Arvia - I read the reviews and didn’t believe them, now I do

[Megabear2]

8 hours ago, zap99 said:

So a few unhappy customer's  views are important, but the thousands who return home without issues can't give an opposing view ?.🤔

I'm not even going to waste my time answering that one I'm afraid, save my point was everyone has a view good or bad and is entitled to give it.  It remains a fact that whilst onboard and notifying of problems the ship's staff should be listening to the passengers who have problems and at the very least give the impression they want to help.

[Scots Couple]

8 hours ago, zap99 said:

So a few unhappy customer's  views are important, but the thousands who return home without issues can't give an opposing view ?.🤔

 I think if you cruised pre pandemic you notice all the little niceties that are now missing and it does detract from your expectations. The majority of people don't post any review of their cruise wither it is good or bad.  

[NewWestwardbound]

8 hours ago, zap99 said:

So a few from the 141 didn't like it Many thousands apparently had enough loo rolls

 

 

What this says to me is that the mean average score of 141 people that were sufficiently motivated by their experience - both positively and negatively - to write a review of their cruise on Arvia is 2.9 out of 5 ie. 58%. And this is the “perspective” they offer based on that experience, and the one that sits on the Arvia page on this website when those new to cruising are considering their options. 
 

For interest, the latest Which? magazine review of P&O Cruises offers a very similar “perspective”. As a result P&O are not a Which? Recommended provider. I could provide more detail but am concerned about sharing membership-only material. 

 

Neither of these “perspectives” are positive, and worry me for the long term future of the brand, their ability to attract new customers and retain existing ones. My view is that P&O should increase their efforts to resolve legitimate concerns and complaints such as those made by the original poster. This would then be reflected in time in their customer satisfaction scores and customer reviews. 

[Gettingwarmer]

9 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

But the sphere class is a totally new class designed specifically for Princess, so not a ship designed for another line which is where you were indicating the problem was. Any issues with the Sun Princess are due exclusively to the Princess design team.

Maybe Carnival SHOULD have stuck with the Excel model, which seems to been successfully launched on four of their lines, with only minimal teething problems.

 

 

You put my  last quote first and first quote last. My first line of the second post says “Yes you are right there” in agreement that I had made an error. 

[Megabear2]

12 minutes ago, NewWestwardbound said:

What this says to me is that the mean average score of 141 people that were sufficiently motivated by their experience - both positively and negatively - to write a review of their cruise on Arvia is 2.9 out of 5 ie. 58%. And this is the “perspective” they offer based on that experience, and the one that sits on the Arvia page on this website when those new to cruising are considering their options. 
 

For interest, the latest Which? magazine review of P&O Cruises offers a very similar “perspective”. As a result P&O are not a Which? Recommended provider. I could provide more detail but am concerned about sharing membership-only material. 

 

Neither of these “perspectives” are positive, and worry me for the long term future of the brand, their ability to attract new customers and retain existing ones. My view is that P&O should increase their efforts to resolve legitimate concerns and complaints such as those made by the original poster. This would then be reflected in time in their customer satisfaction scores and customer reviews. 

The problem with the OP's experience is actually in the title of this thread.  He read the bad reviews, thought they were a load of nonsense and booked.  In other words he initially agreed with those who say only moaning Minnies write reviews and the majority are happy and sadly for his faith in this belief he is now seeing the other side of the coin.  

 

Meantime he is still onboard and hopefully things are improving for him.  As you say he personally has legitimate complaints and the very least that should happen is they are resolved quickly so he can enjoy the remainder of his time onboard.

[miopyk]

Haha, yes you could say I’m a convert. We stopped using the app on Saturday and the only place we’ll eat now is one of the main dining rooms as I refuse to spend any more money on board. To be fair, last night we got a table immediately in Zenith and the food and service was good.
 

The night before we tried the Asian place in the Quays and it was pretty poor. The food was obviously pre-prepared and then put together depending on what you ordered. The tiger prawns in my dish looked great but were hard on the outside and mushy in the middle. My wife said hers just tasted of pepper and so she left it and went and got some roast turkey instead which she said was okay.
 

We then ventured to the buffet for some ice cream but they only had coffee flavour which neither of us like. So we went down to Zenith and got a table after 10 minutes and ordered ice cream there. The waiting staff were a bit unsure about it but again to be fair they took the order and 5 minutes later I was tucking into a bowl of vanillas finest.

 

One observation, why do they have people providing hand sanitiser outside the entrance to the main dining rooms but no one doing the same at the buffet? Surely the propensity and risk for norovirus is far more likely in a buffet than a silver service venue. I didn’t ask as I didn’t want them to think I was moaning.

 

 

 

[zap99]

8 hours ago, Scots Couple said:

 I think if you cruised pre pandemic you notice all the little niceties that are now missing and it does detract from your expectations. The majority of people don't post any review of their cruise wither it is good or bad.  

Since covid the world has changed, not always for the better. Prices have risen and quality reduced.

[maz48]

On 10/7/2024 at 9:34 AM, crompton21 said:

First it was the removal of bar soap and flannels, now the toilet paper.  I wonder what's next to be removed? How about a timer on the showers to reduce hot water consumption? Perhaps it will soon be possible to pay for an upgrade to ensure that toilet paper is provided😁

We are just off Britannia(our 2nd P&O cruise) There were no facial tissues in the bathroom so we asked our steward for some, thinking he had forgotten. He said they had been told not to put them in the bathrooms, though we could have a box, and if we wanted to place them in the bathroom that is up to us!😂 We still had to remind him a few more times before we got one. However, fortunately the toilet paper was well provided. We were wondering if they were trying to stop passengers from putting the facial tissues down the toilet. Otherwise a bit of a money saving on P&O's part.

 

Edited October 8 by maz48

[zap99]

22 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Personally if we have any issues on board we get them corrected on board which to date has always been to our satisfaction.

For us a balcony cabin and speciality restaurants every night make our cruise special be it on P&O,Princess or Royal Caribbean.

On Anthem we phoned housekeeping. We don't seem  to have any coffee in the cabin....a few minutes later loads of it arrived. We find that a friendly chat to the right person works wonders. I can't remember having any issues worth mentioning on P&O....come to think of it, no tissues in the bathroom on Anthem, but they are with P&O and the towels on Royal are a bit naff. We didn't complain to the captain, we just used the pool towels in the shower. We too like a balcony and eat in the specialities about half the time....we're Diamond now Graham..we expect the officers to greet us personally next time.

[S1971]

13 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Since covid the world has changed, not always for the better. Prices have risen and quality reduced.

 

The world has indeed changed and so have most mainstream cruiselines.

 

Many are indeed offering less for more, hence the increasing poor reviews, having said that I'm not seeing drastic price increases, funnily enough P&O are still advertising some good deals as low as £1099pp 14nts Caribbean, albeit I suspect it's just a marketing ploy and they are very limited at that price.

 

 

[zap99]

23 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Personally if we have any issues on board we get them corrected on board which to date has always been to our satisfaction.

For us a balcony cabin and speciality restaurants every night make our cruise special be it on P&O,Princess or Royal Caribbean.

On Anthem we phoned housekeeping. We don't seem  to have any coffee in the cabin....a few minutes later loads of it arrived. We find that a friendly chat to the right person works wonders. I can't remember having any issues worth mentioning on P&O....come to think of it, no tissues in the bathroom on Anthem, but they are with P&O and the towels on Royal are a bit naff. We didn't complain to the captain, we just used the pool towels in the shower. We too like a balcony and eat in the specialities about half the time....we're Diamond now Graham..we expect the officers to greet us personally next time.

[zap99]

1 minute ago, S1971 said:

 

The world has indeed changed and so have most mainstream cruiselines.

 

Many are indeed offering less for more, hence the increasing poor reviews, having said that I'm not seeing drastic price increases, funnily enough P&O are still advertising some good deals as low as £1099pp 14nts Caribbean, albeit I suspect it's just a marketing ploy and they are very limited at that price.

 

 

The headline prices are pretty much the same. The extras have gone up a fair bit. We pick out what cruise we like the look of, but hold off booking until we are happy with the price.

[Megabear2]

19 minutes ago, maz48 said:

We are just off Britannia(our 2nd P&O cruise) There were no facial tissues in the bathroom so we asked our steward for some, thinking he had forgotten. He said they had been told not to put them in the bathrooms, though we could have a box, and if we wanted to place them in the bathroom that is up to us!😂 We still had to remind him a few more times before we got one. However, fortunately the toilet paper was well provided. We were wondering if they were trying to stop passengers from putting the facial tissues down the toilet. Otherwise a bit of a money saving on P&O's part.

 

No tissues on Aurora either.  We had 10 rooms in various locations and grades and not a tissue between us.

Edited October 8 by Megabear2

[Selbourne]

9 hours ago, NewWestwardbound said:

What this says to me is that the mean average score of 141 people that were sufficiently motivated by their experience - both positively and negatively - to write a review of their cruise on Arvia is 2.9 out of 5 ie. 58%. And this is the “perspective” they offer based on that experience, and the one that sits on the Arvia page on this website when those new to cruising are considering their options. 
 

For interest, the latest Which? magazine review of P&O Cruises offers a very similar “perspective”. As a result P&O are not a Which? Recommended provider. I could provide more detail but am concerned about sharing membership-only material. 

 

Neither of these “perspectives” are positive, and worry me for the long term future of the brand, their ability to attract new customers and retain existing ones. My view is that P&O should increase their efforts to resolve legitimate concerns and complaints such as those made by the original poster. This would then be reflected in time in their customer satisfaction scores and customer reviews. 

We’ve never been on Arvia, so I can’t offer any personal views, but it’s interesting that every one of the other 5 P&O ships score ‘4.0 Very Good’ on the cruise critic reviews, even Arvia’s sister ship Iona. This says to me that it’s not just those who complain who write reviews and does indeed suggest that there are some issues with Arvia, although as we have no intention of going on her I won’t be ploughing through them to find out what they are! The main difference between Iona and Arvia is that Arvia has less MDR capacity and the resultant delays that this caused seemed to be the main issue with most of the initial complaints on this forum, but I had assumed that this had settled down by now?

 

As for P&Os long term prospects, I think they are probably OK now that they are positioning themselves at the budget end of the market. Those who are new to cruising (who are very much P&Os target audience) don’t have the comparisons with how it used to be and these folk will outnumber those who decide that that the P&O of today is no longer for them. 

[Cathygh]

I think I have mentioned this before, that P&O are in a race to the bottom. One blogger listed the 3 cheapest cruise lines as Costa, P&O and MSC, not necessarily in that order. 

The problem for us is that more expensive lines are much more expensive than P&O. One such cruise line is Virgin. We had a day visit to Resilient Lady, and went with an open mind. So the decor might not be to our taste, but what bothered us the most was they told us how wonderful the food was but what we had was poor. Sorry I have just digressed!

[maz48]

43 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

No tissues on Aurora either.  We had 10 rooms in various locations and grades and not a tissue between us.

Even cheap hotels have tissues provided. By the number of coughing and sneezing passengers on our cruise they must have been needed. Going to have to take our own and buy more in port I guess. I wonder what will be next to disappear.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

I personally feel always good to hear different perspectives, both the good and the bad. We like to try different cruise lines based on itinerary and ship, we are not loyal to any particular cruise line. 

Having been on Arvia and Azura, Oasis of the seas and MSC world Europa recently, We have always noticed a massive difference between different lines. Royal ships are better and customer service good but the clientele and pricing is poor. P&O better pricing, mostly good clientele but old outdated ships for our demographic (mid 40s, 11 year old.child). MSC well its MSC lol.

Food is subjective, we personally prefer the buffet and never really had any issues at all. Yes can be packed, you always get the non hand washers but you get them in the MDRs. Quality of food everywhere has declined/more expensive. 

The app's are not great on either brands but was always able to use it. The secret is to turn off your mobile data and put in areoplane mode and worked fine.

On ship wifi never use it or need it as i can go a few days without phone contact or just use my phone package in ports. 

We have noticed that the cabin stewards always say hello if they see us on first day and have explained to use the clean room cards MSC have a better system of lights outside door indicating if room is empty or not. 

As for Arvia in particular, food, staff, entertainment was good we just didnt enjoy the pools area. Esp the small inside pool with silly sunchair seats that often closed early to turn into a dhow venue. 

So for us at the minute our future cruises are with royal. 

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

On Anthem we phoned housekeeping. We don't seem  to have any coffee in the cabin....a few minutes later loads of it arrived. We find that a friendly chat to the right person works wonders. I can't remember having any issues worth mentioning on P&O....come to think of it, no tissues in the bathroom on Anthem, but they are with P&O and the towels on Royal are a bit naff. We didn't complain to the captain, we just used the pool towels in the shower. We too like a balcony and eat in the specialities about half the time....we're Diamond now Graham..we expect the officers to greet us personally next time.

Congratulations John and Joan for achieving Diamond Status.

 

 

Edited October 8 by grapau27

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, maz48 said:

Even cheap hotels have tissues provided. By the number of coughing and sneezing passengers on our cruise they must have been needed. Going to have to take our own and buy more in port I guess. I wonder what will be next to disappear.

Biscuits, tissues, toilet rolls, tea's coffee,milk, sugar and towels are on the cabin stewards trolley.

We only let the cabin steward in our cabin when it is sheet change day and if I need anything I ask the cabin steward for it.

This suits us and I happily give our cabin steward a cash tip on the first and last day which is appreciated.

[grapau27]

Arvia is now our favourite P&O ship.

It has everything we need and I would give her a 5.

 

[NewWestwardbound]

I find it interesting that there are - generally and not exclusively - two responses to criticisms of P&O when they are aired on this forum.
 

the first “Well, that may have happened…………but (my experience on) A. N. Other cruise line was worse.”

 

The second: “Cruising isn’t what it used to be.” Often now replaced by the more generic “Everything’s worse/more expensive since COVID”,

 

With no apologies for offending regular contributors, these miss the point. P&O - for very little effort and expense  - could address the clear and obvious shortfalls raised in the original post and in reviews and be much better as a result. And thereby increase their appeal to new cruisers, and retain existing ones.
 

As a shareholder in their parent company it gravely concerns me that they appear to be choosing not to do so. The current post-COVID “seller’s market” for this style of cruises will only last so long……….

[miopyk]

So we’ve had a better day on board today and had an encouraging conversation with the reception manager regarding the my holiday app. Fortunately he brought along one of his team who helps look after the onboard IT so we were able to get into some the technical issues as well. 
 

In short it was a productive session and I’m hopeful that if the feedback gets to the right teams onshore you may see some positive updates in the future. Fingers crossed 🤞 
 

As for us, we’re still going to make the most of the last few days on board and the Zenith dining team are doing their best to keep us happy which we’re really grateful for. But to be honest the moment’s gone and we’re really looking forward to getting home on Saturday.

I’m grateful for the positive comments and suggestions from everyone who’s posted and hope that my little moan means you don’t have to and your future cruise plans go more smoothly than ours have.

[terrierjohn]

12 hours ago, NewWestwardbound said:

What this says to me is that the mean average score of 141 people that were sufficiently motivated by their experience - both positively and negatively - to write a review of their cruise on Arvia is 2.9 out of 5 ie. 58%. And this is the “perspective” they offer based on that experience, and the one that sits on the Arvia page on this website when those new to cruising are considering their options. 
 

For interest, the latest Which? magazine review of P&O Cruises offers a very similar “perspective”. As a result P&O are not a Which? Recommended provider. I could provide more detail but am concerned about sharing membership-only material. 

 

Neither of these “perspectives” are positive, and worry me for the long term future of the brand, their ability to attract new customers and retain existing ones. My view is that P&O should increase their efforts to resolve legitimate concerns and complaints such as those made by the original poster. This would then be reflected in time in their customer satisfaction scores and customer reviews. 

Whilst agreeing that P&O have generally poor customer service, unfortunately it does not seem to be reflected in their ability to fill their ships, nor in the number of new cruisers they attract.

Hence they don't appear to have any incentive to improve. However having said that their prices on the bigger ships are normally very attractive, and they do still provide very good value for money, especially for passengers who don't have any major problems.

[miopyk]

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

On Anthem we phoned housekeeping. We don't seem  to have any coffee in the cabin....a few minutes later loads of it arrived. We find that a friendly chat to the right person works wonders. I can't remember having any issues worth mentioning on P&O....come to think of it, no tissues in the bathroom on Anthem, but they are with P&O and the towels on Royal are a bit naff. We didn't complain to the captain, we just used the pool towels in the shower. We too like a balcony and eat in the specialities about half the time....we're Diamond now Graham..we expect the officers to greet us personally next time.

As it happens we were on Anthem in Feb 2016 where it hit a storm with gusts over 180mph and 30 foot plus swells.
 

Detail’s here https://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/10/us/new-jersey-anthem-of-seas-cruise-ship-extreme-storm/index.html

 

We were on deck 11 and the waves were hitting the balcony doors every few minutes with the loudest crashing noise you’ve ever heard. Some people below us had their doors give way and the sea came pouring in. This went on for more than 10 hours and at one point the dividing panels separating our balconies were swept away by the wind along with furniture and fittings that sounded like a freight train crashing. 

 

The next day the ship looked like a war zone with ceilings down, radar equipment on the decks and glass and debris everywhere. But the crew still managed to feed us and clear up as best they could despite being as scared and frightened as we were.

 

When we arrived back in New York there was press everywhere including several news helicopters and lots of people were moaning about the situation they were in to them. We were just grateful to have no injuries and be alive. There is a time and a place.

[zap99]

2 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Arvia is now our favourite P&O ship.

It has everything we need and I would give her a 5.

 

On balance we prefer Britannia, if only for the better pool area.. Arvia has better entertainment and variety of food. Both are IOHO close to 5. We tend to overlook little niggles.  Gail would give Britannia 5, but Arvia a mere 4.9.