P&O’s Arvia - Cruise Ship Tour and Review
I recently returned from a cruise around the Caribbean on P&O’s newest and largest ship, Arvia. The sister ship to the near identical Iona, which launched in 2020, Arvia set sail in 2022 and can hold a maximum of 5,200 passengers and 1,800 crew. She’s often described at P&O’s sunshine ship, with features including a retractable roof and swim up bar. You’ll often find her sailing around the Caribbean and Mediterranean, where passengers can make the most of what she has to offer, with 18 decks, 30 restaurants and 4 separate pools, Arvia really is incredible.
In this blog post I’ll be sharing a full tour of the ship, information about our cabin, as well as my own views and opinions on the trip.
Let’s go for a tour around Arvia!
I’ll start off with the Grand Atrium, which is located in the centre of the ship and spans decks 6 to 8. Here you’ll find a number of speciality restaurants, including the Glass House and Keel and Cow, as well as Vistas coffee shop and the Amber Lounge bar. Space for entertainment has also been included, and here we watched a variety of Caribbean and acrobatic performances during our trip.
I personally love this space. It looks beautiful and is a wonderful place to relax, especially during sea days where you can watch the waves pass by.
Above: the grand atrium
Restaurants and dining
Arvia has two main dining rooms, Meridian and Zenith, which are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here a varied and very British menu is served, where you’ll find regular dishes including soups, steak and other meats, as well as vegetarian and vegan options. The dining rooms themselves are very large, and you’ll never need to wait long for a table. While the menu changes each day, it is the same across both rooms, so we usually ate at whichever restaurant had the smallest queue that day. I had lots of delicious meals here, and always left feeling satisfied. I particularly loved the tomato soup which I ate as a starter many evenings. All of your meals are free in these two dining rooms, but drinks are either paid for individually or supplied with your drinks package.
Above: dining rooms meridian and zenith
Other complimentary dining options include the Olive Grove and the 6th Street Diner, replacing the two additional main dining rooms on Iona. The diner is brand new for P&O’s Arvia and offers American style cuisine for breakfast, lunch (on sea days) and dinner. I adored the theming of this restaurant, which felt very immersive and on point. Unfortunately the food was a bit hit and miss - I loved the breakfast burritos, although they were a bit small, and I also had a tasty main meal here too. I wish that the options here had been more varied, and that the portions were larger and felt more American. Despite this, it’s definitely worth a visit as it does have some decent food options and the theming is so much fun. Make sure you put a quarter in the duke box so you can pick a song!
Above: The 6th Street Diner
The Olive Grove is the ship’s Mediterranean offering, and unfortunately we weren’t big fans of this restaurant. We had a fantastic meal on Iona, where I felt there was more choice on the menu. Having said that, I did enjoy the ratatouille that I had for my main, as well as the chocolate and hazelnut cake I had for dessert.
If you fancy a buffet style meal, you’ll want to visit the Horizon. Open every day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night snacks, the Horizon restaurant offers a bit of everything. I usually visited in the evenings for a vegetable curry or a large plate of fries. For another casual meal, Taste 360 is worth a try - I really liked their veggie burger and fries - but you can also choose from pizza, cheeseburgers, and more.
avove left: the quays dining area, above right: taste 360
Finally, the Quays is a food court style dining area that is also included in your fare. At breakfast time you can have a fresh omelette cooked up with your choice of fillings, pick up a plate of fluffy pancakes, or help yourself to a self serve full English breakfast. There’s also a small buffet section with fruit and pastries, as well as free tea, coffee, and fruit juice. For lunch and dinner there are three main options: Hook Line and Sinker, which serves good old British fish and chips, Fusion which serves Asian fusion cuisine, and Roast, which offers a range of roast dinner inspired fare. My favourite of the three were the delicious chips served up at Hook Line and Sinker, and we visited every day for a morning fry up. We found that Quays was usually a bit quieter than Horizon, and quite a comfortable place to sit and enjoy a casual meal.
Speciality Dining
The first specialty restaurant that we sampled was the Beach House, and I definitely found it to be completely underrated. This restaurant serves Caribbean cuisine that was perfect for our trip, with a menu designed by Shivi Ramoutar. I particularly enjoyed the creole spiced roasted squash that I ate for the main course - it was delicious!
Next up was Sindu, the ship’s designated Indian restaurant. We had another lovely meal here, and I really enjoyed the vegetarian platter which was absolutely delicious. Sindu has a great reputation and didn’t let us down.
Above: Sindu restuarant
New to Arvia is the fantastic vegetarian and vegan restaurant Green & Co. As a vegetarian it was wonderful to have full pick of the menu, and I really enjoyed my meal. A highlight was the chocolate Earth plate, which I had for dessert, and was themed like an English garden. In addition to the yummy food, Green & Co has fab decor that’s unlike anything else on the ship. If you fancy sushi, make sure you visit Mizuhana, which is situated within Green & Co.
Keel and Cow is another must visit during any trip on Iona or Arvia. We’ve had a delicious meal on each ship and would definitely revisit for another. It has British gastro pub vibes, with large portions, burgers, a range of meats including steak, and some yummy veggie options too. This is one of the restaurants that you’ll find around the grand atrium and is hugely popular, for good reason.
Below: Green & co Restaurant
above: Keel and Cow restaurant
The Epicurean is known to be Arvia’s fine dining restaurant, and we visited during our trip for a delicious afternoon tea. With lovely scones, finger sandwiches and patisseries, this is easily something I’d pay a lot more money for in a nice hotel on land. The Epicurean also opens for dinner.
Above: Afternoon tea at the Epicurean
Other speciality restaurants include fine dining in the Glass House and the Limelight club, which offers dinner with a show. For ice cream, head to Ripples which also offers an ice cream afternoon tea (which I’m yet to try), as well as Sundaes which is near the pool on deck 16.
Our Cabin
We initially booked an inside cabin, but knew that we’d love a balcony for our trip around the Caribbean. P&O offer an upgrade system where you can bid for an upgraded room. While you can choose the amount that you want to bid, I opted for around an extra £100 per person on top of the minimum option. It meant that I made a huge saving and ended up with the room that I wanted!
Before accepting the upgrade offer and making the payment, we made sure to check the location of the cabin. I’d heard that the balcony cabins on deck 8 opened onto the promenade deck, which meant that they had an obstructed view and less privacy. Fortunately my offer was for a cabin on deck 11, so we quickly accepted.
As a very new ship, the rooms on Arvia are stunning. I was so pleased with my lovely standard balcony cabin, 11317, which had plenty of space for us to relax and was very comfortable. It was particularly great to have the sofa and balcony areas, which you don’t get in an inside room, and meant that we could sit outside in the evenings and enjoy the beautiful weather. The sofa also converts into an additional bed, with a potential fourth bed that folds down from the ceiling.
Our cabin steward was fantastic and ensured that our room was spotless every day that we placed the ‘gone exploring’ magnet on the outside of our door. It is a requirement that you have this magnet up before 12:30 each day if you would like your cabin serviced.
The en suite bathroom had plenty of storage space and a good sized shower, with complimentary shampoo and body wash provided.
Entertainment
Let’s start with the Headliner’s Theatre, Arvia’s 900 seat entertainment venue which hosts West End style theatrical productions. I loved visiting this theatre, and thought that the quality of the shows was very high. Their in-house theatre company puts on a variety of performances each fortnight, with Gary Barlow’s Greatest Days being a clear highlight. It felt so special every time I walked into that theatre ready to watch a show, and was sometimes difficult to remember that we were actually at sea!
Below: The Headliner’s Theatre
The Skydome is another of Arvia’s fantastic entertainment venues, with a retractable roof that opens in the warm weather. I loved watching the Caribbean band Phoenix perform here on two occasions, once in the evening and again shortly before I disembarked. While Iona seemed to host acrobatics and arial shows in this area, I really enjoyed how they used the stage on Arvia as it was much more to my taste.
Below: The Sky Dome
Other venues include the 710 club, which was so popular that it was booked up every night, and of course the Limelight Club, which I mentioned earlier. Arvia also has a range of other entertainment options, from the Altitude mini golf on the top deck (which we enjoyed), the Altitude Skywalk and Mission Control escape room (both available for an additional fee). There’s a sports arena, splash zone for youngsters, and a variety of kids club options for children of all ages. We had a lot of fun in the casino, and played a bit of bingo in Brodies Bar, which also hosts regular trivia and quizzes. With four swimming pools, a spa and hot tubs scattered throughout the outside areas, there’s plenty of things to do on board the ship.
Below: The Limelight Club
Above left and middle: The Club House
Bars
Our favourite bar of the trip was definitely the Amber Lounge, which offers a fantastic range of rum based cocktails. Out of these the Swashbucklers was our favourite, with ingredients including shots of Bailey’s, double cream, rum and Amoretto - it was delicious! There’s also a great vibe, friendly bartenders and nightly entertainment which we enjoyed.
Our second favourite bar was Anderson’s, which we also loved on Iona. This was usually a nice and quiet place to relax in the evenings, with lots of cosy nooks to settle in. This is the spot where Iona has her library, and while Arvia doesn’t have a dedicated library space, it does have a collection of coffee table books and a book swap located towards the front of the bar. You’ll also find Arvia’s rum distillery here, where they also host classes that you can attend for an additional fee.
Below left: The Amber Lounge Bar, Below Right: Andersen’s Bar
Above: Andersen’s Bar
Although I’ve already mentioned some of the bars earlier in this post, there are plenty more to explore on the ship. There’s Brodies, a a British pub which hosts live music, plays the football, and hosts trivia quizzes throughout the trip. The Crow’s Nest can be found at the front of the ship on deck 18; it has a fabulous art deco Great Gatsby-esque theme, hosts live pianists most nights, and boasts spectacular views. Outside you’ll find a swim up bar by the Infinity pool on deck 16, the Sunset Bar on deck 8 towards the back of the ship, as well as the adult’s only Beachcomber Bar and pool on deck 18. The Sky Dome also has a bar, as well as the additional infinity pool on deck 18, meaning that you’ll never be very far from somewhere to buy refreshments.
Below: The Crow’s Nest Bar
For more information about what you can find on board, take a look at the full deck plan of P&O’s Arvia on their website here.
Overall thoughts
I absolutely loved my holiday on board Arvia and would highly recommend the ship to anybody. Our cabin felt luxurious and comfortable, the ship had fantastic facilities, great staff, and ran like clockwork. We enjoyed the food, and escaping the January cold to relax in the Caribbean sunshine felt like a huge treat.
To book your own cruise, take a look at the P&O website here.