P&O Arvia Cruising – Drinks and Internet Packages

Here are our experiences of the drinks and internet packages available on board P&O cruises ship Arvia. The important thing to note is that everyone’s requirements are different so you need to make the decision that is best for you. In our cabin was 2 adults and a child. All of us had iPhones and would normally drink non alcoholic and soft drinks.

Internet and drinks packages can be purchased in advance of boarding which gains you a discount. Alternatively, you can add packages to your account while onboard.

Drinks

While many buffet restaurants exist with limited drinks that is inclusive (tea, filter coffee and water) of your holiday cost, you have additional options to buy drinks as you wish. The exception being fruit juice which is also available at breakfast.

Throughout the ship, a wide variety of drinks are available to buy from soft drinks, juices, coffee, teas and alcoholic drinks. Anyone requesting drinks hands over their ID card for charging purposes. Your account is then either charged or the transaction is applied against a drinks package if you purchased.

Drinks wise, the packages currently include:

Refresh £10.95

Alcohol free £24.95

The Classic £44.95

The Deluxe £54.95

* prices published May 2024

We decided not to buy a drinks package after consideration. To get value for money, we estimated that we would have to have three soft drinks a day minimum each on the refresh package. As many port days, we also thought it would be unlikely we would order sufficient amounts of drink to cover the daily packages cost. The reality being we spent a lot less on drinks by just purchasing as we consumed. It also gave us the freedom to order anything we wanted like non alcoholic cocktails and Costa coffees etc. Whereas, if we had committed to the refresh drinks package, we would have that charge and then my coffee charges. The alcohol free package would have cost way more than we would have ever consumed.

We were a little unsure if we were doing the right thing at the beginning but quickly discovered it worked for us. We also brought about 6 cans of coke with us when boarding the ship and then topped up the fridge in port days. At most ports we were able to pick up some soft drinks and top up the fridge. Much cheaper.

Coffee wise, they serve Costa coffee onboard. If you wish to roam around the ship, they no longer use disposable cups but you can purchase cups. Either a metal cup or a plastic fold down version. This was handy and I purchased the P&O metal cup which is also a good souvenir.

Drinks package wise, all passengers within a cabin have to either be on a drinks package or not and you also have to all be on the same drinks package.

I knew of one passenger who could not buy the alcohol package that they wanted as their partner only drank soft drinks. Therefore, not economic.

Internet/Wi-Fi

Internet wise, two packages exist. A social network package and then a full on streaming package. These prices were correct when writing in May 2024.

Essential £12 on a cruise plan per day (or £18 a day)

Essential allows web browsing, email and social media.

Ultimate £18 on a cruise plan per day (or £24 a day)

Ultimate includes all essential features along with music and video streaming on a faster connection.

We considered our options and went for the essentials package. We then shared the connection and only one of us could use the internet at any one time using a single device. When signing into the wifi, the system advises if you have reached maximum connections and you can close down another connection and sign in.

Sometimes on port days, some of us would connect our phones to the local phone networks. As we are all with Sky mobile, the pass to use data abroad is just £2 for 24 hours, so that worked out well.

The internet on board was reliable and we did not have any difficulty. The important thing to remember is if you do not wish to use the maritime network, do keep your phone on airplane mode. I also turned off mobile data. The maritime network is very expensive.

For those of you with an iPhone, I set a shortcut script. When the ships Wi-Fi is detected, the phone will turn on airplane mode and turn off mobile data. Handy when you have been at a port for the day.

The script looked like this: