We booked a two-week Caribbean cruise with P&O on its newest ship Arvia, having been amazed the previous year by its almost identical sister ship Iona in the Norwegian Fjords.
What we hoped for was to get away from the dreadful British winter weather and to see a part of the world we’d not visited before, in a way that would be a relaxed and convenient mode of seeing as much of the Caribbean as possible.
The holiday turned out to exceed all our expectations and was a brilliant experience from start to finish.
We could not recommend P&O Arvia highly enough and are hard pushed to find one single fault with the entire Caribbean cruise.
If you’re considering a P&O Caribbean cruise on Arvia, here’s some of what you can expect….
We arrived in Barbados on a P&O charter Tui flight from Gatwick, leaving the cold December weather behind us and landing, after an approximately 9-hour flight, to temperatures of 29-degrees.
You step off the plane and straight onto a bus which whisks you from the runway, on a journey about half-an-hour through Bridgetown to the cruise port where the stunning sight of Arvia awaits you.
Even though we knew what to expect, having already experienced Iona, you cannot fail to be blown away by the incredible sight of the gigantic ship – one of the world’s largest cruise ships – as it sits in port awaiting its guests.
While some cruise ships look like floating tower blocks Arvia, despite being so large, has an astounding visual beauty to it which is a real credit to its designers.
A sleek, curved bow and pristine white hull; an enormous glass atrium at the centre of the ship, its signature ‘Skydome’ on top – a massive retractable glass roof under which passengers bask in the Caribbean sun.
Arvia dominates every port it’s in, with other cruise ships alongside it paling in comparison to its size and its aesthetic beauty.
Arriving on board, your first sight is the Grand Atrium – a huge central area with glass windows stretching way up above you and all around, giving incredible views out to sea.
A pianist plays on a grand piano, filling the atrium with music; people relax in chairs with drinks and there’s a perfect atmosphere to welcome you on board.
For the whole two weeks of our stay on Arvia I couldn’t stop being wowed by the interior design of the ship.
At the time of our cruise in 2023, the ship was only a year old so it’s modern, in perfect condition throughout and every inch of the ship is meticulously designed inside to look visually stunning.
It amazes me that on a vessel so huge, with so many areas, that so much attention to detail is paid to the design and layout of every last square inch.
It is such a beautiful piece of architecture from top to bottom, inside and out – and the fact it floats around at sea transporting you to destinations of your dreams makes it all the more remarkable that something so incredible even exists and has been built by human hands.
Anyway, you get the idea that the ship itself is stunning, but this impression extends beyond just the layout and design, but to the way the ship is run and maintained by the crew.
There are around 5,000+ guests on board – plus another 1,800 crew – which is a huge number of people all living, eating, drinking and holidaying together in one space.
But despite such vast numbers of passengers, the ship remains immaculately clean and perfectly-maintained throughout.
This is not an exaggeration – in two full weeks on board I literally did not see one single piece of rubbish or one single dirty area of the ship.
Arvia is buzzing all day and night with crew members constantly cleaning and maintaining the ship.
Any piece of rubbish left on the floor or on a table, any empty glass left by a lounger and it seemed within seconds one of the crew was there to clear it away.
Every surface is constantly wiped, disinfected, hoovered… Every one of the public area toilets I went in over the whole two weeks was as pristine clean as you’d want your own home toilet to be.
The Caribbean in December is hot – the temperature of the air remains warm all night long and in the sun during the day out on the decks it’s scorching.
But the temperature inside the ship is maintained at a constant cool level in every space, all day and night, making it incredibly comfortable to be even on the hottest days.
It’s an example of the attention to detail paid to every element of the guest experience on board Arvia.
In every part of the ship, whatever you’re doing, you feel relaxed, comfortable and well taken-care of by the incredibly hard-working and ultra-attentive crew.
Food & Drink
With 5,000+ passengers staying on board for two weeks, the ship needs to cater for a huge range of tastes and requirements in food and it’s amazing how they do this, with an enormous variety of food and drink options.
Whether you want to grab a quick slice of pizza to eat by a pool, or you want a fine dining experience, or anything in-between, you’ll find it on Arvia.
The food served every night in the main dining rooms was superb with a great variety – every meal delicious – and with a constant rotation of the menu to ensure you have different choices available every day of a two-week cruise.
But if you want something different and even higher quality than the main dining rooms, you have options like the specialist restaurants of the Epicurean or the Keel & Cow.
Or maybe you don’t want the formality of a main dining room or speciality restaurant and just want to grab a quick bite to eat – the American-style 6th Street Diner, the Quays or the Taste 360 give you more relaxed or quick and easy options.
The Horizon Buffet is open all day every day – perfect for big breakfasts, lunches after an excursion or a mid-afternoon snack.
There is so much food on offer, such a variety and of such a high quality it’s impossible to comprehend how it can all be provided to so many people on board a ship floating around at sea.
The same goes for drink – with more bars than I can remember – each with its own unique style and atmosphere.
That’s another amazing thing about Arvia – the wide range of different styles and atmospheres in the public spaces, catering for people of all tastes and for whatever mood you might be in from one moment to the next.
I used to love going up to the top decks at sunset, where the swim-up bar was full of people drinking in the sun as live music – either from a singer or the resident DJ – pumped out over the sound system, disco lights creating a real vibrant ‘sail away’ party atmosphere.
But head up one deck to the Crows Nest bar and the atmosphere changes completely.
Lush furnishings and decor create a smooth and sophisticated atmosphere as a pianist plays mellow background music to people sitting, sipping cocktails or champagne as they wait for dinner.
It’s a world away from the party going on just a deck below.
Head along to the Skydome and it’s got the vibe of a holiday camp. Kids leap into pools as parents sit on loungers in the sun eating pizza and chips on their loungers, beers in hand, movies playing on the big screen or music and entertainment keeping everyone occupied.
But head down to Anderson’s Bar and you’ll find it serene and quiet, people sat reading or typing away on laptops with a coffee or a glass of wine.
Or down to Brodie’s for a typical English pub experience with football being screened on the TVs, dart boards, fruit machines and the laid back atmosphere of your local British pub.
The more you explore the decks, the more of these spaces you find – each with their own unique atmosphere – something for everyone, at every time of day, whatever mood you’re in.
The sheer size of the ship and the enormous variety of spaces and experiences meant we never once felt the ship was crowded or that there were too many people on board.
On-Board Entertainment
The same goes for the quality and variety of entertainment – from big theatre production shows in the Headliners Theatre to intimate acoustic music performances in the 7/10 Club, we found enough to keep us entertained every single day and were constantly impressed with the high quality of the performers throughout the ship.
The diversity of the entertainment going on all day, every day is quite amazing and gives 5,000+ passengers, all with their different interests, age ranges, tastes and moods something to do every single day of the cruise.
The musical performers are superb and there are performances going on all the time across the ship, whether it’s from star performers in the headline venues like the Limelight Club or Headliners Theatre, DJs, buskers, solo singers, bands, tribute acts – all of which were of a really high standard.
But you’ve also got other non-music entertainment happening constantly… We watched a funny and entertaining mock gameshow in the Headliners Theatre, there were talks from an ex-SAS soldier, comedians, singing lessons, presentations from experts on subjects like art or jewellery, a full-size multi-screen on-board cinema, an escape room, a mini crazy golf course, a ‘high ropes’ climbing course…
And it all seems to be co-ordinated on a schedule that lets you experience the greatest amount of it with minimal overlaps and perfect timings for fitting in dinners, lunches, excursions etc in-between.
Some people are concerned that you need to book up for a lot of the more popular entertainment via the on-board P&O app, and the most popular ones are quickly fully booked.
However we found that often you could still turn up at the venue and there would be availability from no-shows or late cancellations, so don’t worry too much about the app booking being the be-all and end-all of the entertainment experience.
The P&O App
On that subject, Arvia (likewise Iona) offer a method of booking restaurants and entertainment via a mobile app, which seems to split opinion amongst guests as to whether it’s a big step forward or a complete pain.
Being young(ish) and familiar with technology, we found it ideal.
It’s easy to use and so convenient to be able to book your table in a restaurant via a ‘virtual queue’, which then means you can go off and do something else, or just be in the cabin continuing to get ready, whilst you watch your place in the queue progress in the app.
We rarely waited longer than 15-minutes or so in a virtual queue for a restaurant and found the process far more flexible and convenient than having to queue physically to be seated somewhere.
I can see how some older passengers, who aren’t as familiar with the internet and technology, might not like it – but there are crew around the ship that will help you and show you what to do with the app if you’re struggling with it at all.
Incidentally, the app doesn’t require internet access – it works from the ship’s internal network only so you don’t need mobile data / signal / wifi at all. And you don’t need to download an app from anywhere, it’s actually just a page you can visit on your normal web browser on your phone.
The P&O Arvia Caribbean Itinerary
On our cruise in December 2023, we had two weeks visiting the following Caribbean islands…
Tortola (BVI), Dominican Republic, St Martin, Antigua, St Kitts & Nevis, Martinique, St Lucia, Barbados.
Between these stops are a number of ‘sea days’.
I assumed initially that the sea days were required for travelling time between the islands, but it seems for the most part, the voyage times between islands don’t require the full days at sea as several sea days we travelled extremely slowly and even by-passed our next destination island on a circular route, waiting for the next port day.
We found the number and frequency of the sea days was perfect for maximum enjoyment of the islands and for the ship itself.
There was never more than one sea day in a row and we found that, as we were doing excursions on every port stop, it was great to punctuate those busy, activity-filled days with relaxing days at sea.
For our excursions, we were up early in the mornings so the sea days gave us a welcome lay-in to recover from all that activity and enjoy being on the ship (which for us mainly meant laying out in the sun drinking cocktails, beer, reading, relaxing and just watching the sea go by from the decks.
The amount of time you get at each port seemed just right, with a typical ‘all aboard’ time of 5.30pm, by which time whatever we were out doing that day had come to an end and we felt ready to get back to the ship for the evening.
The stops in Antigua and Barbados have later departure times, meaning you can experience those ports in the evening / overnight (in the case of Barbados) and we did feel it might have been good to get to experience more nightlife at some of the other ports too, but in general, for us, the timings and spacing of port visits and sea days was pretty much perfect for maximum enjoyment and a good balance between activity and relaxation.
On two of the sea days, they have a ‘formal night’ where the dress code for the evening is ‘black tie’ – although actual tuxedos and bow-ties aren’t compulsory, suits, ties and glamorous dresses are expected
We really liked those formal nights – there’s a real different atmosphere about the whole ship and it’s buzzing the whole night in all the restaurants and entertainment venues, with a particularly special feel to the ship.
But getting dressed up isn’t to everyone’s taste and if you don’t want to do so, you can still head to one of the more casual areas of the ship in your shorts and t-shirts if you want to exclude yourself from the more extravagant dress code and goings-on of the formal nights.
Staff and Crew
One final thought about P&O Arvia, and the feature that really makes the ship work so well and the holiday so enjoyable, is the on-board staff and crew.
The sense you get is that the 1,800 members of the crew have an extremely demanding job with an intense schedule in difficult, extremely busy working conditions.
Wherever you look on board the ship, there are staff busily working away, whether it’s cabin stewards cleaning and tidying your cabin for you every single day, cleaners, bar staff, waiters – they are working hard and intensely yet every one we encountered was friendly and helpful.
The processes that the staff must have to operate in order to be able to meet so many of the needs of over 5,000 people day and night are mind-boggling to me.
Yet in our experience, everything ran like absolute clockwork and the guest experience provided by the entire team working on Arvia was absolutely first rate.
Conclusion
We don’t have a huge amount of cruise experience to compare with. We did one cruise on P&O Iona the previous year (which was similarly brilliant) and a small mini-break to Amsterdam, which was a different type of holiday.
So maybe we aren’t best placed to say how well the P&O Arvia Caribbean cruise compares to other cruises on other ships.
But we have done a lot of travelling and had a lot of holidays – and this cruise was right up there with the best holidays – maybe even possibly the best holiday – that we’ve ever had.
What makes it so good from my personal point of view, is that I’m not someone who ever thought they’d go on a cruise – in fact I hated the idea of cruise ships and would previously want to avoid going on one at all costs.
But the experience we had on Iona last year, and now Arvia this year, totally changed my mind and I was looking at booking our next Arvia cruise before we’d even finished on this one.
As a mode of transport and method of seeing new, varied places, it cannot be beaten.
Getting to eat in superb restaurants, enjoy amazing entertainment, relax, then go to sleep in a comfortable bed, all whilst you’re being gracefully transported from one amazing location to another is absolutely brilliant.
Waking up in the morning, opening the curtain to find yourself in a different country, which you can then go and explore, returning at the end of the day to have all your needs met – all your food cooked, your room cleaned and to be waited on hand and foot so you can just relax, worry about nothing, and then open your curtains the next morning to somewhere else new….
What an amazing way it is to travel – and I think it’s so good because Arvia is such a beautiful and gigantic ship with such a huge amount to see and do on board.
The combination of this, the beauty of the Caribbean islands and the chance to escape the hideous UK winter for the hot sunny weather, all add up to make the experience on a P&O Arvia Caribbean cruise a real holiday of a lifetime which we thoroughly, highly recommend.