P&O Cruises, Arvia, Mediterranean Review

Arvia, Mediterranean

If you are traditional cruisers who enjoy some style and luxury, Arvia may not be the ship for you. The 5000+ guests make it impossible to find a quiet corner, avoid queueing for dining, go to a show or speciality restaurant without booking days in advance, or find room to sit in public indoor spaces on sea days. This may not be a problem for younger cruisers who've travelled extensively on larger ships and for whom this situation represents the norm, but for those who can sacrifice some of the glitz in favour of a bit of peace and quiet, it's probably better to travel with Aurora or Arcadia. There are wonderful public rooms, the Sky Dome had some great shows (but was hopelessly inadequate for the numbers who wanted to attend), there seemed to be sufficient sunbed spaces at least somewhere on the ship, although always very crowded . The cabins were well equipped but ours was apparently a 3-berth (though not advertised as such), with a ginormous sofabed dominating the room making access to everywhere difficult. The ports of call were well-managed and enjoyable, though if you wanted the free shuttle back to the ship in Barcelona you would have to join a 1/4mile queue in town. The food was acceptable, but often only warm, and in the famous Sindhu it was such a poor meal the four of us had our money refunded.
The cruise was priced very well and on the face of it was great value for money but, as always, you get what you pay for. For us this didn't compensate for the inadequacies of mega-ship sailing.