P&O Arvia

[alallallan]

Does anyone have any recent feedback or reviews for the Arvia, Looking to go around the Mediterranean this July

[TigerB]

If you do a search on this forum for 'Arvia AND review' you will get a wealth of information back.

 

Here's a few to get you started...

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/3010778-just-back-from-arvia/#comment-67438635

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2960207-my-arvia-review/#comment-65999213

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2961820-review-of-arvia-cruise-k416-6th-aug-2023/#comment-66050018

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2912128-quick-arvia-review/#comment-64748001

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2936055-arvia-k308-why-after-that-cruise-we-decided-not-to-go-on-future-cruises-with-po-at-least-for-a-while/#comment-65343298

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2969118-just-back-from-arvia-k320/#comment-66273143

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2905927-arvia-ta-k301a-initial-thoughts/#comment-64611149

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2904671-k301a-arvia-ta-inside-ada-cabin/#comment-64581082

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2931167-arvia-k308-all-aboard/#comment-65211876

 

 

So, make yourself a brew and start reading 🙂

[AlexMcSpot]

I'm not great at writing reviews, but we were on Arvia for the Mediterranean cruise in April. Being a pair of oldies we did fear that this ship would be noisy and crowded, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. She is a big ship, so expect to do a lot of walking, but her size means there is plenty of space and finding a somewhere quiet to sit was easy. We had horror stories of the buffet being crowded, but in our experience I would say it could be busy, but never felt crowded. The food was good, although we were disappointed with the amount of left overs that were offered up in the late evening buffet. We were not disappointed with any of the ports we visited and were pleasantly surprised with Palma, Mallorca and Cadiz. Both were beautiful places and we would not hesitate to go back again.

Our biggest gripe - 14 days is not long enough, we weren't ready to come back.

Edited June 6 by AlexMcSpot

[zap99]

12 hours ago, alallallan said:

Does anyone have any recent feedback or reviews for the Arvia, Looking to go around the Mediterranean this July

On board it's too expensive.  We had £560 OBC and had a bill for £6 at the end.😂. Enjoy the ship. It's brilliant.

[Sussexboy]

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on board as well. The virtual queueing worked painlessly for us, the food varied between perfectly acceptable and really quite good, and the bar prices were reasonable (but we do live in the South East). We did all of our specialty dining, and all drinks, for less than the cost of one drinks package.

 

The only negative thing I noticed was that compared to other cruise lines she did seem a little understaffed in some areas, and some of the cabin stewards who double as MDR waiters were a teensy bit grumpy.

[9265359]

On 6/5/2024 at 9:27 PM, alallallan said:

Does anyone have any recent feedback or reviews for the Arvia, Looking to go around the Mediterranean this July

 

Having previously sailed a couple of time on Iona and having returned today from Arvia I would make the following points on the differentiation between the two.

 

The change of the two mid-section MDRs on Iona into the Sixth Street Diner and Olive Grove on Arvia is partly a good idea and partly a bad idea.

 

The Sixth Street Diner was incredibly popular but I don't know if it was meeting its desired aim of diverting passengers from the two rear MDRs which are the only ones on the ship, or was bringing traffic down from Horizon - however whatever it was doing they need to up their game on service as it was taking 45 minutes to deliver a simple hamburger when it was busy.

 

The expanded Olive Grove is partly a good idea because it can serve a far larger group of people who want to sample the Olive Grove menu, but... that menu is only served in the evenings and not at lunchtime as on Iona as at lunchtimes they just serve the MDR menu AND on celebration evenings it also serves the MDR menu so again restricting choice AND the menu has been 'dumbed down' from the Iona menu.

 

The Green and Co pay restaurant that occupies the space that Olive Grove does on Iona is an utter waste of space as it is ignored by the vast majority of people onboard - I never saw more than a dozen people dining in there at any one time so 95% of the tables were empty.

 

On my cruise I didn't have an issue getting a table in the reduced MDR space for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but then I tend to eat early (8am) for breakfast and late (towards 9pm) for dinner.

 

The added pay entertainment over Iona of the 'high wire' walk, mini golf, and Mission Control seemed to be popular as they always seemed to be fully booked.

 

 

 

[Bin man]

Mini golf is free on arvia ,you had to book mission control and the rope walk but thought that was free as well

[9265359]

3 hours ago, Bin man said:

you had to book mission control and the rope walk but thought that was free as well

 

Nope, £20 each for adults if my memory is correct.

[daiB]

On 6/9/2024 at 7:38 PM, 9265359 said:

 

Having previously sailed a couple of time on Iona and having returned today from Arvia I would make the following points on the differentiation between the two.

 

The change of the two mid-section MDRs on Iona into the Sixth Street Diner and Olive Grove on Arvia is partly a good idea and partly a bad idea.

 

The Sixth Street Diner was incredibly popular but I don't know if it was meeting its desired aim of diverting passengers from the two rear MDRs which are the only ones on the ship, or was bringing traffic down from Horizon - however whatever it was doing they need to up their game on service as it was taking 45 minutes to deliver a simple hamburger when it was busy.

 

The expanded Olive Grove is partly a good idea because it can serve a far larger group of people who want to sample the Olive Grove menu, but... that menu is only served in the evenings and not at lunchtime as on Iona as at lunchtimes they just serve the MDR menu AND on celebration evenings it also serves the MDR menu so again restricting choice AND the menu has been 'dumbed down' from the Iona menu.

 

The Green and Co pay restaurant that occupies the space that Olive Grove does on Iona is an utter waste of space as it is ignored by the vast majority of people onboard - I never saw more than a dozen people dining in there at any one time so 95% of the tables were empty.

 

On my cruise I didn't have an issue getting a table in the reduced MDR space for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but then I tend to eat early (8am) for breakfast and late (towards 9pm) for dinner.

 

The added pay entertainment over Iona of the 'high wire' walk, mini golf, and Mission Control seemed to be popular as they always seemed to be fully booked.

 

 

 

We found the 6th st diner to be excellent we. Went for 2 breakfasts 1 lunch and 2 dinners over 28 nights. The food and service was excellent each time. As for the Green and Co. I would agree that it is underused however the food on offer was excellent, we are not vegetarians. With regard to the Olive Grove it was what I expected as I knew about the changes. But it is not trying to be the same as on Iona. A number of people I have talked to think that what is on offer on Arvia is better than on Iona, overall Interestingly they Olive Gove is now open for the MDR breakfast which i cannot remember if that was the case on Iona. I mean the venue not the Olive Grove.

[TigerB]

1 hour ago, daiB said:

We found the 6th st diner to be excellent we. Went for 2 breakfasts 1 lunch and 2 dinners over 28 nights. The food and service was excellent each time. As for the Green and Co. I would agree that it is underused however the food on offer was excellent, we are not vegetarians. With regard to the Olive Grove it was what I expected as I knew about the changes. But it is not trying to be the same as on Iona. A number of people I have talked to think that what is on offer on Arvia is better than on Iona, overall Interestingly they Olive Gove is now open for the MDR breakfast which i cannot remember if that was the case on Iona. I mean the venue not the Olive Grove.

 

It's funny! When we first sailed on Arvia, on her maiden Transatlantic cruise last year, we went to the 6th Street Diner for breakfast, with it bigging itself up as serving 'the most authentic American breakfast' at sea, or some similar promise.  Anyway, we found it to be just so-so, and nothing like the breakfasts we have had in the US.  I mean, when I asked the waiter for my eggs to be cooked over medium, I totally lost him!🤭  Consequently, we didn't visit again for the remainder of that cruise.

It was only when we cruised on her again in April last year that we gained an appreciation of the food on offer in an afternoon and evening.

 

I wholeheartedly agree about Green & Co....great food but underused.  I fear they'll give it a few more months, maybe a year, and turn it into something else. Perhaps at the next dry dock refurbishment.

 

As for Olive Grove on Iona; we've sailed on her three times, and I'm quite certain it didn't open until lunchtime.

[TigerB]

9 hours ago, Bin man said:

Mini golf is free on arvia ,you had to book mission control and the rope walk but thought that was free as well

 

The rope walk was free for the first few cruises....

...then, because it was so busy, the bean counters saw a revenue potential with it.💰💰

[9265359]

11 hours ago, daiB said:

We found the 6th st diner to be excellent we. Went for 2 breakfasts 1 lunch and 2 dinners over 28 nights. The food and service was excellent each time. 

 

On the cruise over the last fortnight the Sixth Street venue didn't open for breakfast, but opened for 'brunch' between 10am and 2pm, before closing until 5pm. 

 

The food was good and on port days the service was good and speedy. The issue was on sea days on a half-term cruise when every table was full with families and the kitchen simply couldn't keep up leading to significant waits for food to be delivered.

 

11 hours ago, daiB said:

As for the Green and Co. I would agree that it is underused however the food on offer was excellent, we are not vegetarians.

 

I am sure the food would have been good, particularly as it has a dedicated kitchen, as the food in the Olive Grove on Iona was good for being freshly cooked to order.

 

The issue is that there are simply not enough pure vegetarians in P&O's demographic to make it work.

 

11 hours ago, daiB said:

With regard to the Olive Grove it was what I expected as I knew about the changes. But it is not trying to be the same as on Iona. A number of people I have talked to think that what is on offer on Arvia is better than on Iona, overall 

 

It is better in that it is an alternative menu that is available to a far larger number of people than the venue on Iona that was constantly full.

 

The issue is that the food now comes from the main kitchen rather than the dedicated attached kitchen on Iona so they have adjusted the menu accordingly, and as with many dishes that come out of the MDR kitchen you look at the menu and think 'that's interesting' and then what turns up only bears some similarity to the menu description - for example my wife had the lamb shank tagine one evening, and described it as lamb shank in gravy with a spoonful of couscous, whilst my beef koftas gyros were simply beef meatballs on a pita bread, with weirdly a sweet chilli sauce.

 

11 hours ago, daiB said:

Interestingly they Olive Gove is now open for the MDR breakfast which i cannot remember if that was the case on Iona. I mean the venue not the Olive Grove.

 

The venue certainly wasn't open for breakfast or lunch when I was on Iona, but then it wasn't open at all as when I last sailed it was closed up as the ship was not sailing full being as the two cruises were not too long after they started sailing again.

 

Now they have people on the door actively trying to drag people in to breakfast or lunch as people head down the corridor to the more popular Meridian.

 

[BertieRulesOK]

Green&Co is the best food I have eaten on P&O.  Everyone I spoke to who had eaten there agreed.  The pannacotta is one the best things I've ever eaten... and it's low sugar!  I repeat, low sugar!  If you are due on the Arvia please, please give it a go!  I loved it so much that I changed my booking on my 40th bday from Epicurean to Green&Co.  It's that good!  Best resturant in the fleet.

 

I think it's a shame that it appears to be suffering from that knee jerk reaction certain generations have to the idea that you can't have great food without any meat in it.  It hadn't occurred to many ppl I spoke to that they should eat there because "I'm not vegan!"  Sigh.

 

For reference, I'm a meat eater.  

[9265359]

46 minutes ago, BertieRulesOK said:

I think it's a shame that it appears to be suffering from that knee jerk reaction certain generations have to the idea that you can't have great food without any meat in it.  It hadn't occurred to many ppl I spoke to that they should eat there because "I'm not vegan!"  Sigh.

 

The issue seems to be the vegan reaction that you cannot have a 'real' vegan restaurant that serves both dishes with meat in them and dishes without.

 

I like vegan food, but generally as part of a meal and not a whole meal.

 

Now if they served the Green&Co vegan dishes AND some other equally good and imaginative meat dishes then perhaps the restaurant wouldn't be 95% empty most of the time.

[Whittleblue]

It’s a niche market for that type of cuisine and it doesn’t correlate with the majority of those on board. Seemed a strange decision to allocate it such a large space and it won’t have been based on customer preference/common sense, but more trying to fit that vegan ideology that was supposedly gathering traction several years back. The bottom line is that money matters to the company and they won’t indulge a venue with such low occupancy each night bringing in so little revenue. It’ll be a complete change when in for its refit in a few years. 

[9265359]

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Whittleblue said:

Seemed a strange decision to allocate it such a large space and it won’t have been based on customer preference/common sense, but more trying to fit that vegan ideology that was supposedly gathering traction several years back.

 

Undoubtably a bunch of Zoomer consultants telling P&O management that they will be beating people away with sticks such will be the popularity of a vegan restaurant onboard, and not actually considering the demographics of the P&O customer base doesn't match up with their trendy London experience.

 

1 hour ago, Whittleblue said:

It’ll be a complete change when in for its refit in a few years. 

 

It doesn't need wait for a refit, as the space itself looks really good and would work perfectly if they just replaced the pure vegan menu with something more inclusive.

 

Edited June 15 by 9265359

[DamianG]

On 6/5/2024 at 9:27 PM, alallallan said:

Does anyone have any recent feedback or reviews for the Arvia, Looking to go around the Mediterranean this July

 

It's not recent but we sailed during the main school holidays last August 2023:

 

 

On that occasion Arvia sailed near to (or at) capacity and we had a lot of issues with "freedom" dining in the evenings, likely not helped by the fact that we were in a large group of seven. There just wasn't enough capacity in the two MDRs and the restaurant managers kept closing down bookings via the onboard "My Holiday" webpage.

 

I'm not trying to put you off and a lot of recent reports, blogs and vlogs that I've seen have been largely positive, but it is worth bearing in mind that it could be a different experience near to or during the main UK summer school holidays. 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15 by DamianG

[9265359]

45 minutes ago, DamianG said:

likely not helped by the fact that we were in a large group of seven

 

When I was recently on Arvia I noticed that there seemed to be very few tables larger than six, and that even the tables of six seemed to be far fewer than on the older ships, with far more tables for two and four.

 

I guess that they have finally realised that most people don't want to eat at shared tables, but that does have a knock on for large groups who need those tables.