Have P & O just got stingy with their veg!!

[lovethe7seas]

I would like to start a thread about P & O announcement on their new dining arrangements .

 

 

I have just their newsletter and found a tiny paragraph informing me that they are no longer going to serve the vegetables separately in the main restaurant, but have them already served on the plate "so your waiters have more time to get to know you and talk to you" - who are they kidding!!!

 

It just means less waiters - the waiters who are there will now have more tables to serve. On every voyage we have gone on, half the fun was getting to know your waiters through their service - one who served the main meal and the other one coming behind with the veg etc. Have they thought about waste - we object to being served with vegetables we don't like!!

 

 

I always thought silver service was the order of the day on P & O as on other shipping lines.

 

What do others think?

 

 

 

lovethe7seas

[Scriv]

I think there will be lots of waste as people are so different in their likes and dislikes re vegetables.

 

Can they not bring dishes of veg to the table and we help ourselves?

[terrierjohn]

On our recent Azura cruise we found that the two veg that were served seperately did not match with at least half the main dishes served, and in some instances were duplicates of those in some main dishes.

So if the chefs are going to be creative and ensure that varied veggies which match the main courses are served, then I can only see this as a major improvement; and P&O will only be falling in line with the majority of other cruise lines.

[jeanlyon]

Big mistake as far as I'm concerned.

[besberry]

I'm not happy about it. On my last (only) P&O cruise the vegetables were a really odd selection most days. parsnips (ugh), squash (ugh) and courgettes (ugh). At least I was able to stop them serving me with the ones I don't like. And their selections didn't always go with the main. Chicken curry and roast potato anyone?

[daiB]

I would like to start a thread about P & O announcement on their new dining arrangements .

 

 

I have just their newsletter and found a tiny paragraph informing me that they are no longer going to serve the vegetables separately in the main restaurant, but have them already served on the plate "so your waiters have more time to get to know you and talk to you" - who are they kidding!!!

 

It just means less waiters - the waiters who are there will now have more tables to serve. On every voyage we have gone on, half the fun was getting to know your waiters through their service - one who served the main meal and the other one coming behind with the veg etc. Have they thought about waste - we object to being served with vegetables we don't like!!

 

 

I always thought silver service was the order of the day on P & O as on other shipping lines.

 

What do others think?

 

 

 

lovethe7seas

 

Well you are wrong about other lines. It would appear that plated meals are the way to go for all lines. From what I have gleaned today that would be Cunard, Thompsons, Celebrity, Azamara. And most others.

 

If you want more veg then ask for more but do not sit and fume about it.

 

I cannot see how it would mean more tables to serve as taking the veg around is not exactly time consuming and the time saved would not be sufficient to serve another table.

 

I do suspect it would end up with more waste if people do not say when they order exactly what they want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Josy1953]

Well you are wrong about other lines. It would appear that plated meals are the way to go for all lines. From what I have gleaned today that would be Cunard, Thompsons, Celebrity, Azamara. And most others.

 

If you want more veg then ask for more but do not sit and fume about it.

 

I cannot see how it would mean more tables to serve as taking the veg around is not exactly time consuming and the time saved would not be sufficient to serve another table.

 

I do suspect it would end up with more waste if people do not say when they order exactly what they want.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

This is the key to getting what you like/want. My only cruises, other than P&O, are with Princess and Cunard and on both of these lines the menus list what each main course has for vegetables, if you don't like what is there it is easy to tell the waiter to leave off what you don't want and to subsitute with the vegetables from other main courses. I have never tried to ask for something that is not listed against another main so I don't know if there are "always available" vegetables. I actually prefer this to having the vegetables served seperately as they are on P&O because I have always found that if the vegetables on my main are not to my liking there is always an alternative that I do like but on a couple of times on P&O I have had no vegetables other than potatoes.

[kevinyork]

Weve also been on RCI and Celebrity and the main comes fully plated though the American lines are not big on vegetables. On Celebrity there are always available sides you can ask for such as broccolli or cauliflower cheese.

 

Personally I prefer the fully plated method. As already said sometimes the veg on offer duplicated what you already had or didnt go at all. Presentation should be better as a result and you dont need to wait for the whole table to be served their veg. I dont think the amount of waste will change at all.

 

As my other half is a Vegetarian, it was a pain having veg served around the table as the waiter could serve a meat eater first and the serving spoons would touch that persons meat or gravy on their plate rendering the veg inedible for a vegetarian, albeit a strict one.

[Scriv]

When you think about it, a lot of good restaurants serve the main meal already plated.

[kruzgal]

We have only sailed Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, where the meals come plated, but we have always found them very accommodating of any extras we want. I have seen comments that "you don't get much veg with your dinner on Celebrity" and whilst it is true there isn't a lot of veg on the pre plated meal all you have to do is ask and they will bring you an additional dish of whatever you want. All you have to do is ask!

[davecttr]

Ever been offered brussels sprouts with cod and chips :eek:

 

Peas go with almost everything, but the peas were off :mad:

[janny444]

We have just returned from the Ventura a couple of weeks ago and I think the end of Silver Service had only just been introduced.

There was a lot of complaints....hundreds...from the "regular" P&O cruisers....they were not at all happy and were going to let P&O know...whether that will make a difference I don't know but I think it may be a "cost cutting" exercise as there were not enough waiters in the MDR. Many a time it took 2 hours for your meal to be completed so that if you were on second sitting you had no chance of seeing any show.

There was an earlier comment about if you hadn't enough veg...ask for more...oh yeah and wait 20 minutes for the veg to come.

[gadabout60]

On my only celebrity cruise the maître d came to our table on the second night and asked if everything was ok with our food - I said I thought there wasn't enough veg and he arranged for two bowls of extra veg to be on our table every night after that

 

surely we can just do the same with P&O if portions become stingy ?

[Brayman]

On my only celebrity cruise the maître d came to our table on the second night and asked if everything was ok with our food - I said I thought there wasn't enough veg and he arranged for two bowls of extra veg to be on our table every night after that

 

surely we can just do the same with P&O if portions become stingy ?

 

Who said the portions were to become stingy?

[daiB]

Who said the portions were to become stingy?

 

I do believe it came from one report and has spread over the net.

[Winkster]

Who said the portions were to become stingy?

 

I think the comment was IF the portions become stingy.

 

I'm waiting to see if this will mean we get more veg on the plate instead of the smaller amount we got on the plate followed by the additional veg which was then served (and rarely matched the meal).

[gadabout60]

The point I was making is that I am sure we can always ask for more veg and not make an international incident out of it

[Winkster]

I cannot see how it would mean more tables to serve as taking the veg around is not exactly time consuming and the time saved would not be sufficient to serve another table.

 

Of course it's time consuming. It's a lot quicker to put 8 plates down in front of 8 diners than it is to put 8 plates down and then walk around the diners again asking them if they'd like veg 1, serving it then asking them if they'd like veg 2 and serving it.

 

They could get around another table easily in that time (provided the food was ready to be served of course).

 

The question is, will the time saved be dedicated to passengers or used elsewhere to benefit P&O? I'm all for the waiters having more time to chat with diners but will that happen? Or will they just get more tables to serve? Time will tell I guess.

 

And anyway, I'm not entirely sure that I really want to chat to a waiter while my meal sits in front of me getting cold? It's easier exchanging a few words while they serve the additional veg and then chat over coffee once all the serving has finished.

[Essexlass2]

We noticed there was a lack of waiters on our recent Azura cruise and, as has been said above, a meal often took 2 hours because of it. The waiters were rushed off their feet and passengers were far from happy, so maybe this is why P&O have decided to plate up complete meals but, as has also been mentioned above, we hope that whatever veg arrive on the plate will actually be suited to the choice of dinner. We had some most peculiar veggie offerings to go with our meals even when it was silver service and we can't really see that changing. French beans seemed to be the order of most days along with a roast potato offered with a rice dish (I don't think so!), in fact very little variation ...... yet another cost-cutting exercise methinks!

[rubydoobydoo]

There certainly was some strange choices of veg matching the dish on Azura, but one night between the four different meals our table had there were 8 different veg and 3 types of potatoes, it was unnecessary really, but one night my dish arrived with plain broccoli and broccoli cheese was then offered as an extra , weird :confused: