Live Report Arvia 14 Nights From Barbados 18th Feb onwards

[TigerB]

3 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

My wife just had to climb from  the 5th floor to 17th floor for Epicurean in high heels!!

 

Enjoy your meal tonight.🙂

 

And when you head back down again, perhaps you could show all those smokers who use the lift to go down from 18 to 16 how easy it is to use the stairs. 😉

[Interestedcruisefan]

This was an image of sevenseas or silverseas ship (can't remembers which ) on first night in Barbados

 

It looks like the same size of one of our lifeboats on here!

 

Lol

Edited February 20, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

Not a bad view to wake up to this morning!

 

Tortola

 

 

[Interestedcruisefan]

Last night's meal In Epicurean waa very good. The restaurant manager found us  a space for 28th Feb as well now despite the restaurant being fully booked on the app. Always worth asking I guess

 

Images of menu,  view from table and bread basket below more to come from my wife's phone later

[Interestedcruisefan]

Here's various images of food we have eaten at The  Quays so far

 

Note the healthy carvery lunch - I turned down roast potatoes, Yorkshire Pud and cauliflower cheese!!

 

[Interestedcruisefan]

More images from Epicurian

 

The meal came with virgin bloody Mary amuse bouche

 

Andy sorbet pre dessert

 

I had fillet of beef (rare) served perfectly and my wife had black cod with lobster tail main

 

Chocolate jaffa cake and lemon meringue tart for dessert

 

24 HR slow cooked ox cheek and crab starters

 

Service and ambience is great in there

 

The bread basket in earlier post included Beetroot flavoured bread and salt and marmite flavoured butters

[Interestedcruisefan]

This is my breakfast dessert lol (the fish and chip shop at The Quays does pancakes and waffles)

 

You can see why I needed to sign up  for the spin classes

 

 

[Interestedcruisefan]

Breakfast at the Quays. Everything you need here. They have the normal pastries and croissants and fruits and cereals and smoothies and drinks etc as well

 

 

 

 

[Interestedcruisefan]

And if you eat at The Quays you can  sit outside to dine with views like this

 

Tortola looks great. It replaced Curacao on this cruise for some reason I can't remember?

 

We will be off to explore soon. We have to take passports with us today

 

We've heard there's a shuttle in port for 10US dollars each to Cane Garden Bay

 

From there we will see if it's possible to do the Hike to the highest point on the island

 

Wish us luck with that!!

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[jeanlyon]

OMG that meat is absolutely raw 😞

[TigerB]

Thanks for the update.👍

I too had the black cod and lobster one time, and another time had the halibut which, although listed as a sharer, they were happy to serve as a single portion. I've also had the porcupine lemon meringue. I do like the food in Epicurean.😋

Next week you'll have the other menu, which should have the lobster thermidor on; you should have seen the state of our tablecloth after that!🤭

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

OMG that meat is absolutely raw 😞

It's called rare Jean. Lovely 😋

[Sussexboy]

Is the Martini and Cigar Bar still open down by the quayside on Tortola?

[bee-ess]

4 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

OMG that meat is absolutely raw 😞

I'd eat it !!

[Interestedcruisefan]

3 hours ago, Sussexboy said:

Is the Martini and Cigar Bar still open down by the quayside on Tortola?

So sorry I only saw this question after we got back so I didn't check for you

[showingdiva]

7 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

OMG that meat is absolutely raw 😞

 

I agree.   A decent vet could revive that.

[Interestedcruisefan]

We changed our mind about hiking to the top of Mont Sage

 

So we just went to Cane Garden Bay instead

 

Its actually 12 US dollars per person each way. But you pay 24 US dollars at the start and get a wrist band for your journey back. They said the shuttles come back every hour on the hour but in reality they were pretty constant

 

It's a 15 minutes journey up and down steep and windy roads

 

Cane Garden Bay is itself beautiful. I guess 500 to 1,000 English sunbathers spoil it though!! Seemed like everybody chose to go here

 

Halfway through the day I would have warned people off coming here from a cruise as the sunbeds are packed in 

 

My wife said "it makes it feel like Benidorm"

 

10  us dollars each per sunbed

 

The bars and food from the bars and stalls on the beach pretty average

 

The bay is beautiful though.  And if you walk to the end past all the sunbeds that part is calm and pleasant and if you are happy using towels to lie on a beach it's nice there

 

By then we had already paid for a sunbed in panic there would be none left the amount of Brits that kept arriving!

 

We then found a rum distillery behind the part of the beach with no sunbeds. It's 400 years old and has been making rum from sugar cane the old fashioned way for all that time

 

You could taste 5 shots of rum for 1 US dollars per person!!!!

 

We paid an extra 4 us dollars for a short tour of the distillery before tasting the rums

 

Our favourite rum was called "Panty Remover"

 

Lol. That's what  it's called. It was a sweet rum.

 

It was a fun experience.

 

Last night we watched a high tech theatre show called Sky's the Limit or similar to that in Headliners. The singer's and dancers are way superior to what we saw on Britannia on our staycation cruise a couple of years ago. Way superior. 

 

The theatre itself is the most high tech theatre I've ever seen. Big screens behind the stage and to the sides of the stage as well. 5 guys there just to sort the audio visuals and lighting and effects

 

Real hi tech show. Probably a third of the songs were known songs and the rest appear to be specially written for the show?

 

So it's hard to enjoy the songs you don't know as much 

 

Despite that great energy and very impressive 

 

The screens made it appear like you were in an aircraft terminal at the start of the show and in various cities and in an aeroplane itself other parts of the show

 

It's taken theatre shows on cruise ships to another level. It was like being at Disneyworld or Universal Studios

 

Heres an image of the theatre before the show started

 

the photo doesn't do the effect justice tbh

 

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

Here's today's itinerary

[Interestedcruisefan]

Heres some pics from Cane Garden Bay, Tortola

[Sussexboy]

1 hour ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

So sorry I only saw this question after we got back so I didn't check for you

No worries, just thought I would ask. We were last there in 2016 before hurricane Irma laid waste to much of the island. Looks like you are having a great time and I am not envious at all. Well, maybe just a little! We are not on Arvia until May next year, so don’t worry about tidying up 😁

[Fionboard]

Best to avoid beaches ( like Cane Garden Bay) where all the cruise ships send their passengers. Better to get a taxi to one of the quieter ones if you can. 

[Triggertravel]

For the last few times we have visited Tortola we have avoided cane garden beach because of how busy it gets .we now go to long bay beach,beef  island absolutely beautiful , with lots of space and room  about 30 mins from the port ………we love Tortola 

[Ilovemygarden]

15 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

We changed our mind about hiking to the top of Mont Sage

 

So we just went to Cane Garden Bay instead

 

Its actually 12 US dollars per person each way. But you pay 24 US dollars at the start and get a wrist band for your journey back. They said the shuttles come back every hour on the hour but in reality they were pretty constant

 

It's a 15 minutes journey up and down steep and windy roads

 

Cane Garden Bay is itself beautiful. I guess 500 to 1,000 English sunbathers spoil it though!! Seemed like everybody chose to go here

 

Halfway through the day I would have warned people off coming here from a cruise as the sunbeds are packed in 

 

My wife said "it makes it feel like Benidorm"

 

10  us dollars each per sunbed

 

The bars and food from the bars and stalls on the beach pretty average

 

The bay is beautiful though.  And if you walk to the end past all the sunbeds that part is calm and pleasant and if you are happy using towels to lie on a beach it's nice there

 

By then we had already paid for a sunbed in panic there would be none left the amount of Brits that kept arriving!

 

We then found a rum distillery behind the part of the beach with no sunbeds. It's 400 years old and has been making rum from sugar cane the old fashioned way for all that time

 

You could taste 5 shots of rum for 1 US dollars per person!!!!

 

We paid an extra 4 us dollars for a short tour of the distillery before tasting the rums

 

Our favourite rum was called "Panty Remover"

 

Lol. That's what  it's called. It was a sweet rum.

 

It was a fun experience.

 

Last night we watched a high tech theatre show called Sky's the Limit or similar to that in Headliners. The singer's and dancers are way superior to what we saw on Britannia on our staycation cruise a couple of years ago. Way superior. 

 

The theatre itself is the most high tech theatre I've ever seen. Big screens behind the stage and to the sides of the stage as well. 5 guys there just to sort the audio visuals and lighting and effects

 

Real hi tech show. Probably a third of the songs were known songs and the rest appear to be specially written for the show?

 

So it's hard to enjoy the songs you don't know as much 

 

Despite that great energy and very impressive 

 

The screens made it appear like you were in an aircraft terminal at the start of the show and in various cities and in an aeroplane itself other parts of the show

 

It's taken theatre shows on cruise ships to another level. It was like being at Disneyworld or Universal Studios

 

Heres an image of the theatre before the show started

 

the photo doesn't do the effect justice tbh

 

 

Sounds like a great day.  I bet the name of your favourite rum would be banned here! 😂

[Interestedcruisefan]

Well breaking news again. 

 

We now have 2 cabins!!!

 

Lol

 

The cabin we booked. Which is just a standard inside

 

Cabin 5348

 

And also a large balcony cabin!!!

 

Cabin 10240

 

Basically each night in our original cabin about 2.30am and then again 4.30am we got noise. It was people moving stuff about for about 15 minutes

 

It's happened all 3 nights. We complained after night one and were told It  might have been luggage being moved

 

But it's happened again both nights

 

Second night we complained again and the deck manager said it might be cleaners in the gym and he would ask them to be quieter from now on.

 But same again last night. Almost like clockwork. Our room backs onto the gym

 

Anyway my wife's packed the cases gone to reception  and they've offered us room 10240. 

 

It's a large balcony cabin. Twice as nice as our cabin and next to a cabin with a huge balcony.

 

Only issue is the reason it's available is there's been noise under the floor next to the big cabin next door. So clearly someone has moved out from this one. They must have sent them somewhere even nicer! Lol

 

And there are workmen working on fixing the noise problem as we speak

 

So they've told us to try the new cabin today and tonight and keep the old one whilst we decide whether to move to move to this one or not

 

It's a great upgrade if they fix the problem.

 

Meanwhile weve got key's to both cabins til tomorrow lunch!!

 

Lol

 

Anyway off to the Cocktail bar inside a pool next to our sunbeds to celebrate potential good news I if they fix the noise that is!!

 

It's 11am ish here. Sea day. Heading to Dominican Republic tomorrow.

 

Last night we watched a spaceman show in the dome. That had great bits and poor bits. Will review later.

 

We had buffet dinner last night. All good there.

 

This morning full English followed by pancakes with chocolate and strawberries in the buffet with great table next to the window - breakfast with a view!

 

Pictures below

 

Followed by gym, spin class and checking out the new balcony room we've been offered

 

Onto cocktails in the pool now!!

 

Will get some nice pics of that

 

We've chosen deck 16 back of the ship for our prime spot for sunbeds. We got them at 7am this morning (a sea day). There were still some available there at 7.30am

 

Buts it prime spot next to stunning infinity pool and swim up Cocktail bar. Images to follow later today

Edited February 21, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[TigerB]

Result!👍

 

Will it be a case of whoever snores the loudest has to sleep in the inside cabin?🤭