Selbourne Live from Iona!

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Yes - a fixed table is a hit or a miss isn’t it?   I’ve found solo ok in freedom, particularly if you eat with even one or two other solos at a shared table with couples as well.   I know it doesn’t exist on Iona bit no way would I contemplate 35 nights with the same table companions. 

Thanks for yiur replies.

That being the case you will love Iona.  I found it quite lonely on Arvia compared with all my other solo cruises as unless you actively made arrangements to be in a certain place at a certain time the ship was very large and you rarely bumped into the same people twice.

 

I guess that's why we are all different. I love building friendships and relationships with people I cruise with.  I have wonderful relationships with the people I shared my table with on my world cruise in 2019 and the past few years and all the turmoil worldwide has ironically bonded us even closer.  On this coming Thursday I am meeting two American friends I shared a table with on QM2 in 2014 and in the interim period the whole group of 8 of us meet up either in Texas, Florida or London.  This is our first meet up since March 2018 and we are all extremely excited.

[ParisHilton]

8 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Oh I love it... 

If we feel its intrusive or inappropriate, we just lie... 🤥

We particularly like the 'so, how did you 2 meet' question... 

There are loads of P&O passengers around who think I was a knife thrower in a circus and Michelle was my glamorous assistant😂🎪🔪🗡️

Andy 

 

Haha, you are as liberal with the truth as I am.

 I did once tell US immigration I was visiting for business as a ghost hunter.  When they started probing I think I may have started sweating. Luckily I'd spent some of the flight creating a back story....

[Ilovemygarden]

2 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

That being the case you will love Iona.  I found it quite lonely on Arvia compared with all my other solo cruises as unless you actively made arrangements to be in a certain place at a certain time the ship was very large and you rarely bumped into the same people twice.

 

I guess that's why we are all different. I love building friendships and relationships with people I cruise with.  I have wonderful relationships with the people I shared my table with on my world cruise in 2019 and the past few years and all the turmoil worldwide has ironically bonded us even closer.  On this coming Thursday I am meeting two American friends I shared a table with on QM2 in 2014 and in the interim period the whole group of 8 of us meet up either in Texas, Florida or London.  This is our first meet up since March 2018 and we are all extremely excited.

Yes I understand that too - in fact on Saturday night past I had a catch up with “cruise” friends (8 of us) who we met 21 years ago and have befriended other lovely people on shared tables when my husband was alive but one not so good dining experience a few years ago whilst travelling solo has made me a bit wary now.  I do  know where you are coming from though about sometimes maybe feeling a little bit lonely on such a large ship.

[ParisHilton]

I can't speak for the MDRs but in the buffets, they are generally so busy you can be lost amongst the crowds. I doubt people would even have time to notice you are solo.  Though a ) that may well be very different when not at capacity. And b) I can't imagine eating in the buffets three times a day every day for 2 or 3 weeks!

[Megabear2]

Just now, Ilovemygarden said:

Yes I understand that too - in fact on Saturday night past I had a catch up with “cruise” friends (8 of us) who we met 21 years ago and have befriended other lovely people on shared tables when my husband was alive but one not so good dining experience a few years ago whilst travelling solo has made me a bit wary now.  I do  know where you are coming from though about sometimes maybe feeling a little bit lonely on such a large ship.

I found Arvia odd in as much as it was my first P&O or Cunard cruise where I never found anyone, staff or guest, who I'd not met before.  With all my personal traumas over the noise issues etc I think I would have felt far better if I had that individual contact with others I'd met before even if it had been only a day or so before.  It became an extremely lonely place at the time and I now realise much as I like my own space and being alone I do like the comfort of a friendly face I've seen before.

[grapau27]

23 hours ago, Selbourne said:

FINAL THOUGHTS

 

This cruise was a long time coming. We were originally booked on Iona’s maiden cruise (2020?) which never happened due to ‘you know what’. That cruise had pretty much the same itinerary as the one originally sold to us for this year, but was 9 days with 2 extra sea days. No idea why. As previously mentioned, we’d had several disappointments with this cruise before we even boarded, firstly with the removal of Geiranger (which was the reason that we had booked this specific cruise) and then the further removal of the partial scenic transit towards Geiranger that had been put in as a pacifier. 

 

If all of that hadn’t been enough, I also found out last year that the run of 3 deluxe balcony cabins that I’d specifically booked, due to their prime location, were in the ‘quarantine zone’ and passengers booked in them were being told shortly before their cruise that they were being moved. This would have been a major issue for us and would have resulted in us having to cancel all 3 cabins and then having a battle royale with P&O to get a refund. There was only 1 accessible cabin that was a higher grade than we had booked and that was the sole accessible suite, which we had intentionally not booked due to its poor location directly above the Sunset Bar and only 2 decks above the Club Lounge. We’d had an aft suite 2 decks above the Live Lounge on Britannia previously and the noise was a pain

 

Then, to top it all, I had read countless reviews of poor MDR experiences (long waits etc) and other issues with the large ships (admittedly mostly Arvia). In all honesty, had the cruise just been for the two of us I would have probably cancelled it a year ago, but we were going with our daughters and their partners who were really looking forward to it, so as we have plenty of other cruises booked we decided that we would go ahead and primarily focus on spending quality time together as a family, which we certainly achieved.

 

In attempting to detail our final thoughts there’s a danger of just repeating what I’ve already reported, so to keep it simple I will just highlight the top 3 things that we liked the most and the worst 3 things, before a final closing thought. 

 

TOP LIKES

Food - Iona has the best choice of dining venues and food types that we have experienced on any P&O ship. I know that we are not alone on this forum in placing good food very high up on the list of what we look for on a cruise ship and Iona did not disappoint in this regard. Those who consider themselves to be ‘foodies’ can book a cruise on this ship with confidence. 

 

Pearl MDR - OK, I have to admit that we did have some preferential treatment with a reserved table for the Celebration night and breakfast each day, but even when we went in for lunch, or members of our group went for dinner independently, we had a 100% success rate with good quality food, served hot and in a timely manner. This forum is full of comments about how poor the MDRs are on P&O ships are these days, but having recently had 14 days on Britannia and then this cruise, we have been very happy with the MDR food. It’s also worth stating that the MyHoliday app seems to work far better on Iona than on Britannia. I couldn’t help but wonder if the fact that the vast majority of cruisers on Iona were first timers helped in this regard, as most people just used the app without question. On Britannia, where the vast majority of passengers were previous cruisers, large numbers of people didn’t use the app (couldn’t or wouldn’t) and, as a result, you had several systems conflicting with one another causing inefficiencies and long waits. 

 

Accessible Cabins - My wife really appreciated the enhancements to the accessible cabins on Iona, in particular the electric balcony doors and height adjustable basins, which are perfect for those who are confined to wheelchairs. 

 

TOP DISLIKES

 

Lifts - All the P&O ships that have been launched since we started cruising with P&O seem to have a design flaw of some sort. Ventura and Azura have a gym in the prime spot where a Crows Nest should be and their promenade decks have stairs at the forward end. Britannia doesn’t even have a promenade deck (in spite of being designed for the British market) and whoever decided that having no passenger stairs midships clearly didn’t understand how flow works around cruise ships. On paper, it looked as though Iona had nailed all of these issues and would therefore be our perfect ship. We hadn’t for one minute considered that the biggest challenge that we would face on the ship would be that the lifts were far too small. With 16 decks accessible by lift and up to 6,000 passengers wanting to use them, why anybody thought that installing such small lifts would suffice is beyond me. As the week went on, more and more people were commenting on how small the lifts were and how long it could take to get in one, not just those of us with mobility challenges. My wife’s wheelchair is slightly smaller than average, yet with me pushing we occupy very nearly half the lift. That’s just ridiculous and caused us major problems, as most lifts were at least two thirds full, even at non-peak times. 

Design & Ambiance - Let me start by saying that this is a purely subjective area and the other member of our group (in their 20s and 30s) loved the ship and its modernity. We like a ship to look and feel like a ship, not a conference hotel, which is what we felt Iona looked like. This ship has an entirely different look and feel from any other P&O ship, but not for the better in our opinion. The atrium was a particular disappointment, with acres of not particularly attractive marble flooring and chrome. The metal clad undersides of the feature stairs looked like air conditioning ducting. It was also a loud and crowded space, with the Glass House and Keel & Cow losing any sort of restaurant vibe as a result. It was like eating in a shopping mall. We also didn’t like the design of the Promenade deck. I prefer a covered promenade deck (that you can still walk around in inclement weather) and one that has a traditional side rail that you can stand at and take in the views. On Iona the promenade deck is completely exposed to the elements and for the vast majority of its length has the very high glass screens that are usually reserved for the top Sun decks. Consequently, views from the majority of the promenade deck are through glass. 

Crowded feel & bar service - There were apparently 5,700 passengers on this cruise. I’ve no idea how many children were on board, but they were never an issue. There were lots of babies, many of which seemed to be crying in the restaurants we happened to be dining in, which was a bit irritating but to be expected on a family ship. Although the ship didn’t feel massively bigger than Britannia to us, it was significantly busier - far busier than any other ship we have been on in fact. The added problem was that staff levels seemed to be tight, particularly in some of the bars. It was an effort to get service in the Crows Nest at times. 

 

So, in conclusion, would I recommend Iona? In a word, yes. Many of the things that we had feared would be an issue before we went turned out to be absolutely fine. The choice of food venues and quality of the food (and, in most places, service) was excellent. Our daughters felt that the cabins were the best that they had stayed in and they loved the overall ambiance of the ship, even areas that we really disliked. P&O have targeted this ship for the new to cruising market who may be accustomed to large resort hotels and, in that regard, they have succeeded. As I have said, style and ambiance are entirely subjective and down to personal taste. For every couple like us, who prefer a ship to feel like a ship and prefer refined and luxurious looking interiors, there will be many other couples who prefer modern and minimalistic. There’s no right or wrong to this. It’s just personal taste. 

 

I have no doubt that the issues that we had around the ship feeling crowded, and slow service in bars as a result, would be considerably less, if not non-existent, outside of school holidays. 10-20% more passengers than would be the case on a cruise that is outside the peak summer school holidays is bound to make a significant difference. 

 

The biggest negative for us was the challenges with the lifts. Those who are able bodied, or even those with disabilities but are able to stand, shouldn’t encounter anything like the level of issues that we had. Lifts are busy and you might not always be able to get into the first one but it won’t be a major issue. I’d also suggest that even wheelchair and scooter users will probably cope OK out of school holidays - again 10-20% less passengers than we had will make a world of difference. If you are a wheelchair or scooter user and have no option but to cruise in school holidays, just be aware that you may encounter some issues and won’t necessarily be extended the same courtesy as you may have experienced on other ships. There are none of the usual signs or announcements asking people to give priority to wheelchair users and those with disabilities and, judging by the response that I had when I raised the challenges that we were having at reception, this appears to be a conscious decision. This attitude, and the challenges that we had as a result, has unfortunately put my wife off cruising on Iona again and would also write off Arvia for us as the sister ship, but as over 99% of the population thankfully don’t have to contend with the severe level of disability that my wife now has to endure, this shouldn’t put others off. I am sure that those of you who are booked to go on Iona, or are considering it, will have a fabulous cruise in every respect, as our daughters and their partners did. 

Very interesting summary complementing a very enjoyable read all week.

Hopefully a lot of people reading your wheelchair issues with lifts will in future give wheelchair users priority if they didn't already.

Thank you Selbourne.

Graham.

[ParisHilton]

1 minute ago, Megabear2 said:

I found Arvia odd in as much as it was my first P&O or Cunard cruise where I never found anyone, staff or guest, who I'd not met before.  With all my personal traumas over the noise issues etc I think I would have felt far better if I had that individual contact with others I'd met before even if it had been only a day or so before.  It became an extremely lonely place at the time and I now realise much as I like my own space and being alone I do like the comfort of a friendly face I've seen before.

 

I think I got to know the casino staff a bit too well 🙂

[AndyMichelle]

Thank you Selbourne, you really do make us feel like we are there. 

What we have learned from your reports is that it's very much horses for courses. 

Our youngest daughter and her partner want to cruise with us and, although I wouldn't say they are fussy eaters, I think they wouldn't get too excited with the 'traditional' P&o food and formality, so Iona sounds ideal. 

We have already booked Britannia again with Michelles Dad, Brother, Niece and their partners who prefer more traditional cruising, but not quite as dated as the really old ships. 

For me, I couldn't cope with all that disgusting white marble flooring on Iona, or bad tellies on Aurora etc, so Britannia fits for me😂

Andy 

[Fionboard]

Have been cruising solo for 12 years. Have always had fixed dining and made some long term friends from it.  Hate Freedom dining. Personally I prefer the small ships as I always meet people I have cruised with before and find the ambience much more sociable and friendly. You meet the same people around the ship and even when ashore. Have never needed the solo get togethers. I have enjoyed all the ships except Iona on which I had the most lonely and boring cruise (only went on it because it was a giveaway price!) However, these are my personal preferences and I would not want to put anyone off trying the big ships as we all have different tastes. Luckily, there is something for everyone. 

[Fionboard]

17 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Thank you Selbourne, you really do make us feel like we are there. 

What we have learned from your reports is that it's very much horses for courses. 

Our youngest daughter and her partner want to cruise with us and, although I wouldn't say they are fussy eaters, I think they wouldn't get too excited with the 'traditional' P&o food and formality, so Iona sounds ideal. 

We have already booked Britannia again with Michelles Dad, Brother, Niece and their partners who prefer more traditional cruising, but not quite as dated as the really old ships. 

For me, I couldn't cope with all that disgusting white marble flooring on Iona, or bad tellies on Aurora etc, so Britannia fits for me😂

Andy 

Aurora has big TVs, unlike Ventura ones which I have to put my driving glasses on to see! 

[AndyMichelle]

1 minute ago, Fionboard said:

Aurora has big TVs, unlike Ventura ones which I have to put my driving glasses on to see! 

Oh that's good news, thank you. 

[Sarah1974]

@Selbourne thank you for your very informative daily review of your cruise

[Selbourne]

32 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Thank you Selbourne, you really do make us feel like we are there. 

What we have learned from your reports is that it's very much horses for courses. 

Our youngest daughter and her partner want to cruise with us and, although I wouldn't say they are fussy eaters, I think they wouldn't get too excited with the 'traditional' P&o food and formality, so Iona sounds ideal. 

We have already booked Britannia again with Michelles Dad, Brother, Niece and their partners who prefer more traditional cruising, but not quite as dated as the really old ships. 

For me, I couldn't cope with all that disgusting white marble flooring on Iona, or bad tellies on Aurora etc, so Britannia fits for me😂

Andy 

I think we are currently thinking that Britannia is also the ‘sweet spot’ for us Andy (when it comes to P&O). Aside from the issues that we had on Iona, the itineraries are too limiting and whilst the food was great, neither of us particularly liked the ambiance of the ship. Following the app / freedom dining issues that we had on Britannia we have changed our two Ventura cruises to Club. If we book another Britannia cruise I think we will go for Club as well. 
 

Whilst most of our best cruises have been on Aurora, I think that we would miss the modern facilities now. The cabins are very dated, the dining choices are quite restricted and the newer TVs are still rubbish compared to those on Britannia and the newer ships. Also, the prices for the P&O adult only ships are usually way above what we now consider to be the maximum that we are prepared to pay per night for a P&O cruise. 
 

We are really looking forward to our two Cunard cruises on their new ship Queen Anne next year. Similar size to Britannia but with even more facilities, all the things that we like about cruise ships are present and the theme is Art Deco which we absolutely love. The grade we have booked will also be proper freedom dining (no app or queues) but with the benefits of Club (reserved table etc). On paper it should be pretty much our perfect cruise ship - but then again we had thought that about Iona 😂 

[Megabear2]

18 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I think we are currently thinking that Britannia is also the ‘sweet spot’ for us Andy (when it comes to P&O). Aside from the issues that we had on Iona, the itineraries are too limiting and whilst the food was great, neither of us particularly liked the ambiance of the ship. Following the app / freedom dining issues that we had on Britannia we have changed our two Ventura cruises to Club. If we book another Britannia cruise I think we will go for Club as well. 
 

Whilst most of our best cruises have been on Aurora, I think that we would miss the modern facilities now. The cabins are very dated, the dining choices are quite restricted and the newer TVs are still rubbish compared to those on Britannia and the newer ships. Also, the prices for the P&O adult only ships are usually way above what we now consider to be the maximum that we are prepared to pay per night for a P&O cruise. 
 

We are really looking forward to our two Cunard cruises on their new ship Queen Anne next year. Similar size to Britannia but with even more facilities, all the things that we like about cruise ships are present and the theme is Art Deco which we absolutely love. The grade we have booked will also be proper freedom dining (no app or queues) but with the benefits of Club (reserved table etc). On paper it should be pretty much our perfect cruise ship - but then again we had thought that about Iona 😂 

Britannia remains my favourite P&O ship as well.  I have two cruises booked on her one with my husband and one solo.  She is comfortable and offers everything needed.  We too have Queen Anne and against all the odds I've also booked Club Britannia as the latest sale cut the price on the September cruise I booked on Saturday to the level of the one we are doing as a family early August on her in a normal balcony cabin.  I was surprised to receive my Club booking confirmation stating a table for 2 is only a request rather than confirmed as such. As it's booked for an anniversary and birthday I hope that is merely a standard reply and will call tomorrow to check.  

 

As you say the itineraries are repetitive on some of the ships and it is noticeable on both lines that the number of ports has been cut for many voyages. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

Thank you Selbourne, you really do make us feel like we are there. 

What we have learned from your reports is that it's very much horses for courses. 

Our youngest daughter and her partner want to cruise with us and, although I wouldn't say they are fussy eaters, I think they wouldn't get too excited with the 'traditional' P&o food and formality, so Iona sounds ideal. 

We have already booked Britannia again with Michelles Dad, Brother, Niece and their partners who prefer more traditional cruising, but not quite as dated as the really old ships. 

For me, I couldn't cope with all that disgusting white marble flooring on Iona, or bad tellies on Aurora etc, so Britannia fits for me😂

Andy 

White marble flooring, or any type of solid flooring is far better for wheelchair pushers than carpeted floors, although I do have a preference for RCI's imitation Roman mosaic floors, they just seem that little bit more special.

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

White marble flooring, or any type of solid flooring is far better for wheelchair pushers than carpeted floors, although I do have a preference for RCI's imitation Roman mosaic floors, they just seem that little bit more special.

I agree about solid flooring being so much easier when pushing a wheelchair. I usually like marble, but I thought that the style of marble used on Iona, with a sort of brown pattern in it, was particularly unattractive. 

[Megabear2]

38 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I haven’t had time to have a good trawl through the Cunard sale yet, other than to quickly look at the two 2024 cruises that we have already booked. I always look at the net price of cruise fare less OBC and, on that basis, both are currently no cheaper than we have paid. 
 

Both our Club booking confirmations also show table for 2 as a request. I queried this with the cruise specialist that we booked with and they said that’s a quirk in the Cunard system and that we would definitely get a table for 2. Thinking about it, shared tables wouldn’t work in Club anyway unless you actively planned to dine together. As the selling point is your own dedicated table that you can use whenever you want, it would be a complete muddle if different couples turned up at different times. 
 

Delighted to hear that you have secured a booking in Club. We are trying it for the first time in May, so I can let you know how we get on. 

 

The sale for me is pretty good and some of the shorter cruises of 7 and 10 days away from Queen Anne are actually coming in cheaper than some P&O cruises for a solo with nice itineraries. As I said elsewhere Cunard have never in my experience had the P&O style fire sales so I doubt you would find your fare undercut, matched yes but not slashed miles below your fare.

 

I was able to get the double OBC offer combined with the sale so have $600 OBC - I think that's the maximum under the offer at present and definitely the most I've ever had since start Cunard sailings back in 2001.

 

I booked the club based on a lot of dithering by the nice agent on the telephone as there was only £700 difference on the price she quoted me  so adding on the OBC I though I'd give it a go.

 

If you look at the plan the Club dining room has 20 tables which vary between 4 and 8 in size which is why I am querying it.  Normally I'd not consider even looking at the plan but I did think it weird and booked Club specifically to avoid the need to share,  our other QA cruise we are 10 so have requested sharing anyway.  Unfortunately I'm the lead passenger for the 10 as for some weird reason the family believe my diamond status will rub off on them, I think they may be disappointed though!

[AndyMichelle]

8 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I agree about solid flooring being so much easier when pushing a wheelchair. I usually like marble, but I thought that the style of marble used on Iona, with a sort of brown pattern in it, was particularly unattractive. 

I'm sure it is very practical, but still ugly... 

Marble can look great, but not in such a great expanse. 

Andy 

[ParisHilton]

It does look far uglier in that photo than I remember it.  Possibly it looks less offensive when there are plenty of people on it.

That said, I'm sure if they'd got something less ugly to start with, that would also look fine with plenty of people on it.

 

--edit-- Is there a good site for looking at historic prices for cruises? I've found one, but its data seems patchy and I get the feeling it wants to charge me a lot for more info, yet I can't see how!

Edited August 29, 2023 by ParisHilton

[Megabear2]

30 minutes ago, ParisHilton said:

It does look far uglier in that photo than I remember it.  Possibly it looks less offensive when there are plenty of people on it.

That said, I'm sure if they'd got something less ugly to start with, that would also look fine with plenty of people on it.

 

--edit-- Is there a good site for looking at historic prices for cruises? I've found one, but its data seems patchy and I get the feeling it wants to charge me a lot for more info, yet I can't see how!

I'm sure quite a few of the ancient Mariners here on the forum would be able to help ...

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

The sale for me is pretty good and some of the shorter cruises of 7 and 10 days away from Queen Anne are actually coming in cheaper than some P&O cruises for a solo with nice itineraries. As I said elsewhere Cunard have never in my experience had the P&O style fire sales so I doubt you would find your fare undercut, matched yes but not slashed miles below your fare.

 

I was able to get the double OBC offer combined with the sale so have $600 OBC - I think that's the maximum under the offer at present and definitely the most I've ever had since start Cunard sailings back in 2001.

 

I booked the club based on a lot of dithering by the nice agent on the telephone as there was only £700 difference on the price she quoted me  so adding on the OBC I though I'd give it a go.

 

If you look at the plan the Club dining room has 20 tables which vary between 4 and 8 in size which is why I am querying it.  Normally I'd not consider even looking at the plan but I did think it weird and booked Club specifically to avoid the need to share,  our other QA cruise we are 10 so have requested sharing anyway.  Unfortunately I'm the lead passenger for the 10 as for some weird reason the family believe my diamond status will rub off on them, I think they may be disappointed though!

I’m going to try to have a look today. Club for our first Queen Anne cruise in May was £1k above Britannia in total (for the 2 of us over 14 days), which was a no brainer given that it’s sometimes significantly more. That was booked at launch. It broadly equated to a Suite price with P&O, but as the sole dining privilege on P&O is breakfast in Epicurean there’s no comparison. There are also only 2 accessible Club cabins, so we felt that if we didn’t book at launch we wouldn’t get on the cruise. 
 

However, we booked our 14 night November cruise well after launch (but long before the Sale) and this was considerably cheaper than the May one. We are getting $950 OBC (plus my $250 shareholder OBC) and the net price (fare less OBC) is working out much cheaper than many P&O cruises in standard balcony cabins, and certainly cheaper than 90% of cruises on Aurora and Arcadia. Again, a no brainer. Amazingly we also got one of the 2 accessible Club cabins. I haven’t seen any others at anywhere near that price yet, so we seem to have just struck lucky with that one. 
 

I have a feeling that the MDR plans are just indicative. I think I totted up the covers when I first saw the plans and worked out that it was below the number of Club cabins. Given that everyone has their own table and, as a result, there’s no doubling up per sitting, it didn’t add up. I shall be interested to know whether the response you get when you query the ‘Table of 2 - request’ is the same as I had. 

[ParisHilton]

I can see Megabear treats the exploration of options as part of the fun as much as I do!

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

 

I have a feeling that the MDR plans are just indicative. I think I totted up the covers when I first saw the plans and worked out that it was below the number of Club cabins. Given that everyone has their own table and, as a result, there’s no doubling up per sitting, it didn’t add up. I shall be interested to know whether the response you get when you query the ‘Table of 2 - request’ is the same as I had. 

 

SelBourne.  How did you tot up covers, as tables in pictures are not to scale, just to indicate it's a dining room.

 

As club , QG and PG have a fixed seat for everyone. Also given our experience on QE,  Q.V. and QM2 in both grills they are not more spacious, they still tightly packed. Then looking at square footage of these restaurants and knowing number of cabins can work out density. If you apply  this to other restaurants will have answer to question posed. Does Queen Anne have enough MDR to seat everyone. Depends if one can print and measure plans. Are there any plans with measurements.

[sandancer]

11 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I haven’t had time to have a good trawl through the Cunard sale yet, other than to quickly look at the two 2024 cruises that we have already booked. I always look at the net price of cruise fare less OBC and, on that basis, both are currently no cheaper than we have paid. 
 

Both our Club booking confirmations also show table for 2 as a request. I queried this with the cruise specialist that we booked with and they said that’s a quirk in the Cunard system and that we would definitely get a table for 2. Thinking about it, shared tables wouldn’t work in Club anyway unless you actively planned to dine together. As the selling point is your own dedicated table that you can use whenever you want, it would be a complete muddle if different couples turned up at different times. 
 

Delighted to hear that you have secured a booking in Club. We are trying it for the first time in May, so I can let you know how we get on. 

 

I can’t find the Cunard sale online. Can you point me in the right direction. We have sailed with Cunard 3 times and although they generally are more expensive, birthday ending with a 0 next year so maybe splash out a little. 

[tiggis]

In Club and the Grills there are several larger tables for parties (eg family groups) and for those that want to share. So if everyone wanted a table for 2, there wouldn’t be enough of them. Cunard are therefore being cautious in not giving guarantees ahead of boarding. In practice, there is usually no problem as there is sufficient demand for the larger tables. Sharing can actually work well, if that’s what you prefer, even with people able to arrive at different times.