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You also have to go through a similar process to book your place in Headliners each evening....although so far only nine "turns" are listed , two of which appear unbookable because the "app" is broken. Progress ! ?????? BTW if you havn't given up the will to live after all this , your booking plan should look something like this.

For anyone joining Arvia on April 2nd , booking for dining is now open. If you want to spend 2-3 hours of your life , which you'll never get back ,"Freedom" dining in the MDRs has now been split into multiple time slots and you need to book each evening meal , day by day. That's fourteen individual attempts to use the booking page , each one taking 4-5 minutes to complete as the page can be quite slow to update your input. At least they appear to have taken onboard the suggestions made during the Xmas debacle to get folk into the MDR as quickly and efficiently as possible. Good luck !

Exactly

Yes the app only bgives two options[all the way through the cruise] Most of the time , trying to book the "first" sitting produced a fully booked or not available response even though the dining room was half empty. Total shambles... and yes I did use the app to destruction.I help create and test software so I know when something is not fit for purpose . I would say its in the "BETA" stage at present , at best.

This was one of the reasons given by the Hotel Manager when we were interviewed. So , if that is the answer , why not switch back to four. He explained that not everyone realised that the Olive [grove] and diner were free. However not everyone wants to sit in Black Tie in a diner , or any other time for that matter and the Olive Grove menu isn't to everyon'es taste Switching back to Four MDRs would go a long way to easing the situation. Finally Arvia is advertised as Freedom dining only....where is thefreedom when there are two fixed dining times on the app ???

I am sure the dining issue will rage on and on. Meanwhile a few pages back I mentioned "erroneous" charges to registered credit/debit cards post disembarkation. A few of you responded and it was obvious this had been happening , unnoticed , for some time and with other carriers. After requesting a refund post Arvia cruise I had the opportunity to bring it up with senior management The matter is to be investigated. Meanwhile.....did anyone else get this email from P&O this morning? . You may have noticed that an additional charge has been made against the credit/debit card used for payment of your on board account, following your cruise on board Arvia. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and would like to assure you that any incorrect charges have been refunded and will be credited to your card, if you have any questions please contact your card provider. Once again, we do apologise for any confusion caused. Kind regards, P&O Cruises Not had one of these before and suspect could be as a result of my discussion . Check you accounts ..... look for that extra unaccountable charge and please let me know if you find one.

Sounds to me as if this is endemic within the industry.

Here's an interesting snippet.... I was charged 4% of my overall spends. Anyone else get that figure?

Just as a matter of interest , is it always the primary card that is hit?

That's a lot of work you had to do Snow Hill to get your refund. 😒

The entry on my account gives scant detail other than "ARVIA ON 07 JAN BCC" I would like to see a forensic examination of the post disembarkation accounts for the ship. Could make very interesting reading.

From a FEEFO report... After disembarking the ship our on board account was a £0 balance. There was still £7.85 on board credit showing. We did spend £10.00 in the casino but this balance was paid at reception straight away. When I checked our bank account we saw a debit of £20.13 had been taken out of our account to Arvia.

Thanks for the feedback. Bearing in mind there are relatively few reading this thread the response suggests this is a common issue. How many returning passengers neglect to check their accounts I wonder ? As for the fridge/mini bar , well they can't pull that one as it was empty . Random illegitimate charges like this could bring in quite a healthy revenue if gone unnoticed.

CHECK YOUR CARD ACCOUNT Whilst on the subject of Arvia , could I suggest that returning passengers check the card account connected to their Onboard Account. A number of passengers , me included , report having their debit/credit charged with amounts around £10 relating to transaction[s] on Jan 7th , the day after we disembarked. I challenged P&O on the basis of a fraudulent transaction and gave them 24 hours to respond , requesting a copy of the receipt for whatever it was I was supposed to have purchased [my onboard account was left in credit] This morning they got back to me , apparently it was a "mistake" and my card would be credited in due course. How strange ! So please do check for any "mistaken" transactions on your card account. It may seem a trivial amount individually , but multiply that by 100s even thousands ....... !!!!!!! Not the first time this has happened , pre covid we had a similar issue. On that occassion they claimed we had made a purchase at a time we were actually on the bus home 😑

COVID spreads to 89 cruise ships, prompting CDC investigations - BNN Bloomberg I wonder how pictures of queues like this relate to warnings about the cruise industry expressed just a couple of weeks ago. From the article..... “Health and safety is the cruise industry’s highest priority,” said Bari Golin-Blaugrund, a spokesperson for the Cruise Lines International Association trade group, in an email.