Oriana , what are the eating options please.

[Dreamgirl1957]

Can anyone tell me if there are any other eating options on Oriana apart from MDR's , Buffet and Speciality restaurants for day or evening ?

I know it's a smaller ship but just wondering if anything similar to The Beach House or Glass House etc.

Thanks in advance.

[MawganTr]

There is the buffet, which turns partly into speciality in the evening. There is a Marco Pierre White restaurant which charges extra. There are 2 MDR - Oriental is set times (6:30&8:45) but Peninsular is freedom dining. From what I saw last week they give you a pager if there's a queue so that you can go off to a bar while you wait. Tiffany's coffee bar does light snacks at certain times of the day too.

 

 

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[Dreamgirl1957]

Thanks that's great , we are freedom dining but for some reason I thought I'd read we were in Oriental restaurant so than you .

I've just looked at the new brochure and it says next year Oriana will have a Sindu and a Beach House so must be getting a refurb later in the year but I'm sure we'll find plenty to chose from, thanks [emoji1]

[Sea Green]

There is also the 'Al Frescos' cafe, a casual sit-down, which does a salad bar, hot sandwiches, pizzas etc.

 

Its small but seems to be very popular

[tring]

There is the buffet, which turns partly into speciality in the evening. There is a Marco Pierre White restaurant which charges extra. There are 2 MDR - Oriental is set times (6:30&8:45) but Peninsular is freedom dining. From what I saw last week they give you a pager if there's a queue so that you can go off to a bar while you wait. Tiffany's coffee bar does light snacks at certain times of the day too.

 

 

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Freedom dining was chaos when we were onboard 17th to the 31st March. They do not give pagers out to everyone, only people who turn up asking for a table for two. Queues are the order of the day, unless you turn up early. We went there at 7.40pm the second day and were left in a queue (for any size of table) outside the Peninsular for about 40 mins. If people in that queue wanted a table for two, they were given a pager after queuing, and called back at a later stage. On only one occasion, later in the cruise, was the queue of people given pagers after they had queued for a while. We have been freedom dining on both Ventura and a couple of times on Oceana and we were always given pagers rather than expected to stand in a queue, in fact I can hardly remember any waits at all if we were happy to share a table.

 

After the very long queue we filled in a feedback card mentioning that we were unhappy about having to queue for 40 mins and the next day, on our arrival at the restaurant, the restaurant manager haranged us for filling in the feedback form, saying that he could not help the queue. It took quite a while for us to stop his attitude and get him to let us into the restaurant. In the interim other people were queuing of course!!

 

So much for customer service.

[Dryce]

After the very long queue we filled in a feedback card mentioning that we were unhappy about having to queue for 40 mins and the next day, on our arrival at the restaurant, the restaurant manager haranged us for filling in the feedback form, saying that he could not help the queue. It took quite a while for us to stop his attitude and get him to let us into the restaurant. In the interim other people were queuing of course!!

 

So much for customer service.

 

That's very poor.

 

While the RM can't really be held responsible for the queue it's important that if there are mounting problems that there is feedback. If the RM then makes an issue of that then I would make a specific complaint about the RM.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Dryce

[Dreamgirl1957]

Oh dear that's worrying, we are on Freedom dining so really not happy if we have to stand 40 mins in a que as I have some problems standing for longer than a few mins ( waiting for an op )

Will have to see how it goes but not sounding good !

Thanks for the info.

[Brayman]

Oh dear that's worrying, we are on Freedom dining so really not happy if we have to stand 40 mins in a que as I have some problems standing for longer than a few mins ( waiting for an op )

Will have to see how it goes but not sounding good !

Thanks for the info.

 

I don't understand why there should be any queueing at all once the initial rush has gone unless of course there aren't enough tables, in which case why so many Freedom diners? Maybe it's that too many people are trying to eat within an hour of the restaurant opening, surely the RM wasn't holding people back if there were tables available - it doesn't make sense!

[kersh]

Oh dear that's worrying, we are on Freedom dining so really not happy if we have to stand 40 mins in a que as I have some problems standing for longer than a few mins ( waiting for an op )

Will have to see how it goes but not sounding good !

Thanks for the info.

 

We were on Oriana for 24 nights over Xmas freedom dining. The first night we saw an horrendous queue at about 6:10 as we were going to Andersons and thought that it didn't bode well. By the time we had finished our pre dinner drinks and went back there was no queue and we got a table for 2. Never saw a queue again for Freedom.

 

What you have to remember is freedom was introduced because first sitting is too early and 2 nd sitting too late therefor common sense tells you that 7:00 to 8 pm is the peak time for freedom dining so go before after 6:15pm or before 7 pm or leave it until after 8:30 pm.

 

Sue

Edited April 7, 2015 by kersh

[Dreamgirl1957]

Thanks Sue, that makes sense.

We've done freedom dining a few times but not with P&O and always found it ok with no queues or very little.

Like the rest we like to eat about 7.30 so not ideal, we will have to go a bit later as you suggest , thanks

[tring]

Thanks Sue, that makes sense.

We've done freedom dining a few times but not with P&O and always found it ok with no queues or very little.

Like the rest we like to eat about 7.30 so not ideal, we will have to go a bit later as you suggest , thanks

 

 

A bit later than 7.30pm is what was not working when we were onboard (7.30pm to 8.30pm is the main problem time).

 

Yes, it is mainly to do with lack of tables and the times when the queues built up were largely between 7.30pm and 8.30pm. We usually tried to get there earlier, but it was not always possible. We did discover in the last few days, that if we went and asked for a table for 2 about 6.30pm (when they were all taken), then we could get a pager and would be called back about 7.30pm. You do not even have to both be there to request a table for 2, which makes a joke of the whole situation. Every night we turned up at the restaurant, the manager asked if we were prepared to share a table that night, which just encouraged people to say ,'Yes' and make the situation worse. It is people who, like us, are prepared to be flexible on table size that ended up queuing as the manager did not use the pagers for them, which is totally unfair.

 

As I said we had no trouble at all on other P&O ships, so either they are now allocating more people to Freedom dining than they can accomodate, or the manager is just not capeable of managing the situation. He did take a long time with each lot of people entering the restaurant, so that still left problems even if tables were available. If another manager takes over, it is possible the problem may be sorted.

 

The two days we were in Alta, all restaurants were open seating and we were told to turn up for early or late sitting (with about 20 mins slots available for each) and people just went straight in on those days, so the admin system clearly does not work.

 

I do not think P&O should offer freedom dining if the system cannot be managed properly. As the only appeal of P&O to us is freedom dining, I doubt we will travel with them again.

 

I assume P&O are hoping people will vote with their feet and go to a select restaurant, but they were booked on the nights we asked, so that would not always work either.

Edited April 7, 2015 by tring

[tring]

As an addition to my previous post, the night we were harangued for filling in the feedback card, the manager offered to change us to set sitting (which we did not want). So there must have been space for set first or second sitting - they should fill those places up and then they may be able to manage freedom for people who, like us had paid select price and chosen their dining option, or are allocated freedom because it is what is available.

 

We came accross a number of people who were late bookers in the peninsular, which is used for freedom dining. P&O also say that people who book on late offers have to pay for shuttle busses, yet they were not charging for any shuttle buses on our cruise.

 

I can only assume that P&O are quite happy to fill their ships with people on cheap offers and reduce the quality of their cruises. Another reason to use other cruise companies in future, from our point of view. More than half of our cruises have been with P&O previously, but this cruise was way below the standard we have experienced before and below that of other cruise companies.

[MawganTr]

I'm not sure how filling the cruise with people on late bookings makes the cruise worse. We booked late - only saw the trip when looking at their website after booking another holiday. We can't always book far in advance and took advantage of a good deal. We are happy to be given last choice of cabin, dining etc.

 

 

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