Where to eat for Gala night?

[gteach]

Hi all,

 

For gala/celebration night, where do you recommend eating? 

 

My partner is quite fussy and from the menu's we've seen for MDR it is quite hit and miss.

 

What speciality restaurants suit the formal wear?

 

(We will be on Iona)

Edited October 30, 2022 by gteach

[Harry Peterson]

Gala Night always used to mean a slightly better menu in the MDR, so we tended to use that on Gala Nights.

 

On other nights for us it would have to be the Epicurean. On its own for food, atmosphere and service.

[davecttr]

Epicurian and Sindu require formal wear on gala nights. Not sure about the requirements for the Beach House. The Limelight club might be OK but I think it is evening casual?

 

The 4 MDR's of course

[230462]

I believe that Chef's Table has a special menu for Formal nights. The only trouble is that I have just received an e mail from P&O that states that no dining (except Limelight) can be booked pre cruise. So it seems that we will have to join a queue with, potentially, 2000 + other guests to book speciality dining when on board. Thanks P&O!

[FangedRose]

53 minutes ago, 230462 said:

I believe that Chef's Table has a special menu for Formal nights. The only trouble is that I have just received an e mail from P&O that states that no dining (except Limelight) can be booked pre cruise. So it seems that we will have to join a queue with, potentially, 2000 + other guests to book speciality dining when on board. Thanks P&O!

No, you will do it through the 'app'. Which is not an app but a section of the ship's intranet, which doesn’t require WiFi to connect to.

[Son of Anarchy]

5 hours ago, 230462 said:

I believe that Chef's Table has a special menu for Formal nights. The only trouble is that I have just received an e mail from P&O that states that no dining (except Limelight) can be booked pre cruise. So it seems that we will have to join a queue with, potentially, 2000 + other guests to book speciality dining when on board. Thanks P&O!

From which date does that apply?

 

We're on board next month and haven't received anything - yet!

 

Tia

[tring]

7 hours ago, davecttr said:

Epicurian and Sindu require formal wear on gala nights. Not sure about the requirements for the Beach House. The Limelight club might be OK but I think it is evening casual?

 

The 4 MDR's of course

 

We got off Azura last week and only the mdr and Epicurean needed formal wear on formal nights. It was not essential to wear formal attire in Sindu, the Glasshouse and Beach house, though a number of people did.  The Planet bar and the Blue Bar also needed formal attire, but not anywhere else.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by tring

[tring]

1 hour ago, Son of Anarchy said:

From which date does that apply?

 

We're on board next month and haven't received anything - yet!

 

Tia

 

We were not able to book any speciality dining on Azura until we were on the ship.  We were on a back to back, yet even when on the ship we could not book anything for the second cruise until the first one had finished.  As people on two week cruises could book for their second week, a lot of slots were booked, with virtually nothing available for Sindu, for instance.

 

[davecttr]

The OP was asking about Iona and the venues may vary depending on the ship

 

Interesting to see they have retained the casual dress code in the Glasshouse despite the web site saying it is formal

Edited October 30, 2022 by davecttr

[devonuk]

9 hours ago, gteach said:

Hi all,

 

For gala/celebration night, where do you recommend eating? 

 

My partner is quite fussy and from the menu's we've seen for MDR it is quite hit and miss.

 

What speciality restaurants suit the formal wear?

 

(We will be on Iona)

We used the Opal on our formal nights and found it to be pretty damn good and quite intimate compared to the other 3 MDR’s. 

[230462]

11 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

From which date does that apply?

 

We're on board next month and haven't received anything - yet!

 

Tia

I only know that this applies to Iona 12/11 cruise - but fear that the same may apply to other Iona cruises and to Arvia when she debuts.

[Son of Anarchy]

10 hours ago, tring said:

 

We were not able to book any speciality dining on Azura until we were on the ship.  We were on a back to back, yet even when on the ship we could not book anything for the second cruise until the first one had finished.  As people on two week cruises could book for their second week, a lot of slots were booked, with virtually nothing available for Sindu, for instance.

 

Thanks Tring.  We're on Azura in January.  Good to know, especially re booking for the second week of the cruise as we're travelling with several friends.

[Son of Anarchy]

18 minutes ago, 230462 said:

I only know that this applies to Iona 12/11 cruise - but fear that the same may apply to other Iona cruises and to Arvia when she debuts.

Thanks 230462.  We're on the one afterwards.  Will assume that this will still apply, and wait and see what happens if anything on CP.

 

Not an issue.  We have a larger amount of OBC to get through than usual, so looking at using Speciality dining a little bit more than we usually would.  Have to take our chances on board!  Like the Old Days!

[tring]

26 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Thanks Tring.  We're on Azura in January.  Good to know, especially re booking for the second week of the cruise as we're travelling with several friends.

 

The app often gave no availability for the restaurants, but it was still worth asking at the resstaurant you are interested in, (or even the mdr which booked us in on one occasion), as there often are slots they can book.  The Glasshouse was a nuisance as the app always said it was unavailable, yet no bookings could be done on the app at all.  The person at the door was constantly busy making new bookings, because of that, so if turning up to eat there, we often had to wait a while to be seated as bookings were being made by others for later days.

 

The freedom dining was not working well, particularly on formal nights - very long waits and not a restful experience once we arrived, (gross shortage of staff) so we took to going to the Glasshouse or Sindu on formal nights. 

 

We had a very bad experience in the Epicurean as well. Incredibly slow service  more than 1.5 hours to service of main course and menu was all about incredibly large protein servings with little sign of any veg - that was for all courses on the menu.  It seems the only way you could get any course without a large amount of meat/fish is if you claim to have dietary requirements at least a day before and the chef will, "rustle something up for you"!  I sent one course back in the Epicurean and was told the cost of the ingredient, rather than getting an apology and/or offer of a replacement.  Staff were not good either.

 

Self service was good and we used the mdr for lunch on sea days, which was very good.

  

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by tring

[Son of Anarchy]

13 hours ago, tring said:

 

The app often gave no availability for the restaurants, but it was still worth asking at the resstaurant you are interested in, (or even the mdr which booked us in on one occasion), as there often are slots they can book.  The Glasshouse was a nuisance as the app always said it was unavailable, yet no bookings could be done on the app at all.  The person at the door was constantly busy making new bookings, because of that, so if turning up to eat there, we often had to wait a while to be seated as bookings were being made by others for later days.

 

The freedom dining was not working well, particularly on formal nights - very long waits and not a restful experience once we arrived, (gross shortage of staff) so we took to going to the Glasshouse or Sindu on formal nights. 

 

We had a very bad experience in the Epicurean as well. Incredibly slow service  more than 1.5 hours to service of main course and menu was all about incredibly large protein servings with little sign of any veg - that was for all courses on the menu.  It seems the only way you could get any course without a large amount of meat/fish is if you claim to have dietary requirements at least a day before and the chef will, "rustle something up for you"!  I sent one course back in the Epicurean and was told the cost of the ingredient, rather than getting an apology and/or offer of a replacement.  Staff were not good either.

 

Self service was good and we used the mdr for lunch on sea days, which was very good.

  

 

Thanks again Tring.  Forewarned is forearmed!  

[tring]

1 hour ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Thanks again Tring.  Forewarned is forearmed!  

 

Hopefully will have got better by the time you get on the ship, we embarked 29th Sept for 23 nights.  Overall we liked Sindu and The Glasshouse.  The ship is looking good and our cabins and stewards were good.