Arvia - I read the reviews and didn’t believe them, now I do

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

 

Mind you I couldn't help but smile with all the praise for Princess.  I assume that not many have been watching the Sun Princess fiasco that’s apparently been ongoing since her first voyage in February. Another very large new vessel from Carnival that seems not to be dealing well with her passenger numbers. 

Again this seems to be Carnival taking on a ship designed for other companies and the trying to adapt it to their clientele. It didn’t work and they are having to make drastic changes. 

[Fionboard]

14 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

It's all a question of what you want from your cruise, for us as my wife uses a wheelchair, the newer bigger ships are far better than the older ones. Their accessible facilities are far superior, and for older less mobile passengers they have far more bar, dining, entertainment and sunbathing or relaxing options than the smaller ones.

Absolutely. Horses for courses. I have loved every cruise on P&O (over 60) except two - Iona and Arvia. I dislike freedom dining, crowds, noisy venues, pre booking everything and queues. Just not for me. Good job there is something to suit all tastes and requirements. 

[david63]

32 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Again this seems to be Carnival taking on a ship designed for other companies and the trying to adapt it to their clientele. It didn’t work and they are having to make drastic changes. 

I was of the understanding that Sun Princess is the first of the new Sphere class ships so I am not sure which other companies it was designed for.

[TigerB]

2 hours ago, crompton21 said:

First it was the removal of bar soap and flannels, now the toilet paper.  I wonder what's next to be removed? How about a timer on the showers to reduce hot water consumption? Perhaps it will soon be possible to pay for an upgrade to ensure that toilet paper is provided😁

Next thing they'll get rid of tablecloths in the MDR.......oh, wait a minute!

[Gettingwarmer]

36 minutes ago, david63 said:

I was of the understanding that Sun Princess is the first of the new Sphere class ships so I am not sure which other companies it was designed for.

Yes you are right there. However the new design has not gone well and it has major faults in design. The park area which invovled a track ride has had to be dismantled and now is just a games enclosure. Built very close to the Santuary(Retreat) which is only for Suites and those booked in Santuary Cabins (no more inside cabins etc getting extra outside space). The Reserve restaurant was too small for the number of guests so all the restaurants are being changed round. The Suite guests not too happy at losing their private restaurant and being put in a larger restaurant with the Reserve and Santuary cabins. 

I think they were trying to be a bit more Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and it backfired. Lets see how it works after the transatlantic.

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Having just read this entire thread I'm disappointed to read that the reception and management appear to still be taking the shrug of shoulders attitude to people's problems.  It's now 16 months since I experienced this lack of interest and I'm genuinely surprised that it still continues.  New ships have difficulties but this type of thing should be long past on Arvia. Very disappointing to hear it remains.

 

Mind you I couldn't help but smile with all the praise for Princess.  I assume that not many have been watching the Sun Princess fiasco that’s apparently been ongoing since her first voyage in February. Another very large new vessel from Carnival that seems not to be dealing well with her passenger numbers. 

Every cruise a few thousand people get off Iona and Arvia. A handful moan, most have a great time. About time we had a bit of perspective .

[Gettingwarmer]

Sun Princess is similar to Iona and Arvia in that it has the same promenade deck with Cabana (Conservatory) cabins but with a section partitioned off for Reserve cabins. It is larger. 

[miopyk]

One thing I forgot this morning was to address the “paid” versus “included” dining venues. Our friends who recommended Arvia pinged us yesterday to see how things were progressing and while we didn’t go into detail we did tell them about a couple of the dining issues. It transpires that they have only ever used the “paid” venues for dinner and one of the main dining venues for breakfast. 
 

It seems curious then that by far the best meal and service we’ve had on board was in the Beach House which also happens to be the only “paid” venue we’ve used to date. Perhaps the poor service elsewhere is a ploy to drive customers to these alternative venues and drive up revenue. 
 

I’m far from being a conspiracy theorist but it does make you wonder.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Every cruise a few thousand people get off Iona and Arvia. A handful moan, most have a great time. About time we had a bit of perspective .

Perspective?  My comment referred to the fact the reception staff are still apparently happy to shrug their shoulders when someone has a problem.  The problems that the OP has mentioned are his own personal ones. You were very happy, he clearly isn't. His cruise his opinion but I still believe that the customer facing staff should be sympathetic to his situation no matter my, yours or anyone else's thoughts.

[Megabear2]

2 hours ago, TigerB said:

Next thing they'll get rid of tablecloths in the MDR.......oh, wait a minute!

Hey, guess what?  They've just put them back on Sun Princess.  Clearly makes a big difference.

[miopyk]

duplicate response 

Edited October 7 by miopyk

[miopyk]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Every cruise a few thousand people get off Iona and Arvia. A handful moan, most have a great time. About time we had a bit of perspective .

I did say that this was our experience and since this is a forum where members are encouraged to share their experiences, good or bad, I felt ours on this ship was worth sharing since we’ve not had anything like this on any other ship in more than 25 years.
 

Have we had bad experiences elsewhere, yes of course we have but none have been as consistent as they have been on Arvia and in every other case that I can remember, management have responded quickly and in some cases the solution could be considered positively disproportionate when compared to the original problem. 
 

On Arvia the Housekeeping Manager responded very quickly and we now have 2 four packs of toilet rolls in our bathroom plus the offer of a bottle of wine which we politely declined.

 

As I mentioned the assistant F&B manager also responded quickly but actually said nothing except to justify what had happened. This left us even more disappointed.
 

I’m still awaiting a response from someone regarding the situation with the app. I’m not holding my breath regarding this.
 

To be clear, I have informed everyone I’ve interacted with from P&O that I’m not interested in compensation, on board credit, free meals or drinks or any refund on the things we’ve paid for. My sole intention is for them to take our experience as a learning opportunity and use it to improve the service they provide to all of their customers.
 

If in doing this it means that you never have a bad experience with P&O in the future then perhaps you might appreciate that maybe someone moaning about their’s has made a contribution to your unaffected enjoyment.

[nosapphire]

I haven't seen anything in this thread that I would regard as somebody "moaning".

It read - to me - as a balanced report of somebody's personal experience and opinion, and is exactly the type of report that is useful to others considering the same ship/cruise/holiday.

 

 

[S1971]

1 hour ago, miopyk said:

I did say that this was our experience and since this is a forum where members are encouraged to share their experiences, good or bad, I felt ours on this ship was worth sharing since we’ve not had anything like this on any other ship in more than 25 years.
 

Have we had bad experiences elsewhere, yes of course we have but none have been as consistent as they have been on Arvia and in every other case that I can remember, management have responded quickly and in some cases the solution could be considered positively disproportionate when compared to the original problem. 
 

On Arvia the Housekeeping Manager responded very quickly and we now have 2 four packs of toilet rolls in our bathroom plus the offer of a bottle of wine which we politely declined.

 

As I mentioned the assistant F&B manager also responded quickly but actually said nothing except to justify what had happened. This left us even more disappointed.
 

I’m still awaiting a response from someone regarding the situation with the app. I’m not holding my breath regarding this.
 

To be clear, I have informed everyone I’ve interacted with from P&O that I’m not interested in compensation, on board credit, free meals or drinks or any refund on the things we’ve paid for. My sole intention is for them to take our experience as a learning opportunity and use it to improve the service they provide to all of their customers.
 

If in doing this it means that you never have a bad experience with P&O in the future then perhaps you might appreciate that maybe someone moaning about their’s has made a contribution to your unaffected enjoyment.

 

Just a thank you from me for giving an honest opinion of your personal experience. 

 

Unfortunately there will always be people who can see no wrong on their preferred line, experiences like yours and your willingness to get them addressed should be welcomed by the cruiseline, afterall I presume that's why they send out the after cruise questioneer (sometimes).

 

 

[terrierjohn]

7 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Again this seems to be Carnival taking on a ship designed for other companies and the trying to adapt it to their clientele. It didn’t work and they are having to make drastic changes. 

Which other companies are using Sun class ships?

[grapau27]

18 hours ago, zap99 said:

We spent 2 weeks on her In May.  Very enjoyable cruise. Will book on her again without hesitation.

We had 2 weeks on Arvia in June and loved it.

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Absolutely. Horses for courses. I have loved every cruise on P&O (over 60) except two - Iona and Arvia. I dislike freedom dining, crowds, noisy venues, pre booking everything and queues. Just not for me. Good job there is something to suit all tastes and requirements. 

A somewhat contradictory comment there, you dislike freedom dining, but also pre booking. So what do you consider club dining to be, if not pre booking?

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, S1971 said:

 

Just a thank you from me for giving an honest opinion of your personal experience. 

 

Unfortunately there will always be people who can see no wrong on their preferred line, experiences like yours and your willingness to get them addressed should be welcomed by the cruiseline, afterall I presume that's why they send out the after cruise questioneer (sometimes).

 

 

Personally if we have any issues on board we get them corrected on board which to date has always been to our satisfaction.

For us a balcony cabin and speciality restaurants every night make our cruise special be it on P&O,Princess or Royal Caribbean.

[Gettingwarmer]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Which other companies are using Sun class ships?

Addressed this already in post 30. Could be P&O next as they are a larger version of Iona and Arvia. 

[Fionboard]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

A somewhat contradictory comment there, you dislike freedom dining, but also pre booking. So what do you consider club dining to be, if not pre booking?

 

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

A somewhat contradictory comment there, you dislike freedom dining, but also pre booking. So what do you consider club dining to be, if not pre booking?

I was talking about entertainment - not dining! 

[NewWestwardbound]

8 hours ago, zap99 said:

Every cruise a few thousand people get off Iona and Arvia. A handful moan, most have a great time. About time we had a bit of perspective .

From this website: 

Cruiser Rating

2.9

Poor

141 reviews

 

[terrierjohn]

10 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Yes you are right there. However the new design has not gone well and it has major faults in design. The park area which invovled a track ride has had to be dismantled and now is just a games enclosure. Built very close to the Santuary(Retreat) which is only for Suites and those booked in Santuary Cabins (no more inside cabins etc getting extra outside space). The Reserve restaurant was too small for the number of guests so all the restaurants are being changed round. The Suite guests not too happy at losing their private restaurant and being put in a larger restaurant with the Reserve and Santuary cabins. 

I think they were trying to be a bit more Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and it backfired. Lets see how it works after the transatlantic.

But the sphere class is a totally new class designed specifically for Princess, so not a ship designed for another line which is where you were indicating the problem was. Any issues with the Sun Princess are due exclusively to the Princess design team.

Maybe Carnival SHOULD have stuck with the Excel model, which seems to been successfully launched on four of their lines, with only minimal teething problems.

 

11 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Again this seems to be Carnival taking on a ship designed for other companies and the trying to adapt it to their clientele. It didn’t work and they are having to make drastic changes. 

 

[zap99]

9 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Perspective?  My comment referred to the fact the reception staff are still apparently happy to shrug their shoulders when someone has a problem.  The problems that the OP has mentioned are his own personal ones. You were very happy, he clearly isn't. His cruise his opinion but I still believe that the customer facing staff should be sympathetic to his situation no matter my, yours or anyone else's thoughts.

So a few unhappy customer's  views are important, but the thousands who return home without issues can't give an opposing view ?.🤔

[zap99]

2 hours ago, NewWestwardbound said:

From this website: 

Cruiser Rating

2.9

Poor

141 reviews

 

So a few from the 141 didn't like it Many thousands apparently had enough loo rolls

 

 

[S1971]

5 hours ago, zap99 said:

So a few unhappy customer's  views are important, but the thousands who return home without issues can't give an opposing view ?.🤔

 

Just bear in mind that only a very small percentage of people actually post their experiences on forums such as this.

 

So to say "the thousands return home without issues" is a very big assumption.

 

Having read @miopyk posts, I have no reason to question the problems they've encountered and I too would be disappointed if I were in the same position, fortunately they've done the correct thing in reporting the issues, which may or may not help others in the future.

 

I think some people need to accept that P&O are very far from perfect.

 

As for the 2.9 overall rating, probably about right in my experience.

Edited October 8 by S1971
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