Soooo.. is the drinks ultimate package for you? Give us a Yes or No in the comments below! Help support our channel by searching for your next P&O cruise through World of Cruising: bit.ly/3SZ7svy
It's a no for me. Looking at the menus I've seen for drinks, it looks to me like all the ones I want to try aren't in the package. So trying to get my money's worth when it would just be a 20% discount would take far longer.
Its defo for us. Once the bar person knows you, no showing cards or signing receipts, life is short enough thanks ! Oh quick question please. Are P & O doing formal nights still ?
Completely agree! Yes, they have a gala:black tie night but have cut them down on Iona and Arvia, as a guide: IONA & ARVIA 2-6 nights = 1 black tie night 7 -13 nights = 1 black tie night 14 nights = 2 black tie nights REST OF FLEET: 2-6 nights = 1 black tie night 7 -13 nights = 2 black tie nights 14 nights = 4 black tie nights
We just completed Arvia K304 Caribbean 14-day cruise. Will definitely be recommending this series to people who want a good idea of what she has to offer. Thank you. There are 2 more drinks packages you haven't mentioned. They are either 6 or 12 bottles of wine packages. You have to carry around unfinished bottles of wine yourself and keep them chilled in your cabin fridge. We think we will have these + soft drinks package next time we are on Arvia. Regarding Sky Dome, you asked about the big screen. They did use it for showing movies, including Top Gun Maverick when we were onboard. Didn't really 'work' though with the sunshine blasting in, and was very, very loud!
Thank you, I’m glad you found them useful! Ah yes, the wine packages, handy if you only drink at means. They used to keep open bottles for you, guessing those days are gone! Thanks for letting us know about the tv, good to know 👍
Another great video, We've got really good OBC for our upcoming Arvia cruise so taking the drinks package works out at approx £18.07 pp per day which is a no brainer so we will definitely be doing it on Embarkation day x
Arvia did not disappoint the food was fantastic, the crew and staff were top notch and the entertainment was definitely some of the best on any cruise ship at the moment. the sunset bar and beachcomber are amazing 🤩 overall was an amazing 14 days 🎉 🎉 P&O Arvia did not disappoint!
We only spent £500 on drinks over 2 weeks so it definitely wasn’t worth it. One thing that really pissed me off was the bingo, YES THE BINGO! you might well laugh. The tickets were £20 a book and total payout when I was there was about £865, after a quick recky I worked out they must have taken at least £3000 therefore keeping over £2000. You only had 2 chances to win the jackpot of £5000 and this was only won if you called a full house in 40 numbers or less, what a joke there’s virtually no chance of that happening. So imagine how much they are pulling in at £2000 a night on bingo, RIP OFF P&O !!
Yes, we've done Bingo a few times on cruise ships and thought that must be a right money maker for them, especially on the more American ships like Princess and MSC where they are even playing it on deck or on tablets. Easy money for the cruise lines.
P&O is completely foreign to me, since it’s difficult for US citizens to cruise with them. But this is a good explanation of their drinks packages-you made it very clear. Sounds like cocktails are very inexpensive! Also good to know you have 24 hours to choose whether to buy it. I like the way you compared buying individually to the package (and how much you would save by buying it).
Thank you so much, we know all about the difficulties Americans have trying to sail with P&O our friend has been trying for some time now. The drinks are very cheap to be fair which is why some people don’t bother with the package and just pay as they go, especially as doubles and some of the cocktails are out of the package anyway.
Drinks are one of the best things about P&O because they are regular pub prices (sometimes cheaper) and there’s no 18% service charge on top. Having said that a couple of pints in Brodie’s and a glass of wine at dinner plus a couple of drinks in Crows Nest/Andersons still doesn’t come to £40 so we may forego the drinks package next week on Arvia. Royal Caribbean (repositioning November, Barcelona to Miami) are quoting £77 a day but as their prices, with obligatory service charge, are double P&O I guess that accounts for the double price. We won’t be partaking.
It’s not for everyone, we do make good use of the package during the day for our coffees teas and coolers and we get lots of waters etc to put in our fridge as well. RCI drinks package is expensive but in fairness there’s hardly any restrictions and it’s unlimited (not 15 like P&O) we were very lucky when we got our drinks package for anthem as it only cost £40 a day! It was a bargain! Haven’t seen it that cheap again since 🙄🙈
@@CruiseMonkeys yes of course I wasn’t thinking about the coffees that’s a good point. Guess if I was on the package I’d have more than my usual one cortado. Love your presentational style by the way (as I think I’ve mentioned on other vids).
We are going on arvia soon and have the deluxe drinks package. I know the drinks packages have changed since this video, I really hope that all the cocktails are included now like the ones at the amber lounge.
You can only pay for things using your cruise card. The same card opens your cabin door. The cruise card is registered to a bank/credit card. However, you can go to reception and pay off bits using cash if you like but they always register a card but it’s up to you which card you register to your account. We always register our credit card as the cruise line often puts holding fees on until you disembark/a week or two after leaving
Hi, yes most are suitable for young cruisers as Arvia is one of the family cruise ships, there are a couple of exceptions: casino (18+), 710 club and The Limelight Club (18+ though 16 & 17 allowed with adult) and The Clubhouse on Adult comedy night (23:00). Enjoy!
Thank you for your videos! They have been incredibly helpful. Do they offer water refill stations? For example, if we brought a water bottle would we just get free drinking water?
Glad the video was useful! Yes, they sure do. you will find them dotted around (sky dome, atrium etc), you place your bottle under them and they automatically fill without needing to press any buttons, remove the bottle and it stops, great! On our cruise they also had portable dispensers at the bars, this may have been because we were in the Caribbean and it was hot. You can also use the water dispensers in the buffet - this is all free, you can also get chilled 'tap' water with meals in the restaurants.
Brodies is where you’ll find that most likely. They are unable to show sky sports but do sometimes secure rights to some major events and also have sports24 sport24live.com/schedule
That drinks package doesn't look to be great value for money compared to others I've seen. I was recently on a HAL cruise and took their basic alcoholic drinks package. it was 15 alcoholic drinks under $11 but they also included gratuities in this. I was drinking loads of cocktails and it was about $12.50 each when you factor in gratuities and if you went over the value, you only paid the difference (once you were within your quota). The package cost me about 350 for 12 days and I made more than my money back on this. I will admit though that the bars look nice though.
@@CruiseMonkeys it is much older guest age (65ish) but super luxurious. I will more than likely giving P&O a go next year so I will be watching this full series to learn what I can.
Great video chaps! We have always in the past had the drinks package on P&O but the last time we sailed with them but it did restrict our choices, some bars didn’t have many cocktails which were included, and nice white wine within the package were few and far between. So on our next Iona 7 day cruise we have decided to just pay as we go and see how that works. Wish us luck!!
We feel the same way and would rather have a small number of premium drinks (the rum cocktails in the first reviewed bar looked amazing but were all £8.75 so not included in the package) rather than a lot of the cheaper ones, and you clearly feel the same way about having a premium glass of wine. As a beer drinker my ‘go to’ pint in Brodie’s was Batemans XXXB which I think was £4.75 on Iona last January (so I would have to be downing 9 pints to break even).
We know exactly what you both mean. We do like a nice cocktail too and we often buy them outside of the package as a treat. We drink a lot of costas during the day too so we break even quite quickly
Many people get sucked in to the ‘15 drinks’ limit but we can’t understand why? As we showed you can make savings after in half a dozen drinks. Remember that limit is only for alcoholic drinks, so coffee, waters and fountain soda does not count towards 15. Let’s take one of the cheapest drinks, gin and fountain tonic, £4… 15 of them would cost you £60. So you’d save £20. Even if you were asked to pay for the next drinks after hitting 15, you’ve still saved £20 that day.
Great video, we debated the drinks package but we managed to get so much booze onboard at the various ports that we went pay as you go. The Jolly Olly IPA was so nice but I wish it was available in more bars.
If we could get away with bringing alcohol onboard at our ports of call we’d PAYG too! But by right your not meant too and we have seen it confiscated in the past, it would be a bit of a bummer if they took it off us and we had missed our drinks package window, cruises used to work out quite pricey for us at the end😂🙄🙈 We managed a bottle of gin at Guernsey once not intentionally we didn’t get it confiscated but in fairness it was the last day of the cruise so they’d have been giving it back to us a few hours later.
@@CruiseMonkeys I think that due to having an overnight in Tenerife at the start of our cruise it was easy to get 2 lots of booze on, one each day. I really like that P&O let you bring as much soft drinks onboard too, that’s a great way to save money.
It’s a tough one, think the swim up bar, addition of 6th street diner and the Sky dome is slightly better on Arvia, but in general there is very little in it and you wouldn’t do bad booking either!
Great video guys! Based on your experiences so far would you choose a cruise on P&O or a cruise on Princes if you had to choose one? Have done Cunard and Celebrity in the past but interested in trying something different. Loving all you videos - always makes me smile and keeping me going til I’m back onboard for real again!
Glad you enjoyed. If you e enjoyed Cunard and Celebrity we’d highly recommend Princess in that case, great service, good food and stunning ships. We love P&O, but it’s further away from the other brands - Princess would be nearer 👍
Thank you guys for yet another great vblog. Did you purchase the Internet package whilst on board and if so please can you include your experience of 😅ts performance in your next vblog. I had the Internet included with my drinks package whilst on a Caribbean Princess cruise last November and it was a bit hit and miss for speed etc so it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on P&O’s internet Thanks
Yes, we did, we opted for the cheaper social package for 1 device. It did log you out quite often so you’d just need to log back in, guess to prevent phones using up bandwidth in the background? Anyhow, it was fine for checking emails, surfing websites and posting photos to Facebook and Instagram. On our package there was no video. We did find it did work but was slow at times - we only purchased it so we could post pictures and etc so it worked out ok.
Yes, the princess one was good value too! Internet isn’t included with P&O, it starts from around £10 per day. In our opinion, including internet was a downfall for princess as everyone had it meaning it was so slow or non existent at times. 😀
Yes, if you buy it on day 2 it’s one night less to pay for (but you’ll have paid for drinks individually- still may save some monkey). The package is sold at ripples ice cream counter just off the atrium 👍
Hi! I’m going on Arvia in May and I think all your videos on it are super helpful! I have been on P & O a few times now but first time on Arvia. Looks fantastic! Keep up the good work 😊
Great video guys. Just returned from Iona and we found it frustrating that sometimes we had to go to one bar to get my drink and another to get my partners drink. They said that not all bars had blenders. It seemed that if it was not on the menu you couldn’t have it. The first drink I asked for (my favourite), a Long Island Iced Tea, I was looked at blankly and was told ‘we don’t do it’ 🙁. Best thing for us was the Headliners, they were great 👍
Awww, hopefully it didn't put too much of a dampener on the cruise. We used to go to the Glass House for wine and then take it to the Keel & Cow as they didn't serve the same wines. There was just so much entertainment wasn't there?!
Yes, some countries do charge a tax, think it’s while docked in a Spanish port or if departing from Malta. If you buy the package you won’t have to pay tax on each drink when you have the package.
Do you have any links to, or photos of any of the Arvia bar menus please? I’ve looked online however the info is quite out of date (I.e. just showing Iona) or incomplete. We travel in two weeks 😊 🍺 🍷 🍹
We have photos of a couple if the menus but nothing complete sorry. If you are on Facebook, check out the Arvia groups and search menus and you’ll get them come up from people onboard so you’ll know they are up to date.
There are a few house reds, such a Beefsteak Malbec etc in the bars. You will find a slightly wider selection in the Glass House, like Charles Smith Boom Boom which is included - 🤫 but we used to get a glass there and take it with us to the restaurant. The first night you are onboard, give the reds a try (ask for a taster of them) and if they are good then go for the package.
Great vlog ! Excellent drinks package breakdown , we’ve done drinks package on the last 2 cruises and even though we aren’t big drinkers we find it good value 👍🏻
Just alcoholic. So you can have unlimited soft drinks, water and coffees and they do not count towards your 15. This is also the case with the new packages they launched just over a week ago, the limit refers to alcohol based drinks. If you exceed the limit, you pay per drink.
Do you know how the free kids work with the drinks package i.e. if I was 1 adult in a cabin with 3 children would all 3 children get the free drinks package if I purchased ultimate or would it just be the first child and I would need to pay for the other 2?
Hi, not sure how it would worth with 1 adult and 3 children sorry, we have had a quick look through the P&O info and T&C's and cant find anything sorry. If you are on Facebook or Twitter, drop P&O a direct message, they are usually good at coming back with info on things like that :)
Brilliant video 👌🏼 We’re on Arvia in 3 months and this video help sum it up perfectly for me. Quick question, is the casino cash? And if so, is it sterling or euros? Thanks.
Glad the video was useful. Everything on P&O is in pounds sterling :) Casino Chips can be purchased in cash from the Casino Dealers at any table or charged to your account. We think the slot machines can be played with cash or, as we usually do by inserting our cruise card directly into the machine.
Hi! Going on the mediterranean cruise on Arvia next may. I do have a question, esp about the swim up bar. Do we use a card at the bars for our drinks package (ultimate package us), and when sitting at the swim up bar, where do people generally keep them? 😂
Hehe, good question! To be honest we left them on the counter or carried them. It’s not a very deep pool. We did drop one, sticker didn’t come off the card so all was fine 👍 They soon got to know us and knew we had the package 🤣
It’s not about how much you can drink in one day it’s about how many consecutive days you can drink that much. You only need a few days where you don’t feel like it and the package isn’t worth it. It’s also very limited which is annoying. From now on I’ll just drink when I want it not feel obliged to make use of it.
People always forget the package isn’t all about alcohol it’s very easy to spend £40 on a few Costa’s waters Pepsi’s mocktail’s etc the soft drinks are unlimited too unlike the 15 alcoholic ones. Before the drinks package was available we used to spend as much onboard the cruise as we did for the cruise itself, the package is a great way of budgeting for us. By comparison P&O actually have one of the cheapest drinks packages in the market. RCI just decide to charge how ever much they feel like but generally it’s about £70-80 a day (unlimited to 15 though but still restricted by value) Princess now £50 a day but same as P&O 15 drinks up to a value, but they’ve thrown in WiFi so everyone spends their time staring at their phones and whining the medallion tech doesn’t work (because the internet is being hammered) Cunard is roughly £60 a day again only 15 drinks and up to a certain value. We don’t work for P&O or carnival, the drinks package works for us, that’s just our opinion yes we’d love it to be cheaper and less restrictive who wouldn’t. By there being the option to buy a package or not is a good thing, it’s better than the alternative, cruise lines including all drinks but ramping up the cost of the cruise sky high to the point it’s no longer affordable for most. Regards, Luke & Gav 👍🏻
Drinks packages are good for some, not for others, but hopefully having the details and tips such as knowing what’s included or waiting till day two, people can make informed decisions that suit them 😀
@@CruiseMonkeys Yep i know i just got off Azura with the package. I felt like i had to drink to get money worth all the time. I can also be a big drinker. 7 days it can work but for 14 days i think ill 100% pass next time as a few days off you end up worse off. i also think ive had enough of drinking for the sake of drinking. I also didnt like the fact i couldnt drink a double or a large wine or better cocktail without paying 80% of the full price. With regards to Royal they are silly prices now but at least i get 4 free drinks a day or 40% off bottles of wine. ill never pay their prices for packages again now im diamond status.
Thank you! However double check the prices as a lot has changed since this video was made. Also note- you can no longer bring spirits with you onboard it’s now just wine. If you have any more questions or need further advice remember we have a Facebook group where we’re all happy to help. 👍🏻
Thank you, hopefully helpful. As we said in the video, on boarding day take a look at the menu and try and work out if it is worth it as you have 24 hours to purchase (some wait until the first day to save a few quid as they know on the first night they may have an early night).
@@CruiseMonkeys we are sailing from Southampton so the first night will be anything but early 😂. But as you say that may be a good time to gauge. Also it’s not just about the alcoholic drinks. Yes you can get certain soft drinks from the Buffet but it’s nice just being at the particular bar and have what you want when you want. Can you use onboard spending money against the the drinks package?
@@leeanderson4466 Yes, when you take in to account the Costa coffees, water, pepsi, mocktails and etc, it all adds up (and convenient). Yes, OBC can be used to buy it.
MSC recently charged me £420 for 2 weeks [£30 pd] with no limits on the number of drinks in a day. It also had a maximum £15 limit per drink. Now that is good value. I am on the Iona in a couple of weeks time but bcos of the drinks package difference I will return to MSC for my next Cruise in June. Just seems that P&O impose too many petty rules & I can't shake the feeling that at £40 pd, with a max price of £6.95 and a maximum 15 drinks per day it's pretty poor value. Been Cruising for just over 10yrs & this will be the first time I haven't bought a package. At least I can take a Litre of JD on with me, you can't do that on MSC.
The MSC package we had last time was brilliant value, we’ve been on several of them and always get the package and sometimes they’ll include, think it was seaside we did where if you booked fantastica you had the package. The drinks are also strong ;) Yes, we do love that P&O allow you to do that, handy for a drink in the room!
15 drinks a day at £6.95 would cost £104.25 a day :) A beer before lunch, glass of wine with lunch, G&T before dinner, 2 glasses of wine with dinner, then 2-3 drinks after dinner with the entertainment was always more than £40 for us.
Just got back from the 2 weeks on Iona ... Spent £203 on booze (Package was £560], £114 on a new watch and £4 on a coach transfer [should have known better, Town centre less than 15min walk]. Had 1 good nights sleep due to constant engine noise / vibration 24/7, went up on deck after Brekky to catch up on sleep each day. Sky Dome must be the worst venue in the World for singers, acoustics are a joke. Food was OK and entertainment in the bars was good, especially in the second week. Comedian in the first week was a joke ..... a very bad joke, he was awful. Glad to be back home, at least I will get a good nights sleep tonight.
Thank you! So glad you’re finding them useful. We’ve got 1 more of the let’s talk ship videos, then we’re thinking of doing a live Q&A and then we’ll have our daily vlogs for this cruise out weekly after that. Hopefully we’ll keep you going for a while. Arvia is a great ship! We really really enjoyed our cruise👌🏻
I noticed on my itinerary for a 14 night cruise in July on Arvia there is only one black tie evening. Found this strange as previously there have been a lot more. Is this something you can answer ?
They’ve definitely cut down on Iona and Arvia as they made a point of saying when Iona launched, so on a week cruise it’s only 1 on them, whereas the other ships have 2. P&O give this as a guide: IONA & ARVIA 2-6 nights = 1 black tie night 7 -13 nights = 1 black tie night 14 nights = 2 black tie nights REST OF FLEET: 2-6 nights = 1 black tie night 7 -13 nights = 2 black tie nights 14 nights = 4 black tie nights
I contacted P&O as my Arvia cruise planner is only showing one black tie evening at the moment. The reply was to keep checking as there would be two on our two week cruise. 😅
We did Celebrity Beyond the week before this ship and we much preferred Arvia. We'd definitely like to try another Celebrity, possibly a smaller ship in Europe to see if it is a different experience.
