In the months leading up to our Caribbean cruise on P&O Arvia, we joined several popular Arvia-related Facebook groups, which are great for getting ideas and advice from other past and future cruise passengers.
However, they’re also a great way to get filled with negativity, as the majority of people posting in them seem to be complaining or worrying about some issue or other (all largely un-justified in our experience, as our cruise was superb).
The biggest issue that seems to come up in those groups more than any other is the question… Can you easily get a sunbed on Arvia? Or are all the sunbeds taken and reserved, leading to sunbed war conflicts?
From the amount of discussion on the topic of sunbeds, it seemed before our cruise that this was a major issue.
We’d even read rumours that it got so bad some guests were kicked off the ship for fighting and throwing a sun lounger over-board!
If you’re going on a cruise on Arvia and are worried about whether you’ll get a sunbed, particularly on the sea days, then you’ll be pleased to know our experience was nothing like this at all.
We’re not obsessed with having to have a sun lounger all day every day, but we weren’t keen on the idea of having to spend sea days sat either in the shade or inside – and being unable to enjoy the warm Caribbean sun that we’d fled the December UK winter to enjoy.
So before our cruise, we’d actually bought some small, lightweight folding chairs from Amazon, which fitted in our luggage, just in case the issue of being able to sit in the sun was as big as it seems from the Facebook group discussions.
On the first day at sea we had a bit of a lay in, a slow breakfast in the Horizon buffet, then got ready to head up on deck about 10am.
We went to deck 8 – the promenade deck – and were surprised to see rows and rows of free sunbeds (see the photo above).
Admittedly it was a bit cloudy and there had been some morning rain showers, but we had no problem getting a sunbed on the sunny side of the ship that day.
The next few sea days were sunnier and hotter and by the time we got up to deck 8 after breakfast, we’d find most loungers either had someone laying on already, had been “claimed” by someone clipping a towel / leaving some posessions on, or had one of Arvia’s blue towels left on, appearing to be claimed by someone, but actually left vacant.
However at those times, there were still plenty of chairs on deck 8 in the sun, which although not quite as good as a sunbed, were still comfortable and could be reclined to an almost flat position.
After a few sea days, I came to the conclusion that many of the sunbeds that appear to have been claimed (and then left unoccupied) actually just had the P&O towels left on them because the previous user hadn’t bothered to remove their towel and put it in the towel bin after they’d finished on it.
We’d often just sit in a chair, keep an eye on one of these ‘reserved’ loungers for half an hour or so then, if no-one turned up, just remove the towels and take the sunbeds.
We never had any issue or anyone coming back to argue when doing this.
What was more annoying was the loungers that people were clearly reserving for themselves (using ‘towel clips’ and maybe leaving a book or a bottle on them) and then not actually using them for hours at a time.
This definitely happened, but we were still able to get sunbeds and chairs for all four of us, reasonably close together, on every sea day of our cruise.
We never once got our own emergency foldable chairs out of our cabin – they were totally un-necessary.
Aside from the odd person moaning about the “reserved” loungers, there was never any argument or trouble between passengers that we saw on this ‘promenade’ deck level – only ever a relaxed, chilled out atmosphere.
However, on venturing up to deck 16 and above, it was a bit of a different situation.
These are the sun decks, with the infinity pool and swim up bar – and they were much more crowded with more of a chaotic vibe to them.
Sunbeds up there were really crammed up close to each other on the sea days, and I think here is where people must be heading when they’re going out at 5am to lay their towels down and ‘reserve’ a lounger.
Likewise in the sky dome, where loungers surround the central pool, it’s busier, louder, more crammed with people and loungers are harder to come by.
But one of the things I loved about the Arvia cruise ship is the variety of spaces they have.
I preferred quiet relaxation – and deck 8, with its promenade deck and the ‘Sunset Bar’ at the aft of the ship was much more to my liking – quieter and more chilled out, so this is where we tended to hang around on the sea days, getting plenty of time in the sun whilst relaxing and looking out over the stunning blue Caribbean seas – spotting dolphins and whales following the ship (which you can’t really do on the upper sun decks or the interior sky dome).
One drawback is the heat – and on a few days where there was no cooling breeze, you’d get so hot you needed to get in a pool to cool off.
The swimming pools are on the upper decks or in the busy sky dome and there are none on the deck 8 level.
However you do have lots of mini ‘hot tubs’ (though the temperatures aren’t hot, they’re just right for cooling off in) around that deck, along with two big whirlpool tubs at the back by the Sunset Bar.
We found these perfect for cooling off in for 10-minutes without needing to be literally sat around the busy pool areas.
Not every day had rows of empty loungers like the picture above – there were definitely times we had to walk up and down a bit and rearrange chairs, or compromise by sitting apart for a bit.
But by reading the discussions on the Facebook groups, you’d think availability of sunbeds on Arvia was a huge issue, but for us, on our cruise at least (which was at full capacity) it wasn’t a problem, beyond being a minor irritation every now and again not being able to go exactly where we wanted to at first.
Like I say, this was specifically on the lower ‘promenade’ deck 8, away from the pools. The situation around the pools and on the upper sun terraces might be different, I don’t know as I steered clear of them.
It could definitely be improved by having a member of staff patrolling the decks and removing towels / belongings that are left for more than 30-minutes (as per P&O’s stated policy).
We never saw that happen at all, which I think would completely eradicate the issue, but I really don’t think the problem of sunbeds on P&O Arvia is anywhere near as bad as the social media discussion would have you believe, as long as you’re happy to sit in the quieter parts of the ship away from the main pools and sun terraces.