On Arvia with 6000 passengers. Tips on how to deal with a ship this busy

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Hi,

 

On a very busy ship as its school holidays. We expected this so this is not a complaint about how many. I have complained once as you’ll see but it’s over incorrect info and bad tech. Not the busyness. It’s hard for the staff. I appreciate that. However the MDR issue below could have gone better

 

some tips though for a ship this busy. They have started showing less busy, busy & very busy times on screens outside of dinning areas to help you plan if you want to avoid busy times

 

COMPLAINT ALERT 🚨

at the moment the virtual queues for the MDRs only open at 6.30. If you eat earlier then book as soon as you can before you travel on my holiday through the website if you can.

We had a right issue with getting early times on the ship even if we were at the dining room at 5.20. Everything booked up. Long story short we were told we should have asked to book as soon as we’re were on the ship. We tried. We’re On the ship at 11.30!

Was told it wasn’t possible and we didn’t need to if we turned up at 5.30 because it’s less busy then. Even though we explained the booking pre travel didn’t work for us and one of us has special needs.
We were polite in our complaint but was told That was the wrong info but it wasn’t their issue because “we have 6000 passengers and I’m not a magic man”

Husband complained via guest services and a feedback form we did. Again politely

After lots of passing the buck we got 6pm every night which is brilliant for us. Shame it happened the way it did but it’s sorted now so alls well that ends well 😃 

 

theatre. Pre book again. And turn up 30min before the show or you may have to make do with single seats left. Or splitting your larger group.You book a space. Not a seat

 

cinema. No booking possible but again turn up 30 min before. We turned up 15 min before for a 3pm film that wasn’t for kids and it was a port day and all seats gone. Next time we know better. We’ll get another chance 😊 

 

Buffet. Umm I’m sure it comes as no suprise to many of you, and us, but the meaning ofr the word buffet is chaos eatery 😂 

so…You are more likely to find seats the further away from the food you are. At either end of the buffet, but especially far aft.

And I know this will upset some but we find a seat with our drinks, and then stagger us going to the buffet. One of us has special needs and it’s the only way to cut down the stress. But we don’t take tables bigger than we need and if a lack of those means we have to go elsewhere then we do

 

the quays is usually less busy in our experience. Less choice but less stress so you decide what’s important for you. Carvery currently

not operational. I hope they fix it for next sailings. It happens.

 

pre book any other dining including the free offerings like the diner ASAP

 

only one of the 3 escape room themes is suitable for kids under 12. book what you want, if you want, via the ‘app’ as soon as you can. Pref as soon as you get on. Lots of kids under 12 here so that theme sold out quicker.

 

You can also book the high ropes up to 3 days ahead and that books up too. For anyone interested max weight s 120kg

 

kids club. Booking via app opens 8.30 am for booking sessions for the NEXT day not current day. Get on the app for 8.30. Because they go quick too. At least in school holidays

 

i’ll add more as I go. Anyone with other tips please add. I’m on board and I any tips may be helpful for anyone who, like us with an 11 yr old, HAS to travel in school holidays.

 

thank you and happy sailing. As I said, not a complaint but I hope it can help

 

[david63]

For some inexplicable reason P&O appear incapable of organising dining unlike their sister cruise lines who are all far better.

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, david63 said:

For some inexplicable reason P&O appear incapable of organising dining unlike their sister cruise lines who are all far better.

I don't normally see many hungry folk.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

15 minutes ago, david63 said:

For some inexplicable reason P&O appear incapable of organising dining unlike their sister cruise lines who are all far better.

We thought it was strange they allowed every single table earlier than 6.30 to be booked with no virtual queue available.

That wouldn’t be so much of an issue if we were allowed to book as soon as you get on, or the booking pre cruise worked. dining times post 7.30 you could get a table much easier but that’s not a great time for younger kids

 

Being told incorrect info as soon as we boarded by more than one person & the ‘I’m not a magic man’ response after acknowledging THEY had given us wrong info wasn’t great either. 

 

they know school holidays will mean the ship will travel over 5200 double occupancy. We are only 250ish passengers under every single berth being used.

we knew how busy it was going to be, but the system they have in place, poor tech pre cruise, and incorrect info being given made this harder than it could of been. there are lots of dining choices but they seem to have similar issues

 

P&O need to invest in the tech in a big way imo. They are way behind other cruise lines

 

We’ve not had issues booking anything else that is not dining, while onboard, when you book early enough. Massive Majority of staff, apart from the not a magic man officer in the MDR, have been great. And food has been decent and not had to wait ages for it either.

 

[terrierjohn]

46 minutes ago, david63 said:

For some inexplicable reason P&O appear incapable of organising dining unlike their sister cruise lines who are all far better.

I dont think Princess is any better at all, with dine my way you need to book well before you cruise otherwise there is very little choice. This of course means that you will have difficulty with changing times.  So far less flexibility that P&Os virtual queue, which in our experience settles down after the first couple of days and operates really well, or at least it does except for the main school holiday times.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

46 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I don't normally see many hungry folk.

No, true

but while you can get food, getting the food in areas they serve it to you has been more stressful than I think it could be.

 

food has been good though, and so are the staff serving

 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

5 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I dont think Princess is any better at all, with dine my way you need to book well before you cruise otherwise there is very little choice. This of course means that you will have difficulty with changing times.  So far less flexibility that P&Os virtual queue, which in our experience settles down after the first couple of days and operates really well, or at least it does except for the main school holiday times.

I can agree with the virtual queue working better outside of school times. Husband and I went on Ventura To Amsterdam while our daughter was at school and grandparents. Didn’t have an issue then at all.

 

wish they had a virtual queue open at 5.30 on this ship, not 6.30.

 

last cruise was Princess and they were much better in the school holidays. But we’ve only traveled Princess once so far on a newish ship Sky Princess. Whether we have the same experience with dining on Carribean Princess in august is anyone’s guess

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

I can agree with the virtual queue working better outside of school times. Husband and I went on Ventura To Amsterdam while our daughter was at school and grandparents. Didn’t have an issue then at all.

 

wish they had a virtual queue open at 5.30 on this ship, not 6.30.

 

last cruise was Princess and they were much better in the school holidays. But we’ve only traveled Princess once so far on a newish ship Sky Princess. Whether we have the same experience with dining on Carribean Princess in august is anyone’s guess

We found that the latest times we could book a sharing table in DMW, was before 7:00pm, and quite often this was too early for us, and no later times were available on the app to switch ot to. So we had to join the non booking queue, which was a variable experience.

[nellydean]

5 hours ago, david63 said:

For some inexplicable reason P&O appear incapable of organising dining unlike their sister cruise lines who are all far better.

We had absolutely no issue with getting a table on our March cruise around the Caribbean, however, we do like to eat from 7.30 if possible. Only a couple of times did we book on the app (one of those beeped within 2 minutes even though there was supposedly a long queue), the rest of the time we just showed up at whichever dining room we wanted to eat at - usually the Zenith - and we never had to wait for a table for two.

 

My complaint was the quality of food, specifically in the buffet (but also sometimes in the dining rooms), which was often bland and mediocre. You were fine if you liked roast spuds and meat, but there were no sandwiches we we know them - not at lunchtime anyway - just bits of roll with a dab of something in the middle. Maybe it will be different in the Med. 

 

Club 710 - no chance of getting in here unless you had pre-booked before boarding. Which was fine for cruisers in the know, but not for anyone else. Shows were booked out for virtually the entire cruise, and there were a lot of complaints.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 3 by nellydean

[Harryjacobs]

34 minutes ago, nellydean said:

 

 

Club 710 - no chance of getting in here unless you had pre-booked before boarding. Which was fine for cruisers in the know, but not for anyone else. Shows were booked out for virtually the entire cruise, and there were a lot of complaints.

 

 

 

 

This has now changed.  You cannot book 710 club untill after everybody has boarded.  If I remember correctly I think it was 6pm they released the 710 club.  This is much improved over the previous free for all.  

[nellydean]

8 minutes ago, Harryjacobs said:

This has now changed.  You cannot book 710 club untill after everybody has boarded.  If I remember correctly I think it was 6pm they released the 710 club.  This is much improved over the previous free for all.  

Good news. They have obviously listened.

[zap99]

5 hours ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

No, true

but while you can get food, getting the food in areas they serve it to you has been more stressful than I think it could be.

 

food has been good though, and so are the staff serving

 

We are off on Arvia in a few weeks. Getting fed is fairly low on my list of things to worry about.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

We are off on Arvia in a few weeks. Getting fed is fairly low on my list of things to worry about.

Fair enough

 

everyone has different priorities. I don’t need to eat the best quality or have impeccable service. For a few reasons, inc disability, I like to be able to plan my time well though so I think that’s why I found it stressful.

 

i feel so much better now they have it sorted 😊 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

2 hours ago, nellydean said:

Good news. They have obviously listened.

And the booking entertainment like the 710 club, when on board, seems to work really well too

 

I’ve not had any crashes of the system

 

hoping I’m not tempting fate here!

 

 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

3 hours ago, nellydean said:

quality of food, specifically in the buffet

I wish they had more variety in the buffet for sure. P&O seem to do buffets like they are an afterthought.

 

Compared to Princess and RC the buffet is tiny. i know the American market is different to the UK market, but not that different.

[terrierjohn]

24 minutes ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

I wish they had more variety in the buffet for sure. P&O seem to do buffets like they are an afterthought.

 

Compared to Princess and RC the buffet is tiny. i know the American market is different to the UK market, but not that different.

I agree that the World Market Place buffet on Sky Princess is far better than any P&O ships buffet. The serveries are maintained to a far higher standard both in content and appearance, and the choice is way beyond anything we have experienced on any P&O ship.

[snaefell]

We were on Arcadia last year,embarkation day was my Wife's Birthday so I was keen to book a table in the Ocean Grill for that evening,unable to book before boarding once in the cabin I tried the app with no luck,a phone call to Guest Services gave me a message to go to Reception,after reaching the front of the queue I was told they couldn't help,I wasn't taking no for an answer & after persisting a phone call was made & the table booked....couldn't be easier!!😒😒

The app,IME,was very much up & down,working great somedays,others not,after 3 consecutive days of it being dead as the proverbial Dodo I went to Reception & as soon as the young lady touched the screen it sprang into life....typical!😆😆

[zap99]

15 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I agree that the World Market Place buffet on Sky Princess is far better than any P&O ships buffet. The serveries are maintained to a far higher standard both in content and appearance, and the choice is way beyond anything we have experienced on any P&O ship.

We have found the buffet on Celebrity and RC to be much better than P&O, to the extent that we avoid it on P&O. When we have been ashore and missed lunch I ask DW. ' did you want to get a snack round the pool, or pop up to the trough ?'

[zap99]

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

We were on Arcadia last year,embarkation day was my Wife's Birthday so I was keen to book a table in the Ocean Grill for that evening,unable to book before boarding once in the cabin I tried the app with no luck,a phone call to Guest Services gave me a message to go to Reception,after reaching the front of the queue I was told they couldn't help,I wasn't taking no for an answer & after persisting a phone call was made & the table booked....couldn't be easier!!😒😒

The app,IME,was very much up & down,working great somedays,others not,after 3 consecutive days of it being dead as the proverbial Dodo I went to Reception & as soon as the young lady touched the screen it sprang into life....typical!😆😆

We go to guest services, find an officer, moan, stamp feet and tell them we know Graham and Pauline.That normally works a treat.

[GINGERWILDCAT]

We must have been lucky in February, we never had more than a fifteen minute wait in the fortnight in the virtual queues. Same with the bars, we had a three or four minute wait one afternoon on a sea day at the Sunset bar, that was our only wait. Great service 

[snaefell]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We go to guest services, find an officer, moan, stamp feet and tell them we know Graham and Pauline.That normally works a treat.

Love new technology!😆😆

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

Love new technology!😆😆

 

I’m not sure I can say this tactfully so I’m going to say sorry now! 🫣 

I think the issue is that it’s old tech. They need to have a proper app and make it more intuitive. 

I honestly think making the tech better would make it easier for those unsure about it. Less frustrating

 

I’ll stop there. I can hear my father in laws voice in my head ‘we don’t all want to use smart phones you know’ 😳

 

 

 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Right. Another tip.

 

buffet goes a bit nuts when the scones and jam come out too.

 

its like when I was at school and everyone shouted BUNDLE and we all ended up in a heap wether you wanted to or not  😂 

 

i should have foreseen this. Be warned! 🙈 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Booking Mission Control. Is it worth going to the effort of checking when slots are available and getting in early?

 

a resounding YES from us. We are 2 adults and one 11yr old. The 2 other groups with us were both 2 adults and a child under 12. We all enjoyed it so much. It’s very interactive. The 2 live ‘actors’ in it were fab, the story line had some really funny bits and the puzzles were fun and not too hard or too easy.

im not going to spoil it by going into the story, but for nearly 90 min of interactive fun that has had a lot of thought into it, and judging by what you pay for escape rooms on land, £20 for adults and £10 for kids was good value imo. Your OBC can pay for it too.

 

that was fun!

[Vampiress88]

On 4/3/2024 at 11:43 AM, terrierjohn said:

I dont think Princess is any better at all, with dine my way you need to book well before you cruise otherwise there is very little choice. This of course means that you will have difficulty with changing times.  So far less flexibility that P&Os virtual queue, which in our experience settles down after the first couple of days and operates really well, or at least it does except for the main school holiday times.

is there anything you need to do to get the “dine my way” or is that included same as p&o s virtual queues are? I’m not paying the full amount until I really have to but it won’t let me book dining until I pay