achieve the "inboard" additional insides, and are around a third smaller than on the "traditional" ships. 

-- In practice this means that inside cabins have service corridors directly adjacent to the walls with poor movement and sound insulation (the cabin shaked) when cages were banged against the wall.

-- Insufficient wardrobe space, one wardrobe for a multi-bed cabin.

-- No bedside cabinets/drawers.

-- Cabin TV not facing the seating area/bed and lost all signal to TV channels, for most of the cruise, although in cabin films are there. 

-- More cuts - glass for toothbrush in bathroom; flannels have gone; turndown service not offered (change from bed to sofa); now Nescafe and the kettle no space to make a brew.

-- Changing area in bathroom now very small such that we had a few bruised knees from the protruding sink/vanity unit.

-- No sound insulation at all, in the bathroom (could hear kids screaming from above and word for word conversation).  Worst experience on this front.

 

MDR Food

 

-- Essentially, if you choose not to pay, then the quality has definitely gone down.  Our experiences included uncooked egg, raw sausage, and "fresh" fruit salad which was "off," on different occasions.

-- However, if you choose to pay, then you can get attentive service, good quality food, and an enjoyable dining experience, "Select Fare plus" if you would.

-- All issues with the app are "baked in."  App-based dining has replaced Freedom Dining, except if you would like to dine before either 7.45am in the morning, or 5.45pm in the evening respectively.  This is a combination of poor table allocation, IT issues, zoning of the restaurants to mask waiting on staff shortages, and gaps in the kitchen staffing provision.  Wine waiters - gone.

-- We won't go on about Christmas Day, but suffice to say the worst stories of that were true from our point of view and whilst the service improved on NYE, we were still sat on a long table, food was again poor (carefully selected to reduce delays), and we left early.  We wouldn't have been happy paying for it in a restaurant for comparison purposes.

-- Worryingly, this cruise did not appear to be operating at full capacity.

-- Large areas of the ship understaffed (I.e., a total of three in the Keel and Cow) - staff were complaining.

 

Lifts

 

-- On average three out of eight lifts in each section were out of service and there were several incidents reported of passengers becoming stuck in the lift, and one, although we cannot verify, of a passenger sustaining an injury. 

-- We are aware of one incident of passengers being stuck in a lift, missing their shore excursion as a result, and then being asked to pay for a taxi to complete their excursion, without compensation.

 

Photographer

 

Not offered once at our table or at Port Side.  Price has doubled.

 

Drinks

 

Another 20% inflation on most of the prices within a year.

 

Bingo

 

Price up to £20 for six tickets, "Snowball" feature taken away, this communicated to customers mid cruise after previously being told that the £5k jackpot would be won on the final day.  In truth, unless spectacularly lucky  the jackpot is £450.

 

Retail

 

Some ridiculous pricing - Benylin £23.  Even the staff counselling the customers not to buy!  All value shopping taken away (I.e. the £10 sale).

 

Library

 

Gone  Also, Sports Court, no activities planned; Deck Games same; Syndicate Quiz ended; Darts and Pool Table broken within a week; "Traditional" Sea Day Entertainment pared back.

 

Ugly

 

We have picked out here only what should have been avoidable:

 

Guest Services: We witnessed (and in a couple of cases experienced) the following:

 

1) Reception staff starting arguments with passengers and queues more than 50 deep.  A few quotes:

 

"Hooray, someone not coming to complain."

"You can't expect it to be resolved the first time you raise it sir, what do you expect?"

 

Senior Member of Staff:

"Why do you think you are in anyway special?"

 

2) My Holiday reception line - Not answered for more than 1 hour on several occasions.

 

Passenger queries - not responded to throughout the voyage, this added to customer frustration and usually, and to be fair, from all of our past experiences, the ship's company make up for shortcomings elsewhere.  However, there are a number of "bad apples," on Arvia, whilst most were friendly and approachable, the above was not the exception. 

 

At one point, we asked if we could go home - we are aware that some passengers left early from the Canary Islands and we understood why, particularly those paying for deluxes and suites. No point in bothering with Shoreside, who the on board team ripped to shreds over the Christmas debacle.  Yes, we pointed the above out (more than once), most issues weren't sorted.

 

Our Conclusions:

 

-- We gave the cruise 4/10.

-- It's a question of accepting what you pay for, but the direct rudeness and poor service was unacceptable, irrespective of the price point.  No real learning from Iona to be honest, this feels like the new normal for P&O big ships.

-- We do doubt whether we would risk the larger ships again, unless we paid for almost all meals in advance and factored this in to a direct price comparison.

-- It's four star surroundings, a two to three star cruising experience - this was worse than Marella.

 

Happy to give any advice / tips which we can to others, sorry we can't be more positive, but just wanted to be honest.  We don't think much learning will go on, much of the above is the "new normal."  For some, willing to look past the foibles they will have a great time, for the traditionalists, time to consider looking elsewhere.

 

So sorry to hear you had such a disappointing cruise - especially as it was the Maiden and over Christmas and New Year.

So it sounds like the Library-in-Anderson's from Iona hasn't crossed over to Arvia then?

Did they do anything special to mark the Maiden or are they leaving all the glam and razzamatazz for the Barbados naming ceremony?

[Bazrat]

9 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Baz - over the years you and I have been on this site,  I always felt you were even minded, but in recent days you do seem to have come over as a "do no wrong" apologist for P&O. 

From various media forums,  there is no doubt that the  Arvia criuse was a shambles. 

Why pretend it was perfect? 

Nope it wasn't even remotely perfect nobody can say otherwise Christmas was a complete let down for those involved, but when they say people got off the cruise I read the same thing on our last cruise, it turned out to be the entertainment crew swapping, I have booked on Arvia this year so I joined another site and there was a more balanced view the good bad and the ugly.

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

Nope it wasn't even remotely perfect nobody can say otherwise Christmas was a complete let down for those involved, but when they say people got off the cruise I read the same thing on our last cruise, it turned out to be the entertainment crew swapping, I have booked on Arvia this year so I joined another site and there was a more balanced view the good bad and the ugly.

I guess the real issue is that on a ship with 5000 passengers,  and only 250 (? -who knows) comnent on social media,  how does an outsider decide what is the truth ?

 

[Megabear2]

47 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I guess the real issue is that on a ship with 5000 passengers,  and only 250 (? -who knows) comnent on social media,  how does an outsider decide what is the truth ?

 

We will most likely never know. However the shambles will hopefully be put right for those just boarded and suitable redress paid to those who put up with the mess.

 

News of this fiasco coupled with my own disappointment leads me to believe a very dangerous line is close to being crossed for P&O and they must at least rectify the staffing and dining issues in haste before new and old say not again. 

 

Reading the comment from doog I find it sad his expectations are so low.  I also find it sad my own husband states he'll not sail P&O again as he doesn't want to worry about getting into arguments with people spoiling for a fight and most of all I find it sad we're even having to have these conversations.

 

Fingers crossed this all ends soon before it becomes irretrievable.

[Purdey16]

Wow what a shambles of a cruise they all had , well I certainly had a lucky escape as we should be on Arvia now going to the Caribbean.

Really sorry No pager thank you & Dentist at sea your cruise over Xmas was such a disappointment, thank you for putting in the review.

[Bazrat]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

I guess the real issue is that on a ship with 5000 passengers,  and only 250 (? -who knows) comnent on social media,  how does an outsider decide what is the truth ?

 

👍

[bobstheboy]

We are cruising on Iona next week and Arvia in September. 

I am expecting a similar experience to our previous three Iona cruises, so at least I have something to compare my upcoming cruises with. If I am as disappointed as some on here, that will be me finished with P&O. 

[itf]

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!