Selbourne

Those who are staying in Suites and all passengers who are Caribbean loyalty tier or above are invited to attend a lunch when they board. It’s held in one of the MDRs. It always used to be a pretty naff buffet but on some ships it’s now a proper waiter served sit down meal. There are also complimentary drinks - fizz (not champagne), house wine etc. As well as the free plonk, it’s a nice way to start the cruise rather than the embarkation bun fight in the buffet. Caribbean and above loyalty guests are also invited to a very nice MDR served lunch, with free booze (inc proper champagne) on one day during the cruise, but only on cruises longer than a week.

We were pleasantly surprised to find when we boarded Britannia recently that the loyalty lunch was a proper sit down meal in the MDR - and very nice it was too. Far superior to the pretty naff buffet lunches that we’ve had in the past and a much more relaxing start to the cruise. I’m told that the Chicken Tikka Masala is very nice at the loyalty buffet lunches, but as I have to collect food for my wife I hope that I can do it in one trip rather than queueing twice, especially as P&O seem to have a dislike for trays these days 😂

Another excellent review Damian. Yet again, two things that exactly match our experience on Britannia recently. Firstly, the MDRs went ‘Queue Full’ almost like clockwork around 20 minutes before the breakfast service finished each morning. Secondly, our Celebration night dinner wasn’t great and was, in fact, the only disappointing meal that we had in the MDR for the entire cruise. Strange because, pre Covid, it was usually the best meal of the fortnight! We intend to try the MDR for Celebration night on Iona in a couple of weeks time, but I’ve also booked a table for 6 at the 8.30pm Chefs Table as a fall back, should we struggle to get in to the MDR.

On our recent Britannia cruise, MDR breakfast finished at 10am on the first sea day and I assumed that it had changed permanently, which we were really pleased about as 9.30am was sometimes a rush for us, especially when on holiday. However, for every sea day afterwards it was back to 9.30am and 9am port days 😡. The only rationale that I could possibly come up with was that the clocks had gone forwards an hour the first night, so the extra half an hour might have been to allow for all the later arrivals, given many may have forgotten or hadn’t adjusted?

That’s good to know. I had assumed that it might have been a one-off and we just struck lucky, especially as we were able to get one of the two accessible Club cabins. We like doing off season cruises, as neither of us like very hot weather or crowded resorts plus, of course, you leave behind the poor weather at home. If we can get a Cunard cruise every year for the sort of price we paid we shall be very happy, especially as Club offers the ultimate version of Freedom dining 👍

Sorry to hear about your caring challenges. Friends have the same issue. Very difficult. Thankfully neither of our balconies on Queen Anne are obstructed. We booked the first one on launch day (as there are only 2 accessible Club cabins) and we have indeed paid a handsome price for that cruise (albeit still quite a bit less than the example you gave). As newbies to Cunard at the time (although we have since cruised on QM2) we knew no different and also, as you say, assumed that it was carrying a premium being just the second cruise on a brand new ship. Interestingly, our November 24 Queen Anne cruise, which we booked more recently, worked out at considerably less for the same duration cruise and, once you take into account the high level of OBC that came with it, is working out about the same as many pay for a P&O cruise in a standard balcony cabin (and considerably less than most pay on Aurora and Arcadia), with none of the benefits that you get with Club on Cunard. We are hoping that our future cruises will be a mix of P&O, Cunard and (possibly) Saga. Our recent Britannia cruise reassured us that P&O still has a place for us - at the right price. We shall see how we get on with Iona in a few weeks and on our two Ventura cruises before firming up on that though 😂

Yes that does sound good. Our daughters may well go, but I’m still not sold 😂 I never go to the cinema even at home, as it infuriates me when folk feel the need to talk during the film (it’s bad enough when they do that in the theatre) and also rustle sweet wrappers etc 😂 We did enjoy having the interactive TV on Britannia recently though, as we find sea days boring, and there was a lack of interesting guest speakers. We watched a couple of really good Timothy Spall films and a number of hair raising documentary films about mountaineering and free climbing - not all of which ended well 😱

Yes I agree but, of course, this won’t be an issue on the new ships (as there is no fixed dining option) and even on the other ships, with the large numbers of first time cruisers that P&O are successfully targeting, I should imagine that the vast majority of them will go for Freedom dining. Yes I understand that the standard Britannia dining on Cunard works the same way, and that is why we have booked Club for both our 2024 Cunard cruises. Whilst we aren’t paying anything like those prices (significantly less than half in fact for one cruise, after allowing for the OBC offer) we are extremely happy to pay the premium for Club. Having our own dedicated table for breakfast, lunch and dinner and being able to turn up when we want with no need to book or queue (virtual or physical) makes it worth every penny for us, as it completely removes all the hassle. The fact that there’s an a’la carte menu on top of the standard Britannia menu is just an added bonus as far as we are concerned. Dining is a huge part of the cruise experience for us, and we are thankfully at a stage in our life where we can afford to pay more for a better experience and are very happy to do so.

We don’t use the cinemas, so at least that’s one thing we won’t need a plan for 😂

Many thanks. As always, I really appreciate your comprehensive reply. All duly noted. 👍

Good to hear that you enjoyed Madeira Sarah. We are looking forward to our second visit there in October when we are on pretty much the same cruise as yours and on the same ship! Interesting to hear that you still had a reasonably long wait for a table for dinner, even dining early, and I’m not surprised that you are considering swapping to fixed dining for your next cruise - as we have just done. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens going forward. Freedom dining has been the most popular choice since it was introduced, but a lot of us are now abandoning it due to all the current problems.

Thanks. Yet more evidence that the current method of several systems working in conflict with one another is a complete farce, especially when those who do as P&O request and use the app get the bum deal and end up waiting longer!

Thanks. When you went to the MDR as a walk-up, were you seated immediately, or given a pager?

@DamianG As we have no intention of even considering Arvia until we have tried Iona in a few weeks time, I hadn’t bothered to read this thread, but I’ve just noticed that it’s written by you and your reviews are always superbly written and provide very balanced feedback, so I’m now hooked 👍 Whilst I’m not at all surprised that upgrades aren’t possible, this must surely be because the ship is full? I might be missing something, but the itinerary will have no bearing whatsoever on whether or not upgrades are possible 🤔 I know what you mean about the ‘light’ itinerary. This seems to be a thing with Arvia. These mega ships plod along, and presumably are very expensive to berth, so you get less ports and more sea days when, of course, people spend money on board rather than ashore! Early port departures seem to be a thing as well. Same reason I guess. it’s very interesting that you are having exactly the same issues with the app as we had on Britannia a few weeks back. I don’t think it’s your party size, as there were only 2 of us! Early diners have no issues (which seems to be most who post on this forum), but those of us who prefer to dine later get stuck with the ‘Queue Full’ message. The fact that you can then do a walk-up or get a pager and be called quickly just goes to prove what I have been saying. When it’s busy, the restaurant staff cannot cope with multiple systems at the same time so the first thing to give is the app - which ironically is the thing that they want us to use 🤔 We really enjoyed our cruise in spite of these frustrations, because we learned some work arounds as we went (as you are doing), and I look forward to reading how you get on as the cruise progresses. Enjoy!

Thanks for clarifying. We would hate first sitting as it would be far too early for us, so that’s a relief to hear that you had requested it. We don’t tend to do much of the evening entertainment (other than perhaps the 10.30pm show), so a late meal is our main evening entertainment 😂

Had you booked a Select or Saver fare and, if the former, had you requested second sitting? Obviously with a Saver fare you can end up with anything, but with Select you can usually get Freedom, 1st or 2nd sitting confirmed before you cruise, with just the table size as a preference that is confirmed on the cruise.

Having articulated our recent experiences with Freedom dining on Britannia on this thread an hour ago, I had a conversation with my wife and we discussed the pros and cons of Freedom (as it is now) and Club (fixed) in relation to our October and March Ventura cruises. We have also now decided to go back to fixed dining, second sitting, for the first time since Freedom dining was introduced. We have asked our cruise specialist TA to add a note on P&Os system that our request for a table for 2 isn’t just a personal preference, but needed due to my wife’s disability. Hopefully that will happen, but if it doesn’t I am hopeful that the restaurant manager will resolve it for us. I just don’t fancy two weeks of faffing about with pagers every time we want to have a table for 2 at dinner, not knowing whether it will go off in 10 minutes or an hour.

Thanks. We were very happy with the MDR food on Britannia recently, but the Freedom Dining concept had definitely taken a big step backwards as a result of the app. In spite of my reservations, I quite liked using the app and preferred a virtual queue to getting a pager. However, it was clear that the restaurants simply cannot cope with multiple systems (app, walk-ups, pagers) all competing with one another and, as a result, those using the app were going to the bottom of the queue, with it often being switched to ‘queue full’. We know from taking to multiple people that those who were just doing a walk-up were often getting seated quicker than those of us in virtual queues. On top of that, tables were sitting empty for ages whilst waiting for those who had received a notification to arrive. Under the previous sole ‘first come, first served’ system, as soon as a table was cleared and re-layed, the next guests to arrive were shown to it immediately. If we were early diners I don’t think that we would have had any issues at all, as there was always good availability and fast moving virtual queues if you were wanting breakfast, lunch or dinner during the first hour or so that service opened. However, whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner, we prefer to go within the last hour (or half hour) of the session, and that’s where the problems now seem to arise. We have always loved Freedom dining, but I think that we are being pushed back towards Club (fixed), but my reservation with that is that you cannot guarantee a table for 2. It is pushing us more towards Cunard, as we like their Club concept, where you have a dedicated table for your sole use at whatever time that you like (for all meals), with no apps or queues (virtual or physical). More expensive, but it completely removes the hassle.

That’s good to hear. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. Yes, I’m in the U.K. Interesting that the detailed terms and conditions in the U.K. now don’t say that you have to book direct, whereas the frequently asked questions before you get to them still do. Maybe it’s going to be extended? Anybody’s guess.

Ah yes. Just checked and the poster is in the US. Their post implied surprise that they’d been offered it, having used a TA, hence my confusion. However, post #2 implies it has been extended to those who booked P&O cruises via a TA? @molecrochip have I misunderstood you? I’ve just checked both P&O and Cunard U.K. websites, and whilst the FAQs still say that to be eligible you have to have booked direct, when you click on the detailed T’s & Cs, under the “Who can take part” section there is no mention of having to book direct. It says (for both P&O and Cunard; The programme is only available on some cruises to guests who we have selected to participate, called “eligible guests”. You must be aged 18 or over to be an eligible guest and the balance of the price of your voyage must be fully paid.

I should add that the only negative with P4C is that they don’t reply to emails or messages, which would normally be a big red flag for me. I have a booking with them for next year on Cunard’s new ship (Queen Anne) and I messaged them 3 times to say that the ship isn’t listed on their database yet, even though cruises on the ship have been open for a year or so. I didn’t get a response to any of the messages so eventually left a message on the mobile number that they give and got a call back. That was months ago and they still haven’t added Queen Anne to their database 🤔. If I hadn’t used them a few times before this would have deterred me from booking with them. However, on the occasions that we used them before they were as quick as CPS and, at times, quicker.

Thanks. I’d obviously missed that. Apologies if everyone already knew.

Someone on the Cunard board has just posted that they have been sent the bid to upgrade quotes even though they booked via a TA. Last time I looked, Cunard Ts & Cs were the same as P&O (i.e. only available to those who book direct). I wonder if this is about to be extended to all P&O bookings. Has anyone who booked via a TA had any offers yet?

Would you mind sharing the minimum bids for Britannia to Club and Britannia to PG (and for how many nights your cruise is)? Thanks.