How does the biggest British cruise ship compare to the big American ships? I found out!

I’ve just disembarked a cruise on Britain's biggest and most exciting cruise ship where we had more than our fair share of extreme events.

We cruised from Southampton to Barcelona with 5327 other guests and in this video, I will show you everything, from the food we ate to the entertainment we watched. From this huge ship to the ports that we visited and one that we unfortunately missed.

Interested in other British cruises?

Check out this cruise I took with Cunard:    • I Took a Cruise on The World's LAST O...  
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When my family asked me to plan a big group cruise for 9 people including children, I was nervous. I’ve cruised a lot in the past but I didn’t know how I could find something that would suit everybody in our group.

We had two requirements that I had to stick to, firstly we wanted to cruise from the UK and secondly, we wanted to stick to a £100 per person per night budget, which is roughly $140.

The cruise that I decided to book was onboard P&O’s Arvia. When Arvia was launched she was promised to be ‘the very best in family-friendly cruising’ which sounded like just what I wanted, afterall I would be cruising with children which isn’t something I usually do.

I did have one big worry and that was that the weather sailing out of the UK and through the notorious Bay of Biscay would be bad in October. I didn’t want my family to get seasick and to be put off cruising forever. I was also a little concerned about potential overcrowding given that we were on a ship that holds over 5000 people but I decided to put those concerns to the side and to give it a go, I figured what could be the worst that would happen. Famous last words normally.

The reviews of the ship were very mixed with some describing cruises onboard as being ‘like a two-star benidorm hotel’ or like being ‘trapped in a shopping centre’ while others described it as ‘fabulous’ and ‘a great experience’. So the only way to find out was to book it for myself.

It was busy when we embarked the ship in Southampton, there were lots of queues and lots of people but we managed to get through the terminal in around 30 minutes which wasn’t too bad. It did help that I arrived later than my scheduled check-in time so I didn’t have to wait outside for my time to be called, we just dropped off our bags, were given the okay to board and passed through security.

Even though I made one big booking with all of my family each cabin was given a different embarkation time so I had a little bit of time on board before the rest of my family arrived. I was very happy to be on the ship for lunch as I always like to make the most out of the included food.


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