No booking needed in MDR on future Iona cruise

[Interestedcruisefan]

2 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

No. Table number next to your name on the clipboard.

Not on arvia

[bobstheboy]

3 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

No. Table number next to your name on the clipboard.

How did they stop people from arriving first from sitting at you table if no name or cabin number onit?

[Interestedcruisefan]

2 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Definitely in May.  It wasn't 60 minutes though, a huge exaggeration.  I wandered through after coming out of the art gallery about 5 minutes before the doors were due to be opened and there were about 6 couples there.  I joined them and stood chatting, there seemed little point going anywhere else at that time because it took an average of 20 minutes to be served in the atrium.  In the event I was given a front table but more importantly I got served with a drink immediately and carried on chatting with the people from outside.

 

The other tables started to fill at about 8.05pm.  There were in my opinion some pretty awful ones behind poles, I'd have been very unhappy to have paid for one of those.

I wandered through 35 mins before doors were due to be opened and 30 to 40 couples in the queue

 

And those 30 to 40 couples hadnt all just arrived at once

 

And went back later when nobody as queueing

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 minute ago, bobstheboy said:

How did they stop people from arriving first from sitting at you table if no name or cabin number onit?

You couldn't just walk in and were escorted to a table and pre-covid I do believe we had a set table not allocated according to time we arrived

 

On arvia in Feb was definitely tables allocated from front with first come first served. We were at the back. Those few who arrived  after us at back and sides

 

On Iona in May we walked past a horrible size queue for Limelight on way to the theatre. Worse than Arvia queue 

[Megabear2]

10 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

If what you are saying is correct

I am not a liar! 

[Eglesbrech]

4 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

How did they stop people from arriving first from sitting at you table if no name or cabin number onit?

You were escorted  to your table, everyone was. Your name and assigned table number was on the clipboard.

 

That has been our experience every single time we have booked the Limelight. I appreciate that yours may have been different.

[zap99]

15 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Do well behaved kids not need the toilet?

 

Is dancing in the theatre waiting for a show to start rude? Or just kids enjoying their holiday with their friends?

 

Asking for someone elses kids?

 

Mine are grown up?

You mentioned dancing children and toilets. Well behaved children sit in their prealocated seats keeping an eye on their pagers.

Edited October 4, 2023 by zap99

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I am not a liar! 

Did you ever mention the word logistics ?. Asking for a friend who has list the will to live.🤣

[Megabear2]

10 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I wandered through 35 mins before doors were due to be opened and 30 to 40 couples in the queue

 

And those 30 to 40 couples hadnt all just arrived at once

 

And went back later when nobody as queueing

Well bully for you.

 

As you have decided everyone else is either a liar, misguided and only you are entitled to an opinion and be right, I shall leave this conversation.  Sadly you have chosen once again to kill any reasonable discussion or opportunity for others to put their point of view.

 

As you state "you're not giving way on this one" there seems little point in anyone else posting their view or experience.

[Megabear2]

2 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Did you ever mention the word logistics ?. Asking for a friend who has list the will to live.🤣

I did mention logistics, however it was stated "if I'm correct".  I too have lost the will to live, as I said.

[bobstheboy]

26 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

You were escorted  to your table, everyone was. Your name and assigned table number was on the clipboard.

 

That has been our experience every single time we have booked the Limelight. I appreciate that yours may have been different.

Interesting. As I said, I have been to Limelight Club 5 times since September 21 to September 23. Each time it was first come, first served.

[zap99]

20 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I did mention logistics, however it was stated "if I'm correct".  I too have lost the will to live, as I said.

I'm off to dinner now. There won't be a queue. I just had a shower....no queue there either. The hotel animation team are doing their dancing show this evening. We will queue for that one.🕺💃

[lancashire_cruisers]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

You don’t “bag” a seat at the Limelight. The seats are pre assigned and usually in order of booking.

 

We always book early and have always had a seat in the front row regardless of when we choose to shlep up 

I believe that’s now changed, hence the queue for the best seats!

[Eglesbrech]

1 minute ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

I believe that’s now changed, hence the queue for the best seats!

So P&O  are creating more queues now. NB ICF.

[lancashire_cruisers]

1 minute ago, Eglesbrech said:

So P&O  are creating more queues now. NB ICF.

We’re on Iona in a few weeks so I’ll see for myself. I was going to do a ‘live from’ but given the level of vitriol the ship attracts I’m probably not going to now. ☹️

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

We’re on Iona in a few weeks so I’ll see for myself. I was going to do a ‘live from’ but given the level of vitriol the ship attracts I’m probably not going to now. ☹️

In fairness Iona doesn't get that many people upset by her now she's bedded in.the "problem" ship appears to be Arvia.

 

I enjoyed very much Selbourne's live from Iona and would welcome another one as I'm sure many would.  

 

 

[terrierjohn]

5 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

A real world theatre gives you a seat number.  A booking on the app says you'll get in, no guarantee where.  More importantly as Moley has pointed out the app was introduced to prevent queues during covid and for no other reason.  The irony is that the app not allocating exact seats requires P&O staff to check on their tablets that a person actually has a reserved seat.  If there are 900 seats in Arvia's theatre how do you suggest P&O checks all those reservations if everyone turns up 10 minutes before curtain up?  It would simply be impossible.  For everyone to turn up that close you'd need no booking, no checking or a reserved numbered seat which the app does not offer.

 

Your logic simply doesn't work if P&O require to check that everyone has a reservation.

Maybe they could have a QR code on your theatre reservation on the app to present to one of several QR readers at the theatre entrances, with or without a seat number entrance?

[Ardennais]

6 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

And yet ive watched the prime time shows with no queues and not having seat numbers actually works better as you don't have to go looking for specific seats and crossing by passengers to get to them

 

Far far calmer. Far far more relaxed then when we couldn't pre-book

 

Don't anybody tell me that they didn't used to have to get to the prime shows early or you wouldnt be sure to get a seat

 

It seriously impacted the rest of the night for us. Ive experienced before and after pre-booking

 

Pre-booking far far more relaxed

 

And looking at Moley's comments above the feedback for theatre pre booking is very positive

 

This is one aspect of cruising I'm not being swayed on

 

It's the single biggest improvement I've seen for people who want to plan a night without stress of rushing to a popular theatre show

 

I know that stress and I've experienced it many times in the old days

 

And so will others on here 

 

I never experienced stress on a cruise before the app! We have a general idea of what we want to do, but not a detailed schedule as we’re on holiday, not at work. We like to settle ourselves in the theatre 20-30 minutes before a show, have a chat with our neighbours or read the Kindle. No stress. On the busy February half term Iona cruise, the theatre was quite full 15 minutes before the start of the show, and had we been our family group of 7, we wouldn’t have been able to sit together. That of course is not a deal breaker, but it’s nicer.  
 

You evidently like to pre-plan, which works for you. We are a bit more laid back and don’t really get stressed about anything on holiday. 

[Ardennais]

6 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

You don’t “bag” a seat at the Limelight. The seats are pre assigned and usually in order of booking.

 

We always book early and have always had a seat in the front row regardless of when we choose to shlep up 

That wasn’t the case on our last cruise. It was first come, first serve. 

[Ardennais]

5 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

How recently was that?

 

We have booked the Limelight numerous times for the two of us and also for a larger party and always got a seat at the front. We were never first in the queue or anywhere near that.

Twice this year. It was definitely first in queue were given the ‘best’ tables. I booked the Limelight for Iona the minute the bookings opened around 12.20am a fortnight before we sailed. We turned up just before 7.30 (I think) and we were towards the back. I just assumed that the table would have been pre-assigned. On Britannia a few weeks later, we were the second couple to arrive, about 30 minutes beforehand, and were invited to basically choose our table. I only booked that a few days before sailing. 

[Ardennais]

6 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Limelight?

 

Queues start 60 mins before you are told to arrive and doors open

 

If you join a queue 30 minutes before doors open there's already 60 to 80 people queuing?

No? Not in our experience anyway? 

[Interestedcruisefan]

13 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

So P&O  are creating more queues now. NB ICF.

No the passengers who want to get something  ahead of others are causing the queues

 

Same as the passengers re causing them before doors open in the theatre

 

(MB herself told us she arrived to a show that starts at 8.30pm at 8pm (when doors open). And due to queues ahead of her did not get seated until 8.20pm)

 

So you can only imagine the size of queues ahead of her. Which shows me the problems of queuing are caused by passengers choosing to queue

 

Let's be honest. Nobody suggests the passengers should arrive before doors even open. Those passengers are choosing to queue and then complaining about queuing.

 

I dislike physical queues myself enough to not get involved and funny enough have never had to queue more than 30 seconds to get into the theatre

 

(If I've ever seen more than a 30 man defence second queue for the theatre I've just walked to one of the other 3 entrances nearby)

 

No problem at all

 

 

Cetainly not worth worrying or complaining about

 

Some people IMO on here definitely look for problems rather that avoid them. 

 

As above

[bee-ess]

15 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

 

I dislike physical queues myself enough to not get involved and funny enough have never had to queue more than 30 seconds to get into the theatre

 

(If I've ever seen more than a 30 man defence second queue for the theatre I've just walked to one of the other 3 entrances nearby)

 

No problem at all

 

 

 

Thanks for your solution, I'd never of thought of that

[Interestedcruisefan]

15 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

 For Neil Lockwood I tried to enter st 8.20pm on one floor and was told full up, go up one floor. 

 

 

This comment above is really why cruises have no chance of getting positive comments only

 

This is a comment in the thread where people began claiming pre-booking theatre on the big ships isn't working etc

 

I can't even believe something like that creates a complaint?

 

What chance have P and O got.

 

If I went to enter the theatre ten minutes  before a show started havin g pre-booked and were told this level is full please go up one floor I honestly wouldn't bat an eyelid. I would just say thank you and go up one floor and take a seat there

 

It's actually an example of pre-booking working that there's seats waiting for me

 

But somehow on here that becomes a point to try and claim pre-booking theatre om Arvia didn't work!

 

Lol

 

Seriously what chance have P and O got of keeping everybody happy if something like the above is apparently something not working to plan on the bigger ships

 

It's just normal life. And above is someone looking for problems that aren't even problems and shouldn't even deserve a mention on here as problems

 

Life's too short to worry about minor minor inconveniences like that

 

Compare it to the old days where popular shows would actually be full and you couldn't get everybody in at all and people really did have a reason to go and have to physically queue - that's actually a problem to solve for everybody

 

And they've solved that problem

 

P and O aren't to blame for passengers still CHOOSING to go and queue for them theatre before the doors open

 

That's passengers choosing to do so

[Interestedcruisefan]

9 hours ago, Ardennais said:

I never experienced stress on a cruise before the app! We have a general idea of what we want to do, but not a detailed schedule as we’re on holiday, not at work. We like to settle ourselves in the theatre 20-30 minutes before a show, have a chat with our neighbours or read the Kindle. No stress. On the busy February half term Iona cruise, the theatre was quite full 15 minutes before the start of the show, and had we been our family group of 7, we wouldn’t have been able to sit together. That of course is not a deal breaker, but it’s nicer.  
 

You evidently like to pre-plan, which works for you. We are a bit more laid back and don’t really get stressed about anything on holiday. 

When we couldn't pre-book theatre we would invariably have to rush desserts and/or drinks to go to a theatre show early enough to be sure of seats 

 

That is unnecessary stress to me. Sure you can chat when you get there

 

But equally you can chat whilst not rushing drinks or desserts

 

And pre-planning something is what people do in the normal world all the time

 

Nobody dreams of turning up to the theatre on the off chance they might be allowed in in the real world

 

Anybody who wants to do that. Still can as it happens. And take pot luck. As they could before. Nothing has been taken away from them. Sometimes they will be able to get in. Sometimes they won't.

 

But don't make those who are happy to pre-plan have to rush pre theatre like the old days when pre-booking takes that need away

 

Would be huge backward step. A little bit of extra civilisation was brought in  when they  allowed passengers the choice to pre-book theatre and the need to physically queue for any period of note or rush to the theatre was removed 

 

What's to complain about really?

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan