Helenk1234

Marella cruises (TUI) have not cancelled our cruise through the Red Sea in April and are still selling it. There is no way that it will go ahead but they seem reluctant to tell us.

Marella cruises (TUI) is also still insisting that our cruise from Oman to Cyprus via the Red Sea in April is still going ahead and they are also still selling this cruise. We don't believe it will go ahead but need them to tell us so we can arrange an alternative holiday.

Thank you. I think for us it is a waiting game but it is leaving us little time to make other arrangements for the same period. Same as us

Same as us

Most cruise lines have re- routed cruises that were due to go through the Red Sea. We are due to sail from Oman to Cyprus in April 2024 via the Red Sea but have heard nothing and Marella are still selling the cruise. Can't find any information on the Web. Anyone heard anything?

We are on TUI flight. Thanks.

Hi everyone. Whenever we have done a Carribean cruise with P&O and Marella we land at Barbados and immediately get on a bus to go to the cruise port. We have never had to collect our cases or even enter any airport buildings. However we have read that when we go this week we will have to go through Immigration at the airport then collect our bags and then get on our bus to the port. This is so different to normal. Anybody on a cruise now who can tell us if this is correct? Hope someone can help. Thanks.

The Arvia pools did have cranes. The one at the Beachcomer Bar provided the best entertainment of the fortnight watching 7 crew members trying to set it up. It took them 2 hours. We nearly missed lunch wanting to see if they actually got it working but gave up eventually and left them to it.

Thanks for your comments. You covered things I forgot to mention - eg sunbeds. I am glad I wasn't the only one who didn't know about the cover charge at the Beach Club - it isn't clear at all.

Yes ship was pretty full - we heard there were 1200 children but they were mostly well behaved and no problem. Yes we booked Singhu on board via the app (we booked all restaurants via the app and other than the initial issues with the MDR everything else worked fine. We had a great time.

Although we are not new to cruising there were quite a few firsts for us on this cruise. It was our first time on a ship as big as the Arvia, the first time we had travelled from Southampton on a long cruise, the first time we had done freedom dining and the first time we dared to travel during a school holiday. It was actually a great cruise. We were surprised at how easy the embarkation process was. We arrived half an hour before our allocated time and were not surprised to see a big queue. What was surprising is that staff called out people close to their allocated time and moved them forward so we didn’t need to queue at all. The whole process was quicker than we had experienced on smaller ships and we were on the ship in less than an hour of our arrival at the port. The new practice of sending people to their muster stations immediately on boarding the ship was also great as it ensured the safety aspects were dealt with immediately and we could get on with our holiday. The only thing that didn’t go smoothly was the delivery of our luggage to our cabin. After being on the ship for 6 hours one of our cases hadn’t turned up at our cabin. We asked our cabin steward for help and also went down to Customer Services to report it missing. Luckily we have a set of very distinctive looking cases so we were able to show staff a photo of our missing case. It was found in front of the lifts on a totally different deck to ours. But it delayed our first evening's enjoyment by quite a time. Having not done Freedom dining before this was approached with some trepidation. I am quite IT literate so I loaded up the app and booked onto the queue for the main dining room we wanted to visit. But then nothing seemed to happen so I wasn’t sure if I had done it right. Once it got to 9 o’clock with the restaurant closing at 9.30pm we went along to the restaurant to ask and were immediately shown to a table. The next night I tried again only to find that there was no space left in the dining room. So I went along to the restaurant to ask what happens when there is no space and was told that sometimes queues are closed temporarily but they will then reopen when the queue has gone down a bit. They gave me a pager which didn’t go off so once again we went to the restaurant at 9pm and were shown to a table. Third time lucky I thought the next time. I joined a queue and kept refreshing my phone to see the number in the queue going down. That was until the app completely crashed and refused to do anything. I had to switch my phone off to clear it and we had lost our place in the queue. Off to the restaurant at 9pm again. The app did crash for me a few times and there was a ship wide system crash on the second formal night and an annoucement was made telling people to go to their restaurant of choice and book manually. Eventually I did manage to use the app – I found that after booking into the queue I couldn’t do anything else (no checking emails and sending WhatsApp messages) or even refreshing the screen. Don’t touch it and eventually you get a message saying your table is ready. Then the problem becomes what time shall we join the queue. We treated it like playing Deal or No deal on TV – when is the best time to go into the queue if you want to eat at 9pm. It was impossible to judge – one night there were 63 people in the queue so we expected at least a 30 minute wait but we were called five minutes later. Personally I prefer a booking for an 8.30pm sitting rather than freedom dining. But we booked our cruise late and freedom dining was definitely better than the 6.30pm time we would have been allocated on a fixed dining time cruise. Our overall dining experience was good. We ate in the buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch every day and were very pleased with the selection of food. And we were very surprised that despite the number of passengers on the ship we never had a problem finding a table which we have on smaller ships. As well as the main dining room we also ate at the American diner, the Beach House, the Olive tree and Sindhu. Plus we did the Captains table on the first formal night. The meal in Sinhu’s was excellent - welll worth the extra charge. There was an extra cover charge at the Beach House as well (£9.50 per person) which we didn’t know about until we got the bill (there was information saying there was an extra charge but the only charges mentioned on their menu were those over and above the cover charge) but it was a nice meal worth the extra. The Olive Tree was included and we had a really lovely lasagne the first time we went. But when we returned the menu had changed. My lamb shank was good but my husband had the beef and it was just a lump of gristle and fat and he had to send it back. Staff on the ship worked really hard but there were not enough of them. It was impossible to get served a drink in the buffet restaurant at lunch time. I found someone to take the order on embarkation day after asking someone in uniform but when I asked someone in uniform the next today where I could find a wine waiter she just pointed to the bar outside the restaurant and said I could get one there. So that is what we did every other day – we got two glasses of wine at the bar and took them in with us. Service at all of the bars was very well organised and usually quite efficient with one person taking orders and someone else fulfilling the orders. There was also some table service in most of the bars. Special mention goes to Jaikumar, Silence, Joshua and JJoseph. Standard of cleaning very good generally. Anil our cabin steward did a good job. And a special mention to Sibongila who cleaned the toilets in the Sky dome and always greeted me with lovely smile each morning. Entertainment in the Club House was a high standard especially the comedian and the impressionist. The silent discos were really good fun and the night they turned the Sky Dome into a nightclub was exceptional. I was very disappointed with the shows offered in the theatre. I normally like to see a West end musical /Hollywood musical type shows but there was nothing like this offered. The shows mainly were special affect based shows or a solo performance from a former member of ELO which I didn’t fancy although i was told it was very good. And the headlining Take That based show “Greatest days” was just boring with the actresses shrieking as they portrayed obsessed Take That fans. We stuck it out for the whole performance but i think many other people also didn’t like it judging by the number of people who walked out when the show had to be stopped as the sound system broke. Overall we had a great experience and would sail on the Arvia again.

We made the mistake of taking our son and daughter in law on a 3 day P&O cruise to introduce them to cruising. It was full of hen parties etc and put them off cruising for life. A longer cruise has always been a far different experience to the short ones for us.

We found the MSC drinks package to be far superior to P&O.

Food there better than the Olive Grove. Hubby ordered the Beef - it is pure gristle and bone.

We experienced 4 empty glasses left in a lift. Morons.

Never fear. We loved MSC (went on Red Sea cruise in January). Just don't play bingo!! Suppose it depends on where you are cruising but by the time they have read out every number in 8 languages you are nearly home before the game has finished!!! On a positive note drinks selection far superior especially with a premium drinks package. We thought P&O deluxe drinks package was not worth the extra payment and stuck to the classic but hubby likes wheatbeers which are commonly available on other cruises lines but not here.

Love reading your posts (usually whilst sitting in the Sunset bar with a glass or 2 of Sauvignon). You are the Simon Calder of this cruise. Love you pictures of Cadiz. We liked that stop as well. I too am not really impressed with the main restaurant food. With only 1 starter, 1 main and 1 dessert as chefs recommation of the day which isn't usually enthralling we end up on the other dishes that are repeated so many times they are getting very repetitive. I can't believe I would ever hear my husband say "Not steak again" as many times as I have. And if my sister had been with us it would have worse. She has a dairy allergy and I think she would have ended up with the same vegan dish every single day.

We too were shocked at the number of people at the Horizon restaurant around 11pm until midnight. We were only walking through as we had had more than sufficient food already that day.

My comments about him being a 1970s has been probably were a bit harsh. Just reflecting my frustration that one thing I love about a cruise (the chance to drag my musical hating husband to a musical spectacular) had been taken away from me on the Arvia!

Hi everyone. I'm on the same cruise and it is proving a great experience but not one without a few issues. I was also impressed with the embarkation process which was probably the quickest we have experienced. But I was less impressed that one of our suitcases failed to arrive at our cabin. At 7.30pm instead of relaxing in a bar we were frantically trying to find out where it was. It finally turned up in the stairwell on deck 15 (our cabin is on deck 10). Luckily we have very distinct cases which we were able to show a photo of which probably helped to find them. I tried to book a meal in Meridien but the my holiday app said the queue was full so I had to go down and get a pager as well. They explained that when there are a lot of people in the queue it shows as full but it gets opened again later. The next night I tried to use my holiday again to book the meridien but although I got in the queue and kept refreshing like I had been told to do eventually the whole system crashed on my phone so again we had to go down to the restaurant and were given a table. I have since determined that the best way to use virtual queuing is to enter the queue and then don't touch your phone!!! I save set the screen saver delay to 10 mins and I keep the screen alive but otherwise don't touch the phone. The number of people in the queue changes automatically without refreshing. This is a pain if you are someone who likes to use the Internet whilst waiting but since doing this I have been successful. The only issue now is what time to actually enter the queue. I have found most of the entertainment to be really good. We have done 2 silent discos and 2 comedy shows and the nightclub experience in the Sky dome last night was good although not enough people there to get the best atmosphere. My big disappointment has been the theatre. Normally I expect at least 1 spectacular west end musical/Hollywood musical show but nothing like that on arvia. There were a couple of shows - one described as about a computer naive guy tryng to battle technology which didn't really sound like a good basis for a song and dance spectacular. The much publicised Greatest Days show with Take That music can only be described as dreadful. The boring storyline delivered by performers with screeching voices and nowhere near enough music. It didn't help that 10 minutes before the end of the performance the sound system broke down and the performance had to be halted. Quite a lot of people left the theatre whilst they were fixing it so I don't think I was the only person who was disappointed. We stuck it out and the last 10 minutes were probably the best part of the show. On several days the theatre was used for concerts rather than shows. Strange as there are other venues more suitable for that sort of entertainment. And I'm not sure whether there was actually much demand for concerts by 1970s has beens (lead singer of ELO)!!! Bring back the old style entertainment in the theatres is what I say. My last word is about the number of children on board. We were a bit concerned booking in school holidays but we have found the majority of children on board to be extremely well behaved and a credit to their parents. When we are on board during the day we use the area around the Beachcomer Bar which is adult only. But it would suggest not using the swimming pool there as after a couple of days it started to look like pea soup and is getting more murky by the day. Hope someone out there finds these comments useful.

Hi fellow cruisers. We are going on the Arvia shortly and we have Freedom dining. We like to eat late (8.30pm onwards). Just received email saying we could book our dining now but the main dining rooms only seem to be available between 5pm and 6pm. We prefer to eat in the main dining rooms at night. Can anyone tell me how this freedom dining thing works? Will I be able to eat in the main dining room or not? Hope someone out there can share their experiences. I've tried searching to see if anyone has asked this before but I am not great at searching and nothing is coming up.

Thanks. Yes we have found the MSC selection on their premium drinks package is much better than P&O, it even had champagne as well as prosecco.

Thank you for this. The Deluxe package looks to be not worth the extra money as it doesn't offer a better selection just bigger sizes in most cases. Wouldn't seem to be worth it for anyone unless they were very big drinkers and would exceed the 15 alcoholic drink limit.

Thanks for this.

Hi everyone. Not a lot of information about the new P&O drinks package offerings seems to be available. Hubby wants to know if he can get a weissbier (or any German beer) and I'm just interested in what is included (like a Baileys after dinner)!! If anyone can tell me that would be great. Thanks in advance.