Club dining times changing???

[AndyMichelle]

Just read a blog from somebody on Aurora's Worldie saying that club dining times have changed to 6 & 8pm due to customer demand. 

I wonder if this will be across the fleet or just for this cruise? 

They have adjusted show times accordingly. 

Were you one of the passengers 'demanding' it? 

Whenever we talk about freedom dining, many passengers say 'we always go at 6/8'... Would this make them switch to club? 

Only speculation as it may be a one off, just interested in peoples thoughts. 

Andy 

 

[Angel57]

I've just read that blog Andy. I am very surprised the times were changed without any prior notification to those joining the cruise. I do Freedom so it wouldn't have affected me, but i would not be happy if my set dining time had changed from 6.30 to 6pm.

[Les_ldh]

26 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Just read a blog from somebody on Aurora's Worldie saying that club dining times have changed to 6 & 8pm due to customer demand. 

I wonder if this will be across the fleet or just for this cruise? 

They have adjusted show times accordingly. 

Were you one of the passengers 'demanding' it? 

Whenever we talk about freedom dining, many passengers say 'we always go at 6/8'... Would this make them switch to club? 

Only speculation as it may be a one off, just interested in peoples thoughts. 

Andy 

 

Andy, could you post a link to the blog please. I’d be very interested in following it.

Les.

[Britboys]

Personally, I would welcome this.  I find 6.00/6.30 too early to eat a full meal - and too early to start my evening.  I also find 8.30 just a little late so 8.00 would be great.  I tend to have club dining on P&O as most of my cruises with them tend to be solo and the thought of meeting new pax every single night fills me with horror!

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Just read a blog from somebody on Aurora's Worldie saying that club dining times have changed to 6 & 8pm due to customer demand. 

I wonder if this will be across the fleet or just for this cruise? 

They have adjusted show times accordingly. 

Were you one of the passengers 'demanding' it? 

Whenever we talk about freedom dining, many passengers say 'we always go at 6/8'... Would this make them switch to club? 

Only speculation as it may be a one off, just interested in peoples thoughts. 

Andy 

 

Personally, we still wouldn't change to Club. Having to eat at a fixed time is just an anathema to us, and, regardless as to how nice our table mates are, we would not want to spend every night with them for 14 days, let alone 35. And they would probably feel the same about us! 

[AndyMichelle]

25 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Personally, we still wouldn't change to Club. Having to eat at a fixed time is just an anathema to us, and, regardless as to how nice our table mates are, we would not want to spend every night with them for 14 days, let alone 35. And they would probably feel the same about us! 

That's the beauty of choice Wowzz. 

I prefer a fixed time to plan around, I don't want to run the risk of waiting at busy times when I'm hungry so found myself going every night at 6ish to get a table. 

I would choose 8pm every time. 

Andy 

[AndyMichelle]

30 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Personally, I would welcome this.  I find 6.00/6.30 too early to eat a full meal - and too early to start my evening.  I also find 8.30 just a little late so 8.00 would be great.  I tend to have club dining on P&O as most of my cruises with them tend to be solo and the thought of meeting new pax every single night fills me with horror!

Same here, 8 would be ideal for us, especially with the show at 10.

Andy 

 

[jh1809]

33 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Personally, I would welcome this.  I find 6.00/6.30 too early to eat a full meal - and too early to start my evening.  I also find 8.30 just a little late so 8.00 would be great.  I tend to have club dining on P&O as most of my cruises with them tend to be solo and the thought of meeting new pax every single night fills me with horror!

I'm the same regarding my reason for sticking with club dining, but differ in that I like to dine early and am not too fussed as to whether it's 6:30 or 6:00.

[Britboys]

My main cruise last year was on Princess in the USA.  Between booking and going, I had an e-mail saying that due to Customer Feedback they were changing the early sitting time from 5.45 to 5.30!  Eating a three or four course dinner at 5.30 😲.  Each to their own of course...

[Elaine0138]

I would find 6.00pm just a bit too early so hope it is just for that particular cruise.

[wowzz]

22 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

That's the beauty of choice Wowzz. 

I prefer a fixed time to plan around, I don't want to run the risk of waiting at busy times when I'm hungry so found myself going every night at 6ish to get a table. 

I would choose 8pm every time. 

Andy 

As you say, it's the beauty of having a choice. We just like to take it as it comes - if we fancy another drink we can do so without worrying about being late for our table.  

[AndyMichelle]

24 minutes ago, Britboys said:

My main cruise last year was on Princess in the USA.  Between booking and going, I had an e-mail saying that due to Customer Feedback they were changing the early sitting time from 5.45 to 5.30!  Eating a three or four course dinner at 5.30 😲.  Each to their own of course...

I am only just coming out of afternoon tea then... 

Andy 

[wowzz]

41 minutes ago, Britboys said:

My main cruise last year was on Princess in the USA.  Between booking and going, I had an e-mail saying that due to Customer Feedback they were changing the early sitting time from 5.45 to 5.30!  Eating a three or four course dinner at 5.30 😲.  Each to their own of course...

And on our Princess cruise they were queuing up for lunch at 11:30! We'd only just finished breakfast!

[beachmad123]

Six seems early to me we normally book 6.30. If we're not hungry we just bob up to the buffet. Although on our last cruise we arrived at the restaurant at 6.30 we were quite hungry only to find the restaurant closed and no one waiting how strange until I realized that my phone had switched to French time as we went around the peninsula so we were one hour early.  We decided to have a drink in the metropolis got through 3 carafes of nibbles 

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, beachmad123 said:

Six seems early to me we normally book 6.30. If we're not hungry we just bob up to the buffet. Although on our last cruise we arrived at the restaurant at 6.30 we were quite hungry only to find the restaurant closed and no one waiting how strange until I realized that my phone had switched to French time as we went around the peninsula so we were one hour early.  We decided to have a drink in the metropolis got through 3 carafes of nibbles 

I was really impressed when I saw "3 carafes", but less so when I saw "nibbles" !!

[beachmad123]

Yes see your point I think we looked a bit strange eating the nibbles but this particular time we were both hungry. 

That doesn't happen often both hungry at the same time!

[Ranchi]

Is it a westerly circumnavigation? In which case it will even out the times between successive day’s meal times. (& also limit the chance of the wildly hungry chewing the MDR doors as it was 25 hours since they last started breakfast!)

just a thought. 

[Waju]

We are currently on Aurora (well actually in Madeira at the moment) and our Club Dining times have changed to 6pm and 8pm too.  We were told it's only for the longer cruises.

 

It also alters the entertainment times - Curzon Theatre times are now 8pm and 10pm and Carmens 7pm and 9pm.

 

We're getting used to it already though and no complaints at all - only another 50 odd days to go - it's a hard life 😎

[Cathygh]

On our Cunard summer cruise to Alaska dining times were brought forward as well. There had been a demand from passengers from the far east for early dining as that is their preference. I also suspect some Americans like early dining as I have heard first sitting is early on Holland America ships.

We also heard that Cunard staff were not happy with the changes and all the show times etc were moved. The times of trips were not changed so sometimes people missed their allotted time for dining of the trip got back later than dinner started.

So if Aurora is picking up lots of pax around the world that might explain the change?

Cathy

[tring]

Early sitting is always more popular, so maybe they want to even out the number of people choosing a particular sitting.  Must admit 6pm sounds far too early to us.  8pm sounds a reasonable time, but would not make us want to choose club over freedom as the main appeal is that we can vary our time according to plans for that day and the next.  On  hot climate cruise we particularly like staying out on deck when the sun is less strong and watching the sunset, before getting ready for dinner.  Eating late is no good for me though if need to be up early the next day so want an early night.

 

If change to meal times mean show times changing, could also mean quieter cabins late at night in some locations.  Not be a problem for us though as we do not do saver fares.

[wowzz]

14 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

So if Aurora is picking up lots of pax around the world that might explain the change?

Possible,  but at this early stage in the cruuse, it's unlikely that there will be many non Brits aboard. 

[AndyMichelle]

29 minutes ago, Waju said:

We are currently on Aurora (well actually in Madeira at the moment) and our Club Dining times have changed to 6pm and 8pm too.  We were told it's only for the longer cruises.

 

It also alters the entertainment times - Curzon Theatre times are now 8pm and 10pm and Carmens 7pm and 9pm.

 

We're getting used to it already though and no complaints at all - only another 50 odd days to go - it's a hard life 😎

Have a fantastic time. 

Very jealous. 

Andy 

[Britboys]

If its on longer cruises, hopefully they'll do it when I am on Arcadia for 39 nights next year 😀

[jeanlyon]

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

As you say, it's the beauty of having a choice. We just like to take it as it comes - if we fancy another drink we can do so without worrying about being late for our table.  

Yes,  agree totally.  Now that we have swapped to Freedom, we do tend to go down at 8, but 6 is so unbelievably early, only just had tea!!  So I wonder if that means the queues for Freedom will now start at 4.30!!!