Arvia Adventure Begins - May 2023

[Megabear2]

Arrived a bit earlier than intended as absolutely no traffic between Salisbury and Southampton.  Luggage went in the hole, but a bit chaotic with coaches still arriving at 15.05.  Big queues outside but seem to be being managed okay and doesn't look too bad at all.  Reported to assistance and a lovely man took me through the side door and seated me.  He offered to help me go through early but I've declined as seemed very unfair with hundreds outside.  Just before 4.00pm he's coming to get me.

 

I've made good use of my time waiting. Logged in to the ship and booked a couple of extra meals and shows and have the illusive 710 Club 8.45 performances for several nights as well.  I'm all set and looking forward to getting on board.

 

Decided to cancel my 6.00pm dinner for tonight as enjoyed lunch at home with the OH before leaving for Southampton.  All looking good at present, I'm chilling watching the queue, couldn't be doing with the standing outside though!

 

[zap99]

1 minute ago, Megabear2 said:

Arrived a bit earlier than intended as absolutely no traffic between Salisbury and Southampton.  Luggage went in the hole, but a bit chaotic with coaches still arriving at 15.05.  Big queues outside but seem to be being managed okay and doesn't look too bad at all.  Reported to assistance and a lovely man took me through the side door and seated me.  He offered to help me go through early but I've declined as seemed very unfair with hundreds outside.  Just before 4.00pm he's coming to get me.

 

I've made good use of my time waiting. Logged in to the ship and booked a couple of extra meals and shows and have the illusive 710 Club 8.45 performances for several nights as well.  I'm all set and looking forward to getting on board.

 

Decided to cancel my 6.00pm dinner for tonight as enjoyed lunch at home with the OH before leaving for Southampton.  All looking good at present, I'm chilling watching the queue, couldn't be doing with the standing outside though!

 

That's the longest we gave ever seen.

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

That's the longest we gave ever seen.

There's actually two queues. The shorter one is those on time waiting to go in. The longer one goes round the corner and is early arrivals.  The queue to go in is stretching up the escalator.

 

As I say, glad I'm not in it!

[Selbourne]

Looks horrendous. I hope that the escalator is switched off 😂.

 

I’d love to know what constitutes being an ‘early arrival’. It’s impossible to plan your arrival time precisely as it’s dependent on CPS etc. if you are 30 minutes early do you get sent to the back of the 3 hour queue? 🤔

[Technoman2]

Have a great time MB. We disembarked at 10.05 a bit of a queue getting out through customs. Lots of people moaning about not enough trolleys only 15 mins to get cases and get outside. Home now the garden is a forrest and the birds needed feeding. Brought some good weather home. 

[Sussexboy]

Have a lovely cruise, I hope everything goes smoothly for you. We are not on Arvia until next May so hopefully all the glitches will be ironed out by then!

[Megabear2]

Collected and on-board in room by 3.40pm.  Still.big queues outside when I boarded.  Assistance man told me today had been a "good one", not sure what a bad one will be like!!

 

Cabin found and very pleased with it although it does seem small after  Britannia and QM2.  

 

Have 2 pairs of slippers, a sail away drink voucher and a letter saying no cocktail parties (although I have another one telling me I'll get an invite)!

 

My WiFi logged straight in, no huffing about at reception like on Britannia and so far seems quite responsive.

 

Ship looks like it's already very busy  big queues for the lifts, glad I could use the stairs as the baggage guys took my small bag as well as my case.

 

General observation from boarding queue: much younger demographic than I normally see at this time of year.  Lots of babies, all very friendly and smiling.

 

I liked the boarding gates being divided by muster station, straight on checked in and free to wander. Very impressive.

 

App is behaving so far - would it dare not to with me!

 

My tea/coffee drawer is broken, pulled it out, everything fell on the floor and it wouldn't go back in.  Took me ages to get it back in.

 

Big news:  NO BISCUITS ....

 

Please send those hobnobs urgently.

 

Off for a wander and to find a g&t to recover from the trauma of this situation!

 

 

[CarlaMarie]

It will be interesting if you are told how many first time cruisers you have onboard. There were 2000 on Britannias cruise last week.

[Megabear2]

We are sailing at 6.00pm apparently.  My steward has brought ice and biscuits but my small bag is currently lost!! That means no toiletries, no kindle, no books and no electrical chargers amongst other essential items!  There's something about me and small bags with luggage...

 

Been for a scout around but only on deck 16 where I saw the lesser spotted football shirts of Aston Villa and Tottenham encouraging their offspring to splash the water put of the infinity pool. Hopefully the trough will do it's job.  

 

Apart from panicking about my bag I've settled in and unpacked.  The wardrobe seemed quite compact, but I never travel without the kitchen sink so it might be me.  Definitely wouldn't be anywhere for my OH or a travelling companion to put stuff on the shelves though.  I've successfully gotten lost on two occasions so am about to venture into the big wide world of decks 6, 7 and 8 ... it may be sometime before I return. 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Megabear2

[happy v]

One of our bags didn't arrive till about 7pm. So don't panic yet 

[Megabear2]

3 minutes ago, happy v said:

One of our bags didn't arrive till about 7pm. So don't panic yet 

Need my charger for the app though, typically hardly any charge left as I've been telling the world where I've been!  I'm sure it will get here eventually, just annoying they took it off my case before I could.  It's always the little things you miss when they aren't there.

[Gettingwarmer]

12 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Need my charger for the app though, typically hardly any charge left as I've been telling the world where I've been!  I'm sure it will get here eventually, just annoying they took it off my case before I could.  It's always the little things you miss when they aren't there.

If no label on it and it is separated from the main case it will not reach you. Usually a pile of undelivered cases down at reception. 

[SarahHben]

I hope you track down your bag and have a wonderful trip

[Froxfield]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Collected and on-board in room by 3.40pm.  Still.big queues outside when I boarded.  Assistance man told me today had been a "good one", not sure what a bad one will be like!!

I think "a good one" means that they tipped all the self loading cargo off in good time. When we reported to our disembarkation holding location the statutory 10 minutes before time we were told we could go straight to leave the ship! The result seemed to be that the the ramps were very crowded and the baggage hall a real scrimmage. Tempers were getting a little frayed. We were lucky to get one of the last five trolleys available at the time: but it wouldn't steer well!!! Nevertheless we got though in reasonable time and it didn't spoil our cruise

 

My tea/coffee drawer is broken, pulled it out, everything fell on the floor and it wouldn't go back in.  Took me ages to get it back in.

We also puled the tea drawer right out and struggled to get it back. I am not sure it is broken, just poorly designed?

Big news:  NO BISCUITS ....

Biscuits appearing haphazardly seems to be the new thing!  It also took a couple of days for our welcome bottle of Champagne to show up. (I know us in mini-suite!).  Mind you I don't remember it being Taittinger before: maybe other supply issues?

Overall, we loved our cruise. There were reports of rude passengers but we didn't see too much pushing and shoving.  Just one occasion when one of the "Great British Passengers" decided to verbally abuse one of the VERY hard working bar staff who, I must say handled it with great composure.

I ope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did.

 

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Need my charger for the app though, typically hardly any charge left as I've been telling the world where I've been!  I'm sure it will get here eventually, just annoying they took it off my case before I could.  It's always the little things you miss when they aren't there.

Looking forward to hear more about your trip megabear, hope your bag arrives soon and you have a great cruise.

[Megabear2]

4 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

If no label on it and it is separated from the main case it will not reach you. Usually a pile of undelivered cases down at reception. 

It did have a label thankfully and was here when I got back a short time ago with a nice little note apologising for it's delay which was a nice surprise.

 

Been a good evening wandering around. I had the theatre at 8.30pm for Rock On! which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The queue formed at 8.00pm, stretching back a long way.  I wandered in around 8.15pm and got a nice central seat, had to give cabin number on entry.  The show was apparently full but I had no one sitting next to me and there were quite a few spare seats when I looked around. People seemed reluctant to fill every seat in a row leaving odd seats as gaps.  I thought that was quite poor but there you go.  The show was very good, loud with special effects which were extremely impressive.

 

Earlier I sat in the atrium area and watched the acrobatic show.  It was impossible to get a drink at that point, I waited 30 minutes before giving up when the ladies finished on their trapeze.  I was very uncomfortable with the act as they had no safety harness and as someone not keen on heights I found it rather scary.

 

I ate in the Quays, the black bean thingie very pleasant. A roaring trade in Yorkshire puds was occurring and it was quite busy.  Wandering round after I encountered the Meridian restaurant dining queue which was quite long.  A quick look at the app showed 75 people in the virtual queue at 7.55pm and 63 for Zenith.  I'm very glad I booked all my meals etc in advance, I wouldn't be happy with the queues.

 

After the show I sat in the Amber Lounge having a drink and chatted to another solo traveller,  a lady who'd come by coach from the Wirral.  She confirmed they arrived at 1.30pm and were held for an hour at the Queen Elizabeth Terminal. Apparently blue numbers were issued to them and this bypassed the queues outside the terminal. She was using the app  nothing booked before boarding and it had taken an hour for her to be called to Zenith at 7.00pm after entering the queue at 6.00pm - she didn't realise dining started at 5.30pm on this ship.

 

Overall been a pleasant first day, I'm now attempting to try to sleep.but the bass from below is very loud! Soundproofing clearly isn't Arvia's strong point.  I have a feeling I'm not going to be very happy with the noise, but will give it a try and see what time it ends.  The clocks go forward tonight so it could be 2.00am or later apparently. 

 

Apart from the noise issues the room is clean and tidy. I can confirm I have glasses in the bathroom and a pile of sanitary bags.  On investigation the under bed box has 4 more glasses and nothing else.  My cabin steward tells me there is no conditioner or body lotion available - I didn't actually ask but clearly others had.

 

Tomorrow is meant to be a pleasant day sea and weather wise.

 

 

[Gettingwarmer]

5 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

 

Overall been a pleasant first day, I'm now attempting to try to sleep.but the bass from below is very loud! Soundproofing clearly isn't Arvia's strong point.  I have a feeling I'm not going to be very happy with the noise, but will give it a try and see what time it ends.  The clocks go forward tonight so it could be 2.00am or later apparently. 

Glad you got your bag and enjoyed your evening. Hope the noise is not too bad and ends early. Could be too much day after day. Looking forward to more reports. 

[Technoman2]

Thats great the illusive bag has returned MB , Its 6am my body clock has not adjusted yet and ive got the first lot of washing in lol. When i ate in the Quays a couple of times i tried the Katsu chicken Curry and the Thai green Prawn curry. The Katsu is Breaded Chicken slices over rice with a mild curry sauce on top. It crossed my mind to ask if i coulld mix and match i.e Prawns instead of Chicken and they will do that for you. Just letting you know. We were on Deck 15 and any rooms between 15500 and 15400 had the noise from the dome in the evening BUT luckily lthis only seemed to be an issue upto 11.30pm. Worth taking earplugs and the cabin steward will get you some if you ask him. Well ours did.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Technoman2 said:

Thats great the illusive bag has returned MB , Its 6am my body clock has not adjusted yet and ive got the first lot of washing in lol. When i ate in the Quays a couple of times i tried the Katsu chicken Curry and the Thai green Prawn curry. The Katsu is Breaded Chicken slices over rice with a mild curry sauce on top. It crossed my mind to ask if i coulld mix and match i.e Prawns instead of Chicken and they will do that for you. Just letting you know. We were on Deck 15 and any rooms between 15500 and 15400 had the noise from the dome in the evening BUT luckily lthis only seemed to be an issue upto 11.30pm. Worth taking earplugs and the cabin steward will get you some if you ask him. Well ours did.

Thanks for letting me know about the mix and match, I will definitely give it a go. Hope your body clock adjusts to normal quickly.

 

The clocks changed last night so it's now 7.30am on here and I'm fit for nothing after 4 hours or so sleep. At 1.15am ship time I conceded defeat and rang reception to ask when the music would stop and was told another 30 minutes.  I was surprised the phone was answered so quickly.  Anyway the outcome was a very surprising would you like another room and the deck supervisor is now visiting me at 9.00am to discuss options.  This will be an interesting one, I must confess I was extremely surprised at how quickly this was offered and the sceptic in me says they know certain rooms are likely to usher in a complaint (apparently I've made one although I never actually used the word).

 

Unfortunately I am almost deaf in my left ear and my right ear over compensates as a result. I also get regular infections in my ear so try to avoid putting anything in it to prevent flare ups. The side effect of the bad ear is that although I cannot hear normal levels low and high pitch sounds are acutely exacerbated and the thump and grind of the drum and bass guitar I experienced last night were such that even with my head good ear down deep in the pillow the sound was vibrating and reverberated through my left ear.  I was quite surprised how loud the noise was, rarely can I not obliterate noise by turning my deaf ear up.

 

Anyways I'll keep the deck 15 information in mind in case they try to move me there.  I must confess I'm.absolutely shattered so hope they person is on time as I'm planning to try to get some more sleep when they've gone.

 

Apart from the tiredness it's ironically super quiet this morning with no noise anywhere from my neighbours.  In light of my unexpected visitor being due  I'm going to try for breakfast brunch at 6th Street Diner at when it opens at 10.00am,  assuming of course I'm not trundling around the ship with bags and a suitcase!

 

Apart from that all is good, the Horizon looks full of things to do and I'm planning to visit the spa later to arrange a couple of treats.

 

 

 

 

[lincslady]

I do hope you can move cabins - there is little worse in my mind than noise which prevents you sleeping, and the thump of drums and bass is somehow worse than almost any other.

Best of luck.

[Selbourne]

Oh dear. The joys of a Saver presumably? Thank goodness that the ship isn’t full and they can move you. Imagine if they couldn’t 😱

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Oh dear. The joys of a Saver presumably? Thank goodness that the ship isn’t full and they can move you. Imagine if they couldn’t 😱

No, the joys of an upgrade from inside to balcony.  I had booked a select inside but couldn't choose a cabin only area.  I chose front, they moved me to aft small balcony.  I could not change it back when I found out where it was as the ship is purportedly full.  We shall see, I'm awaiting my visitor who's on his way apparently.

[davecttr]

So you are above the Club House where the music continues to the wee hours? Another area to avoid.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

So you are above the Club House where the music continues to the wee hours? Another area to avoid.

Yes and also avoid middle deck 5 as under 710 Club where there's a show starting 12.15am every night so I was advised which was why I booked forward originally.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Megabear2

[CarlaMarie]

Were you asked if you wanted the upgrade? I am not sure how accurate this is, but from what I have heard the option of saying whether you would or would not like to be put on the upgrade list has been done anyway with.  I would have thought that defeated the point of a select fare, which the majority of passengers who opt for select do so to get their cabin of choice. 

 

Hope the visit goes well!