Buffet lunch and dinner on Braemar?

[jantoby]

My first FO later this month and I have a couple of meal questions.

 

Are lunch and dinner served only in the restaurant or is there a buffet option elsewhere?

 

Is lunch in the restaurant open seating or do we sit at our allocated table?

[jantoby]

Just happened upon the answer to casual restaurant on FO website.

 

Can anyone tell me about lunch seating in main restaurant?

[Mark_T]

Open seating.

[Parsman]

It is normally open seating and you can eat in the Thistle restaurant, the Grampian restaurant or the Palms self-service cafe

[jantoby]

Thanks, Parsman

[sammysgranny]

Open seating but the have a tendency to guide you towards specific tables which they like to fill up on a table at a time basis. So not truly open seating which is why I prefer self service for lunch (and breakfast).

[Mark_T]

Open seating but the have a tendency to guide you towards specific tables which they like to fill up on a table at a time basis. So not truly open seating which is why I prefer self service for lunch (and breakfast).

 

They can guide as much as they want, we still sit where we prefer as long as the table is empty and laid :)

 

They will try to help find you a place if it is busy, but I've never had any resistance to selecting a different table from the one they suggest if it wasn't to our liking.

[tring]

Our experience on FO is that, on sea days they have a first and second sitting in the main restaurants for lunch, although, being awkward we have at times gone in on a different sitting from our evening sitting and got away with it. I think the intention is to limit the time of lunch though which does make things difficult on FO ships on sea days in our opinion.

 

The self service restaurants are always open sitting for lunch and dinner, so you would not miss a meal by not wanting to go into lunch at a specific time.

[jeanlyon]

What I loved about our first trip on the Braemar was the buffet for lunch and breakfst. You wait to be seated, not more than a minute or two, tables were laid with tableclothes, cutlery and napkins. You then just go and get your food. wonderful. On P&O, it's a total bunfight, you get your food and then walk around trying to find a table.

[heywood]

We have just returned from a trip on Balmoral, our first cruise with FO, so no experts and Braemar may be different.

We ate in MDR for breakfast and lunch rather than Palms. There were 2 buffet stations set up plus waiter service if required.

The two smaller restaurants also had buffets but you could choose your table, if there was availability.

We were directed to tables in the main d.r. which was fine with us and obviously helped staff keep track.

On other cruise lines we preferred self service as it was quicker but we were really pleased with FO's arrangements.