Megabear2

Well I suppose they could give me a microwave to do some McCain micro chips ... would go well with my fish finger sandwich mentioned on another thread by someone.

In 50+ cruises I've never queued for anything for long bar an ice cream when a lady couldn't decide on her flavours. There's queues which are quite normal but nothing untoward. I hope my Iona cruise isn't going to destroy my faith!

Did you watch Years and Years? A very dangerous proposition that one! I can auure you I'll be long gone before I'd accept microchips in my body.

If it's a mini suite I hope to goodness it's not one of the conservatory suites on deck 8. I really would demand a fortune if they took me from my nice deck 12 full suite to one of those!

We now seem to have four threads all dealing with these dining issues, this one, food on Iona, food on Ventura and cutbacks on P&O. Perhaps we could ask Sharon to organise them all into one thread re restaurants and dining before it gets too complicated?

As I understand it from my previous Celebrity Edge cruise the menu in the dining rooms were the same every night plus one daily special. However every restaurant had a totally different theme, ie French, Greek, Italian and I think steak house. P&O offer nothing like that so the choice is now totally reduced to take it or leave it. Paying the extras is fine if you can buy a dinner package in advance or book in advance. P&O offer no equivalent and the very limited specialist dining venues are frequently not available to all. Reliance of the MDRs on P&O ships is subsequently very high and decent varied menus essential for most I'd guess. Personally I'd budget to do the pay restaurants on Celebrity and I bypassed the package by choosing to pay the higher price to get a time before boarding but that option isn't really viable on a ship such as Azura or Britannia, although slightly more choice on Iona/Arvia.

At least you're getting one! Judging by Bobstheboy's post over on the Iona food thread after his meeting about menus we will not see such a thing for a very long time on a P&O ship!

Other people recently moved from their suite on Arvia for "operational reasons" had the same problem. It's strange they say safety issues. Perhaps the ship is undergoing some maintenance but assumedly others would be affected too. As you're being downgraded have they given you a choice to where - which deck for instance - and assumedly a refund between the fares and compensation?

How many of you in the suite please? Any children for instance?

I assume the sample menu is a long way off what's on offer now then? If you get a chance without hassle covid you post an example please?

Totally agree with you. The food is now very basic and samey in the buffet. It was also mainly calorie laden! As someone directed by my doctor to eat shellfish regularly I missed the mussels and prawns very much as my lunch choices became quite limited. Sadly I personally found the salad selection drastically reduced as well.

I understand they are just basic pagers the same as on other ships so not linked in any way. To be fair I dine early so never had a problem apart from wanting a table for 2. I'm pretty sure it's just the staff looking into the computer when the staff state a readiness of a table. I have had a pager on Celebrity and the queue is so small they have a couple of settees to sit on outside the restaurant next to the check in area. On Arvia I think that there's no way it would work like that. I have a personal suspicion they built the corridor specifically because they did anticipate quite large volumes waiting, if even only for a short period.

We were 10 on Britannia last year and each had to reserve separately. Not sure if that was covid related or is still in place.

In fairness I've often had a pager on Britannia over the years before they added extra tables for 2. However the queue to be given this was short, at most a handful of people so no huge queues. Often you'd head to a bar and before you got there you'd be paged. When you returned to the restaurant the allocation of the table still led to a discussion between staff as to where you were going - it appeared to depend on which section the available waiter was allocated to not who you were. Looking at the photographs that's not what's been happening on Arvia. Obviously the dodgy technology hasn't helped and hopefully it will get better but it still looks as if it's the idea of absolutely everyone being able to queue either by app or by pager that's been the problem to date. 6,000 into 1,000 or whatever simply doesn't work. The app users are arriving with no table free so they're waiting, the walk ins are queuing to get in as well.

The speciality restaurants offer a confirmed booking at a set time, the app doesn't. The two new ships are only just beginning to sail at full capacity after the pandemic cut it. P&O are therefore beginners in handling this unlike say RC who've had this 6,000 plus passenger ships sailing for years now. It's interesting no other line appears to be going all freedom on ships of this size. There are a few of this class around the world now but it seems only these two are having problems in this area.

I agree but that's down to P&O. It does seem highly logical but they ask you to check in at your restaurant and historically they told you to walk up to the dining room and then gave you the pager. Someone needs to look at that not cause friction between the tech whizzkids and Auntie Ethel neither of whom are right or wrong. I'm guessing they've been caught out particularly on Arvia with only two dining rooms. How many does each seat, not having been onboard her yet I don't know? It still remains asking the volume of passengers to eat in only two venues is a big gamble if you've a reduced capacity.

I think you are right. The Britannia menus posted for the cruise before mine were completely different.

Getting the pager doesn't (or at least it doesn't on other ships) put you at the back of the queue. What it does is register you on the restaurant computer as waiting for a table and needing to be sat. You do not become secondary to the app users. The app users being given pagers is purely to try to clear the area which becomes overcrowded and not moving. I've never come across this type of queuing with or without apps, telephones or medallions on any of ships, P&O or anyone else. The app is very vague as well. It doesn't say you've got a reservation at x time, it merely indicates a time your table should be due, it's not a reservation per se such as you mentioned for land based restaurants. The app is an algorithm apparently working on the idea a certain number of people will want to dine between two times and it allocates accordingly. The most popular times to dine are from 7.00 to 7.30pm onwards judging by comments on these boards. This would tally with on club dining the early sitting is too early for many while others state 8.30 too late. With only freedom dining on offer it is inevitable that only having two MDRs will cause pressure points between 7.00 and 8.30pm. If Auntie Ethel and her ilk go to dine at 6.30pm regardless of using the app she's taking up a seat in the restaurant in the lead up to the big rush. There's an interesting article this month on one of the US travel forums about RC new menus and aim to make the whole dinner experience last 75 minutes. Even by shortening the menu and adding staff they haven't been able to meet that target. They have concluded 90 minutes minimum is required. As you work in the food/dining industry you are of course familiar with table turning, ie a set amount of time for your tables to be occupied. Ironically you have no control over how long your tables are occupied with freedom dining, with club dining and set times you did. Auntie Ethel may therefore enjoy a very long leisurely meal, maybe with a large group she's just met and occupy your table way past 90 minutes. I note you say you pay to jump queues, I assume like the Disney Genie. If you read into this in depth you will see that it's introduction has had a detrimental effect on a lot of visitors to Disney who simply are stopping travelling to parks due to the artificial queues of 4 hours plus the procedure is causing at peak times. Park admissions are as a result going down with the comtomitent effect the prices are going up despite the new add on revenue source. One person paying a million bucks once probably sounds good but Chuck x 100,000 visiting multiple times will raise more cash over the long term. Eglesbrech mentioned the MSC approach and you marked it as a like. You referred elsewhere to the cheap fares. If P&O adopted the MSC idea (which I personally think is good) late bookers such as you indicate would have to take what's on offer at the time of booking - which always happened before Arvia/Iona appeared with their freedom free for all. Progress might be one step too far on this occasion? Yorkypete makes a point elsewhere that the buffet on Iona was extremely busy at night. I'd be interested in whether this is purely by choice or due to difficulties actually getting in to the main dining rooms.

ICF that is exactly how P&O have operated on all their ships since freedom dining became an option. It is handed out at the door to the restaurant. The people in the photograph Devon posted are queuing for their pager if you read his posts. Also the app queue people were being sent away with pagers too. The picture isn't black and white (sic) it doesn't tell the full story as Devon explains.

Interestingly I'm just watching the Billion Dollar Cruise based on Symphony of the Seas. They have club dining with set times alongside their equivalent of freedom, which incidentally looks more restrictive. When I booked my Celebrity Beyond cruise for this Christmas it had three dining times - I recall Bazrat saying he looked at it but because only 8.30pm dinner was available he decided not to book. Clearly RC and Celebrity have realised shoving thousands around on these big ships needs different handling.

Terrierjohn they are getting pagers. The problem is that on all the other ships they were given out at the restaurant door, the idea of collecting them elsewhere is the sort of idea that makes sense. I would have said that if ICF had paused for breath! A dedicated non app restaurant sounds rather like club dining which has been done away with in the name of modernising. When freedom dining started people didn't want that either but had the choice. On Iona and Arvia they don't. The Medallion is excellent and works. It can also be used at central points on the ship to check times and availability. Personally I carry nothing on a cruise and is as little as possible ashore. Unlike most of my female counterparts I rarely have a handbag onboard so nowhere to put a phone or much else.

Because you've been sold a service in a closed environment where you can't exactly walk away and have a right to what you've paid for? P&O took your money on the promise of providing you with a dining room to eat in. Nowhere on their literature does it say technology compulsory. As I said, turn the problem on it's head and look at it from the other side to the one you support. You may havecforgetten that a large number (myself included) do not go to restaurants ashore on a regular basis

I have one too as does my husband. The tech team were adamant we would have to switch it off along with other security measures. The app wouldn't work the entire two weeks on either phone. No idea whether that was part of the problem but took their word for it. Luckily I had booked most entertainment before leaving UK but because the thing wouldn't even load one particular receptionist booked everything I wanted when I needed it. I'm on Iona in March so it will be an interesting comparison on if I can get it to load/work on there. Ss I'm travelling alone o won't be buying the wifi either due to the ridiculous cost of it.

Have a good rest.

They'd better upgrade Ventura's televisions post haste ... Just remembered something I had in one of my Italian hotels this year. Next to the room phone was a type of tablet set up which linked to the hotel restaurants, bars and spa so you could book from your room. Basically you were shown it when you arrived and if you were a technophobe one big red one said Concierge. Something like that might be very useful but maybe too costly