What price for "extra" restaurants?

[Petenviv]

We have never eaten at the "paying" restaurants onboard ....never felt the need to to be honest....but just seen the Glass House menu on Aurora and might try it for a change from Christmas fayre on our December cruise.  Can anyone give me any idea as to the costs for these "pay" venues please. Thanks

[BrianI]

See here

https://ask.completecruisesolution.com/help/ext/PO/life-on-board/cover_charges

Brian

[Gizmo19]

3 minutes ago, Petenviv said:

We have never eaten at the "paying" restaurants onboard ....never felt the need to to be honest....but just seen the Glass House menu on Aurora and might try it for a change from Christmas fayre on our December cruise.  Can anyone give me any idea as to the costs for these "pay" venues please. Thanks

In general we have eaten at 'extra cost' restaurants on both P&O and Marella.  They can be excellent and worth the money, but it does depend on what your personal favourite dining experience is. We have always found P&O MDR excellent and, pre covid, we have been on tables with great table companions that we chose to stay eating with each night. 

We are on Aurora as from 28th February, so I will report back after the cruise😃

But, expect to pay upwards of £20 per person for a speciality restaurant, with drinks extra on top. I think the range may be £20 - £35 per person. Current cruisers on other P&O ships may be able to expand on that.

 

The last time we did this speciality dining (December 21), we paid an extra £24.99 per person for a 3 course Tapas restaurant (Marella), not realising that to get the 'meat and fish hanging skewer content, cost an additional £9.99 per person. So, we had a mixed tapas starter on a small dinner plate shared between 2 people, then 3 small tapas bowls each (think here small cigarette stubbing bowl, and a desert. So in reality, that should have been costed at an extra £35 per person (which may have put some people off). My husband did order the skewer in the end, but none of us realised that the cigarette bowls would be so small. One of mine was mushrooms and I think it contained 2 tablespoons of finely sliced mushrooms 🤣.

As comparison, on the same 'line' in May 2019, we had 2 fabulous meals in speciality restaurants.

My experience of P&O (only Britannia and Azura to date) is that the speciality restaurants are very good indeed and we would always look to book at least one evening each week of the cruise.

[Bazrat]

1 hour ago, Gizmo19 said:

In general we have eaten at 'extra cost' restaurants on both P&O and Marella.  They can be excellent and worth the money, but it does depend on what your personal favourite dining experience is. We have always found P&O MDR excellent and, pre covid, we have been on tables with great table companions that we chose to stay eating with each night. 

We are on Aurora as from 28th February, so I will report back after the cruise😃

But, expect to pay upwards of £20 per person for a speciality restaurant, with drinks extra on top. I think the range may be £20 - £35 per person. Current cruisers on other P&O ships may be able to expand on that.

 

The last time we did this speciality dining (December 21), we paid an extra £24.99 per person for a 3 course Tapas restaurant (Marella), not realising that to get the 'meat and fish hanging skewer content, cost an additional £9.99 per person. So, we had a mixed tapas starter on a small dinner plate shared between 2 people, then 3 small tapas bowls each (think here small cigarette stubbing bowl, and a desert. So in reality, that should have been costed at an extra £35 per person (which may have put some people off). My husband did order the skewer in the end, but none of us realised that the cigarette bowls would be so small. One of mine was mushrooms and I think it contained 2 tablespoons of finely sliced mushrooms 🤣.

As comparison, on the same 'line' in May 2019, we had 2 fabulous meals in speciality restaurants.

My experience of P&O (only Britannia and Azura to date) is that the speciality restaurants are very good indeed and we would always look to book at least one evening each week of the cruise.

I agree about p&o food and we found Marcella restaurants was good if you could actually book one, but still cannot understand the deconstructed prawn cocktail without any lettuce

[Gizmo19]

On 2/18/2022 at 5:26 PM, Bazrat said:

I agree about p&o food and we found Marcella restaurants was good if you could actually book one, but still cannot understand the deconstructed prawn cocktail without any lettuce

We had no problem booking on Discovery in 2019 (the Kora La was the best speciality restaurant we tried), or Explorer (2 cruises in 2021). The TV booking facility from our cabins last year helped, as we just used that to plan the weeks the first days we were onboard.😄

Deconstructed prawn cocktail, I think the menu was constructed with 'current fashion' in mind, rather than classic favourites. Quite often a mistake I think 😃.

After the December Explorer cruise, we felt that the overall quality of the restaurant food had perhaps gone down since 2019 (from experience of both Tapas and Indian restaurant meals in December) But, I am sure the upcoming P&O menus will be great. As said, I will report back from Aurora. We have purchased the ships wifi, so I will be able to feedback en route so to speak. I think many others will do as well, as its Aurora's first cruise out for over 2 years.

[Astrajet]

3 hours ago, Gizmo19 said:

As said, I will report back from Aurora. We have purchased the ships wifi, so I will be able to feedback en route so to speak. I think many others will do as well, as its Aurora's first cruise out for over 2 years.

I shall look forward to reading your reports as we sail on Aurora on 1st April. 

Could you please tell me if there is/was the opportunity to book any speciality restaurant before sailing?  The booking button is still showing "coming soon"! 

Hope you have a super cruise. 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Astrajet

[grapau27]

On 2/18/2022 at 3:24 PM, Petenviv said:

We have never eaten at the "paying" restaurants onboard ....never felt the need to to be honest....but just seen the Glass House menu on Aurora and might try it for a change from Christmas fayre on our December cruise.  Can anyone give me any idea as to the costs for these "pay" venues please. Thanks

Epicurean on Iona is £22pp less any loyalty discount you have if you book and pay online.

Graham.

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by grapau27

[Gizmo19]

On 2/20/2022 at 3:23 PM, Astrajet said:

I shall look forward to reading your reports as we sail on Aurora on 1st April. 

Could you please tell me if there is/was the opportunity to book any speciality restaurant before sailing?  The booking button is still showing "coming soon"! 

Hope you have a super cruise. 

Thanks 😄.

As to the pre booking of restaurants, no. I tried again only yesterday and it cannot be done. So it looks like everything will be via the P&O 'App' once we are onboard. This inability to pre book also seems to apply to the gym / spa. The my booking etc programme seems to show the ability to book, but once in  the basket, you cannot go any further. So we have given up, and will see what the process is on board.

From what I can see Aurora only had Sindhu (£10 booking fee), Glass House and Beach House.  

[Astrajet]

8 minutes ago, Gizmo19 said:

Thanks 😄.

As to the pre booking of restaurants, no. I tried again only yesterday and it cannot be done. So it looks like everything will be via the P&O 'App' once we are onboard. This inability to pre book also seems to apply to the gym / spa. The my booking etc programme seems to show the ability to book, but once in  the basket, you cannot go any further. So we have given up, and will see what the process is on board.

From what I can see Aurora only had Sindhu (£10 booking fee), Glass House and Beach House.  

Thank you for the update Gizmo19. I have the "app" set up on my phone from last summer's staycation cruises, so will book as soon as I can pick up the ship's WiFi. Really hope the Glass House is as good as it was on Britannia. 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise to the Caribbean - look after Aurora for us 😆