Megabear2

We take one of the farewell excursions and that normally arrives before most of the transfers by about 20 minutes for the Gatwick flight. Never queued in the past 7 years as a result. The excursion though isn't much good if your flight is a late one. New option December 2022 was to go to the beach club rather than a tour of the island. Good facilities with showers etc and we will do this again.

Yes, Arvia still 9.30 every day. The app.has often had in particular the Meridian queue full by 9.10 or thereabouts but Zenith seems to.not fill so quick.

ICF cruised Arvia February and thought it was a great time to travel Arvia, very few kids I believe so less problems. His way of booking well in advance and using Quays and buffet together with speciality restaurants is what made it easier I feel. I took everything that he and others said and booked everything in the minutest detail and thankfully for me it's worked. Others haven't been so lucky due to the app.crash but thing have improved. There are definitely a lot of queues for some. I thought travelling either side of bank holidays and school.breaks I'd have it okay but there are loads of families on here. I think June may well be better or the beginning of September. Sadly the days of lower capacity don't seem to be there anymore and parents are quite happy to be fined for the cheaper periods it seems. The Caribbean itineraries are selling well.for Arvia due to the different islands being offered. I've just been to try to book for Britannia next February/March and already flight.options seem to be shrinking. The queue here is very long with Iona seeming to be the go to ship from people I've been speaking to.

Great. How'd your weather doing, are you ashore yet? I'm whispering it just in case but we've found the sun and I've found a nice seat on Deck 8 at the rear to read my book in. Visited future cruise this morning but queues are huge. Lots looking to book Iona from what I could hear, always a good sign.

In my case they'd have got over £8,500 in fares for the two cruises, but they didn't care. They got the £354 but if they'd look closely £150 of that was from them by way if apology for problems on a seacation. Id asked to.move from Arvia to Britannia so they'd still have got the money. I notice that Britannia cruise is now way cheaper than I'd have paid as well. I booked elsewhere for the 2023 Christmas, with Celebrity who only took £75pp deposit as well.

I had that pleasure (Not with ICF) on Azura for a Strictly cruise when Gorka was my running machine buddy every morning.

Yes, so I heard. My OH is complaining he has to keep watering my greenhouse. Captain says we are having sun and dry in Cadiz, but then he said the same for everywhere else and it still rained. He calls them showers though.

This indicates then that Iona doesn't have the same pressures for non paid for dining if I'm reading this right. Arvia having less MDR's seems heavily reliant on the early dining crowd. Although not huge there are queues most evenings and checking the diner and Olive Grove they also seem to average 25-30 queing at 7.15pm which is only slightly less than Meridian and Zenith. The queues for the latter seem to move more quickly than Meridian for some reason.

Hope you get the weather break. We are at sea, dark.cold and very wet again. The search for seats is back on! I never do the quiz being on my own but wandered down to Brodies at 10.00am and it was packed. Decided to pass and am now in the almost empty Club House waiting for the lecture at noon - there's an hour between the two - but if it's like the last seaday we will.be.moved on after the lecture as they prepare it for later.

Totally. We had some very rude people walk put on the girl on here when they realised she was a solo.singer. It's published in Horizon every day and on the app what the set is going to be so totally unnecessary behaviour. During the 14 days its a different theme every night apart from Last two.nights which are revisits of the 90's and rock.

I'm told it's totally not possible to bend the rules. I cancelled an Arvia Christmas cruise earlier this year which was a.move from 30 December 2022 as I booked for Christmas 2022 instead. I had to forfeit my £354 deposit too as the new rules wouldn't allow a.move. It's unquestionable practice but they are sticking to it.

ICF as a matter of interest can you try to find out how many are on-board? Thanks

The Olive Grove on Arvia is proving very popular and elusive. You can book.dinner on the app.or from home between 5.30 and 6.30 - anything after 6.00pm is difficult. I ate there first night which was excellent and have been trying unsuccessfully to get back in since. It is possible to share a table in there but even that has been elusive. However I've succeeded for tomorrow evening albeit at 5.45pm. Screenshot showing opening time of queue today attached. Celebration Nights the Olive Grove doesn't offer it's own menu but becomes an overflow main restaurant. I have had absolutely no problems moving and changing venues for dining in the run up to 6.30.However.im just a single happy to share so can generally slot in. Others I speak with have had problems particularly on celebration night. Had a very interesting chat with the maitre d at Zenith the other morning, just a friendly one when he asked how I find the dining experience. I mentioned lack of coffee being offered at dinner and people asking for it rather than it being offered. He told me that it is to assist table turnaround. He explained the early diners tend to be booked for 8.30 theatre and as such they take an extremely leisurely approach to dinner, often 2 hours or more. This can cause a build up in the app queue and people are therefore left waiting for very long periods while us early diners enjoy our chats over coffee! It's an interesting point, certainly something I'm.now very aware of. One of the couple's I had breakfast with this morning have just told me they have rebooked for 6.15 in Zenith for the next Celebration Night to avoid what happ6last week when they joined the app at 7.15 but were not seated until 8.50. They also made a good point that those who were supposed to.show people to tables were stood twiddling thumbs rather than being utilised to clear tables - the latter does seem to happen quite slowly.

I agree regarding a refundable charge. However point of interest, I also went to a 710 set by the female sibger/guitarist on here and as I said elsewhere she was excellent. Apparently she fills in once a week when the band is having a night off. Because the app had been down many had lost their reservation and had to wait to see if they could get in - they did for the obvious reason Fully Booked on the system was nonsense because these were the very people who should have been in there. I've since returned for two.more visits I had booked and confirm that when the band is on there isn't a spare seat anywhere. I really like the venue and would be happy to pay as ICF suggests.

Not having that response on here! Lots of groans and moans but then we haven't had one day when it didn't rain apart from day 2 which I didn't actually see much if. Trying to keep yourself occupied when you can't step out the door and seating is limited has definitely been a problem. I can see if the weather is Clement there's not going to be a problem but there certainly is a tight squeeze when it's poor. Interestingly a lot of the families seem to have the inside cabins, there's a lot of buggies parked in my area overnight. I'm assuming it's too tight on the cabins with three or four , although well designed mine would be very uncomfortable with any kids in it. I understand the bigger insides with the sofa do not have a dressing table so perhaps they're much bigger. Anyway glad to report rain cleared around 11 o'clock and it's now hot and sunny. We were allowed off about 25 minutes after the announcement about weather. There was a long queue for the shuttle bus but around 7-8 buses there so I'd think they had been held up in the deluge and all arrived at once. I left them to it and walked over to the port bus stop. I've bought the return just in case. No one else there we stopped for MSC Grandiose passengers but loads of room. Decided to take the train out to Olympic Park to enjoy some peace and now enjoying tapas and sangria. Glad I came off, it's very lovely weather now and am enjoying the spectacular views. Will stay here for another hour or so and then head back towards the very busy end of town. I don't envisage anymore shuttle problems today so intend to leave it later. I have Limelight Club tonight so later (Well for me) dining.

9.45 first announcement no shuttles and due to weather we are holding people on-board until shuttles return. It's now started to bucket down again! I was going to take port shuttle but currently not allowed to go through security. I've decided to sit tight, gone back to Quays for more coffee. Now a bit less full but the Keep & Cow area is rapidly filling. If the rain doesn't stop I might pass on going in, although I'll visit the terminal as I'm looking for a Dali elephant I couldn't buy last year due to time limitations. We shall see. Lots of miserable looking people wandering around now.

Morning ICF from a drizzly damp Barcelona. I used the Quays this morning as MDR queues were busy and I can confirm no toast available so no need to check. I also found out you can't have mushrooms in an omelette which was weird as there were copious amounts on people's full English! I can confirm I took my food outside and was one of only five people out there but is as I said raining, only a small amount although that's now increased. This is our Quays at 9.25 so later than yourself, but a lot are off here early as we were in to allow 8.00am ashore. Picture 3 shows window seats available which had just been cleared very good table clearing and turnaround in there. Other areas were very busy but ice cream parlour seating was free and some families using it as it's got wider area for buggies. We had Sky's the Limit last night as well. Very good. I was a late arrival (for me!) at 8.25. No queue but cabin checked. There were a handful of seats left but nothing like your number. I'm in Limelight tonight but will take photos in theatre tomorrow. Totally pointless observation but I couldn't figure out why there was always one empty seat in a row every night. I counted the seats in a row - yes I know that's very sad - and they are all odd. Have a great day. I'm being held on the ship as due to inclement weather the shuttle buses aren't available and they aren't letting anyone off at the moment. Had hoped to use the port bus but am not even allowed off the ship at present.

Whatever they are I've no plans for trying them out any time soon!!

Great. That will help. I shall definitely go that way then.

You can access the app from your phone at the terminal. Download it in advance (I put it on at home) and it asks for 6 numbers at the end of your cruise card which are the same on your boarding pass. You should be able to go straight in and connect on arrival. I had a 4.00pm arrival (actually at port 3.10pm) and using this method I booked absolutely everything I wanted including 4 sessions at the 710.club 8.45pm (gold dust apparently) and all the speciality restaurants I wanted. Once I'd boarded at just before 4.00pm I looked out of interest and there were still slots but considerably fewer. However I'm travelling alone and as a result the app locks me out of certain events and marks them unavailable when there are spaces for 2+. I can usually get shared tables but not solo, I even got offered a shared Sindhu although I didn't take it. If you're good with apps etc it's pretty straightforward although many others are having lots of problems with it I've had absolutely nothing go wrong. One hint though, if you change your keycard for any reason you'll need to change the card number in the app as it doesn't automatically change

Interesting point - sorry to digress. A lot of people I've spoken to here on Arvia have only ever sailed Iona last year in Norway. They're telling me they expected the same on this cruise and some think P&O are deliberately parking miles out in container areas. More than any I think these are the disgruntled, first timers know no different and us oldies know what to expect.

Yes, just the one. We shall see. Several at dinner saying they aren't going off as they've had enough of the shuttles. That and hopefully others having been before might help.

Is there any bread or toast in your Quays? I had a boiled egg yesterday and searched high and low to no avail, ended up with a croissant. I assumed bread would be with that but may be you might know.

Don't tempt fate ... tomorrow and Barcelona looms!

You and me both!!!!