Does the need to be quick off the mark to book dining and entertainment put you off

[Windsurfboy]

Just had the email to book dining and entertainment for cruise in 15 days. It came at 12.30  but noticed at 2pm.

 

Went straight on and booked entertainment,  like the late show so no problem except digital. But the 8.30 was often full.

 

Then out of interest looked at speciality dining (luckily had booked when they opened it up by accident).  Started with Epicurean most of the prime spots (7pm ish) had gone,  I looked again hour later even more had gone. Similar other restaurants.  I think if I'd missed earlier accidental opening up of bookings , and been out today would be hard pressed to book anything,  nevermind for most nights. 

 

My feeling is that a lot lot more people are booking speciality restaurants and there isn't the capacity.  When I booked  this cruise didn't realise there would be the rush for speciality dining.  I've been lucky  and got what we wanted (Epicurean, Limelight,  Sindhu and Sushi for every night),  but I  think now knowing the need for speed would put me off future P&O. 

 

I don't know the answer,  except create more speciality dining. The only problem is P&O must have enough space if (very highly unlikely)  everyone decides to eat in MDRs.

 

Or of course could go back to old days with better MDR food. But that would cost, but if they only concentrated on dinner,  £20ppn would transform meals, would they think prices could take this.

Edited May 25 by Windsurfboy

[FannyLiz]

I’m far from a cruise regular having done only one solo trip with Saga.  Before booking this cruise however I did a mass of research via forums, brochures and YouTube.

 

The one thing I did determine was that I did not want to go on any cruise where I had to timetable my day to be in certain dining rooms or theatres that

I had had to pre-book weeks beforehand.  I wanted to be able to eat and be entertained where and when the mood took me on any particular day. I did not want to queue or possibly not get the venue or experience I wanted because of over-booking.

 

This worked out perfectly on Saga and is why I have another cruise with them booked.

 

 

[Windsurfboy]

30 minutes ago, FannyLiz said:

 

This worked out perfectly on Saga and is why I have another cruise with them booked.

 

 

I'm on Saga for Caribbean in 5 months my go to line,  but this was an experiment,  didn't  realise how much P&O had changed.  Presume  all the pre booking is a function of mega ships. 

 

By the way even on Saga  you need to pre book speciality restaurants can't  just rock up on the night. However as its included they do ration them to make sure everyone gets fair share.

 

Edited May 25 by Windsurfboy

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

Just had the email to book dining and entertainment for cruise in 15 days. It came at 12.30  but noticed at 2pm.

 

Went straight on and booked entertainment,  like the late show so no problem except digital. But the 8.30 was often full.

 

Then out of interest looked at speciality dining (luckily had booked when they opened it up by accident).  Started with Epicurean most of the prime spots (7pm ish) had gone,  I looked again hour later even more had gone. Similar other restaurants.  I think if I'd missed earlier accidental opening up of bookings , and been out today would be hard pressed to book anything,  nevermind for most nights. 

 

My feeling is that a lot lot more people are booking speciality restaurants and there isn't the capacity.  When I booked  this cruise didn't realise there would be the rush for speciality dining.  I've been lucky  and got what we wanted (Epicurean, Limelight,  Sindhu and Sushi for every night),  but I  think now knowing the need for speed would put me off future P&O. 

 

I don't know the answer,  except create more speciality dining. The only problem is P&O must have enough space if (very highly unlikely)  everyone decides to eat in MDRs.

 

Or of course could go back to old days with better MDR food. But that would cost, but if they only concentrated on dinner,  £20ppn would transform meals, would they think prices could take this.

I'm pleased you managed to book what you wanted.

What ship are you on?

On our last Iona cruise in March some of the entertainment and excursions were sold out pre-cruise but fortunately I managed to pre-book our speciality restaurants every night at a cost to ensure we got what we wanted but just spent the last of our £700 OBC on the last day.

[showingdiva]

22 minutes ago, FannyLiz said:

I’m far from a cruise regular having done only one solo trip with Saga.  Before booking this cruise however I did a mass of research via forums, brochures and YouTube.

 

The one thing I did determine was that I did not want to go on any cruise where I had to timetable my day to be in certain dining rooms or theatres that

I had had to pre-book weeks beforehand.  I wanted to be able to eat and be entertained where and when the mood took me on any particular day. I did not want to queue or possibly not get the venue or experience I wanted because of over-booking.

 

This worked out perfectly on Saga and is why I have another cruise with them booked.

 

 

 

This sums up perfectly one of the main reasons I have strayed from P&O.   That said, nor did I think I would find myself straying from Arcadia to an absolute monster of a ship, but post-covid clearly fried my brain on that one.  

 

[Windsurfboy]

I'm on Arvia. 

[Megabear2]

Arvia has a known problem with "normal" dining as she only has two main dining rooms.  It would appear also that many older and wiser P&O guests do not use the main dining rooms as they cannot queue, dislike the app booking and in some cases consider the food inferior.  As a result they book out the paid for dining immediately it opens.

 

This only seems to happen on the two bigger ships but has crept in to some extent on Britannia.

 

Personally I disliked having to book every single thing and it felt like I was staying in an American resort hotel.or WDW where I needed a spreadsheet to control my day! 

 

There is little chance to amend or change a booking either as quite simply there is little or in most cases no availability once onboard.

 

It is interesting reading the Feefo comments forms how many express their disappointment they couldn't even get one speciality restaurant booking.

[BertieRulesOK]

9 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Arvia has a known problem with "normal" dining as she only has two main dining rooms.  It would appear also that many older and wiser P&O guests

Never waited over 10 mins for a table and never, ever had to get physically queue.  Also, Arvia has four included restaurants, not two.  I'd far rather have choice and convenience then having to be faffed with queuing and buzzers.  

 

Bar humbug, technology, bar humbug, making me use a smartphone... Yadda Yadda yadda

[BertieRulesOK]

In answer to the original question, does having to prebook 14 days out put me off?  No.  I don't mind being organised in order to book what I want.  Equally, it's a far fairer system then first come first served onboard which only benefits the few with loyalty status.  Getting bookings for 710 (which you cannot pre-book) is a nightmare for this reason.

[Thejuggler]

Its micromanagement to a ridiculous level.  Not for me.

[grapau27]

38 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Arvia has a known problem with "normal" dining as she only has two main dining rooms.  It would appear also that many older and wiser P&O guests do not use the main dining rooms as they cannot queue, dislike the app booking and in some cases consider the food inferior.  As a result they book out the paid for dining immediately it opens.

 

This only seems to happen on the two bigger ships but has crept in to some extent on Britannia.

 

Personally I disliked having to book every single thing and it felt like I was staying in an American resort hotel.or WDW where I needed a spreadsheet to control my day! 

 

There is little chance to amend or change a booking either as quite simply there is little or in most cases no availability once onboard.

 

It is interesting reading the Feefo comments forms how many express their disappointment they couldn't even get one speciality restaurant booking.

On Iona in March Epicurean and Sindhu was never more than 70% full in the 13 nights we went in.

Beach house was full the night we dined in there.

I actually prefer pre-booking because of the online discount and loyalty discount  taken off and knowing if we have a later embarkation we are not panicking to get the times we want.

The downside is we are pulling out almost £500 pre-cruise for speciality dining which our large OBC would be used for this if booked onboard.

Graham.

 

[Windsurfboy]

26 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

 

The downside is we are pulling out almost £500 pre-cruise for speciality dining which our large OBC would be used for this if booked onboard.

Graham.

 

 

As we don't  buy drinks package OBC ends up on wine, which for us is more economical and more to our taste. But have spent £750 up front

[Interestedcruisefan]

No problem at all to me

 

Wished I had known how vital it was to pre-book everything on Princess

 

By not doing so I faced queues every night or else had to resort to buffet

 

Iona and Arvia both a dream comes true to people who know what they want in advance and like to be organised

 

Only queues I've seen on those 2 are when people choose to queue to get best seats in limelight club

 

3 times I've cruised with them now. App has worked a dream every time. Very easy to use once you know how

 

I realise not everybody likes to plan ahead though

 

If so then it won't be as smooth and easy as it is for us on those ships

 

 

Edited May 25 by Interestedcruisefan

[Ardennais]

Well I pre-booked theatre entertainment for our recent cruise on Iona, but owing to injury, the first Headliner show was cancelled. They then swapped things around and said that booking wasn’t required. I don’t think pre-booking entertainment is a big deal.

 

The only dining pre-booked was the Captain’s Table which worked well. 
 

We did fancy the Olive Grove for lunch and just walked up on the off chance.  They couldn’t accommodate us, but the restaurant was half empty. On asking about that, the lady at reception stated that the kitchen could only cope with a certain amount of guests. Seems rather silly not to be able to cater for all tables. 

[terrierjohn]

15 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Well I pre-booked theatre entertainment for our recent cruise on Iona, but owing to injury, the first Headliner show was cancelled. They then swapped things around and said that booking wasn’t required. I don’t think pre-booking entertainment is a big deal.

 

The only dining pre-booked was the Captain’s Table which worked well. 
 

We did fancy the Olive Grove for lunch and just walked up on the off chance.  They couldn’t accommodate us, but the restaurant was half empty. On asking about that, the lady at reception stated that the kitchen could only cope with a certain amount of guests. Seems rather silly not to be able to cater for all tables. 

I think the empty tables is more a reflection on the pre bookin system, where the staff need to leave tables empty to cater for bookings at a later time. Which with an average 2 hrs dining time results in lots of empty tables, and IMHO is a very wasteful way to run a mass catering dining room. 

No pre booking and the virtual queuing system each day, would be far more efficient, but may need a bigger galley and waiters working at MDR speed, rather than the Olive Grove saunter.

[Megabear2]

5 hours ago, BertieRulesOK said:

Never waited over 10 mins for a table and never, ever had to get physically queue.  Also, Arvia has four included restaurants, not two.  I'd far rather have choice and convenience then having to be faffed with queuing and buzzers.  

 

Bar humbug, technology, bar humbug, making me use a smartphone... Yadda Yadda yadda

Arvia has two main dining rooms plus Olive Grove and the diner, unless someone has changed somei don't know about?  

 

I use the technology  in fact I'm using it on another line as we speak but frankly technology that's a half way house and doesn't tell me how long they queue I'm joining is is probably as good as a chocolate teapot. 

 

What's actually the point of this post please? If you're telling me something is different 11 months ago about how the dining room set up is fine but otherwise I'm rather at a loss

 

[Interestedcruisefan]

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Arvia has two main dining rooms plus Olive Grove and the diner, unless someone has changed somei don't know about?  

 

I use the technology  in fact I'm using it on another line as we speak but frankly technology that's a half way house and doesn't tell me how long they queue I'm joining is is probably as good as a chocolate teapot. 

 

What's actually the point of this post please? If you're telling me something is different 11 months ago about how the dining room set up is fine but otherwise I'm rather at a loss

 

Think you are being a bit unfair on the virtual queuing system MB

 

Number one use is it stops the needs for physical queues. And removes the need to queue to get a buzzer also. Somethings that others don't mind doing and that also doesn't come with a timer on it.

 

We know how many are in the queue we join and can choose accordingly

 

Having experienced physical queues for the first time in a long time for simple MDR dining on Princess then IMO the P and O virtual queue is far preferable

 

I can't see an efficient way it can accurately predict how long you will wait. 

 

And sat down in a nice bar with a nice drink having a rough idea based on numbers in a queue is fine by me

 

Otherwise you would actually be booking a time which isn't actually a virtual queue? That's just booking a time?

 

If you know what I mean?

 

 

[Megabear2]

Just now, Interestedcruisefan said:

Think you are being a bit unfair on the virtual queuing system MB

 

Number one use is it stops the needs for physical queues. And removes the need to queue to get a buzzer also. Somethings that others don't mind doing and that also doesn't come with a timer on it.

 

We know how many are in the queue we join and can choose accordingly

 

Having experienced physical queues for the first time in a long time for simple MDR dining on Princess then IMO the P and O virtual queue is far preferable

 

I can't see an efficient way it can accurately predict how long you will wait. 

 

And sat down in a nice bar with a nice drink having a rough idea based on numbers in a queue is fine by me

 

Otherwise you would actually be booking a time which isn't actually a virtual queue? That's just booking a time?

 

If you know what I mean?

 

 

If I go to a land based restaurant I'm given an approximate wait time, if I take a pager I'm given an approximate wait time, if I'm visiting WDW or Thorpe Park I'm given an approximate wait time.  Why do you think it's impossible to do that via a proper app?

 

I'm currently on Queen Anne and I'm using the app which is identical to P&O's.  I'm not against the idea of the app but it isn't sophisticated enough, others do it better.  

 

Not everyone wants to go and sit in a bar they might prefer to do something else while waiting.  A rough estimate of time would be helpful in that decision.  There are those who have joined the app queues never to get called - plenty of reports of that here on the board.

 

You had the queues on Princess and have experienced what a very large number of us had on Arvia. We didn't make it up, it happened no more than we expressed surprise at your experience.  If it's improved great  but the P&O reviews tend to indicate they are not there yet.

 

I'm not against the app at all but in some respects it's useless because there are walk ups too.  We had it on Britannia, two separate queues yet app users had no idea when of if they'd get in - breakfast could be mayhem!

 

 

[Harryjacobs]

12 hours ago, FannyLiz said:

I’m far from a cruise regular having done only one solo trip with Saga.  Before booking this cruise however I did a mass of research via forums, brochures and YouTube.

 

The one thing I did determine was that I did not want to go on any cruise where I had to timetable my day to be in certain dining rooms or theatres that

I had had to pre-book weeks beforehand.  I wanted to be able to eat and be entertained where and when the mood took me on any particular day. I did not want to queue or possibly not get the venue or experience I wanted because of over-booking.

 

This worked out perfectly on Saga and is why I have another cruise with them booked.

 

 

Im with you here.  I dont want to pre book anything as what i eat or activity I choose to do is all dependent on what my mood is on the day.  Im not that fussed if we dont get into any paid for restaurants as in my opinion none of them are particually good enough to say "WOW I must go there".  The food in the MDR is good enough for me ( a simple soul)

[Harryjacobs]

11 hours ago, BertieRulesOK said:

In answer to the original question, does having to prebook 14 days out put me off?  No.  I don't mind being organised in order to book what I want.  Equally, it's a far fairer system then first come first served onboard which only benefits the few with loyalty status.  Getting bookings for 710 (which you cannot pre-book) is a nightmare for this reason.

The new way to book 710 club is far better than the old system.  Now its done after a certain time on embarkation day, at a time when all guests are onboard.  This ensures that everybody has a fair crack at booking a table for 710 club.  I have been on Iona 3 times and it was the last time under the new system that I finally managed to book a 710 slot. 

Under the old system where those who boarded first managed to book all the 710 slots before the last boarders even arrived at the terminal was pathetic especially as I overheard a lady saying to a friend that she managed to book a table for every night of the cruise but didnt actually turn up to some of them.

[MyriamS]

No problem with booking far in advance. I'm the type of person who enjoys thinking about what they'd liked to do on their holiday a year in advance. 🙂 My issue is with the capacity of things I'm trying to book. If restaurants book out very soon after they become available online two weeks before my cruise, it's quite stressful. You have to rush to the booking system as soon as it opens and hope you get some of what you want, instead of having a chance to think and do it in your own time. 

 

As for restaurants that can only be booked on board it's worse because I have a hunch I will be one of the last to board, so everyone will have the chance to book before me. The restaurant I'm interested in that case is the Olive Grove and I'd almost prefer it if were on a virtual queue. Since it's largely complimentary, I'm afraid people might book it and then not simply show up (without cancelling their booking), blocking other people from going. 

 

[Waju]

So, booking for restaurants has opened for my cruise in two weeks - this is a new'ish' system for me.  I looked at Olive Grove first and the latest times showing for me is 5.45 - does this mean all later tables are taken already??

[Andy24v]

Went on Arvia for 14 nights last year. We pre booked a couple of speciality restaurants, and thought it would be OK to book the rest on board.

The reality was, in order to get a seat in an "included" restaurant, we had to do the "18:30 lottery" on the App. A bit like phoning the doctors at 8 o'clock to try to get an emergency appointment. 

The frustrating thing was, the only indication of wait time was queue length. We usually managed to get in at about 20 in the queue, but wait times varied from 20 to 90 mins. This made it impossible to book an 8:30 show unless we booked an extra cost venue, or ate at 17:30.

IMO, the app is a fig leaf to cover up the fact that there are not enough spaces in the included restaurants, by encouraging people to pay for speciality.

[Waju]

And aren’t the MDR’s included 😳

[Andy24v]

11 minutes ago, Waju said:

So, booking for restaurants has opened for my cruise in two weeks - this is a new'ish' system for me.  I looked at Olive Grove first and the latest times showing for me is 5.45 - does this mean all later tables are taken already??

No, you can book up to 17:45 in advance as it's not a popular time. Booking for later dining opens at 18:30 on the day.