Megabear2

No the app closes at 2.00am the night before disembarkation. As you're early to bed you might not have realised but that's also when final bills are sorted and payment taken. I've found mine outside my door at 4.00am before now, quite impressive considering its claimed, printed and circulated in that 2 hours.

And Britannia, especially the no stairs ...

We did on Sunday. I think ICF was needing to get off very sharpish on Saturday for an appointment and just meant they didn't have time with their walk off.

Someone won £16,000 on a machine last week. First time on Arvia apparently, bells whistles the lot!

MB believes very much on balance but finds herself being forced to defend herself on negative bits! Nothing in this world is perfect ICF, you know I booked on Arvia due to your enthusiasm for it although I wasn't sure it was for me. Lots of it I liked but the known issues others are now highlighting need addressing or reports like mine will keep coming. In these recent discussions you've told us you did have a few problems like the noise in your original cabin and your internet not working. While it didn't worry you and was a minor blip to you, to me trapped in a noisy cabin alone with a hearing problem and anxiety it was a disaster. If I'd known of that issue you'd had I might have pushed harder against my upgrade for instance. It's not being negative or anti the big ships, it's a bad thing that might happen to someone else like me and I do feel that it's correct to draw attention to the issue no matter how small your chances of getting one of those 100 cabins on Arvia are. Yes, I did actively encourage people to report their issues because otherwise they won't get dealt with and 2 hour plus queues for shuttle buses is by anyone's standards just wrong. I admire your enthusiasm and positivity but nothing can be right all the time. You're not attacked as such but reading back through posts - which I do all the time because it's in my nature - you like to question in depth anyone that states a different opinion to yours. Nothing seriously wrong in that but some on here have years and years of cruising under their belts (I'm an amateur compared with many!) and they simply don't like being constantly told their opinions are always wrong. Personally I walk a tightrope hoping I don't cause offence or upset but a hasty reply can lead to misunderstandings so I try to temper my response even when i totally disagree. Sometimes I fail and regret what I've written without thinking and perhaps because you seem a nice guy you will understand no one is against you. I see lots on here who really appreciate your enthusiasm.

While clearly something that surprised you I can say with certainty this has always been the case on all P&O ships. Lots on my tables enjoyed 5 courses, no comment or refusal. Very difficult to get coffee or tea after dinner though.

Whyever not, I assume a personal decision as MDRs opened at 6.30am on Arvia?

Very reasonable opinion. I am aware that the staff quarantine cabins on Arvia apparently haven't thankfully been used for a while. I was given one to sleep in on night two and reception were at great pains to tell me know one had been in there for a very long time. The notice left in the cabin was addressed to Dear Colleague so I had no reason to doubt what I was told. Re cabin stewards, mine was very busy and proactive until 13.00 hours. I saw her again assisting with ushering people to MDR seats at 6.00pm when I used them, we would have a joke about the "zoo" of towel animals she was leaving me and how the ship would be short. However on the day I was finally moved cabins I was informed the assistance from my deck 5 stewards would not occur until 11.00pm as they were on alternative duties. This was at 9.25pm. Compared with Cunard the week before with turndown etc fully operational it was a million miles apart as was Celebrity and Princess last year. Not a criticism but an observation, all the staff on all four lines were working extremely hard and doing absolutely everything to make the cruise run smoothly. Patience of saints was in no way an exaggeration!

The casino spills into Brodies! Their bar is one and the same. One of the early complaints including a man who has bingo problems was that the Brodies people interfered with casino playing. The queue for Headliners on deck 7 ran into the casino. To go into Brodies you virtually have to go into the casino, you can't miss it!

They are indeed very cheap last minute. There can be a catch though with noisy cabins for instance. In the past if you had a cabin issue you would be moved. Not so easy when the ship has no rooms available as every one is sold. I was number 34 on the list on my cruise just finished and I complained 2.00am on the first night. If you're okay with that you'll definitely get a deal at present, although my monitor of fares shows they are moving higher now the better weather in Europe is imminent.

I think she may either be disappointed or just doing the same fjord cruise ad infinitum! 7 night Norwegian cruises are currently two a penny ex UK. I'm surprised Norway hasn't sunk under the weight of them! Always popular as a starter cruise, the problem will be when the higher prices kick back in where will the people go next? You've already answered the question inadvertently, your wife doesn't expect to pay more to go elsewhere. Others will think the same.

That will be nice for you. Hope you can find something you like. It seems really the true cruising experience for you is the ship not the itinerary which is great if that's the way you like it. For some of us the ship has to be clean comfortable with decent not necessarily ultra modern facilities. The itinerary however bears a lot of the reason for booking as well. On the last two releases there have been a lot of comments about repetition of itineraries and less ports, unfortunately this may well impact choice. It's interesting the 21 day Iceland/Norway Arcadia cruise is not being well supported along with the Canadian offering later on. These have always been two of the most sought after cruises in the past. Either people have read of the Arcadia problems or they've tired of the itinerary, we'll probably never know, but they are there again in the next releases. Difficulties do get reported, if they become a common theme people will take notice, no matter if it's an old or new ship. There are a few on here who've had problems with Arcadia for instance who say never again but there are others who love her.

But you only used the buffet, Quays and speciality restaurants in the Caribbean on Arvia as I understood it?

There are rarely the number of children on the Caribbean itineraries unless it's Christmas and also many dislike travelling on long haul flights with the younger age group. I recall looking at those Arvia cruises myself as the price was ridiculously cheap - saver fares at £899 for insides were a regular on most of them and even the naming ceremony cruise couldn't pull in a full crowd until right at the end. The sailings were also impacted by a lack of flight availability, towards the end of the sales period - from 6 weeks or so out - many were cruise only. Without the flight they weren't bargains. Speaking to future sales on Arvia, my nice helpful guy told me there is already limitations on some of the Caribbean cruises into 2024. A couple already have flights only from Manchester, a premium is being charged on others for London and Birmingham flights and he even has a couple where insides and window cabins are sold out already. You are probably right, there won't need to be big price drops to fill the ships this year, it's one of the reasons I took the offer on the January Britannia cruise I booked.

They are filling them at present because they're cheap. You yourself are waiting for last minute bargains. The problem will come when the long time bookers at 2 years out say no we aren't going on those ships. There's a danger with only three itineraries plus the Caribbean for these ships. Once the novelty has worn off people may look at other cruise lines and options. The people rebooking are trying both ships as they had a good experience on the first one. They're shocked they aren't the same because they didn't realise their original cruise wasn't completely full and sold out. At present there's the 30% capacity premium allowing the price slashes - we are seeing them across the whole fleet - when that goes and prices inevitably go back to the proper price point. In the US it was reported last week cruises are selling out as everyone piles back in. The pent up demand is feeding through both here and there. Once "normality" returns so will proper pricing. I doubt P&O have any wish to be the bargain basement cruise line forever.

On occasion it was the only option for them and me! Remember I booked everything in advance too, no app for me apart from breakfast. Booked just after midnight when the bookings opened, still required to share tables. I didn't mind personally. Desperate people accept anything, and there were some very desperate people in the walk up queue. Of course not everyone wishes to share, my husband detests it which is why he chooses freedom dining on Britannia and Azura when we sail on those ships. However if he'd been on Arvia with me last fortnight he'd have had absolutely no choice. All I'm saying to you is you've had two great experiences, others haven't and reading Cathygh's current live reports she is also not enjoying the same experience as you had. I board ships with an open mind. If I'm alone I try to speak to as many as I can to see if my opinions are biased. It's easy to forget every person has different needs and expectations. My observations based on queues and app crashes and queues are just that but others may have been thinking it was okay and the normal. That's perfectly fine by me if they're happy great but if people are miserable about it then others should know there might be bumps in the road. Arguing with someone with the opposite opinion to me, it's a time consuming and pointless and that's also okay. An easy life, that's what cruising is to me.

I'm sorry to hear this Cathy. Not much consolation to you but I did notice that midway through my cruise the pressures for dinner at least eased, I think more people probably had speciality restaurants booked mid to late on in the cruise. Hopefully that may help you with availability going forward.

All cruise lines, not just P&O, still have a large number of sharing tables, it would be impossible for them to feed up to 8,000 people if they didn't have them. On Arvia often the only way you could get into the app queue was to accept table sharing, not just in the two MDR's but also The Olive Grove and Diner. Looking round the two latter venues it didn't seem the sort of place I'd consider sharing a table but the option was there. While you and your good lady are sharing intimate dinners on your table for 2 you need to remember there are hundreds of solo travellers out there who don't particularly want to be Billy No Mates when they dine either. The cruise lines have to cater for everyone from a solo to a family group of 20+ so a blanket 2 or 4 man table regime would be pretty useless to them. On the two big ships there's problems because of volume of people, not the type of tables they want to eat ate. Start messing with the system it goes wrong.

And they're back! Where's Wowzz when we need him?

In answer to your four questions: No, no, no and no. As you seem to love to leap into every topic and tell everyone else they're doing it wrong I think we are all fully aware of your hyperactivity issues now ICF!!

Only for the guiĺottine scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dam. But as we just discussed others making that choice are the very reason you don't have to do it, if they all decided I can just breeze in 5 minutes from curtain up you'd be in an even longer queue. As I say, you can't have it both ways.

Don't go giving ICF ideas, he'll be along in a minute to tell us the history of the QR code and how we need to embrace it.

Jane, I do hope Ted makes a speedy recovery. Thank you for all your moral support during my very testing time on Arvia. I do hope it wasn't my problems that caused you to make your decision, in the end it was most likely a bad choice on my part to travel on a ship I wasn't sure I'd like. Ironically it was number 57 so a bit of a Heinz variety so to speak. I see you mention Cunard and after my lovely Coronation cruise with them I'm confident if you did feel like dipping your toe back in again you'd find it not too dissimilar to the old days. Meantime enjoy all those lovely hotels and cottages with Ted once he's back to full fitness.

Basically doors open 30 minutes before the show. Some people form a queue in the run up to that time as they are keen to get a seat. The remainder start joining the queue around ten minutes after doors open. P&O staff have to check on their tablets every booking, it takes time. If those early arrivals hadn't gone in when you arrive 6 or 7 minutes before curtain up, you'd be outside in the queue. I guess those bonkers people actually need to continue their queues and early arrival to facilitate your late one. Perhaps you should be thanking them.

I remember the Rolf Harris push for sales on almost all the ships in 2013 ... those certainly weren't a good investment a short time later.