Speciality restaurants - Booking Before Departure

[Angel57]

4 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

We’re on Aurora on the 15th August, can’t book restaurants says enquire onboard 

You haven’t been able to pre-book restaurants on Aurora before getting on board for quite a while. Suggest you do it as soon as you on there.

Enjoy your cruise. We had a great time in June.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Angel57

[thornegirl]

3 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

You haven’t been able to pre-book restaurants on Aurora before getting on board for quite a while. Suggest you do it as soon as you on there.

Enjoy your cruise. We had a great time in June.

We will do, only like the glasshouse and possibly the beach house. Not keen on Sindhu since Atol Kochhar left. 

[Angel57]

19 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

We will do, only like the glasshouse and possibly the beach house. Not keen on Sindhu since Atol Kochhar left. 

The beach house got pretty booked up within the first 24 hrs of boarding.

Never had a problem with getting into Glasshouse.

 

[Mrs applehead]

I booked this morning for Sindu, beach house and epicurean for our cruise on Britannia in 2 weeks.

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, Mrs applehead said:

I booked this morning for Sindu, beach house and epicurean for our cruise on Britannia in 2 weeks.

That’s a very recent change then, as we were on Britannia last month and we couldn’t book any of those restaurants until we boarded. The only restaurant that we could book prior to the cruise was Limelight Club and, as of yesterday, @Megabear2 was told by P&O that this was still the case. A cynic may say that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing at P&O 😂 

[Presto2]

24 minutes ago, Mrs applehead said:

I booked this morning for Sindu, beach house and epicurean for our cruise on Britannia in 2 weeks.

Oh that's good news. Fingers and toes crossed !!!

[Mrs applehead]

4 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Oh that's good news. Fingers and toes crossed !!!

Get online early, I was on at 7am and times I was trying to book were selling out before I had a chance to pay.

I think it opens at midnight.

Fingers crossed for you.

[Presto2]

7 minutes ago, Mrs applehead said:

Get online early, I was on at 7am and times I was trying to book were selling out before I had a chance to pay.

I think it opens at midnight.

Fingers crossed for you.

How long is it before you sail?

[Mrs applehead]

16 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

How long is it before you sail?

14 days

[Presto2]

Will be up early over Christmas then .. us and Megabear ! Have a great cruise and thanks so much for giving us light at the end of the tunnel !

[Selbourne]

Well I’m pleased to say that by burning the midnight oil last night I have managed to secure all our dining reservations for our cruise on Iona in 2 weeks time. Booked the Norwegian Tasting menu in Epicurean for my wife and I and the Beach House for our daughters and their partners who didn’t fancy it. Secured two further bookings in Epicurean for the regular menu, one in Sindhu and the Limelight Club. If I’d left it until this morning, I wouldn’t have been able to make one of our Epicurean bookings and several of the other bookings I wouldn’t have been able to secure at the times that we wanted. 
 

The Limelight Club was the only disappointment, as our daughters were keen to see either Gareth Gates (who is on the cruise preceding ours) or La Voix. We have got Matt Cardle, yet another X-Factor has-been (clearly the folk at P&O who book these acts are huge X-factor fans). I’ll cancel if our daughters don’t fancy it. 
 

I wanted to book one dinner in Keel & Cow, but that can’t be booked until we are on board (presumably only bookable on the evening that we wish to dine, rather than when we board - does anyone know?). Although the Chefs Table doesn’t appeal to me, I have booked a table for 6 for the later sitting as a fall back if we can’t get a table in the MDR. 

[Dermotsgirl]

24 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’m pleased to say that by burning the midnight oil last night I have managed to secure all our dining reservations for our cruise on Iona in 2 weeks time. Booked the Norwegian Tasting menu in Epicurean for my wife and I and the Beach House for our daughters and their partners who didn’t fancy it. Secured two further bookings in Epicurean for the regular menu, one in Sindhu and the Limelight Club. If I’d left it until this morning, I wouldn’t have been able to make one of our Epicurean bookings and several of the other bookings I wouldn’t have been able to secure at the times that we wanted. 
 

The Limelight Club was the only disappointment, as our daughters were keen to see either Gareth Gates (who is on the cruise preceding ours) or La Voix. We have got Matt Cardle, yet another X-Factor has-been (clearly the folk at P&O who book these acts are huge X-factor fans). I’ll cancel if our daughters don’t fancy it. 
 

I wanted to book one dinner in Keel & Cow, but that can’t be booked until we are on board (presumably only bookable on the evening that we wish to dine, rather than when we board - does anyone know?). Although the Chefs Table doesn’t appeal to me, I have booked a table for 6 for the later sitting as a fall back if we can’t get a table in the MDR. 

I’m glad that you have been able to book what you want, but it’s crazy that people have to do it in the middle of the night! 😂

[Mrs applehead]

34 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Well I’m pleased to say that by burning the midnight oil last night I have managed to secure all our dining reservations for our cruise on Iona in 2 weeks time. Booked the Norwegian Tasting menu in Epicurean for my wife and I and the Beach House for our daughters and their partners who didn’t fancy it. Secured two further bookings in Epicurean for the regular menu, one in Sindhu and the Limelight Club. If I’d left it until this morning, I wouldn’t have been able to make one of our Epicurean bookings and several of the other bookings I wouldn’t have been able to secure at the times that we wanted. 
 

The Limelight Club was the only disappointment, as our daughters were keen to see either Gareth Gates (who is on the cruise preceding ours) or La Voix. We have got Matt Cardle, yet another X-Factor has-been (clearly the folk at P&O who book these acts are huge X-factor fans). I’ll cancel if our daughters don’t fancy it. 
 

I wanted to book one dinner in Keel & Cow, but that can’t be booked until we are on board (presumably only bookable on the evening that we wish to dine, rather than when we board - does anyone know?). Although the Chefs Table doesn’t appeal to me, I have booked a table for 6 for the later sitting as a fall back if we can’t get a table in the MDR. 

On Iona last October we could only join the virtual queue for keel and cow but it went down quickly.

We only went once because they were so short staffed it took forever and I ended up getting a refund for my steak as it was so bad.

[Selbourne]

16 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I’m glad that you have been able to book what you want, but it’s crazy that people have to do it in the middle of the night! 😂

Thanks. I agree. In order to avoid disappointment you now need a military style strategy which, sometimes, doesn’t survive first contact with the enemy 😂 

[Selbourne]

7 minutes ago, Mrs applehead said:

On Iona last October we could only join the virtual queue for keel and cow but it went down quickly.

We only went once because they were so short staffed it took forever and I ended up getting a refund for my steak as it was so bad.

Thanks for clarifying. Hopefully it has improved since last October 🤞

[Mrs applehead]

Just now, Selbourne said:

Thanks for clarifying. Hopefully it has improved since last October 🤞

No problem. I've read lots of good reviews since we went.

Have a lovely cruise.

[jh1809]

15 hours ago, Mrs applehead said:

I booked this morning for Sindu, beach house and epicurean for our cruise on Britannia in 2 weeks.

It might be worth my while checking again for my Arcadia cruise departing on Tuesday then, just in case it's a fleet-wide change that P&O haven't bothered to announce.

[Presto2]

2 hours ago, jh1809 said:

It might be worth my while checking again for my Arcadia cruise departing on Tuesday then, just in case it's a fleet-wide change that P&O haven't bothered to announce.

Good luck

[jh1809]

11 hours ago, jh1809 said:

It might be worth my while checking again for my Arcadia cruise departing on Tuesday then, just in case it's a fleet-wide change that P&O haven't bothered to announce.

Turns out there's still no pre-booking for Arcadia.

[Selbourne]

Whilst killing time waiting for the shows to (hopefully) open for booking at midnight, I thought I’d have a look to see how I would get on if I was trying to make our dining reservations now, less than 24 hours after they opened for booking. 
 

I wouldn’t be able to book any tables for 6 in Epicurean now, other than on one night, which is the formal night when we’d want to dine in the MDR.

 

I wouldn’t now be able to book a table for 6 in the Limelight Club on the day that I’ve booked. The only 2 days left would be the first night and the formal night, neither of which we’d want. 
 

The Norwegian Tasting menu that I booked for 8pm for just my wife and me would now have to be 9.15pm, meaning that we’d miss the 10.30pm show.  
 

Same problem with Sindhu. I couldn’t book our 7.30pm table for 4 now, the earliest available time now left being 9pm, so we’d miss the show. 
 

Whilst me may end up cancelling it, there are no more tables for 6 left for the Chefs Table.

 

The only restaurant where I could still get near enough the same booking is the Beach House. 
 

I’m pleased that I got £131 discount by booking in advance and a further £53 loyalty discount on top of that, so staying up very late has thankfully paid dividends. 
 

As one of my daughters said when I was telling her about it earlier, there will be a lot of first time cruisers who will be unaware of the need to book immediately that bookings open and will be very disappointed that they will be unable to make bookings for the speciality restaurants, especially if wanting to celebrate a special occasion. There have been no emails today announcing that restaurant bookings have opened. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Selbourne

[Son of Anarchy]

Good to hear that staying up late paid off for your restaurant bookings.  Thank you for providing feedback on how the situation would have been had you not made your bookings when you did.  Its good to have an objective view of the situation only 24 hours later.

 

It is a bit of a shame that it has come to passengers having to pounce on their computers in the middle of the night to secure dining and possibly some entertainment events.  This however is a problem that  P & O appear to have brought upon themselves imo.

 

We tend to dine early these days, so when we were on Arvia we were able to pre-book the MDR, but even a lot of the 18:30 slots went within 24 hours.

 

Past Iona and Arvia passengers will be aware of these issues pre-cruise, newbies may not be unless they do their research on forums such as this one.  Fail to plan, plan to fail and all that.

 

At least you can relax at the embarkation lunch and not have to spend your time on the "app".  Apart from booking 710 Club of course!

Edited August 6, 2023 by Son of Anarchy

[Selbourne]

15 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Good to hear that staying up late paid off for your restaurant bookings.  Thank you for providing feedback on how the situation would have been had you not made your bookings when you did.  Its good to have an objective view of the situation only 24 hours later.

 

It is a bit of a shame that it has come to passengers having to pounce on their computers in the middle of the night to secure dining and possibly some entertainment events.  This however is a problem that  P & O appear to have brought upon themselves imo.

 

We tend to dine early these days, so when we were on Arvia we were able to pre-book the MDR, but even a lot of the 18:30 slots went within 24 hours.

 

Past Iona and Arvia passengers will be aware of these issues pre-cruise, newbies may not be unless they do their research on forums such as this one.  Fail to plan, plan to fail and all that.

 

At least you can relax at the embarkation lunch and not have to spend your time on the "app".  Apart from booking 710 Club of course!

Thanks. Yes, my intention of the post was to help others to understand that you have to pounce very quickly if you want to secure the days and times that you want, which I guess is especially important for those celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. I can’t say that I like it, as it’s a level of hassle that holidays are meant to alleviate, but it’s satisfying when your strategy pays off 😂 

 

Unfortunately, as mentioned on another thread, bookings for the show still haven’t been activated yet, even though we are now 13 days from departure. It’s anybody’s guess what’s going on there. 
 

As you say, at least I won’t have to be pouncing on the app the moment that my bum hits the seat in the embarkation lunch (as I did on Britannia recently) - assuming, of course, that the theatre shows eventually activate pre cruise. I will take a look at the 710 Club, as we found the Live Lounge to be too crowded on Britannia, whereas I know that the 710 Club is limited. Am I right in thinking that you can only book each day on the day, rather than the whole cruise on day 1 as you can with the main theatre and restaurants?

[Megabear2]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. Yes, my intention of the post was to help others to understand that you have to pounce very quickly if you want to secure the days and times that you want, which I guess is especially important for those celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. I can’t say that I like it, as it’s a level of hassle that holidays are meant to alleviate, but it’s satisfying when your strategy pays off 😂 

 

Unfortunately, as mentioned on another thread, bookings for the show still haven’t been activated yet, even though we are now 13 days from departure. It’s anybody’s guess what’s going on there. 
 

As you say, at least I won’t have to be pouncing on the app the moment that my bum hits the seat in the embarkation lunch (as I did on Britannia recently) - assuming, of course, that the theatre shows eventually activate pre cruise. I will take a look at the 710 Club, as we found the Live Lounge to be too crowded on Britannia, whereas I know that the 710 Club is limited. Am I right in thinking that you can only book each day on the day, rather than the whole cruise on day 1 as you can with the main theatre and restaurants?

On Arvia they were available on day 1 for every night.

[Son of Anarchy]

14 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

As you say, at least I won’t have to be pouncing on the app the moment that my bum hits the seat in the embarkation lunch (as I did on Britannia recently) - assuming, of course, that the theatre shows eventually activate pre cruise. I will take a look at the 710 Club, as we found the Live Lounge to be too crowded on Britannia, whereas I know that the 710 Club is limited. Am I right in thinking that you can only book each day on the day, rather than the whole cruise on day 1 as you can with the main theatre and restaurants?

As Megabear says on Arvia you can book 710 Club for the whole cruise as soon as you can access the "app".  Which is what we did whilst at lunch.  Cancelled one or two evenings later on, as soon as we decided we wanted to something else that evening.

[Selbourne]

Well, if ever proof were needed that, at times, P&O cannot organise a p**s up in a brewery, the email that I have just received confirms it. As well as stating that bookings for shows are now open (which they aren’t - I’ve clicked on the ‘book now’ button and they still aren’t there), as for speciality restaurants (all of which I booked at midnight Friday night) it states;

 

Speciality restaurants, excluding the Limelight Club, are not currently bookable before your holiday. Please speak to the teams on board who will be pleased to advise you about the most up‑to‑date availability.
 

Well anyone following that advice is going to be mightily unhappy. What a farce.