Free or Discounted Select Dining on Iona to begin with?

[manonabike]

I've heard on social media (from someone on board Arcadia) that they are planning on having discounted or even free select dining when Iona launches to try and stimulate some interest. Can anyone support this? Did this happen when Britania was launched? It sounds interesting however one of the nice things about the special dining venues was that is was much quieter.

[pete14]

They often discount for the first and possibly second night if advance bookings are a bit scarce. I don’t see why Iona should be any different and in all honesty, I don’t think they will need to discount. Free is almost certainly a non-starter. This didn’t feature on the Britannia maiden unless they kept it very quiet. 
To be a bit controversial, as select bookings do not give a choice of dining as they do on other ships (Iona is all freedom dining), offering those who book select a discounted meal in a speciality restaurant may be justified. Not really practical though.

[daiB]

1 hour ago, manonabike said:

I've heard on social media (from someone on board Arcadia) that they are planning on having discounted or even free select dining when Iona launches to try and stimulate some interest. Can anyone support this? Did this happen when Britania was launched? It sounds interesting however one of the nice things about the special dining venues was that is was much quieter.

Because Iona’s summer cruises are only 7 nights I cannot see any discounting as the “other” restaurants on short cruises fill up fairly quickly. We have just come off Ventura 2 x 7 night cruises and Sindhu looked very full most nights. With all freedom I suspect people will be more willing to try the other venues. However I would expect some discounting on the longer winter cruises.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, daiB said:

Because Iona’s summer cruises are only 7 nights I cannot see any discounting as the “other” restaurants on short cruises fill up fairly quickly. We have just come off Ventura 2 x 7 night cruises and Sindhu looked very full most nights. With all freedom I suspect people will be more willing to try the other venues. However I would expect some discounting on the longer winter cruises.

On our August Ventura 7 night cruise they offered a free bottle of wine first night in Epicurean if you dined before 6.30pm.

Sindu and Epicurean were fairly quiet all week but they would not entertain any discounts.

We enjoyed our meals in Epicurean.

Graham.

[happy v]

27 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

On our August Ventura 7 night cruise they offered a free bottle of wine first night in Epicurean if you dined before 6.30pm.

Sindu and Epicurean were fairly quiet all week but they would not entertain any discounts.

We enjoyed our meals in Epicurean.

Graham.

Graham, is that pink bread?

[grapau27]

11 minutes ago, happy v said:

Graham, is that pink bread?

Yes,all the breads were lovely.

[rdmaidment]

On Ventura last week they were ding the early bird free bottle of wine all week

[terrierjohn]

The early bird free wine seems routine now, but interestingly when I rang to book Sindhu on our last Aurora cruise I said the 6:30pm cut off was too early for us and booked 7:30, but we still received the free bottle of wine!

[kenhem]

Currently on Arcadia and they offered 25% off the cover charge for Sindhu and Ocean Grill for the first couple of nights.

Edited November 8, 2019 by kenhem

[Spike11]

In the post I read about this, it did say that initially some of the select ventures would be free or heavily discounted in order to relieve pressure on the main freedom dining restaurants ( no club dining of course). This seems to make sense to me as there are so many alternative dining venues on Iona. I guess they would then gradually increase the prices.

[jeanlyon]

On my recent Aurora cruise, Sindhu didn't seem to be used that much at all.

Edited November 8, 2019 by jeanlyon

[pete14]

1 hour ago, Spike11 said:

In the post I read about this, it did say that initially some of the select ventures would be free or heavily discounted in order to relieve pressure on the main freedom dining restaurants ( no club dining of course). This seems to make sense to me as there are so many alternative dining venues on Iona. I guess they would then gradually increase the prices.

Some of the alternative dining venues are free anyway. 

[AndyMichelle]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

On my recent Aurora cruise, Sindhu didn't seem to be used that much at all.

We struggled to get an evening table on Aurora in June. 

Funny how it changes from cruise to cruise. 

Andy 

[newbie cruissy]

On a related note, I assume that although we will pay an additional cover charge to use, for example, Epicurean, if we have a drinks package the drinks would be included. So just the cover charge to pay?

[pete14]

34 minutes ago, newbie cruissy said:

On a related note, I assume that although we will pay an additional cover charge to use, for example, Epicurean, if we have a drinks package the drinks would be included. So just the cover charge to pay?

Drinks would be included in the package but wine by the glass only - not bottles. 

[newbie cruissy]

1 minute ago, pete14 said:

Drinks would be included in the package but wine by the glass only - not bottles. 

That's great - thanks 👍

[Host Sharon]

I don't want to eat alone so when travelling solo can't book the other restaurants anyway. Why can't they do like Saga and make up solo tables for them?