Arvia - Impressions from Maiden

[Britboys]

13 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

I agree Jean. We have one booked Aurora for Dec 2023 and are begining to wonder now whether to forego the deposit and look elsewhere. It seems the  changes made on the new ships will be implemented fleet wide. 

Avril

If my experience aboard Aurora in August/September is anything to go by, I would hope that you won't be too disappointed Avril. Yes, the smaller things had gone (sweets, flower, evening turndown & chocolate) but apart from that, I was surprised how good the cruise was. Yes, the menu was repetitive but the food quality was, by & large, quite reasonable. Service throughout the ship was good. At that time they appeared to have a full complement of staff and service was prompt and friendly. Entertainment was good and there were plenty of things going on during the day on sea-days.

 

As you will know, I am quite happy to criticise P&O when necessary but as a consequence of that cruise, I have quite happily booked another 12 nights on Aurora for this August. The only minor concern is where they are taking the menus - but I sure as hell won't starve 😄

[kruzseeka]

1 hour ago, kruzseeka said:

I don't know how many passengers she was carrying on this cruise but 99.9% of 5,000 is 5 people.  Is that really a reflection of those who had 'minor' issues?  Again all in the definition of 'minor' and many will have had a good cruise with no issues and some a good cruise but with minor issues but surely however exaggerated some reports are his numbers don't seem realistic.

 

From UKsatcom's report there were somewhat more than 5 people in that queue for dinner!   (Even if that is considered by Paul Ludlow, with the H&S implications etc, to be a 'minor' issue!) 

 

Thank you too UKsatcom for a factual report of your own experience - it cannot be considered by anyone to be acceptable.

 

As you say, it seems they sailed before they were properly ready - apps, catering, service etc.  I hope too that this will be a wake up call but sadly after seeing PL's interview on South Today, I'm not sure - I was aghast at his glossing over of issues (granted he was hardly likely to highlight all the problems but an assertion of only 5 people affected beggar's belief!).   You can testify otherwise - and how much more was there which you didn't witness?   

 

Anyway let's hope there are immediate steps to rectify things and that those due to sail soon will have a much different experience.  Perhaps you could offer your services to do something about that app too! 😉

[jeanlyon]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

That's a good idea Jean, I shall do that now. Thank you😊

At least I will if I can find it😬!!!!!!

Avril

Avril, you won't find it online.  It's not there.  my TA changed it, but P&O will if you booked Select?

[kruzseeka]

7 minutes ago, Britboys said:

If my experience aboard Aurora in August/September is anything to go by, I would hope that you won't be too disappointed Avril. Yes, the smaller things had gone (sweets, flower, evening turndown & chocolate) but apart from that, I was surprised how good the cruise was. Yes, the menu was repetitive but the food quality was, by & large, quite reasonable. Service throughout the ship was good. At that time they appeared to have a full complement of staff and service was prompt and friendly. Entertainment was good and there were plenty of things going on during the day on sea-days.

 

As you will know, I am quite happy to criticise P&O when necessary but as a consequence of that cruise, I have quite happily booked another 12 nights on Aurora for this August. The only minor concern is where they are taking the menus - but I sure as hell won't starve 😄

Likewise, we were on Aurora in July/Aug and based on that haven't got concerns about our future bookings on her.  🤞

[No pager thank you]

Thank you UkSatCom for sharing your experiences on this thread.  With the remarks shared by Dentist at Sea, we must track down those two remaining passengers as fellow members of the 0.1% club!

[peteukmcr]

Interesting reading on here regarding “My Holiday app” and that it should have been tested. Well it obviously was as it worked flawlessly on Iona for us. So this must be an Arvia issue. 
 

As for freedom dining, again worked very well for us on Iona and we look forward to the simplicity of selecting a venue with the smallest virtual queue, booking a table, being notified when ready and selecting “I’m on my way” which gives us 15 minutes to get to the venue. 
 

In comparison to to other 3 sailings we took in 2022 (Virgin Voyages and 2 with Royal Caribbean) the freedom concept on P&O is superior. With VV you need to book via an app that is very unstable to say the least. RCI lets you book a specific time via an app or you have to get in line outside the venue. 
 

With regard to changes, I can’t include Virgin Voyages in this as they have only just started sailing so everything is new (btw food is the best of any of the 10 lines we’ve sailed bar none). So in comparison with RCI (as we've sailed with them 3 times since the restart in 2021) the portion size of food offering may have changed, but the quality was just as good, but then again it was on Iona too. 
 

Yes, there are cutbacks, staffing issues and supply chain challenges, but all lines were experiencing these, not just P&O. 
 

Just made final payment on our very first 14 night sailing with P&O on Arvia and I’m sure by April she’ll be as good (if not better with the additional dining venues and redesigned Sky Dome) as Iona. 

[bobstheboy]

Reading the first hand experiences of Arvia's maiden cruise and then reading Paul Ludlows response is shameful. I know I would be writing to Carnival top brass directly and I am sure they would not ignore the comments. Ludlow does not deserve to be the boss and others on board should be held accountable, namely the Hotel Manager.

 

Please Moley put our minds at ease and assure us it will not happen again and lessons have been learnt.

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Absolutely. With many long-time pax it is entirely expected that with the seismic change brought about by the introduction of the new ships, there will be more negative comments from previous customers. P&O have tried to suggest that the new ships are an evolution but really they are closer to a revolution.

 

I do find the views of the 'old-guard' (and I'm probably pretty near to that category myself) interesting. I've been sailing with P&O since 1997, starting out on the Victoria, which was built as a transatlantic Ocean Liner in 1966. As such, I do feel that I have witnessed evolution over the years. As many of you know, I have said that I am not remotely interested in the new ships as - even though I haven't tried either of them - I strongly believe their size and the style of cruise offered will not suit me. What interests me about other long-time pax however is that they avidly book a cruise on one of these much larger, very different vessels and then complain bitterly. Do these folk not do their research? P&O publish the size and the number of pax the ships take and yet then people complain that it is too big and busy for them when they go on one of them. As they say "nowt so queer as folk"...

 

Btw, this is in response to the post by Eglesbrech above - I'm not in any way suggesting the OP of this thread is moaning/complaining.

Yes research is a key factor and for the anoraks that inhabit CC then it is fairly easy to know in advance what they are likely to like or not like for ships already in service. It’s a bit of a leap of faith for new vessels. 
 

While I prefer smaller vessels I don’t mind bigger ships if they are well managed so that there is decent service, there is absolutely no need for constant queues or poor service. I am just off a 6000 pax vessel over New Year and have travelled on many other big ships and had wonderful holidays. At one time Brittania was the new “big ship” and we have enjoyed holidays on her as the service, food and passenger flows remained good, and the little touches were still in place like turndown.
 

The size of ship and passenger count is not the issue, for me anyway. Proper management is. If folks know (like you and some others on here) that big it is not their thing then it would be self destructive to book one of the new behemoths.

 

 

 

[Selbourne]

8 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Yes research is a key factor and for the anoraks that inhabit CC then it is fairly easy to know in advance what they are likely to like or not like for ships already in service. It’s a bit of a leap of faith for new vessels. 
 

While I prefer smaller vessels I don’t mind bigger ships if they are well managed so that there is decent service, there is absolutely no need for constant queues or poor service. I am just off a 6000 pax vessel over New Year and have travelled on many other big ships and had wonderful holidays. At one time Brittania was the new “big ship” and we have enjoyed holidays on her as the service, food and passenger flows remained good, and the little touches were still in place like turndown.
 

The size of ship and passenger count is not the issue, for me anyway. Proper management is. If folks know (like you and some others on here) that big it is not their thing then it would be self destructive to book one of the new behemoths.

 

 

 

I agree. We might be described as P&O traditionalists, but we go on all the ships for different reasons. We prefer the itineraries and passenger profile of the smaller ships, but we prefer the more modern facilities and additional dining options on the bigger ones. Other than tender operations (which are more time consuming on the bigger ships), I can’t say that we have noticed more overcrowding on the bigger ships, but we are booked on Iona in August when I suspect that we will be with 6,000 other guests…….
 

As you say, it’s how passenger flow is managed that is critical. Even Aurora can be unpleasantly crowded around the atrium on sea days, especially in poor weather!

[jeanlyon]

25 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Yes research is a key factor and for the anoraks that inhabit CC then it is fairly easy to know in advance what they are likely to like or not like for ships already in service. It’s a bit of a leap of faith for new vessels. 
 

While I prefer smaller vessels I don’t mind bigger ships if they are well managed so that there is decent service, there is absolutely no need for constant queues or poor service. I am just off a 6000 pax vessel over New Year and have travelled on many other big ships and had wonderful holidays. At one time Brittania was the new “big ship” and we have enjoyed holidays on her as the service, food and passenger flows remained good, and the little touches were still in place like turndown.
 

The size of ship and passenger count is not the issue, for me anyway. Proper management is. If folks know (like you and some others on here) that big it is not their thing then it would be self destructive to book one of the new behemoths.

 

 

 

Agree with you.  We tried Azura when she was about 4 months old.  Didnt like anything about her and boy was it crowded on deck.  So we knew right away that the bigger ones weren't for us and have stuck to Aurora, Oriana and Adonia, only one of those left!

[bee-ess]

We have cruised with P&O since 1999, 1 or 2 cruises a year on average, we have tried other cruise lines  but have cruised mainly with P&O. On our last cruise with P&O in Sept 2022, out first since covid, we noticed a significant drop in both facilities and standards of service. We felt that the overall standard of the product has dropped below where we would like it to be and for the first time in many years did not book with P&O on the recent launch day.

On our last cruise in September it was obvious that the staffing levels were lower than ideal to provide an acceptable service level, long waits for drinks in the bar and in particular the drinks service in the restaurants, one time getting our wine when we had almost finished our main course which we refused to pay for which resulted in an argument with the head waiter. In the past this would have been dealt with easily with an apology and obviously no charge. After 30+ cruises with P&O both us and our travelling companions felt that things were just not the same as we had been used to in previous years and that the product has fallen too far.

Because of Covid, cancelled cruises by P&O (not their fault) and cruises moved by us during covid and after we are left with 4 cruises still to do in 2022/23. Because there is a large sum of money tied up in these cruises from deposits on cancelled cruises and FCC's we cannot just walk away from them.

We are just hoping that things pick up to the previous levels of service for these remaining cruises but if not we are finished with P&O for sure but hope that is not the case.

[Harry Peterson]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Yes research is a key factor and for the anoraks that inhabit CC then it is fairly easy to know in advance what they are likely to like or not like for ships already in service. It’s a bit of a leap of faith for new vessels. 
 

While I prefer smaller vessels I don’t mind bigger ships if they are well managed so that there is decent service, there is absolutely no need for constant queues or poor service. I am just off a 6000 pax vessel over New Year and have travelled on many other big ships and had wonderful holidays. At one time Brittania was the new “big ship” and we have enjoyed holidays on her as the service, food and passenger flows remained good, and the little touches were still in place like turndown.
 

The size of ship and passenger count is not the issue, for me anyway. Proper management is. If folks know (like you and some others on here) that big it is not their thing then it would be self destructive to book one of the new behemoths.

 

 

 

I agree entirely. All sorts of things become ‘big’, with attendant economies of scale, but not all of them continue to look after customers properly. A lot of large companies provide appalling service but thrive despite that - I’m thinking some of the big banks for example. Others like Worcester Bosch excel at customer service, despite their size.

 

We had some really excellent cruises on Azura and Ventura when they were the largest ships in the fleet. Pretty much faultless in every aspect - so we kept going back. As time went by, though, that changed. The ships were no bigger, but staffing levels changed and there were other increasingly obvious cuts. So we started looking elsewhere. 
 

P&O won’t miss our custom - it can easily be replaced with younger higher spending families - but the size of the ship isn’t the issue for us. It’s the service and services provided on the ship, and on both Ventura and Azure they were once first rate.

[Adawn47]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Avril, you won't find it online.  It's not there.  my TA changed it, but P&O will if you booked Select?

They've changed that too have they?😏

Yes, I booked Select so I'll give them a ring tomorrow.

Avril

[UKsatcom]

3 hours ago, kruzseeka said:

Perhaps you could offer your services to do something about that app too! 😉

😉 Well , they know how to find me !

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

They've changed that too have they?😏

Yes, I booked Select so I'll give them a ring tomorrow.

Avril

Avril - you can select your bed configuration through your cruise personaliser page. No need to ring P&O. 

[Adawn47]

6 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Avril - you can select your bed configuration through your cruise personaliser page. No need to ring P&O. 

That was the only thing I found, but I need to change our dining preference, so  on to the P&O call centre tomorrow. Should be fun😏

Avril

[Megabear2]

9 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

That was the only thing I found, but I need to change our dining preference, so  on to the P&O call centre tomorrow. Should be fun😏

Avril

They are greatly improved time wise so hopefully not too difficult.

[alun.jones.nl]

We were also on this maiden cruise. We are not usually P&O cruisers (last one was on Canberra!! ) but are frequent Holland America and Celebrity cruisers. We were on this cruise to spend Christmas with my wife's parents who are dedicated P&O. 

 

First, Christmas Day was a disaster - we were luckily on the first sitting but it still took over 75 minutes from starting to queue to ordering our dinner and then getting cold and tasteless food eventually finishing 3 hours after our allocated time. This they did improve fantastically for NYE where we did not see a single queue and we were served with good food on time.

 

A bit about ourselves to give context for my next comment - we left the UK 21 years ago to live in NL so maybe are no longer as British as we used to be. I wonder if having a cruise line that is only a single nationality is a good thing as all we saw were people looking for things to complain about (to be fair there were things to complain about) and seem to create a downward spiral. Also I have never met so many rude people on any other cruise as this one. I think if P&O opened up to more nationalities then perhaps the atmosphere on board may be much better.

 

Food generally on board in 2 parts - paid extra for was very good - Green & CO and Keel and Cow exceptional. MDRs were OK but well below standard of other cruise lines. Buffet was by far the worst I have ever seen on a cruise ship in both choice and quality.

 

We had a standard balcony for 3 of us and storage was a joke - not enough room, no drawers and very difficult to access when the sofa was made up as a bed due to the cushions from the sofa having to be stored in front of the wardrobe.

 

Musical entertainment was great but where were the art classes or the cooking demos etc?

 

Disembarkation at Southampton was a joke - 45 minutes delayed then long queues to get to the baggage and then a scrum to try and find your luggage and then another long queue to get through an unmanned customs area to join another long queue for a taxi. Celebrity Apex in July in Amsterdam this took 20 minutes in comfort - lots to learn for the Port!

 

Will we cruise again with P&O - no - there are so many better cruise lines with better offerings (Celebrity included wifi, tips and standard drinks package as standard at better price) and I would not go again on a single nationality cruise.

[lincslady]

Although it pains me to say it, I tend to agree about the 'Brits. only' cruises.  My experience has been with Fred. Olsen, when there was an awful lot of complaining about the one missed port and it was suggested that we all looked for 'compo'.  I didn't know what they were talking about.  I feel sure that it is not as bad on P and O, and it isn't on Saga, but somehow the atmosphere is better on multi-national passenger cruises, preferably with no one country being over represented.  There is also less of the 'how much did you pay' on those lines; on Cunard many years ago we were not pleased to be asked, on saying we were new to the line, did you pay full price.  We had, but got an upgrade because of that, but it does not go down well.

[Selbourne]

These bad reviews are certainly stacking up. It will be interesting to see how many of the 99.9% who had a fantastic cruise post an entirely positive review 🤔

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, lincslady said:

Although it pains me to say it, I tend to agree about the 'Brits. only' cruises.  My experience has been with Fred. Olsen, when there was an awful lot of complaining about the one missed port and it was suggested that we all looked for 'compo'.  I didn't know what they were talking about.  I feel sure that it is not as bad on P and O, and it isn't on Saga, but somehow the atmosphere is better on multi-national passenger cruises, preferably with no one country being over represented.  There is also less of the 'how much did you pay' on those lines; on Cunard many years ago we were not pleased to be asked, on saying we were new to the line, did you pay full price.  We had, but got an upgrade because of that, but it does not go down well.

In all honesty, of all the P&O cruises that we’ve been on, the only one where I remember a number of people moaning was our very first one on Oriana in 1996. The complaints related to them preferring Canberra which, having seen the deck plans with the spartan cabin facilities, rather surprised me! Thinking about it, tender operations tend to cause a lot of frustration, but that’s justified as I think that P&O make quite a meal of it.

 

We’ve certainly had the folk who are intent on bragging about what a cheap price they paid and we just smile and ignore them. I recall one chap on Ventura who mentioned it two or three times in one conversation, obviously desperate for me to inflate his ego even more by saying that we had paid a lot more. He failed to mention that the cheap price he paid was almost certainly for an inside cabin, just as we decided not to mention that we were in a Penthouse suite 😂 

[Harry Peterson]

27 minutes ago, alun.jones.nl said:

A bit about ourselves to give context for my next comment - we left the UK 21 years ago to live in NL so maybe are no longer as British as we used to be. I wonder if having a cruise line that is only a single nationality is a good thing as all we saw were people looking for things to complain about (to be fair there were things to complain about) and seem to create a downward spiral. Also I have never met so many rude people on any other cruise as this one. I think if P&O opened up to more nationalities then perhaps the atmosphere on board may be much better.

I’m a little envious! The Netherlands and Scandinavia have always appealed, particularly over recent years and the toxicity that’s crept into the UK. Rudeness seems now to be endemic - almost as if it’s a right. If we were younger we’d have emigrated, but too late now.

 

Putting me in mind of all the time we’ve spent in the Netherlands - it’s a country that just seems to get on and do things, planning ahead, rather than just shouting about things, posturing, but achieving very little. We seem to be stuck in the past here, and maybe that’s the problem with the P&O management mindset.

[doog442]

On 1/7/2023 at 8:58 PM, Bazrat said:

They should really rename this thread those who are no longer sailing with P&O, than you will know what your in for when you start reading it.

 

I joined the forum in 2007 . I don't post much . Back then every other topic was how people were never going to cruise with P&O again, standards were dropping etc. I'm surprised anyone's left on here. 

 

 

[Megabear2]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

These bad reviews are certainly stacking up. It will be interesting to see how many of the 99.9% who had a fantastic cruise post an entirely positive review 🤔

There's one on the CC review site as at yesterday.

[Britboys]

6 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

There's one on the CC review site as at yesterday.

Yes, I looked at the P&O reviews on this site yesterday. They certainly don't make good reading for Iona, Arcadia and Azura...