Arvia hits a metaphorical iceberg at Christmas

We’ve just returned from the Arvia Maiden/Christmas/New Year cruise – what a fiasco. To save your boredom I won’t go through everything – life is too short. In a nutshell, with circa 4,500 paying passengers on board the ship was under-prepared, under-staffed and the experience utterly underwhelming. Over-hyped and under-delivered. If you want the full account visit facebook etc. In a fit of pique we renamed the ship HMS Arvia of the ‘Queuehard’ Line. You queued long and hard for just about everything on this ship. The customer facing crew did their level best to make it work but P&O had thrown them under a bus. Sadly, I witnessed many off the crew getting a hard time by frustrated passengers which was totally unfair and unwarranted. If, like ourselves, you were on the later sitting for the, quote “Festive Banquet” you would have experienced the full fiasco. Our time was 2015hrs. We arrived at 2000hrs, We queued like over-dressed football fans in a crowded tunnel until 2130hrs. Departed the dining room at 2330hrs. The food arrived sporadically, cold and some of the veg uncooked. The ‘Sorbet’ course never arrived at all. We were past caring by then. Beyond Christmas things improved a little but not so much that you thought it was value for money. Since going cruising for the first time in 2013 we have sailed exclusively on P&O with something like 20 cruises under their keel – I think. Yes we’ve witnessed the slow decline from silver service to plated food, the demise of the cabin turn-down service etc and the slow but sure loss of the little niceties. Generally, until this experience, we’ve always thought that it still remained a pleasant way to holiday and value for money. We are revisiting that thought. P&O’s future business model appears to be ‘Stack ’em high and sell ’em cheap’ (although this cruise wasn’t cheap – about £10k for three of us in 2 cabins). With 10,000 bums on beds to find every week just to fill Arvia and Iona alone, never mind the remainder of the fleet, they have made cuts a tad too far for us. The brand new ship is very nice in a sort of painted ‘Ikea’ sort of way but it’s not for us and I wish P&O luck for the future but we’ll not be back aboard either of these vessels. Finally, the disembarkation. Another failure to arrange a ‘Drinks Party in a place that makes Ale’. The majority of passengers and their luggage ‘dumped’ into the luggage hall all at the same time. Our cases were spread across deck 10, 9 and 7. You couldn’t move, there were not enough trollies and it was utter chaos. We had to help several distressed elderly people recover their luggage. I’m sorry P&O – I think you are losing your way in the cruising market. We’ve had a good run at it and we are genuinely sorry that your offering no longer suites our needs.