Ventura : Freedom vs. Club Dining - what's happening?

I've been intrigued by some of the accounts of dining on Ventura that we've had so far. I dug out my "Ventura - The Superliner designed for Britain" brochure published last year to check what was said at that time, and I found this:

"Freedom Dining - .... You may dine in Ventura's Saffron and Cinnamon restaurants at any time between 6pm and 10pm....."

"Club Dining - Club Dining operates on a fixed sitting basis in the Bay Tree restaurant...."

However, I gather that this isn't what is actually happening. So far we've had 7 cruises, as follows:-

? April - the Party cruise (2 nights)

18 April - the Maiden Cruise (14 nights)

2 May - Iberian Adventure (7 nights)

9 May - Canaries Discovery (14 nights)

23 May - Iberian Interlude (14 nights)

30 May - Riviera Romance (14 nights)

13 June - Tranquil Fjords (7 nights)

I wonder if readers who have been on any of these cruises can report on the following:-

a) which restaurant(s) were assigned to which dining style on your cruise?

b) which did you use?

c) did you think they'd got the balance right? and

g) how was dining for you, generally?

Many thanks!

Since the Ventura "build blurb" the configuartion of the 3 main restaurants from the Maiden onwards is 2 Club, 1 Freedom.

I've been intrigued by some of the accounts of dining on Ventura that we've had so far. I dug out my "Ventura - The Superliner designed for Britain" brochure published last year to check what was said at that time, and I found this:

 

"Freedom Dining - .... You may dine in Ventura's Saffron and Cinnamon restaurants at any time between 6pm and 10pm....."

 

"Club Dining - Club Dining operates on a fixed sitting basis in the Bay Tree restaurant...."

 

However, I gather that this isn't what is actually happening. So far we've had 7 cruises, as follows:-

 

? April - the Party cruise (2 nights)

18 April - the Maiden Cruise (14 nights)

2 May - Iberian Adventure (7 nights)

9 May - Canaries Discovery (14 nights)

23 May - Iberian Interlude (14 nights)

30 May - Riviera Romance (14 nights)

13 June - Tranquil Fjords (7 nights)

 

I wonder if readers who have been on any of these cruises can report on the following:-

 

a) which restaurant(s) were assigned to which dining style on your cruise?

b) which did you use?

c) did you think they'd got the balance right? and

g) how was dining for you, generally?

 

Many thanks!

Hi

We were on the Tranquil Fords Cruise and returned last Friday. This was our first cruise.

a. Saffron and Bay Tree Restauarants were assigned to Club Dining

b. We were on Freedom Dining in Cinnamon Restaurant

c. Probably not - see below.

d. The food and service were lovely.

We visited Cinnamon whilst exploring the ship after boarding. When we were looking at the menu outside, we were invited to book for the evening which we did - a table for 4 by a window at 8pm.

We turned up at 8pm and were shown to our table, but it was already occupied and the occupants were already eating.

The restauarant manager gave us a bleeper as we specifically wanted a window table and we went and sat in the bar outside.

After enquiring a couple of times, we eventually gave up on the window request and they put 2 single tables together. We had waited an hour. The Manager was very apologetic and gave us a complimentary bottle of wine. We also managed to persuade him to reserve us a window table for the next evening!

After that, we did book every evening but the booking system was somewhat erratic - sometimes you could book for the next evening too and sometimes not.

Some of ther tables in Cinnamon were for reservations and the rest of the restauarant was for people just turning up but I don;t know what the proportion was.

I feel that on Freedom Dining, booking should not be allowed at all.

The food was very good and the service was excellent.

Hope this helps.

Gail

We were on the 23/05/08 sailing. Our experience was the same as pevious reply. The situation did get a little better after the first two days. If you don't want to share, book a table at 8am be sure to state it is "for your party only". The food was excellent, the tables by the window are worth the wait.