Question ref booking entertainment

[amajaa]

Hi all. So it says you can book entertainment 2 weeks before you sail, has everyone managed to do that and do you get notification from P & O when you can book or is it just keep looking to see when it comes up?

 

Can you book for a couple  ( or family ) in one booking or do you each have to log in individually to book, if that is the case one person might get a seat and the other not.

 

Thanks for any insight into this 

[sagaris]

We booked via our cruise personaliser, we didn't get notification, just kept checking. I was able to book both of us in, but anyone on a different booking would have to do their own, but to be honest if you turn up at the theatre I don't think there would be a problem. Also although on your booking confirmation it shows seat numbers, in reality they just tell you to sit where you want - this was on Britannia.

[Son of Anarchy]

We had an email, but weren't able to actually access until the following morning.

[amajaa]

I messaged P & O and they have just answered saying that now the onboard app is working you won’t be able to book shows etc before you sail you will have to do it on the app when you board. I have replied to them saying what happens if you have a late boarding time as all the early boarders will have already booked all the slots, how are they going to rectify that. I await a reply, it could be a week or so.

 

What is everyone else’s opinion on this one? 

[Angel57]

6 hours ago, amajaa said:

I messaged P & O and they have just answered saying that now the onboard app is working you won’t be able to book shows etc before you sail you will have to do it on the app when you board. I have replied to them saying what happens if you have a late boarding time as all the early boarders will have already booked all the slots, how are they going to rectify that. I await a reply, it could be a week or so.

 

What is everyone else’s opinion on this one? 

I would have thought the fairest way is to not open up onboard bookings until everyone is on board. Of course with everyone trying to access the system it will probably then crash! 🙄

[amajaa]

3 hours ago, Angel57 said:

I would have thought the fairest way is to not open up onboard bookings until everyone is on board. Of course with everyone trying to access the system it will probably then crash! 🙄

Or of course have it so entertainment, dining etc for each day has to be booked on that day or at least the night before and not being able to book the whole cruise as soon as you board.   That would solve 2 problems 1) people who get early boarding wouldn't be able to book all the spaces and 2) it would allow slightly more spontaneity which is what I think most people want from a cruise and not having to quickly make decisions about the whole cruise on boarding because otherwise you might miss out. 

[tring]

We are not booked on P&O until Aurora Caribbean next Feb, but find this very worrying.  If we have to plan our movements around the ship, may not pay the balance.

 

Can I ask what entertainment needs booked?  Is it just some special things, all shows as well (in which case are you given the titles up front) and would we also have to book into lounges/bars where musicians are playing and the disco as well? 

 

We rarely go to the shows, but will in some cases and most of our evening movements are just what we want to do at the time.  Without that, there is little point in cruising IMO.  I do not see what is wrong with the current, first come first served method.

 

Edited September 11, 2021 by tring

[amajaa]

24 minutes ago, tring said:

We are not booked on P&O until Aurora Caribbean next Feb, but find this very worrying.  If we have to plan our movements around the ship, may not pay the balance.

 

Can I ask what entertainment needs booked?  Is it just some special things, all shows as well (in which case are you given the titles up front) and would we also have to book into lounges/bars where musicians are playing and the disco as well? 

 

We rarely go to the shows, but will in some cases and most of our evening movements are just what we want to do at the time.  Without that, there is little point in cruising IMO.  I do not see what is wrong with the current, first come first served method.

 

I’m sorry I don’t know either what has to be booked and what doesn’t. I am hoping someone who has already traveled will let us know. Although according to the message I received from P & O it is changing from booking before you board to using the app when you board.

 

We love the Theatre Shows and the daytime talks so will be very disappointed if when we board the early boarders have already booked all the slots. So, as I said earlier, they need to make it so you have to book daily for everything and not let people that have been lucky enough to get an early boarding time take all the slots for the whole cruise. That doesn’t make sense to me. 

[Harryjacobs]

I am sailing 18th September and we could book the entertainment 2 weeks before.

However.....there are only 2 theatre shows bookable and 1 comedian.

The theatre we only had a choice of 2 days to be able to book.  The comedian was only available to book on tuesday which is the gala night!!  I wouldnt have thought that all the slts are fully booked as we were on the website very early on the day we could book.  Very baffled.

[amajaa]

1 hour ago, Harryjacobs said:

I am sailing 18th September and we could book the entertainment 2 weeks before.

However.....there are only 2 theatre shows bookable and 1 comedian.

The theatre we only had a choice of 2 days to be able to book.  The comedian was only available to book on tuesday which is the gala night!!  I wouldnt have thought that all the slts are fully booked as we were on the website very early on the day we could book.  Very baffled.

Yes I think people trying to book the Specialty Restaurants are saying the same about things being fully booked. We aren’t fussed about booking Specialty Restaurants but I do hope we manage to get seats in the MDR every night and also for Breakfast. The Waiter Service and the Theatre Shows are probably the main reason we enjoy cruising so much. Also of course meeting new people, we love that

[tring]

1 hour ago, amajaa said:

I’m sorry I don’t know either what has to be booked and what doesn’t. I am hoping someone who has already traveled will let us know. Although according to the message I received from P & O it is changing from booking before you board to using the app when you board.

 

We love the Theatre Shows and the daytime talks so will be very disappointed if when we board the early boarders have already booked all the slots. So, as I said earlier, they need to make it so you have to book daily for everything and not let people that have been lucky enough to get an early boarding time take all the slots for the whole cruise. That doesn’t make sense to me. 

 

I had to not thought about talks or classical recitals in the day, which would annoy me a lot, though I can see those and a lot of other things being booked by people who do not turn up, in fact if P&O want to play it that way we will likely do just that much of the time!  I wonder how long the policy will last?

 

[Active8]

2 hours ago, tring said:

We are not booked on P&O until Aurora Caribbean next Feb, but find this very worrying.  If we have to plan our movements around the ship, may not pay the balance.

 

Can I ask what entertainment needs booked?  Is it just some special things, all shows as well (in which case are you given the titles up front) and would we also have to book into lounges/bars where musicians are playing and the disco as well? 

 

We rarely go to the shows, but will in some cases and most of our evening movements are just what we want to do at the time.  Without that, there is little point in cruising IMO.  I do not see what is wrong with the current, first come first served method.

 

I’m sailing on Britannia in a couple of weeks; the Entertainment section is now open but apart from the cinema, it comes up and says you can’t prebook some things. This morning I couldn’t book anything, now just the Signature Performance can be pre booked.  Don’t know if this will change during the day!!  

[tring]

1 hour ago, Active8 said:

I’m sailing on Britannia in a couple of weeks; the Entertainment section is now open but apart from the cinema, it comes up and says you can’t prebook some things. This morning I couldn’t book anything, now just the Signature Performance can be pre booked.  Don’t know if this will change during the day!!  

 

Thanks a lot for the reply.  If it is just for special acts or particularly popular shows, I can possibly see the point, so there would not be a "scramble at the door", so to speak, but perhaps still a tad worrying as an to how far they may want to extend the system in the future. 

 

Just over £10,000 for two is a lot to pay, for the Aurora Caribbean, if we are to be restricted on what we can do spontaneously on the ship, especially as we may not be able to go ashore independently at some (possibly all) ports, which is a risk we had decided to.live with when we booked, given nowhere will be "normal" in pre covid terms this winter IMO.

 

Edited September 11, 2021 by tring

[besberry]

There was a button to book various shows on my 25 September cruise.  Headliners (2 dates) claimed to be fully booked, all the others said 'book onboard', so why the hell they have a button is beyond me!

[picsa]

3 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thanks a lot for the reply.  If it is just for special acts or particularly popular shows, I can possibly see the point, so there would not be a "scramble at the door", so to speak, but perhaps still a tad worrying as an to how far they may want to extend the system in the future. 

 

Just over £10,000 for two is a lot to pay, for the Aurora Caribbean, if we are to be restricted on what we can do spontaneously on the ship, especially as we may not be able to go ashore independently at some (possibly all) ports, which is a risk we had decided to.live with when we booked, given nowhere will be "normal" in pre covid terms this winter IMO.

 

 

A few years ago I sailed on an NCL ship and everything needed to be pre-booked with their app (or on one of the many terminals around the ship) - theatre shows, music shows in bars, speciality dining, spa, etc. You could book the restaurants in advance of boarding, but the theatre shows, etc. could only be done on board. 

 

The trouble was that by the end of day one everything, every show, every music show, every seat in every restaurant was fully booked for the whole cruise and then remained that way.

 

It really destroyed any sense of spontaneity and just wandering along to see if the show looked interesting, or seeing that day's MDR menu and thinking you might try elsewhere.

 

The theatres did theoretically let people in 5 minutes before the show started to fill any empty seats if they hadn't been taken by those booking, but they were not very keen to do so, partly because they then needed to umpire when the bookers turned up late and their seats had been given away.

 

Mind you, the Americans on board seemed to love the regimented nature of the system.

 

And the other thing I learned on an NCL ship is that when the menu offers chips or fries with your sandwich, they are not offering a choice between 'chip shop' chips and 'French' fries.

[BouncingWheel]

Just got off Britannia today and the only things we needed to book in advance were Theatre Shows (choice of 3 and numbers were small onboard that was not an issue to turn up to); Archery - this went very quickly; Afternoon tea (both MDR & Epicurean) - MDR went in a few days for the whole week.

 

Everything else was turn up on 1st come 1st serve and the MDR evening meal was either virtual queue or grab a pager and they were very quick this week.

[Active8]

Has anyone on the Britannia sailing next weekend, managed to book any of the Signature Performances - in the Entertainment section?  I’ve been trying for days; today 3 more acts appeared but still can’t book any of them, despite 3 different time slots. They’re only showing as appearing 1 night only! 

[Astrajet]

40 minutes ago, Active8 said:

Has anyone on the Britannia sailing next weekend, managed to book any of the Signature Performances - in the Entertainment section?  I’ve been trying for days; today 3 more acts appeared but still can’t book any of them, despite 3 different time slots. They’re only showing as appearing 1 night only! 

We are on Britannia this Sunday. On 5th September I was able to book four signature performances - two Headliners shows, the comedian and the Beatles Celebration.  I can't see any new acts.  What are the "three more acts that have appeared today"?

[Active8]

1 hour ago, Astrajet said:

We are on Britannia this Sunday. On 5th September I was able to book four signature performances - two Headliners shows, the comedian and the Beatles Celebration.  I can't see any new acts.  What are the "three more acts that have appeared today"?

We have Mel Mellors, Pure Paloma, Brett Cave & Cream of Clapton. I can’t book anyone!!! 

[Astrajet]

3 hours ago, Active8 said:

We have Mel Mellors, Pure Paloma, Brett Cave & Cream of Clapton. I can’t book anyone!!! 

I think we are sailing on different dates!