Unable to make dining reservations?

[BertieRulesOK]

I was on Iona in May.  Used the app and never waited over 10mins for a table in a MDR.  We were eating around 7-8pm.  Spoke to others on ship who all had the same experience.  It was no trouble at all.  NB. Not in school holidays, but ship was reasonably full.

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Arvia virtual queues are apparently opened at 6.30pm, and did on my cruise.  The hour before was the only prebooked slots, the theory being according to the restaurant manager that the meal experience would be 1 1/2 hours and therefore the 6.30pm joiners would be seated around 15-20 minutes after joining.  In reality the meal was lasting nearer to 2 hours even without coffee being served which led to an instant app queue.  The restaurant staff were extremely busy and clearing tables didn't seem to be high priority leading presumably to more delays for those waiting to come in.

So not an app problem, but one caused by the staff not being correctly trained to manage the restaurant under the app system, and being permitted to operate their own workarounds to overcome the reluctance of passengers to use the app, thus leading to even longer wait times for those passengers correctly using the app.

But in  Paul Ludlowland I imagine that 99.9% of passengers still believe that the dining arrangements are perfect.😗

[Megabear2]

5 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

the reluctance of passengers to use the app

On this particular voyage it crashed badly on day 2 and could not be used reliably for a number of days afterwards.  The outage led to people having no option but to physically turn up at restaurants on day 2 to try to get in and human nature being as it is many seemed to stick to that route.  It wasn't helped that day 3 was a Celebration Night with all the previously known capacity problems.  Reliability of the app would I assume be the key to making it function on that particular voyage.

 

Interestingly I saw similar problems on QM2 the week before in the Britannia restaurant for the so called second sitting freedom dining.  On that voyage I used the app every night and despite being called within a 15-20 minute window every time found myself in a long queue, the worst of which was at 8.30pm one evening where after arriving at the restaurant the queue to the podium took 45 extra minutes and I ended up leaving the restaurant at 10.50pm.

 

You may be right about training of staff but in reality on both ships the passengers were not helping themselves as it became very clear that once they had experienced a problem they anticipated it would occur every time and just didn't use the app again.  At the time I posted a note of my experience over on the Cunard board and was met with a barrage of questions about why was I even trying to use the app.   

 

Providing the app is one thing, to convert people to using it will be an uphill battle if it isn't reliable and there's also the difficult situation of the mindset I don’t want to use this thing so I'm going to pick as many holes as I can. The problem is there are as many people who will love it as there are detest it and you will not win the latter over without a reliable and simple system.

 

[Happy afloat]

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

So not an app problem, but one caused by the staff not being correctly trained to manage the restaurant under the app system, and being permitted to operate their own workarounds to overcome the reluctance of passengers to use the app, thus leading to even longer wait times for those passengers correctly using the app.

But in  Paul Ludlowland I imagine that 99.9% of passengers still believe that the dining arrangements are perfect.😗

Not just a training issue, but staffing levels also.

On Aurora in April the guest to staff ratio was something like 1800 to 800. Fixed dining for those that wanted it over two sittings meant no queueing or app needed for those of us who didn't. 

The old system, as I've said many times, worked. Don't fix it if it ain't broken. 

[davecttr]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

On this particular voyage it crashed badly on day 2 and could not be used reliably for a number of days afterwards.  The outage led to people having no option but to physically turn up at restaurants on day 2 to try to get in and human nature being as it is many seemed to stick to that route.  It wasn't helped that day 3 was a Celebration Night with all the previously known capacity problems.  Reliability of the app would I assume be the key to making it function on that particular voyage.

 

Interestingly I saw similar problems on QM2 the week before in the Britannia restaurant for the so called second sitting freedom dining.  On that voyage I used the app every night and despite being called within a 15-20 minute window every time found myself in a long queue, the worst of which was at 8.30pm one evening where after arriving at the restaurant the queue to the podium took 45 extra minutes and I ended up leaving the restaurant at 10.50pm.

 

You may be right about training of staff but in reality on both ships the passengers were not helping themselves as it became very clear that once they had experienced a problem they anticipated it would occur every time and just didn't use the app again.  At the time I posted a note of my experience over on the Cunard board and was met with a barrage of questions about why was I even trying to use the app.   

 

Providing the app is one thing, to convert people to using it will be an uphill battle if it isn't reliable and there's also the difficult situation of the mindset I don’t want to use this thing so I'm going to pick as many holes as I can. The problem is there are as many people who will love it as there are detest it and you will not win the latter over without a reliable and simple system.

 

I admit on all my cruises where the App was available I used it until it broke down then stopped using it as it was just too frustrating. I am no technophobe and ran a computer network for part of my career. We only had one problem in 2 years and that was a failure of a backup drive. Did not stop the network functioning though. IMO the 'app' is not stable enough at the moment. Some users of course might be just plain lucky.

[thornegirl]

We were on Arvia at Easter very busy everywhere.  We managed to get in the Olive Grove a couple of times. While we were in there about a third of the restaurant was empty even though there were queues on the app for the restaurant.  We asked the waitress why were tables empty, her reply was they didn’t have enough staff. So there’s the answer. 

[Leomins]

10 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

So not an app problem, but one caused by the staff not being correctly trained to manage the restaurant under the app system, and being permitted to operate their own workarounds to overcome the reluctance of passengers to use the app, thus leading to even longer wait times for those passengers correctly using the app.

But in  Paul Ludlowland I imagine that 99.9% of passengers still believe that the dining arrangements are perfect.😗

Now that P&O have confirmed the app won’t be compulsory, I fear this two tier system of queuing will persist causing unfairness and confusion.

I loved it and found it effective, but it may become less efficient going forward.

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, Happy afloat said:

Not just a training issue, but staffing levels also.

On Aurora in April the guest to staff ratio was something like 1800 to 800. Fixed dining for those that wanted it over two sittings meant no queueing or app needed for those of us who didn't. 

The old system, as I've said many times, worked. Don't fix it if it ain't broken. 

I aotally agree with you for most of the older ships including Azura and Ventura,  and even Britannia for most nights, although we have experienced some long queues, as well as being told there would be an hour wait with a pager. However Arvia and Iona definitely need a working app.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I aotally agree with you for most of the older ships including Azura and Ventura,  and even Britannia for most nights, although we have experienced some long queues, as well as being told there would be an hour wait with a pager. However Arvia and Iona definitely need a working app.

Reading the current Iona threads things seem to be working well over there with the app opening at 5.15pm rather than 6.30pm as on Arvia.  That indicates either opening the app earlier is relieving pressure and more are using it, or the four dining rooms allows the app to handle demand better.  Whichever it is it certainly sounds more civilised and less pressure.

 

Trying to seat the numbers on the big ships may look like a challenge but it seems RC and MSC are doing it reasonably well. It must therefore be doable.

[terrierjohn]

18 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Reading the current Iona threads things seem to be working well over there with the app opening at 5.15pm rather than 6.30pm as on Arvia.  That indicates either opening the app earlier is relieving pressure and more are using it, or the four dining rooms allows the app to handle demand better.  Whichever it is it certainly sounds more civilised and less pressure.

 

Trying to seat the numbers on the big ships may look like a challenge but it seems RC and MSC are doing it reasonably well. It must therefore be doable.

Not sure that RCI have dining sorted. Our last experience on Indy, nowhere near the biggest ship in the fleet, had long queues at the freedom MDR, with lots of laid tables awaiting their pre booked guests. Fortunately wheelchair users where waved to the front of the line so we never had to queue, but I assume the waits at peak times were quite extended.

[daiB]

On 6/11/2023 at 11:47 AM, Megabear2 said:

Arvia's virtual queue in May did not open until 6.30pm as all dining between 5.30 and 6.30 was prebooked.  There was a walk up queue to the right but only a handful from there were admitted before pagers started to be handed out.

 

As there are only two MDR the pressure on Olive Grove and the Diner was also high with the virtual queue filling as soon as they opened.

 

The Olive Grove and Diner on Arvia are classed as MDR’s but with different menu’s

[Megabear2]

30 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Not sure that RCI have dining sorted. Our last experience on Indy, nowhere near the biggest ship in the fleet, had long queues at the freedom MDR, with lots of laid tables awaiting their pre booked guests. Fortunately wheelchair users where waved to the front of the line so we never had to queue, but I assume the waits at peak times were quite extended.

I've never sailed on any RCI ships except the biggest ones.  They limited how many could book freedom dining and when you reserved it via the app or boards around the ship it gave you a time they were in 10 minute increments.  The club dining rooms still existed and were allocated to bookers in the order received, ie you could choose 6.00pm or 8.30pm but once the most popular was gone you got the one left.  Mind you I only sailed out of Fort Lauderdale, Barcelona and Dubai and the bulk of passengers were US residents who are very used to doing as instructed without chancing their arm or questions!

[Megabear2]

6 minutes ago, daiB said:

The Olive Grove and Diner on Arvia are classed as MDR’s but with different menu’s

I appreciate the space is used for dining but the menus are set on weekly turnaround and are not offering the variety of a MDR menu which changes every day.  They are a totally different experience.  The Diner in particular is very much a casual option in my opinion, nice food but very short menu. The Olive Grove also offered shared tables but very few seemed to be bigger than for 4 and I assume sharing in there isn't too popular.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Megabear2

[daiB]

Just now, Megabear2 said:

I appreciate the space is used for dining but the menus are set on weekly turnaround and are not offering the variety of a MDR menu which changes every day.  They are a totally different experience.  The Diner in particular is very much a casual option in my opinion, nice food but very short menu.

They are giving people more choice instead of the one menu MDR as on other ships. Of course the Olive Grove is different to the Olive Grove on Iona. On Arvia it is all included.

[Lee117five0]

On 6/11/2023 at 1:12 PM, Megabear2 said:

I completely agree with you.  I think that booking 6 nights is very reasonable of you.  Myself I booked 13 nights  out of 14 before sailing as I eat early every night and the chances of getting a reservation were very slim if not reserved in advance.  The app queue doesn't open until 6.30pm on Arvia although you can join a physical queue or take the pager up until that time.

 

You are not making the problem worse, you are actually doing what P&O want you to do which is why they open those slots early before sailing.  Things like Olive Grove are quite difficult to get from my experience and if slots are available and you want to try it, I'd suggest you book if the spaces are open, you can always cancel.

 

The 14th day I had no booking for was due to a cancelled all day excursion with a lunch.  Despite trying all cruise to get a reservation anywhere for that Sunday it proved impossible and I went to the Quays.  Certainly don't feel any guilt about booking in advance, it's P&O's system that creates the inequalities not you.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

Thank you for your support. It's funny how some people have a decent experience of not waiting for very long and also being able to book absolutely everything they want and then say that that must be true for everyone. We really struggled on Iona (partly our own fault as first time cruisers not used to how things work) and we've been determined to try and be a bit more organised this time round.

 

Thank you for your best wishes.

 

Many thanks

Lee

[Megabear2]

Just now, daiB said:

They are giving people more choice instead of the one menu MDR as on other ships. Of course the Olive Grove is different to the Olive Grove on Iona. On Arvia it is all included.

I don't doubt they are Olive Grove is very nice, if you can get in ... I booked it before sailing for 6.00pm  I wanted to go again but it was always full and the app closed before I reached the top of the queue!

[Presto2]

On 6/11/2023 at 11:34 AM, Cathygh said:

Yes that's fine if you want to eat early. It depends how busy the ship is and how well staffed they are. I can only go by my experience on Iona G316, where waits for the MDR could be 2 hours or more. 

 

One night (not celebration night, that's a differnet story)we checked the virtual queues at 6.30 - there were long waits and the queues then became full so we couldn't join them. At 7.45 we went to Coral and we were told there were 300 people in the queues ahead of us. After complaining that the system was ridiculous we were shown to a table for 2 (we were happy to share) staright away. We were surprised to see lots of empty tables and also table that had not been cleared. 

 

The expereince on Iona was the opposite of what we had on Azura in Octoober 2022 where we could just walk in whenever we wanted. On Virtuosa in April, which is a similar size to Iona, we could also walk in when we wanted but TBH Virtuosa was not full. 

 

Just to mention, some of our family who were on Iona like to eat early, so they joined the virtual queues when they opened at 5.15. The restaurants opened at 5.30 and most nights they were called between 6 and 6.15.

I feel your pain. If you want to eat at about 7.30pm it is a lottery and the new system a complete farce. You really need to book before you go or as soon as you get on board for peace of mind.

Mr Presto is a very laid back, patient person but he too now twitches if I say 'Freedom dining booking system' .........

[Presto2]

PS Why on earth can they not have the same system as Celebrity? Sorry to sound like a cheer leader here but you can book the exact time and restaurant before you go and change it on board via a proper app. Carnival are a C21st cruise line mega company too are they not?

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Presto2 said:

PS Why on earth can they not have the same system as Celebrity? Sorry to sound like a cheer leader here but you can book the exact time and restaurant before you go and change it on board via a proper app. Carnival are a C21st cruise line mega company too are they not?

Princess, which is part of Carnival does allow you to make MDR reservations both prior to sailing and once on board, and amendments can also be made. But as they get booked up the choices of times, restaurants  and whether sharing tables or tables for 2 are available does diminish, with some restaurants becoming fully booked.

However I am not certain I am going to enjoy the experience, especially if I find I cannot move my pre booking time, if I want to make it fit an entertainment venue I want to see. 

I very much preferred the old first come system for freedom dining, which for us was what Freedom dining was meant to be.