First cruise with P&O
Arvia Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Third Mate
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 35
Review summary
This was our first cruise with P&O and can safely say it won't be our last! It was a wonderful experience from Start to finish. The crew and staff are friendly helpful and polite. Arvia is a beautiful ship, can't wait to sail on her again in the future.Embarkation
The embarkation was so easy and straightforward. Arrived at the Dock gate, was instructed where to park. Unloaded our luggage, gave our car keys over and headed to luggage drop off. Showed our boarding pass and were told we could check in. We were on board within 30 minutes. Completely stress free
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We ate in the main dining rooms most evenings which had a good variety of different meals. My husband is quite fussy with food, but always managed to find something on the menu.
The 6th Street diner was pretty good but only went there the once.
The buffet had plenty of great choices of foods. Something for everyone, even with dietary requirements.
Can't comment on the specialty restaurants as we didn't try any of them.
Onboard Activities
We didn't use any of the pools or do any of the activities but there was plenty of things to do. Quite often saw an empty whirlpool we could have used if we wanted as well as plenty of room in the other pools.
Entertainment
We went to several of the shows and loved them all. We went to the Headliners theatre most evenings and liked how you booked your time slot.
I really enjoyed the Orca lectures that were on during sea days. Was great learning about the sea life we might get lucky to encounter on our journey (which I'm very happy to say we did see whales, dolphins and turtles)
Children's Programs
Didn't have any children with us so can't comment on the entertainment or kids clubs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
The ship is beautiful. Very well maintained and very clean. Several times a day we observed staff cleaning areas.
The layout was pretty easy to navigate after a couple of days, getting to know what floor different venues were on and which end and side.
Cabin / Stateroom
This cabin was in a perfect location, mid ship, just down from the lifts stairs and the laundrette. Very quiet balcony cabin, didn't hear anything from the rooms next to us. There is plenty of storage space but we put the life jackets in the shelf above the Tv to make more room. Packing cubes are a brilliant idea as there aren't any drawers for socks, pants etc. We also took magnetic hooks to hang my long dresses from as they're too long for the wardrobes. The balcony isn't over looked so pretty private. Would definitely book this cabin again.
Ship tip
With regards to the virtual queue for the restaurants... we found it better to join it about 25-30 minutes before the actual time we wanted a table. It's so much better than actually waiting in a queue to be seated. We liked to eat about 8 pm and never waited longer than 25 minutes.
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
La Spezia (Cinque Terre), Italy
We did a tour excursion with P&O. The villages are absolutely stunning. The boat rides between each village was amazing, seeing the sights of the picturesque villages from the sea was so lovely.
Our guide was a nice guy but didn't seem too organised. He counted the group at the start of the tour but we all got separated on the ferry and he didn't seem too concerned if everyone got off ok.
The audio equipment wasn't great and we kept picking up another tour guide talking to her group instead of our guide which made it difficult.
Although we were told we would have 2 hours at one of the stops, by the time everyone was grouped together we ended up with just over an hour. But overall it was a lovely day.
We loved this port. No need for a shuttle bus here. We did the little train ride up to Notre Dame ( not to be confused with the one in Paris 😅)
Definitely worth doing! The views over Marseille were breathtaking. Plenty of lovely cafes to stop for food or just a coffee or a cold drink and just relax.
We love Cadiz, although it's not a very big place to visit we have always enjoyed this stop. This time we decided to take an excursion to Seville which was the Seville on your own.
We had a 2 hour bus journey to Seville where our guide was quite informative about Seville and gave us a map to help us navigate. She also helped a group of us finding the cheaper way to see the sights via the Green hop on hop off bus. Told us where to find free toilets
( Starbucks 😉 there are 3 of them and 1 being near the Cathedral )
Seville was a beautiful place and definitely worth the 2 hour bus journey there.
As we live in Cornwall we always travel up the day before our cruise and stay in one of Southampton hotels. Tend to arrive early in the morning and make a day of it in the city, visiting the shops and strolling around and the harbour.
We didn't do an excursion in this port. No need for shuttle bus, just walked into the town from the bus. Plenty of things to see and do there for us.
Disembarkation
We opted to take our own luggage off ship to disembark which was easy and quick for us. No worries about searching for our luggage amongst all the thousands of other cases or someone else taking our luggage by mistake. Straight off the ship, car collected, and on the road home within half an hour.
Traveler Photos
