Selbourne

Britannia has 3 main dining rooms. One is for Club (fixed dining) and two are for Freedom. If you book a Saver and are allocated a dining arrangement that doesn’t suit you can certainly enquire about changing as you did on Azura. Hopefully you will be successful, but first sitting fixed dining (6.30pm) is the most popular so could technically sell out first. However, there are bound to be others on Savers who have been allocated first sitting and want second, or freedom, so it’s hopefully possible. As for Freedom dining on Britannia, you are meant to use the My Holiday app (that isn’t an app) to join a virtual queue BUT they also allow walk-ups and issue pagers, so it’s a buggers muddle (to use a technical term). As you prefer to dine early, you shouldn’t have a problem using the app. Just be aware that it shows ‘Queue Full’ around 20 minutes before breakfast service ends, around 45 minutes after lunch service starts (on sea days) and at peak times during the evening dinner service. We stuck religiously to using the app on our recent 2 week Britannia cruise and, when it worked, it was great. However, the frequent ‘Queue Full’ situation became tiresome and it was irritating to find that those who just did a walk-up were getting seated quicker than those of us doing as P&O request and using the app! 🙄

That’s extremely kind of you to offer, but please just enjoy your holiday! Besides, my interest is more about the ease of getting a booking for a table in the MDR, rather than how busy the MDRs appear (I suspect that they will all be full). But if you are sitting having a drink at around 7.30 / 8pm and get chance to have a glance at the app to see if the virtual queues are still open (i.e. not showing “Queue Full”) and how many are in the queues then that would be fantastic. We will be a party of 6 and the MDR that several have recommended is Opal. Many thanks.

What a relief to find that it doesn’t feel overcrowded. I hope that remains the case today on your first sea day. It’s easy to miss the departure from Southampton these days. We have been cruising long enough to remember brass bands on the quayside and everyone out on the promenade deck throwing streamers with a glass of champagne in hand. It was quite an occasion. Now you only realise that you’ve left when you happen to notice the scenery moving when you pass a window 😂 I noticed that Iona didn’t leave Southampton until after 8pm last night. I don’t know if that’s the norm, but I may need to rethink our pre-dinner drinks on our first night. As we will be dining in Epicurean I thought that the Crows Nest would be a good call. As well as being close to Epicurean, we would have had a nice view of our transit down Southampton Water and past the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. Seems like we would be looking at a static view of Southampton Docks 😂 I look forward to hearing how you get on with the Celebration Night dinner tonight, in terms of ease of getting a table and what the food is like, as that is the one night that we plan on using the main dining room. Have a great day exploring the ship.

Hi. Yep, I did thanks. Booked everything at midnight on the night that they became available for booking. Glad that I did. Well before the day was out, the Norwegian Tasting menu had sold out and we wouldn’t have been able to book the other restaurants at the times we wanted. The only slots left were very early or after 9pm, which makes seeing the 10.30pm show impossible. We have booked two other nights in Epicurean (standard menu), one in Sindhu and one in the Limelight Club. I have also booked our daughters and partners into the Beach House for the night that we are doing the taster menu (as they didn’t fancy it). We intend to try to book into Keel and Cow one night and will use Olive Grove and Glass House for the odd lunch. Other than breakfast and some lunches, we shall probably only use the MDR for one night - the Celebration night. Whilst the Chefs Table concept doesn’t appeal, as a precaution I’ve also booked a table for 6 for the 8.30pm sitting, just in case we struggle to get in to the MDR. If we get to about 8.15pm, haven’t been called and still haven’t got a clue when we will eat, we may well have to give it a go. If we get a table I will cancel the table at Chefs Table, which I should imagine will get snapped up in a nano second as there are only tables for 2 left now! Cruising used to be about spontaneity, but now a military style plan is required to avoid disappointment! However, when you know that (thanks to the very useful tips from yourself and others) and are geared up ready to nab the bookings it is satisfying. Shows all booked also, but I don’t think they’ve sold out (yet). 😂

You will love it. I always recommend a 7 night fjords cruise as the best for a first cruise. You have a sea day at the start to explore the ship, a couple of port days in reasonable sized places and a couple of days in beautiful scenery. Also a final sea day to relax after your exploits. Norway is also a fabulous country and is so much less frenetic than here. We go on Iona for the first time next week and are looking forward to experiencing all that she has to offer. You will have one massive advantage over us, in that if you are going in 3 weeks time you will be going just after the kids go back to school. We shall be sharing our cruise experience with well over 1,000 of the blighters 😂

You are welcome. Glad to be of help. You never forget your first cruise. Which ship are you going on?

I’m afraid that P&Os IT isn’t fit for purpose. Never has been. Do you have your P&O booking confirmation for your cruise yet? If so, your husbands loyalty number (which is all you need to access his account) will be in the ‘Passenger Information’ section. It will say ‘My Account Number’. It’s usually 8 digits, 2 letters, 5 numbers and a final letter.

I must confess that I never looked to see if it was bookable or not before our recent Britannia cruise, as it’s not something that we consider, but friends of ours like the Retreat and I have a feeling that they book it once onboard.

The P&O booking reference for your cruise (which you used to access your Cruise Personaliser) will also enable your husband to log in to the Cruise Personaliser (should he wish to amend his photo etc). When you booked your first P&O cruise you would have both been allocated a separate Peninsular Club (loyalty club) number. This stays with you forever and is what you will need should you need to log in to your account(s). I think that the accounts are set up automatically but we’ve had ours for decades so I can’t remember. On the cruise itself all you need is the last 6 digits from your boarding pass or keycard to activate the app and you are all set. No need to log into accounts.

Sorry, forgot to say…. On the cruise Personaliser, if under a restaurant or show it says “Coming Soon”, that means that bookings will open before the cruise (usually 14 days, but shows only opened 12 days before for our upcoming Iona cruise). When bookings open this changes to “Book Now”. If it says “Please enquire on board” that means that you will only be able to book on board and there is no option to book before you board.

To clarify the dining position on Britannia as it was for us in July. The only dining that we could book before the cruise was the Limelight Club. Epicurean, Sindhu & Beach House could only be booked when on board, but you could book for the entire cruise as soon as you boarded. Glass House and main dining rooms could only be booked via the app when you are ready to dine (not in advance). I believe that it is only Arvia that allows a degree of pre-booking for the MDR, and that is to encourage early diners as there is an MDR capacity issue on Arvia. Someone posted in the last week that they were able to book Epicurean, Sindhu and Beach House prior to their Britannia cruise. If correct that has literally just changed. As for shows, we could pre book 14 days out. However, the dates of some shows changed once we were on board (one show changed date twice!) and other shows were added during the cruise (singers).

We’ve never been to the Caribbean on a cruise, but have done 4 cruises on Britannia, the most recent one was a 2 week cruise last month. We like the ship, with the only big negative point being the lack of a promenade deck. In all other aspects, it ticks all the boxes for us as far as a cruise ship goes. I had read a number of reviews about poor food prior to our cruise, but have to say that we were very happy with the main dining room meals. Choice wasn’t brilliant (same issue on all P&O ships now) but we both always found something that we fancied, meals were always served piping hot, quality was fine and portion sizes OK. The only weak meal was the Marco Pierre White menu on the celebration night. We experienced a number of problems with Freedom Dining (queue full messages etc) but, again, that is a fleet wide issue now. When we go on Britannia next we would book second sitting Club dining in order to alleviate most of these issues (well, for dinner anyway).

Thankfully, 8.30pm is about the time that we choose to eat on a cruise, so we have bitten the bullet and reverted back to 2nd sitting Club dining (on cruises where we can) for the first time since Freedom was introduced - something that I never thought we would do, as we have always been great fans of Freedom dining. However, as many others have said, the freedom aspect has all but gone when you have to develop a strategy as to when to join a queue in order to dine at roughy the time you want, only to find that your plan is scuppered by the app showing “Queue Full” or being given a pager and not knowing whether it will go off 10 minutes or 90 minutes later. It’s a level of hassle that I’d rather not have on a holiday.

I agree. It shouldn’t happen. I am convinced that, along with having multiple systems operating on some ships (virtual queues, walk-ups and pagers) which seem to conflict with one another, having tables sat empty for periods for those who have effectively reserved them is a major contributory factor to the delays that people now experience with Freedom dining. Without asking, we were offered a table for a set time every night on our recent Britannia cruise by one of the waiters. We declined as we had speciality restaurants booked for over half the nights, but it would have been tempting otherwise!

According to the regular reviews and feedback on this forum, Freedom dining seems to experience problems of varying degrees on all the ships these days, with the possible exception of Aurora (unless I’ve missed something), especially for those who prefer to eat later. Pre Covid we had used Freedom dining since it’s inception on all the ships and, other than some waits of up to 45 mins on Britannia in peak school holidays (for a non-sharing table), the only ship that we ever experienced a problem on was Arcadia. It could have just been our particular cruise, but it seemed incredibly disorganised and it was the first time that we had ever encountered being given a pager for lunch!

I tried that Salted Caramel Espresso Martini and agree with your wife that it just tasted like cold (strong) coffee. I didn’t get the salted caramel flavour at all, nor the alcohol for that matter 😂

Have a fantastic cruise. We are on the cruise after yours with a party of 6, so I shall be extremely interested to hear how you get on - in particular the MDR on celebration night (Sunday) - assuming that you go. Like you, I’ve already amassed a number of hints and tips from others (the best aspect of Cruise Critic IMHO) but there’s nothing better than feedback from the cruise immediately preceding yours!

I think you may find that the chicken and steak appear every night of your cruise! In the past you may recall that in addition to the daily menu, there was a list of ‘always available’ items at the bottom (e,g. Prawn cocktail, chicken, steak etc). Now the main menu choice is less and it’s padded out by some of the always available items now being included - every day 😂

We departed from Mayflower Terminal on 7th July and there were no porters unloading vehicles and taking luggage. The only staff in the vehicle lanes were CPS. I had to take the luggage to a hole in the wall where the luggage handlers were stood. Perhaps it varies by cruise depending on how many staff they have? Maybe if they have more staff than are needed to load the luggage through the hatches they will assist those arriving? We returned to Ocean Terminal and I was a little irritated that there were no porters visible as you entered the luggage hall (they are usually lined up as you enter) and when I asked a staff member where they were she pointed me to a group of them stood chatting right at the far end of the hall. I had to leave my wife and walk the length of the hall to ask one to help me. They didn’t seem happy being interrupted and I felt that the assistance was reluctant. This was the first time that I have ever had anything other than great service from porters and, as a result, was the first time that I have ever not given the porter a tip when we got to the car.

CPS is as it was pre-Covid but you now have to take your cases to a hole in the wall.

Great to hear that you enjoyed Epicurean Sarah. We intend to book a few visits when we are on Ventura in a few months time. I’m pleased to hear that the Crepes Suzette is done as it should be, rather than the lame kitchen prepared version that we had on Britannia. Shame that they are still serving the MDR chocolates though, rather than the lovely selection of petit fours that Epicurean restaurants used to have. Seems like they have ditched those permanently.

The latter. It’s happened to us many times and one of our daughters noticed yesterday that it had done the same for our cruise next week. For some reason, it takes P&O many years to resolve IT issues - and that’s not me being sarcastic 😂

In typical P&O fashion, I think there’s an error on the Peninsular Club part of their website. Under Mediterranean tier, it shows one of the on board benefits as “Officer-hosted fine dining event (on cruises of 8 nights or more)”, yet I am sure this benefit only kicks in when you reach Caribbean tier. Certainly we have only attended one of these lunches, and that was since becoming Caribbean tier, and we never received invites during the years that we were Mediterranean 🤔

Oh yes, of course! Mind you, if it’s the buffet version you aren’t missing much! We tend to have a free drink, book our speciality dining and then head to the Glasshouse for something edible 😂 That being said, when we board Iona next weekend I’m keen to try the Chicken Tikka Masala that a few people have recommended now 😋😂

If you are eligible for the welcome on board lunch you will usually have a boarding time that is between 1200 and 1230, so that’s never an issue.