Live On Board Arvia K316

[DamianG]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Is the teenager at the back....not talking.....or on her phone. ?🤣

No, HE was in HIS phone! 😂

[zap99]

12 minutes ago, DamianG said:

No, HE was in HIS phone! 😂

My mum took my passport photos to our Doctor in 1970 to get them signed. .....I don't know if I can sign these...I don't know your daughter....that's my son.

 

Sorry.🤣

[DamianG]

14 minutes ago, zap99 said:

My mum took my passport photos to our Doctor in 1970 to get them signed. .....I don't know if I can sign these...I don't know your daughter....that's my son.

 

Sorry.🤣

It’s just good to know that I’m not the only person on here to put their foot in it regularly. 😀

[majortom10]

Whoever is currently on onboard is only one of the MDRs still got tablecloths and the other hasn't and which is which. MTIA.

[TigerB]

10 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Whoever is currently on onboard is only one of the MDRs still got tablecloths and the other hasn't and which is which. MTIA.

 

In January and April it was Meridian that was trying to emulate 🥄🥄🥄

That was by design from the beginning, so I would probably think it would continue.

Give it another six months and they may also have the sticky carpet!😄

[Ardennais]

5 hours ago, DamianG said:

Make that 1198, our Kyle won’t bother anyone (except us of course).

I’m sure he’s great company as are most young people. 

[DamianG]

1 hour ago, TigerB said:

 

In January and April it was Meridian that was trying to emulate 🥄🥄🥄

That was by design from the beginning, so I would probably think it would continue.

Give it another six months and they may also have the sticky carpet!😄

Still the same, Zenith has the tablecloths but the budget ran out when it came to the ornamental coverings in the Meridian.

Edited August 7, 2023 by DamianG

[terrierjohn]

22 minutes ago, DamianG said:

Still the same, Zenith has the tablecloths but the budget ran out when it came to the ornamental coverings in the Meridian.

I thought Meritoan had polished wood tables, whilst Zenith just had plain old formica?

[DamianG]

Monday 7^th August

 

I was asleep quickly last night and apparently so were Michelle and Kyle. I woke at 4:30am but that’s typical anyway then kept dozing off and waking before finally getting up around 8am (taking into account the clocks moving forward 1 hour). Once we’d raised Kyle from the dead we tried to book in one of the main dining rooms for breakfast at 9:30am but the online queues were already closed despite the last admissions time of 10am. We went to Zenith anyway and were immediately seated. Michelle had the P&O Monday classic Eggs Benedict. Yes, I know it’s available every day these days but traditionally it used to be only Monday’s on P&O in the past. Doesn’t that feel strange now? I had the full P&O English breakfast just to confirm that I still don’t like their version of Cumberland sausage and I won’t ask for black pudding again. My poached eggs were very overcooked (as were Michelle’s) but hey, I didn’t have to cook or do the washing up afterwards so none of these minor disappointments would spoil our day.

 

After breakfast I paid a quick visit to reception to unlock our internet access after I’d made a daft mistake with the saved pin code on my phone. I’d hoped not to have any reason to go to reception and here I was on day 2 already there. There was a P&O officer checking the queue and he listened to my issue then told me that the next available receptionist would quickly unlock the access for me. Seconds after he left me the lady behind in the queue dodged past me and was heading for the next available receptionist whilst saying “You’re not waiting are you?” I’ve no idea what she thought I was doing standing in line but I quickly called her back and said that I was waiting. Meanwhile the receptionist was waving me over and shooing her away. Some people!

 

Whilst I was at reception there was a display screen scrolling through various pieces of information. One notice that caught my attention stated that there were no cabin upgrades available due to the “complex nature of the itinerary”. Complex? 6 ports in the Mediterranean over 2 weeks is the lowest number of calls certainly we’ve ever known and there are such small distances between each port that (to me anyway) it hardly looks complex at all. It’s probably just a standard message but it made me laugh anyway.

 

From there we went to Vistas for a tea (for you know who) and an iced coffee for me. I’d never tried a Costa iced coffee before but I am definitely a fan now. The couple in the queue before me caused a massive hold up with their complicated order of 6 drinks (you know, extra shot of this in that one, double this, etc, etc.) then to make matters worse they wanted to spread the charges across 5 cruise cards with multiple drinks packages and one to pay as you go. They’re not doing anything wrong with their order of course, but when you are stood there waiting it is frustrating.

 

We managed to grab some seats next to the large windows on port side which (at that time) was the sunny side. Not long after we sat down I spotted a dolphin and couldn’t help myself shouting “Dolphin!” Well, you have to don’t you, even if no one else saw it. Not long after that the officer of the watch made the 12pm announcement and advised that there were plenty of dolphins in the area so that reassured me that I hadn’t imagined it.

 

We spent time in the cabin then after 2pm Michelle and I went out for a stroll around. We did a lap and a half of the promenade deck then decided to have some lunch in the Quays and chose the roast turkey dinner in a giant Yorkshire pudding. It was good but the turkey was a little dry and in the end the portions defeated both of us. We recently watched a ship review on YouTube and saw one teenager enjoy it so much that he ate two portions in one sitting. He must have hollow legs.

 

From there we went up to the Sky Dome deck 16 to get some pizza and chips for Kyle from Taste 360. It was busy but not overcrowded though with the roof closed I found it to be very noisy. When we got back to the cabin he had let his grandparents in so we spent some time with them and agreed a plan for the evening.

 

Kyle and I went to the gym just after 5pm and though it was quite busy there is so much equipment that we didn’t have to wait to use anything. I thought that I exercised remarkably well considering I’d had 2 glasses of wine earlier. We then headed back to the cabin to get ready for dinner, and while I was waiting for my turn in the bathroom I went back out to return the tray and basket from Taste 360 and to pick up some more drinks for the cabin. I thought that the Sunset Bar deck 8 aft would be a good place to pick up drinks but after waiting 10 minutes or so, and seeing lots of passengers who arrived after me being served before me, I gave up. Happily I went inside to the Club House and was served instantly.

 

We met up with everyone on the library side of Andersons (as kids are supposedly not allowed in the bar side though inevitably there were some in there) at 7pm. We were a bit squashed in a corner but we all got seated and served quickly. I went on the My Holiday webpage and guess what, online booking was closed for all the main dining rooms. I walked just down the corridor and went straight up to the reception for the Olive Grove and quickly made a booking. As expected I was handed a pager and advised it would be around 45 minutes.

 

At 8:20 we were finally paged and as we arrived there was a huge queue. We didn’t know if the queue was for those who had been called or those wishing to book so I made my way to the front and managed to ask a waiter who told me that all the passengers in the queue had been paged and we would have to join it. So we did. After 10 minutes or so we finally got to the front only for 2 ladies from different groups to bypass the queue and step straight in front of me announcing to everyone that as they had been paged they didn’t need to queue. Frustratingly the receptionist completely ignored me and sorted both of them out first. When my sister tried to engage with both ladies they were having none of it either. My mother-in-law had a bit of a dig at them saying that everyone in the queue had been paged and had been made to queue and one of the ladies just responded by sarcastically clapping. I found the whole experience really upsetting and will take this up with P&O in due course but not yet and likely not while I’m onboard. I don’t really want to be spending time complaining to someone at reception and I’d rather put my thoughts in writing post-cruise anyway.

 

Once inside we had a lovely table in a quiet corner and we were quickly served. We weren’t offered drinks as we all brought them with us anyway. We were helping mum to choose her courses and suggested that Gambas al Ajillo (king prawns with garlic and chilli) wouldn’t be that spicy, only for several members of our party, including me, having our collective heads blown off by it. Michelle and I both also had Croquetas Iberico (okay but nothing special) followed by Seafood, Chicken and Chorizo Bomba Rice which was fantastic. There were no clams but plenty of prawns which made up for it. To finish I had one of my favourites, Tiramisu, which was okay but a bit unusual as (to me anyway) it seemed more like a panna cotta.

 

Being on a long table and in a quiet corner meant that conversation flowed much better than last night and we really had a fun evening. Our main waiter had the manner of someone who was coming to the end of a busy day and had had enough. He was polite but not very engaging. Throughout the meal we asked for a few rounds of drinks and all the time he efficiently took the orders and delivered everything quickly. We had such a leisurely meal that we didn’t finish until 10:20pm and as we were getting ready to leave he came back to the table, cracked a lovely big smile and asked “More drinks?” That really was such a simple but lovely thing to finish off a great meal, and I imagined that this would be the sort of waiter that you could build a great rapport with in the old days of club dining.

 

After dinner we half fancied going to see vocal group Boyz4life in the Sky Dome but Kyle was tired out so we called it a day. He put a movie on in the cabin but I’m pretty sure that he’d fallen asleep a few times whilst trying to watch it so eventually I asked him to turn it off at 11:30pm.

Edited August 8, 2023 by DamianG

[purplesea]

Was this your tiramisu?

[GSPG]

Thanks.

It’ll be interesting to read your ‘qualms’ over the next two weeks, and the experience sharing with nearly 6,000 people.

I was on Arvia the cruise before last which had a different itinerary. La Coruna, Majorca, La Spezia, Marseilles, Barcelona and Cadiz.

I’m not going to list our ‘qualms’ as we never expected the cruise to go 100% okay (prob should not expect that anyway), but at the end it’ll be interesting to compare yours to ours and if there are common themes.

 

[cruising.mark.uk]

1 hour ago, DamianG said:

 

Being on a long table and in a quiet corner meant that conversation flowed much better than last night and we really had a fun evening. Our main waiter had the manner of someone who was coming to the end of a busy day and had had enough. He was polite but not very engaging. Throughout the meal we asked for a few rounds of drinks and all the time he efficiently took the orders and delivered everything quickly. We had such a leisurely meal that we didn’t finish until 10:20pm and as we were getting ready to leave he came back to the table, cracked a lovely big smile and asked “More drinks?”

Thanks for a really entertaining and interesting travelogue, which I am following with interest.  I can't help but wonder whether long waits / queues for dining on these ships are partly a result of erroneous assumptions about how long passengers would take over their meals.  It would be very interesting to know when they were doing their throughput and flow calculations when designing these ships how long P&O estimated passengers would spend having dinner in one of the non-MDR 'casual' eateries, especially the no-cost ones.  Perhaps they assumed that dinner in Olive Grove, the Diner etc would be on average a one hour event and based their calculations on that?  If they did but, in reality, many passengers, like you, spend nearly two hours (roughly the same time as they would spend in the MDR?) the number of times they can turn over each table in these restaurants and thus the overall number of pax they can handle per evening would be reduced significantly.  Hence the queues.

 

This is in no way a criticism of your (or anyone else's) dining habits!  But, it might explain some of the long waits for tables that still seem to be happening.

[bee-ess]

41 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Thanks for a really entertaining and interesting travelogue, which I am following with interest.  I can't help but wonder whether long waits / queues for dining on these ships are partly a result of erroneous assumptions about how long passengers would take over their meals.  It would be very interesting to know when they were doing their throughput and flow calculations when designing these ships how long P&O estimated passengers would spend having dinner in one of the non-MDR 'casual' eateries, especially the no-cost ones.  Perhaps they assumed that dinner in Olive Grove, the Diner etc would be on average a one hour event and based their calculations on that?  If they did but, in reality, many passengers, like you, spend nearly two hours (roughly the same time as they would spend in the MDR?) the number of times they can turn over each table in these restaurants and thus the overall number of pax they can handle per evening would be reduced significantly.  Hence the queues.

 

This is in no way a criticism of your (or anyone else's) dining habits!  But, it might explain some of the long waits for tables that still seem to be happening.

My observations of using the MDR in June was that it took a long time for the waiters to turn the tables around between guests and that must of had a big impact on the virtual queues. Probably this delay was caused by staff shortages in the MDR's. Maybe the same is happening in the other restaurants.

Edited August 8, 2023 by bee-ess

[purplesea]

3 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

My observations of using the MDR in June was that it took a long time for the waiters to turn the tables around between guests and that must of had a big impact on the virtual queues. Probably this delay was caused by staff shortages in the MDR's. Maybe the same is happening in the other restaurants.

I was aware of this too in May and on one occasion counted about eight tables from where I was sitting, so how many more where there that I couldn't see?

[Windsurfboy]

Just a simple question that someone may know, how many covers are there in both waiter served restaurants on Arvia and then in buffet. It would be interesting to know the capacity.  We could then guess what they'd planned for. I would think that a faster turnover than 2 per night in waiter served restaurants and 3 per night in buffet is pushing it. That means at least circa 2500 covers for a full ship of 6000+.  Tried googling it , no luck.

[TigerB]

Thanks for another detailed report.👍

 

Queue jumpers: what is it about some folk who feel so entitled that they think nobody else matters but them? Perhaps they know that, 90% of the time, the crew members won't challenge them, so they carry on doing it. 

 

Olive Grove: We didn't enjoy our experience of Olive Grove on Arvia in January, so didn't bother in April. Our experience on Iona in June though was totally different; so much so that we visited three times in total. Your tiramisu though looks nothing like the one we had on Iona...

Next to it is the Crema Catalana. If you visit again and it's on the menu, try that; it is fantastic!😋

 

MDR for breakfast: If any of your party like smoked salmon, see if they have it available to have as Eggs Royale.  I often used to have that, but on our three cruises so far this year on the two large ships, it's never been available; the reason cited was supply issues. Instead, I would get plain Eggs Benedict (without the ham), with grilled salmon on the side; not quite the same. 

 

The Quays: Nevermind the traditional meat 'n veg in a pudding. What you need to get is a pudding first, then put fish, chips and mushy peas in it. A taste sensation!😋😉

 

 

Keep 'em coming 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cathygh]

On Iona, so this might not apply to Arvia, we got a pager at about 6pm and asked if we could have a table at 8pm. We carried on our evening between 6 and 8 as usual and didn't stay within calling distance and didn't wait for our pager to go off. We turned up at 8 and were sat straightaway. It might be worth trying this.

[TigerB]

12 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I thought Meritoan had polished wood tables, whilst Zenith just had plain old formica?

 

Meridian: wooden tables, no coverings.

 

Zenith: regular tables with the cushion covers on top, and tablecloths on top of those.

 

[DamianG]

2 hours ago, purplesea said:

Was this your tiramisu?

That’s the one, I was anticipating something more like @TigerB had.

[DamianG]

2 hours ago, GSPG said:

Thanks.

It’ll be interesting to read your ‘qualms’ over the next two weeks, and the experience sharing with nearly 6,000 people.

I was on Arvia the cruise before last which had a different itinerary. La Coruna, Majorca, La Spezia, Marseilles, Barcelona and Cadiz.

I’m not going to list our ‘qualms’ as we never expected the cruise to go 100% okay (prob should not expect that anyway), but at the end it’ll be interesting to compare yours to ours and if there are common themes.

 

 
I am extremely conscious that it’s early in the cruise so things may change but I have my doubts. It’s very different from our experience on Iona in April 2022 but that cruise was circa 2/3 full so naturally there was a higher proportion of crew to passengers. Doubtless it’s a difficult balancing act for the company to have sufficient crew for the busier cruises and not too many for the quieter ones and I have no idea regards whether staffing levels in general are rigid or fluid. 
 

As for our dining choices, it’s tricky trying to agree venues etc to suit everyone but the one thing we all have in common is that we don’t wish to eat too early. With that in mind it’s frustrating that on both evenings so far the virtual crews have closed before we have had a chance to look, and even if we check throughout the day there is no option for later bookings. 
 

Anyway onwards and upwards, fingers crossed for tonight.

[purplesea]

21 minutes ago, DamianG said:

That’s the one, I was anticipating something more like @TigerB had.

It was certainly not what I was expecting!🥴

[DamianG]

Reversing into Coruna early this morning. Note the guys in the jacuzzi at 7:50am!

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by DamianG

[DamianG]

Our favourite tea wallah.

 

[P&O SUE]

Thanks for your blog Damien, hope the rest of your cruise is enjoyable. Looking forward to reading more.

[DamianG]

Super Depor with their Riazor stadium next to the beach. 
 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by DamianG