Ventura - Bumped off Club Dining with 4 days to go!

[samur]

Hi can you please advise me who David Dingle is and how to get in touch with him as we have a problem with our forthcoming cruise booking for 3 Jan and are struggling with customer services

 

thanks

[BrianI]

Hi can you please advise me who David Dingle is and how to get in touch with him as we have a problem with our forthcoming cruise booking for 3 Jan and are struggling with customer services

 

thanks

See post #61.

He is the head of Carnival UK

Brian

[She-Ra!]

So cross, just got home from work to find a letter from P&O saying that due to customer feedback and a drop in demand for club dining, that our request has not been accommodated and we now have to be Freedom dining. Also have to book for Christmas night and new years eve on the first morning! Can't believe this as we booked before disembarking our Christmas cruise last year! fuming! Has this happened to anyone else?

 

Janieb, how did it work out for you in the end? I hope it didn't ruin your cruise. We are doing freedom dining on Ventura in a couple of weeks. The only other time we did this was on Oceana New Year last year and it was very stressful, but the ship was completely full. As our cruise is not full, and as Ventura has the two freedom dining rooms, we are hoping it is more relaxing this time.

[molecrochip]

Janieb, how did it work out for you in the end? I hope it didn't ruin your cruise. We are doing freedom dining on Ventura in a couple of weeks. The only other time we did this was on Oceana New Year last year and it was very stressful, but the ship was completely full. As our cruise is not full, and as Ventura has the two freedom dining rooms, we are hoping it is more relaxing this time.

 

 

Make friends with your head waiter. Once you find a set of waiters you like, ask for he, each evening. We found it worked with very little wait most nights and that was on a full cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[janieb1962]

Sorry didn't get chance to post prior to our cruise. We did get a call from Customer services advising we had Club dining once again. Our original request was for a table of 8 on 2nd sitting. We are a family of four...we got Club Dining on 2nd sitting but just as a table of four. It worked out in the end, and having relaxed a bit about it now, it probably wouldn't have ruined my cruise if we had been freedom dining. I was originally told by customer services that anyone who booked between october 2012 and January 2013 they were removed from Club. What I found from talking to others on the cruise was that people who booked even later than that got Club..so maybe a first come first served process would be better. One thing that did annoy me was in our area of the dining room there was a table of 10 and a table of 6 who rarely turned up for Club....seems a shame that others weren't able to get Club when these people looked to prefer Freedom (or maybe the select dining options)

Overall we had a good time. Hope everyone else did too

[BrianI]

If you are booked in Club, you can't suddenly decide one night that you want to go to Freedom, as they check your cabin numbers when you go in and if your not down for Freedom, you don't get in.

The alternate options though are the self service buffet or the select (extra charge) restaurant. Maybe the empty tables went to the buffet every night.

 

Brian

[janieb1962]

Thanks Brian, I hadn't realised that, but it makes sense and would be unfair to Freedom diners if Club could simply change their minds.

[She-Ra!]

So glad to hear it worked out for you. It's silly things like this that can make it stressful though isn't it, and you just want to know where you stand, especially when you are travelling in a group.

 

Well one week on Friday we shall be giving the freedom dining on Ventura a whirl for ourselves for the first time, but as we have only ourselves to please it should work out ok. Wish us luck! LOL x

[janieb1962]

I don't think you will need any luck...I'm sure it will be fabulous! Enjoy!:)