Colsers

Sorry I should have posted my original question. It's the Brittania ship, I wondered if they are working the freedom restaurant like Arvia, as in preferred booking on "my holiday" website or are they still having physical queuing as they did when I was on it in 2020?

I'll post this question again as it's been merged and may have been lost in the thread. Hoping someone can answer. Many thanks.

Thank you. Do you have to reserve the freedom restaurants on your phone like on Arvia or is it a physical queuing system rather than virtual?

Is Brittania still a fixed seating dining cruise, it was when we were last on in 2020, or has it moved to the same concept as Arvia in freedom dining?

Yes, as I said, we have booked limelight in advance for our upcoming cruise and got 20% discount 😀

Yes amajaa, we got ours 👍

Our desired time of 7.30 or 8pm will possibly be more popular so these are maybe held back for virtual or physical queuing on the day. Dining and entertainment bookings have opened on cruiseplanner for our cruise but as I say only 5-6pm pre bookable. Having cruised many times before but only twice previously on P&O, fixed seating, we've never had the "pleasure" of freedom dining so were a bit confused about the ability to pre book some dining slots and entertainment but not for the whole cruise. Indeed we may be lucky whilst onboard either online or approaching the host, however I'd rather have had that all booked up in advance so to completely relax onboard. 🤗 I do wonder how cruise newbies find this complicated (imo) system of booking or just turning up, for dining and entertainment only whilst onboard via smartphones. I bet there will be a few bewildered souls onboard in the dining and theatre queues for a few nights 😉

Thank you TigerB, yes we've used the cruise planner to book a few things in advance, however we were disappointed that the only "freedom" dining we could book in advance for mdr was between 5-6pm!

Thank you solentsam. Yes just as I thought, Freedom dining before you sail on Arvia if you want to dine between 5-6pm, anything later then you need to chance it until onboard and book through the website you gave. Our Azura cruise recently had this way of booking entertainment, however dining in mdr was booked in advance ie. 2nd sitting table of 6 at time of booking. It's unfortunate, for us anyway, as we know what time we like to dine and would rather have this put in place before we board so we can relax and not have to go online to book dining. Amazingly we have been able to book limelight club dining in advance as we were paying in advance! Albeit a smaller venue and they need to monitor the numbers I suppose. 🤔

Do you mean their's a choice of dining (freedom and club dining)? Can you download the my holiday app before boarding?

Entertainment and dining has now opened for our upcoming cruise on Arvia, there is no availability after 6.15pm for dinner bookings, do they open nearer the time anyone know?

Thanks for the info. We've actually booked a ships tour to the caves as we noticed they had put an extra tour on for Barbados that wasn't available when we last looked.

Thanks for that Paula, as you say still no further info re/naming ceremony. We have actually booked a ships tour in Barbados on the 17th as we didn't want to wait much longer for P&O to confirm what the plans are actually to be! 🤔

This question may have been asked before but can't see any recent replies. Our ship does not have an organised tour it appears. Apart from booking Viator, are there private tours available at the Port Gate to the caves?

Thank you TigerB that's the info we were looking for. Much appreciated.

When we booked this cruise our TA asked us what dining we would prefer. We asked for 2nd sitting at a table of 6 for me and hubby to join others. I've since found out that it's freedom dining. Does this mean we book in advance on my holiday App when we wish to dine (if we're lucky)! and we would just book a table for 2 as there's only 2 in our party or can we join others can anyone tell me? Tia.

Thats great then Paula, thank you for that. Yes, we were looking at the excursions for the 17th in Barbados, then that's when I remembered the email saying naming ceremony 16th and was showing as a sea day from St Lucia. Thats when it got confusing....hopefully they'll give more information so we can get organised. 🤞

Cheap Cava more like 😂

🍹🎉🏖

Hope so, that would be different 😍🤞

Ooh beginning to get excited, I wonder who the entertainers will be......yes definitely want to get off!

Hi Paula, no, we haven't heard anything new, just the email back on 6th December which did say further details to follow. Nothing updated yet. I just thought it was odd that the itinerary had us at sea that day after St. Lucia port. However as molecrochip has said, we could make it to Barbados waters by midday on the 16th for the ceremony? I would have thought our itinerary would be updated though as being in Barbados 16th, 17th and 18th. I'm just hoping we can go ashore to the beach to see it in person rather on screens.

We received an email from P&O inviting us to celebrate the naming ceremony of Arvia on the beach in Barbados with entertainment on the 16th March. On checking again our itinerary we are at sea on that day and arriving in Barbados on the 17th March. Is this invitation just for a broadcast of this onboard, which seems strange to name the ship whilst its actually at sea but arriving the next day?

No, I did ask our travel agent, she said it wasn't possible on a guarantee fare. 😕

Unfortunately, living in Scotland we don't have that option of booking another cruise as all Scottish flights to the Caribbean were cancelled so our only choice was Newcastle or Manchester. We tried many different cruiselines and all were the same. So our choice was this ship on a Select or Saver fare from our nearest English airport. We made the decision to gamble and are hoping for the best, as to choose between going on this cruise on this fare or not cruising at all was not something we would consider. We have only ever booked a guarantee cabin once before many years ago and all worked out well for that. All our other cruises we specify deck and cabin. We're not loyal to any one cruiseline, so some work out great and some not so good. So it's also a bit of a gamble (albeit more controlled) specifying your cabin. We're just happy to be going to the Caribbean and feel lucky for having that privilege 😊