Iona cutting down on formal nights

[molecrochip]

I read someone that with freedom dining the average dinner service is now closer to 90 mins than 2 hrs. The beauty of freedom dining is that those tables who want a slower service etc can have that.

[Pine Man]

12 hours ago, molecrochip said:

On the larger ships in the fleet, I would expect that freedom dining will now be the norm once cruising restarts. Its easier to manage people that way as you wont be sitting strangers with one another.

 

'You won't be sitting strangers with one another' -  WHAT!

 

That is precicely what freedom dining does. Club dining keeps you with the same diners every evening who are only strangers on the first night.

[molecrochip]

I would expect the majority of two tables to be removed / unused. Then tables for 4 to have 2 people, tables of 6 to be used for 4, tables of 8 might manage a 4+2 etc etc. Current expectation are they won’t be max filling the tables.

[besberry]

23 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Ha ha, having always done Club Dining, we swapped to Freedom and now I wouldn't swap back.  nice meeting different folk each night.

I always use Freedom dining.  Apart from my first two cruises where it wasn't an option.  I first tried it on RCI and when they introduced it to P&O my friends and I all changed to Freedom and we've never looked back!

[greyhound1950]

On 5/5/2020 at 3:52 PM, Pine Man said:

Only just come across this thread.

 

When I first heard about Iona I was really looking forward to trying it out. I am not concerned about the size of ships BUT if Formal Nights are on the way out and Club Dining doesn't even exist anymore you can count me out!

 

thats a shame thought cruising was more than club nights,cruise ships are floating hotels taking us too fantastic ports of call

[Pine Man]

2 hours ago, greyhound1950 said:

thats a shame thought cruising was more than club nights,

For me and many others Club Nights have been an important integral part of a first class cruise.

[No pager thank you]

On 5/5/2020 at 11:26 PM, molecrochip said:

I read someone that with freedom dining the average dinner service is now closer to 90 mins than 2 hrs. The beauty of freedom dining is that those tables who want a slower service etc can have that.

If anything, we've noticed that the speed of service in the MDR, certainly on Aurora, Arcadia and Ventura as examples have slowed, with the general move/thrust towards Freedom Dining.

 

I read somewhere that this was running at around 80pc preference, before the recent changes for Iona.  This is also influenced by the reduction in waiter numbers and the higher number of tables looked after by each wine waiter.

 

Our experience has been that you are always asked to share, sometimes two or three times.  Also, that unless you choose to dine towards the end of the service, say 8.45, in which case it can be as little as 1 hour for three courses and coffee, then typical table time can be more than 2 hours, from when you sit down, as opposed to when you initially present in the restaurant.

 

I'm not sure how this will be managed on Iona or if waiting will improve because the staff traditionally allocated to fixed dining will move to Freedom, improving the numbers?

[devonuk]

On 5/4/2020 at 12:25 PM, Britboys said:

Not necessarily.  I did a Fjords cruise several years ago in early September.  Most days the weather was lovely and could easily have worn shorts in the daytime.

Very true, my wife and I did a July ‘midnight sun’ cruise to Norway in July and it was short sleeved shirts and shorts every day! Not in the MDR of course but that’s another story 😉