dining preference question

[SarahHben]

45 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

Ignore the anti big ship comments, we all have preferences for different sizes of ships. 

1) It is unlikely that Iona will feel crowded and noisy, we have been on all of the current P&O ships and have not found any of them to be too crowded or noisy, there are plenty of quiet spots and as you say you have a balcony to escape to. 

2)Dress to please yourself not others, I always dress up for evenings on cruises because I have few other opportunities. 

3) Give yourself plenty of time to get down to Southampton and you won't miss the ship, we always stay the night before in Southampton and count it as an extra day on holiday.

 

Norway is beautiful, I am sure that you will enjoy your cruise and you will become addicted, we are soon to go on our 49th cruise (28th P&O) and have 4 others booked.

 

We have not looked at Iona because we found Britannia a little too large for us but if either Britannia or Iona was going to somewhere that we have not been to but would like to visit we would book on them.

Thank you Josy, I really appreciate that.

[grapau27]

6 hours ago, SarahHben said:

Wes Dunlop was captain of Britannia last year when my daughter went to Norway and she said he was great.

We booked Iona mainly because as first timers we wanted a 7 night cruise and husband was keen to go to Norway and Iona is the ship doing that route next year. Then after booking I looked at the forums which at the time did have a fair amount of anti 'big ship' comments and I started to worry about a few things. I suppose my biggest worries are that 1) It will feel too crowded and noisy, but we have a balcony cabin to escape to if needed. 2) That it will be more casual than my expectations. For me the dressing up side of things is part of what attracted me to cruising, but I plan to wear my long gowns regardless. 3) That we will miss the ship, I wasn't worried about that until your 'Missing the ship' post Andy 😂 

It is good to read from seasoned cruisers that they are looking forward to Iona too, at times it has felt like it's the ship for those of us that dont know any better 😂

 

Thank you for your replies

We have sailed 4 times on Royal Caribbean Oasis class ships which at 225000 tons and 6000 passengers are the largest cruise ships in the world and we never felt they were overcrowded.

We have just got off Ventura and around 95%+ of people dressed up for formal night and P&O were quite strict about this.

[SarahHben]

15 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We have sailed 4 times on Royal Caribbean Oasis class ships which at 225000 tons and 6000 passengers are the largest cruise ships in the world and we never felt they were overcrowded.

We have just got off Ventura and around 95%+ of people dressed up for formal night and P&O were quite strict about this.

Thanks for that, very helpful.

[grapau27]

27 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

Thanks for that, very helpful.

Your welcome.

It was lovely to see everyone dressed up.

You will love the balcony cabin.

48 out of our 51 cruises have been in balcony cabins.

The fresh air and sea views from your balcony are priceless imo.

We usually have room service breakfast on the balcony with wonderful views which is amazing.

Edited September 1, 2019 by grapau27

[mrsgoggins]

I have only just seen this thread and so read your outcome with some trepidation because yours was not the experience of a family group we encountered on Ventura at Easter.

 

We met 2 of their party over afternoon tea and they complained bitterly about having been allocated late dining despite requesting early when they booked their saver fare (I don’t know to whom they made the request).  They reasoned that because they had a 5 year old in the party and elderly relatives that P&O should have ‘seen sense’ and allocated early dining.  They had been to the Maitre d’ on boarding and still got no joy.

 

Glad your scenario turned out differently OP and that you had such a wonderful time.

[Harry Peterson]

I remain certain that if the staff on P&O ships can possibly give the customer what they want  they will - Saver or not.

 

They can't do the impossible though, and if there are no spaces there are no spaces. That's just the risk you take when you book.

[Eglesbrech]

7 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

I remain certain that if the staff on P&O ships can possibly give the customer what they want  they will - Saver or not.

 

They can't do the impossible though, and if there are no spaces there are no spaces. That's just the risk you take when you book.

I would agree. I don’t think that P&O would deliberately annoy their customers if they could possibly give them what they want.

 

As someone who books the odd saver I would say that if you do book a saver then you absolutely need to accept that you may not get what you want re dining time and accept that fact.

 

During an Easter holiday there will be many people with young families and perhaps older relatives who all want early dining. They can’t all get it so there is no point in complaining about it.

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

I would agree. I don’t think that P&O would deliberately annoy their customers if they could possibly give them what they want.

 

As someone who books the odd saver I would say that if you do book a saver then you absolutely need to accept that you may not get what you want re dining time and accept that fact.

 

During an Easter holiday there will be many people with young families and perhaps older relatives who all want early dining. They can’t all get it so there is no point in complaining about it.

Freedom dining is a good idea in principle.

In practice every night on Ventura when we wanted a table for 2 we were given a buzzer and waited between 40 minutes and 1 hour for a table,as did many couples.

If you want to share a table there was no problems getting seated straight away.

[AndyMichelle]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

I would agree. I don’t think that P&O would deliberately annoy their customers if they could possibly give them what they want.

 

As someone who books the odd saver I would say that if you do book a saver then you absolutely need to accept that you may not get what you want re dining time and accept that fact.

 

During an Easter holiday there will be many people with young families and perhaps older relatives who all want early dining. They can’t all get it so there is no point in complaining about it.

In our experience, early saver usually means second sitting, large table, although our last one was early sitting, large table.

We don't mind and take what we are given. By booking early savers, we calculate that for every 2 cruises, we get one free.

Andy

[Harry Peterson]

15 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Freedom dining is a good idea in principle.

In practice every night on Ventura when we wanted a table for 2 we were given a buzzer and waited between 40 minutes and 1 hour for a table,as did many couples.

If you want to share a table there was no problems getting seated straight away.

We've never bothered with tables for two - always like the conversations with others. Restrict it to 6 or 8 usually (4 is risky and 10 makes conversation difficult) but never have to wait long.

[grapau27]

8 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

We've never bothered with tables for two - always like the conversations with others. Restrict it to 6 or 8 usually (4 is risky and 10 makes conversation difficult) but never have to wait long.

If you wanted to share tables you could just go straight in.

66 tables for 2 in 2 big restaurants dedicated to Freedom is no where near enough.

The seats in the atrium on deck 5 were full every night with people carrying buzzers and lots of people were also walking around the shops in the Atrium too carrying buzzers.

We always get a table for 2 and really enjoyed Epicurean restaurant on our last night.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by grapau27

[mrsgoggins]

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

I remain certain that if the staff on P&O ships can possibly give the customer what they want  they will - Saver or not.

 

They can't do the impossible though, and if there are no spaces there are no spaces. That's just the risk you take when you book.

 

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

I would agree. I don’t think that P&O would deliberately annoy their customers if they could possibly give them what they want.

 

As someone who books the odd saver I would say that if you do book a saver then you absolutely need to accept that you may not get what you want re dining time and accept that fact.

 

During an Easter holiday there will be many people with young families and perhaps older relatives who all want early dining. They can’t all get it so there is no point in complaining about it.

 

I totally agree with both of you.  I actually thought the complaining couple we met were out of order because they were not just disappointed, which would have been understandable; the female half of the couple was furious.  It had obviously set the tone for the rest of their holiday because we were then treated to a list of further complaints about P&O, with whom they would never travel again! 

 

I realise that the OP’s initial response was nothing like this by the way.

[Eglesbrech]

28 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

In our experience, early saver usually means second sitting, large table, although our last one was early sitting, large table.

We don't mind and take what we are given. By booking early savers, we calculate that for every 2 cruises, we get one free.

Andy

Funny we seem to always get Freedom dining on an early saver. Like you I don’t really mind what I get as long as the food and company is good.

 

Agree about the saving, we have had a few extra cruises over the years based on booking reduced fares on savers.

 

 

[Ranchi]

On 8/21/2019 at 11:34 PM, emam said:

 

 

12 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

We've never bothered with tables for two - always like the conversations with others. Restrict it to 6 or 8 usually (4 is risky and 10 makes conversation difficult) but never have to wait long.

One of the best tables we had was an oval fo 10 on Azura. We had booked late - though not Saver. We were a bit apprehensive but had a brilliant time. Agreed two at the very outer part of the table found it difficult to communicate with each other but everyone else was fine. We moved places every night. 

We have found that the poorest arrangement is a rectangular table for six or eight. 

We have almost always had good experiences in the MDR.

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by Ranchi

[Harry Peterson]

Do agree with you, Ranchi - always great experiences in the MDR.

 

The 6 and 8 tables we've had (larger ships) have all been oval or circular,  like the 10s. Perfect for chatting,  though it can be tricky on a 10 to chat to the people opposite when it's noisy.

[grapau27]

4 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Do agree with you, Ranchi - always great experiences in the MDR.

 

The 6 and 8 tables we've had (larger ships) have all been oval or circular,  like the 10s. Perfect for chatting,  though it can be tricky on a 10 to chat to the people opposite when it's noisy.

Our jobs entail interviewing and mixing with many people on a daily basis so on holiday we like to get a table for 2.

The tables for 2 on P&O are only a foot apart so it is easy to still talk to people either side of us but we get to order our food quickly unlike on a big table when you have to wait for everyone else.