Iona & Ventura table for 2 at Dinner?

[mpm235]

Hello everyone, the wife and me are thinking of a Cruise, (will be our first time), for next year. Can someone tell us please, comparing Iona & Ventura ,would we be more likely to get a table for two at dinner, on either one of them? Or would it be same on both?  Also, which gives us the best chance of getting a table for two, Club dining or Freedom Dining?  Thanks very much for any advice, Mark & Sheila

 

[Bin man]

Your best chance would be iona .Iona is all freedom earlier time is best 5.30 to 6.15 is the best time ,Ventura will be booked up on club dinning by now .They still do freedom dinning but think iona is best chance .We have done iona 3 times plus arvia once and never failed .

[david63]

10 minutes ago, mpm235 said:

Can someone tell us please, comparing Iona & Ventura ,would we be more likely to get a table for two at dinner, on either one of them?

Overall probably not much different but I believe that Iona may have more tables for two than Ventura.

 

Club dining would probably be more difficult than freedom dining in getting a table for two as with club dining it is generally on a first come basis in booking order.

 

The issue with freedom dining is that you may have to wait for a table for two to become available.

 

You should also be aware that many of the tables for two are so close together that you feel as if you are on a table of four or six.

 

Personally I would be more inclined to look at itinerary first before trying to arrange dining.

Edited June 24 by david63

[Bin man]

Although tables may be close together especially on Ventura at least being on a table for two you can eat at your own pace and we always feel you don't have to wait for the other couples that are on your table for 4/6/8 .As we like to eat early we feel usually we used to book club dinning for 2 but we also booked on opening day of the cruise .If we were later with a booking we now feel that iona and arvia suit us better if we do a later booking so we can get a table for two 

[david63]

5 minutes ago, Bin man said:

Although tables may be close together especially on Ventura at least being on a table for two you can eat at your own pace and we always feel you don't have to wait for the other couples that are on your table for 4/6/8

That has not been my experience. When on a row of six tables for two everyone was served at the same time so if one table was slow, or had an additional course, then everyone else was waiting.

[Bin man]

On last cruise on arvia tables in our location was 2 ,4, 2 and 2 we found we started at 6pm other tables could be 15 mins +/- differance our waiters served us when we were ready and didn't wait for others to finish Our head waiter had 24 years experience so had everything under control and I  would say we never waited once for others in the row to catch up .Breakfast could be different as we moved around a bit so different waiters worked differently. 

[indiana123]

33 minutes ago, david63 said:

When on a row of six tables for two everyone was served at the same time so if one table was slow, or had an additional course, then everyone else was waiting.

 

 

That seems like bad luck.  We have never had to wait for separate tables to catch up or wait.

 

What we have found on these adjoining tables is that conversation flows between courses, or when adjoining tables aren't eating then it stops while eating.  We found this very good and very polite.

[terrierjohn]

42 minutes ago, david63 said:

That has not been my experience. When on a row of six tables for two everyone was served at the same time so if one table was slow, or had an additional course, then everyone else was waiting.

Not on Iona, each table is handled individually, and Iona does not have banquette seating, so both passengers have some sort of view.

[Bin man]

There are a few banquet seating on iona and arvia we had ours right in the corner on deck 6 restaurant far as you could go but we had the window seat 

[9265359]

3 hours ago, mpm235 said:

Can someone tell us please, comparing Iona & Ventura ,would we be more likely to get a table for two at dinner,

 

On Ventura you have the choice of freedom or club dining if you book select (if you book saver you are just allocated and have to ask to change if there is space). With club dining you can express a preference for a table for two, and you might be lucky and you might not be. If you opt for freedom then you can join the queue and specify a table for two, although you are likely to wait longer than those who queue for a shared table.

 

On Iona all the restaurants are freedom dining and there are an awful lot more tables for two than on Ventura so the queues tend to be far shorter. Plus the tables for two on Iona are not all shoved away into unpleasant corners as they tend to be on Ventura, or have horrible bench seating where the bench seat is far too low.

 

Iona is far far preferable a choice over Ventura in respect of a 'table for two' matter. 

[SausPud]

My advice and this goes for any ship on any cruiseline, is always go and see what table you are allocated when you arrive onboard, then speak to the maître d' if you want a different table. 

[david63]

22 minutes ago, SausPud said:

My advice and this goes for any ship on any cruiseline, is always go and see what table you are allocated when you arrive onboard, then speak to the maître d' if you want a different table. 

But that is only possible if you are on club dining

[P&O SUE]

19 hours ago, david63 said:

That has not been my experience. When on a row of six tables for two everyone was served at the same time so if one table was slow, or had an additional course, then everyone else was waiting.

We’ve recently come off Britannia and three times we were sat in a table for two but in a group with two others. They did seem to serve us all at the same time although we were all seated about the same time.

[waddle]

We never had a problem getting a table for 2 on Iona although we do like to eat later and dont mind waiting in a virtual queue or with a buzzer

 

Found the choice of tables to be better than Azura & Arcadia (got our first Ventura cruise later this year). Iona had much more space and variety in where you are sat plus of course different restaurants