Theatre situation

[jeanlyon]

somebody mentioned paying for the theatre?  Or did I dream it?

[Tablelamp]

What happens if I don’t have a mobile phone

[Son of Bare]

On 10/17/2021 at 7:42 AM, Interestedcruisefan said:

Re muster

 

On the Britannia staycations they just told you your muster point when you arrived on the boat and asked you to head there when convenient  in the next hour to be ticked off on their app to show you knew where it was

 

Simply gave your name when you got there and that was it. 

 

The safety briefing was just given over the tannoy later. Obviously you can hear the tannoy wherever you are on the boat. And the announcement just took a minute or so.

 

Much easier and simpler than in the past when everyone had to stop whatever they were doing at the time and head to their muster stations and hang around doing nothing for 15 minutes or so waiting for everyone else to get  to their muster stations and then get the safety messages alk together etc

 

Another example IMO that the old ways of doing things on cruise ships aren't always the best

 

So much less disruptive this way

 

And civilised

 

Another thing I hope remains in place as going to muster stations in the past was always a pain in the neck

 

 

We boarded Iona October 30th and our boarding pass didn't show a muster station. We were told to go straight to our cabin and check the back of the door. Once there we were immediately met by our steward who asked us if we'd been to the muster station first and when we replied, no, she said just get there when you can.

Discovering our station was the theatre we never did book in for muster and at no point did anyone question this with us.

Hey ho.

[Son of Bare]

On 10/12/2021 at 10:34 PM, picsa said:

From my recent Iona cruise, some of the shows appeared on the P&O booking website before we boarded, but only the first few days.

 

But *no* addition shows were available to book on the app when we boarded. Over the course of the cruise shows appeared every few days to book.

 

What was only bookable on board were the restaurants, and yes those did get booked up quickly for the whole two weeks for peak times.

 

But back to the theatres. None of the shows in the theatre I went to were anywhere near full, and most were perhaps only 30 to at most 50% full - in contrast The Club House you cannot book was always standing room only. Perhaps the difference is mask wearing and no drinks in the theatre, but no masks and drinks in The Club House.

 

Also with the theatre they only had ‘bouncers’ on the door checking people had booked up to the scheduled start time (although if you hadn’t booked it wasn’t an issue and they let you in anyway). After the start time you could just wander in and sit wherever you fancied anyway.

 

Booking did not allocate you a specific seat if you said you didn’t need a wheelchair space (no idea what it did if you did).

I concur with all of this except to say the theatre was generally over 50% full when we attended. We booked but had you turned up on spec, there always seemed to be spaces available.

The Sindhu, Epicurean and Capt Table in the first few days (1/2 price)  were all booked up early when the first passengers boarded but we were piggybacking with a couple who had a suite so had priority boarding which meant we didn't miss out as they booked us in with them.

The onboard app and booking system for entertainment and restaurants worked seamlessly from what I could see. I hate to say this but the people who had issues with it were the people who have issues with mobile phones generally (usually me but not so on this occasion). We used the App to book all the restaurants, MDR and Select, because we ate with others who preferred to use the system though I have to say I never once saw a 'real' queue at the entrance to anything other than for the 710 club (no online booking for this, weirdly) and the Limelight for the aftershow, and both for good reason.

I suspect simply rocking up and waiting with a pager (which we did once and were quoted a 15 min wait at the door, (the exact same time the app allows passengers to get to the restaurant once called incidentally), actually turned out to be no more than 5 min, so there probably will not have been much of a wait for those without phones. 

Once running at full capacity this may change, but I think this is a step forwards. 

The other big change is the waiters use of tablets, much easier. Your card is simply swiped, rather than taken away and returned to you 20 mins later.

 

[amajaa]

18 hours ago, Son of Bare said:

I concur with all of this except to say the theatre was generally over 50% full when we attended. We booked but had you turned up on spec, there always seemed to be spaces available.

The Sindhu, Epicurean and Capt Table in the first few days (1/2 price)  were all booked up early when the first passengers boarded but we were piggybacking with a couple who had a suite so had priority boarding which meant we didn't miss out as they booked us in with them.

The onboard app and booking system for entertainment and restaurants worked seamlessly from what I could see. I hate to say this but the people who had issues with it were the people who have issues with mobile phones generally (usually me but not so on this occasion). We used the App to book all the restaurants, MDR and Select, because we ate with others who preferred to use the system though I have to say I never once saw a 'real' queue at the entrance to anything other than for the 710 club (no online booking for this, weirdly) and the Limelight for the aftershow, and both for good reason.

I suspect simply rocking up and waiting with a pager (which we did once and were quoted a 15 min wait at the door, (the exact same time the app allows passengers to get to the restaurant once called incidentally), actually turned out to be no more than 5 min, so there probably will not have been much of a wait for those without phones. 

Once running at full capacity this may change, but I think this is a step forwards. 

The other big change is the waiters use of tablets, much easier. Your card is simply swiped, rather than taken away and returned to you 20 mins later.

 

 

Thanks, that sounds more positive. The Theatre shows are our favourite part of a cruise, I would be gutted if we didn't get to see them 

[Host Sharon]

I suspect booking will only apply to the biggest ships. After all, the theatre on Aurora can hold nearly every passenger in two sittings, whereas that on Iona is roughly the same size as Aurora, yet the ship has three times as many pax.

[jeanlyon]

Sharon, that's interesting to hear about the sizes of the theatres.

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Sharon, that's interesting to hear about the sizes of the theatres.

And Arcadia can seat roughly (very roughly, using mental arithmetic! ) abiut 70% of pax in two performances.