This cruise with P&O once again did not disappoint the crew we’re absolutely fabulous do not know how they stay so happy when they are so far away from their family for months on end especially when a lot of them have small children growing up the sacrifices are so immense.
The ship itself is kept spotless and is very modern although we are an elderly couple (behaving like teenagers) it really is family oriented very large but easy to get around loads for the children to do who all seemed to enjoy themselves we do prefer the smaller ships if I’m honest we really do miss little Artemis but companies have to move forward so it’s a case enjoy what they have to offer now.
We were on a back to back it’s amazing how 2 cruises can be so different with different passengers I’d never thought about it until these cruises the first the entertainment was so much better although we did miss the aerial artists in the atrium it’s a Show they never advertise but caught the 3 different programs they do the 2nd 2 weeks, the headliners in the theatre were not as good as usual maybe it’s the type of shows they are doing now they do a lot of talking telling a story and the back track is so load you can’t hear what they are saying or singing in fact the girls sometimes have to screech their way through it to try to be loader than the music and the dancing could have been a lot better again think the backing track was to blame we did put our thoughts in about this and the second cruise the backing track had been lowered and the shows were a lot better.the outside artists brought in were a lot better on the first cruise and the 2nd cruise a couple were out of the ark not good at all not appealing to most.
The sky dome shows were increadable full of action and acrobatics and airiel artists it’s a shame not many people can get in to see them it’s very difficult to get somewhere to sit with a swimming pool in the middle.
We really enjoy the deck sports so had a great time playing up on deck 17 both cruises provided great fun and met a lot of nice interesting passengers some from cruises past so nice to meet up again like long lost family which always helps with the enjoyment of cruising.
The food again was outstanding just don’t know how they cater for so many people the galley on this ship are amazing the unseen hero’s, we always ate in the zenith with the same waiters who were increadable our breakfast was almost waiting for us after a few days as they remembered what we had, the receptionist was super as well she remembered our name and cabin number it made the cruise a lot friendlier and we were really sad to come home hopefully we will meet up again on a future cruise.
The cabins on Arvia are very nice the bed super comfy but we are not big people as they are very narrow the wardrobes are very close to the bed so when the doors are open you can’t move.
The bathroom is a nicer design than the older ships as the shower is solid so you don’t have a curtain trying to cling to you and it’s spacious compared to the cabin although that said there was a nice sofa bed that was nice to sit on instead of one chair between 2 but can’t imagine if the sofa was made into a bed as it’s designed to do the cabin would seem very overcrowded but then again most of the time your out and about so not much time spent in the cabin.
The itinerary on both cruises were good the 2nd having 2 different calls in the Med but all very enjoyable except Toulon which we didn’t rate at all but others who did tours out of this area probably enjoyed this call we prefer to look around where we are first both Cadiz & La Coruna have lots to see and we love walking which is a plus if we go to Malaga again we will take our hiking boots, there’s also some really fab restaurant/bars off the beacon track we always try to find a nice local one as they are more interesting with real freshly cooked food and realistic local prices and are far more quieter instead of the tourist ones that line the fronts.
All in all 2 really nice cruises would not hesitate to book these itineraries again the weather helped as it was sunshine all the way except on the way back to the UK but we were on the ship then with plenty to do.
