Arvia Maiden Voyage
Arvia Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 35
Canary Islands
Sail date: December 23, 2022
Ship: Arvia
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
We really enjoyed our stay on Arvia over ChristmasEmbarkation
We had problems getting our boarding passes at home so had to do them at the terminal and the staff there were very helpful. Our embarkation was smooth and the process was fairly quick. We found our muster station quickly and were out exploring the ship soon after dropping our things off at our cabin.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Truly couldn’t fault any of the meals we had. We ate in the Meridian MDR from Christmas Day onwards in the evenings and had no issues with the online queue. Sometimes we would be called up instantly and sometimes we would wait a while, but we were happy to sit and enjoy a drink in Anderson’s while we waited. The MDR offered a good range of meals in the evenings and the service was always wonderful.
We ate in the buffet for breakfast and some lunches and were largely happy with it. We found it very crowded during peak times which you would expect, but usually managed to find a table easily. There was always a nice variety of food on offer which was replenished quickly and the staff were always happy to help if you needed it.
We tried the 6th Street Diner for breakfast one morning and enjoyed it, the interior is great and our pancakes were nice too. On the 29th we went to the Limelight Club and had an excellent evening. Our food was great and so was Matt Cardle.
Onboard Activities
We didn’t find that there was a huge amount of activities, especially considering that it was Christmas, but also didn’t try the main on board activities like Mission Control or the activities on deck 19 which could be worth a go - just not our kind of thing.
Entertainment
There was always something going on in the evenings! We really enjoy live music so would usually go somewhere with music after our evening meals. The Michael Bublé Experience was great and we saw him a few times. The Skydome usually had musical acts on at night and towards the end we saw Josh Henderson, ODY-C, and Euphoria, who all had amazing voices and great shows. Matt Cardle did a great acoustic set in the Limelight Club and Ronan Keating’s last show on NYE was incredible! My personal favourite was Pulse in The Clubhouse and I particularly enjoyed the Inferno night on the 28th.
Service and Staff
All of the staff did the very best they could given the circumstances and we couldn’t fault any of them. The waiting staff always went above and beyond, even on the more stressful evenings, and did everything they could to accommodate what you wanted. All of the bar staff at the various venues around the ship were very helpful too.
Our room steward, Emily, greeted us with a smile every day and went above and beyond to make our stay comfortable. We were really happy to hear that she managed to have some fun on NYE as she worked so hard.
It was nice to see Captain Camby walking around and we always enjoyed hearing him in the evenings too.
Ship Quality
We really liked the design of the ship and thought the retractable Skydome was wonderful on the sunny days we had. Everywhere was clean and well maintained by the staff. We were glad when they eventually put some bins around the ship as they were definitely lacking in them to begin with.
Cabin / Stateroom
We had an indoor cabin (15412) which was fairly small but was fine for the two of us. Despite there being plenty of shelving space, I think a couple of drawers could have been a good addition. The beds were comfortable and you can ask for different pillows if you don’t like the ones you have. The new cabins have a modern design and we felt very comfortable there.
One thing to keep in mind if you’re booking this room is that it is directly underneath the Skydome and you can hear the music from the performances in there. It wasn’t loud enough to bother us but it’s worth knowing if that is something that would annoy you.
Ports of call
I think Lisbon is really nice to look at and it was great to have a look around the various shops and then sit down with a coffee and a custard tart! The only annoying thing about sitting out on the main street was the people trying to sell you things. It’s common in tourist places, but the man shoving sunglasses in our faces and not listening when we repeated that we weren’t interested did end up making us slightly uncomfortable. Despite this, we did end up having a nice day altogether.
Thumbs Up
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We took a walk into the town to have a little look around and a coffee. We walked up a seemingly endless street of shops but didn’t really find a lot that we were interested in. The views and weather were nice, but would probably look to do an excursion if we came here again.
We did the farmer’s market and botanical gardens trip here and absolutely loved it. The views were incredible and our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable on all things from information about the island to all the different plants in the gardens. Funchal was my favourite port we visited and would certainly be happy to visit again.
We had visited Cadiz before and really enjoyed it. It was nice to look around some new places and also see those which were familiar from last time. The orange trees are always a great view.
The weather reached 29°C while we were in Gran Canaria so we had a day on the beach, which was lovely! The sea was nice to have a walk through and the Starbucks near the beach was very convenient too. It took us about 15 mins to walk from the ship to the beach which wasn’t too bad.
The town itself didn’t have a huge amount in it, but was nice to have a look at when we walked through.
Disembarkation
Our disembarkation time was 9:05-9:15 and we didn’t get to our car until after 11. When we eventually got into the Headliners Theatre, there were people who had been waiting in there for a long time. Despite being shouted at by passengers and having lots of people pushing to the front, the members of staff there stayed calm and did what they could to get us out. Once we had eventually got out of the theatre, we waited another hour in a queue to get out when we had collected our suitcases - which, of course, was bound to happen when hundreds of people were trying to get out at the same time.