Lee117five0

Yeah see the missus saw that and is just a bit confused by the way it doesn't have a rate for 24 hours. It says 4+ hours £6. Doesn't hat mean you get charged £6 for every 24 hour period?

Many thanks for the response!

Hey folks. Sorry for the stupid question... Off on Iona tomorrow and I was just planning on parking at the multistory car park at West Quay since we're staying in the premier inn tonight. My partner though is a worrier. She's paranoid that you can't park for a week at the car park because it no longer has a rate for it on the car park website. Can anyone confirm that they've done so recently and/or planning on parking there this week? And what the rate is for the week. Many thanks Lee

I can answer this question as my partner purchased the birthday package for my 30th celebrated on Iona. Birthday package involves a free photo, a free cake delivered to your cabin or served in a restaurant (you book the cake at reception), a free bottle of prosecco which you can take to a restaurant without paying a corkage fee (or drinks in your cabin) and then the meal. The meal is totally free of charge. Any restaurant and any meal. Two starters, two mains and two desserts for you and your fellow guest. Drinks aren't included though.

I may be wrong but I think Arvia and Iona only have a single menu for Sindhu.

Me and my partner cruised on arvia in June/July. The epicurean menu changed at the half way point of the cruise.

I'm on Arvia at the moment. We were made aware the day before that we wouldn't stop at Marseille due to the riots. The port was swapped with Cartagena. We were scheduled to do an overnight at Barcelona. It's quite funny because we actually turned around through the night to allow them to refit a life raft that was launched yesterday.

According to JeanieC though, it is. So 🤷‍♀️

Unless you're a serious alcoholic for the full cruise it's almost certainly not worth it. I think the only package that makes sense for most people is the soft drinks package for £10pppd. A pint is about a fiver. Draught soda is roughly 3 quid. Drinks involving spirits and mixers are a bit more expensive than pints. If you drink wine don't buy bottles. The by the glass prices are actually cheaper.

Oh absolutely. The older ships are a lot more traditional from what I've seen. They're obviously going to be more popular with more regular cruisers.

I'm willing to bet only about 10% of people would be entitled to early boarding. Went on Iona back in October and everyone we spoke to had been on fewer than 5 cruises. It was something that surprised us as cruise ships have a reputation for being filled by people who basically live aboard. Quite a lot of people we spoke to were on their very first cruise. We spoke to just a single couple who'd been on like 25 or something. So we spoke to maybe 100ish people. About 30 were on a first cruise. About 30 were on a second. The other 40 were under 5. And just 2 were on a couple dozen. When you're part of an exclusive group it's easy to think that everyone is part of it. We're not.

Since a couple of comments have mentioned the fact that P&O don't check documents, I'd like to point out that they do do spot checks. They asked to see my proof of insurance and made sure to check it contained all of the relevant conditions. Only took about 2 minutes, but they did check. That was late October last year.

Thanks John. Appreciate the response.

So this might be a really stupid question, but I'm just trying to write a list of what clothes to pack for the upcoming K313 Arvia med cruise. Just wondering how warm I should expect the ship to be day to day? Obviously the ship has heating and air conditioning to try and maintain a relatively stable and comfortable temperature all year round, but I was just wondering if anyone has been onboard in the warm weather who could tell me what it's like? I'm not really asking about the cabins - just the public areas. The only other cruise I've been on is Iona back in October and the temperature outside of the ship was about 15C or so and the temp inside was probably about 20C. I'm expecting outside Arvia on this cruise to be close to 30C. Can I expect the restaurants and public areas to still be about 20C? Or will it be much warmer? I realise close to doors to the promenade it'll be warmer etc. Many thanks Lee

Very curious about this too. Been given a 2:30 boarding time for Arvia k313, but me and my partner are driving a fair distance and will likely be several hours early. Given the travel distance I don't want to risk leaving it too late. If a single traffic incident happens enroute we could miss the ship.

Thank you for your support. It's funny how some people have a decent experience of not waiting for very long and also being able to book absolutely everything they want and then say that that must be true for everyone. We really struggled on Iona (partly our own fault as first time cruisers not used to how things work) and we've been determined to try and be a bit more organised this time round. Thank you for your best wishes. Many thanks Lee

This is only our second cruise. Our first was on Iona back in October. By the time we boarded (just before 1) and figured out how to use the app most stuff was already booked. We didn't realise just how important it was to book everything that we wanted to do right then and there because everything gets fully booked up. There were a few restaurants we wanted to try this time that we didn't last time, like Sindhu and beach house, and we didn't want to miss out again. Same for booking the MDR for an early slot on celebration night. We're on a 14 night cruise and we've booked 6 evenings. I don't think that's too selfish really. I get that booking early makes the problem worse, but until they significantly increase staffing levels on these big ships there is just going to always be a need for a mad rush to book things. It's even more unfair on regular passengers when people board early and book things like epicurean every day of the cruise. When we were on Iona we spoke to a lady who had literally done just that. How are other people supposed to have any sort of a chance? Many thanks Lee

Just went online to book dining reservations for Arvia K313. It said a week ago that dining reservations could be made from the 11th. Right at midnight they've changed the date to the 12th. Bit disappointed really as I was hoping to try and book a few restaurants. Just wondering if everyone else has the same problem? Many thanks Lee

I fast tracked my passport and had it within a few days. If you're worried then just do that. Are you really prepared to risk getting refused boarding?

Basically anything on deck 8 should be avoided on Arvia and Iona.

Hi John, Me and my partner are both off on our first holiday together (also our first ever cruise) on Iona on Saturday on the northern Europe cruise. We've heard reports of some of the restaurants being closed due to low staff numbers. Just wondering what your experience has been? We've tried contacting P&O and they're very cryptic and won't actually say if anything has shut. Cheers, Lee