Hair splitting on Loyalty Tiers: When exactly do they change?

[galeforce9]

2 hours ago, Angel57 said:

I’ve never met anyone on those lunches who has told me how much they paid for their cruise or for example who they’ve sat with previously 🤣🤣.

Of course you are going to initially going to talk about other P&O cruises you’ve done because the likelihood with it being a loyalty lunch you may have met before (and that has happened to me several times).
I’m not interested in “hot” news - just decent conversation, good food and a few glasses of wine followed by a lovely afternoon snooze!.

Agree about the snooze 

[galeforce9]

To be honest I also travel Seabourn and there is the opportunity for hosted tables every night, with senior staff.  It just doesn’t do it for me.  I go to enjoy a break from work and relax over food with good company of my choice.   There are other occasions on board when you can mix as well. 

[Cruisemeister2002]

6 hours ago, FluffyFiFi said:

Recently we got to the heady heights of Caribbean, the early embarkation, welcome onboard lunch and 1/2 bottle of champagne is really nice. On our next cruise we should experience our first loyalty lunch which I’m not so sure about as we aren’t really into the mixing with others who just want to talk about how many cruises/how well they know the Captain/how large their cabin/moan how things have changed etc. Hopefully it will be a pleasant experience. 

We went up a loyalty tier mid cruise and as soon as we had completed that cruise it meant we could use our 10% discount on booking shore excursions for the next cruise. We had already booked some trips at 7.5% but cancelled and rebooked to get the extra off.

 

 

But my dear (Hope I am not being too familiar) it is what you must expect dining with others (In the words of ghastly Virgin) sailors. It's like when you chat someone up and say words like "Do you come here often?" You have to expect the traditional how many cruises have you done ? We (not the Royal), but me and the wife, or more correctly the wife and I have had the privilege of many of the who's life revolves around outdoing fellow passengers at the table. Isn't it just spiffing, don't ya know. I take great glee in listening to people rabbit on about their dining habits. Can't recall which ship, but a lady insisted on telling us she was dining at Cafe Bordeaux. We even had a Gentleman who wore a large bib, invited one of the receptionist to diner one evening and apparently was a dab hand at telling the Captain how to dock the ship. My advice, go to the luncheon. Have fun and listen tongue in cheek to those who are "Experts" at cruising. Safe voyage and have a lovely cruise.

[Fionboard]

5 minutes ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

But my dear (Hope I am not being too familiar) it is what you must expect dining with others (In the words of ghastly Virgin) sailors. It's like when you chat someone up and say words like "Do you come here often?" You have to expect the traditional how many cruises have you done ? We (not the Royal), but me and the wife, or more correctly the wife and I have had the privilege of many of the who's life revolves around outdoing fellow passengers at the table. Isn't it just spiffing, don't ya know. I take great glee in listening to people rabbit on about their dining habits. Can't recall which ship, but a lady insisted on telling us she was dining at Cafe Bordeaux. We even had a Gentleman who wore a large bib, invited one of the receptionist to diner one evening and apparently was a dab hand at telling the Captain how to dock the ship. My advice, go to the luncheon. Have fun and listen tongue in cheek to those who are "Experts" at cruising. Safe voyage and have a lovely cruise.

Agree. Be sociable, go to the lunch, meet people and enjoy it.

[Cruisemeister2002]

5 hours ago, wowzz said:

As a matter of interest, why no staff ? We will never cruise enough to join the lunch, but I would have thought that talking to crew members would be interesting and informative. 

Obviously someone who's opinion is " I don't pay all that money to sit with the crew"

[jeanlyon]

If I went to that kind of lunch, I wouldn't have room for dinner and I much prefer dinner!

[galeforce9]

2 hours ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

Obviously someone who's opinion is " I don't pay all that money to sit with the crew"

Why not? They don’t want to be there either.  

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

If I went to that kind of lunch, I wouldn't have room for dinner and I much prefer dinner!

Surely you can make room for at least one light dinner on a 14 nt  cruise?

[Son of Anarchy]

We enjoy the Peninsula Lunch and always make sure we go.  We have been told that those officers who host tables do so voluntarily.  Had some interesting chats and insights into seafaring and the maritime entertainment industry.

[jeanlyon]

I can honestly say that I have never had the problem of people telling me how many cruises they have done, so it can't be all that common? 

 

We travelled on a very small ship and had dinner on the Captains Table one night.  He was most interesting, a Greek who had stood watching ships as a child and decided that was what he was going to do, started as a deck hand and worked his way up.

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

I can honestly say that I have never had the problem of people telling me how many cruises they have done, so it can't be all that common? 

 

We travelled on a very small ship and had dinner on the Captains Table one night.  He was most interesting, a Greek who had stood watching ships as a child and decided that was what he was going to do, started as a deck hand and worked his way up.

Captain Kontroses? Lovely man.

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 9/27/2022 at 9:47 PM, galeforce9 said:

Why not? They don’t want to be there either.  

Must say it hasn't come across to me that they don't wish to be dining with passengers. But of course they won't get on with some the same as I wouldn't. I think in the main I have been fortunate to meat many other passengers who we got on well with and kept in touch. Just like the waiters and cabin staff they have a duty to promote the Company by their presence. It doesn't matter whether they like it or not. Some will some won't. By the way my comment " Not paying all that money to sit with the crew" was tongue in cheek and not meant to offend.

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 9/28/2022 at 11:28 AM, Son of Anarchy said:

We enjoy the Peninsula Lunch and always make sure we go.  We have been told that those officers who host tables do so voluntarily.  Had some interesting chats and insights into seafaring and the maritime entertainment industry.

We were lucky enough to do a cruise on Artemis a few years ago and had a member of staff on our table every night. He was the Chief Engineer and moved to Adonia after Artemis went. We had wine every night paid by P&O and a Captains cocktail party. Not the usual one where you get G&T without the G and wine more attuned to cleaning out the sink. But one with very good wine and canapes and you didn't have to catch the eye of the waiter/waitress in order to be served. Don't know whether the Cocktail Party has been reintroduced or if you are still getting a voucher for a drink ?

[Son of Anarchy]

2 minutes ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

We were lucky enough to do a cruise on Artemis a few years ago and had a member of staff on our table every night. He was the Chief Engineer and moved to Adonia after Artemis went. We had wine every night paid by P&O and a Captains cocktail party. Not the usual one where you get G&T without the G and wine more attuned to cleaning out the sink. But one with very good wine and canapes and you didn't have to catch the eye of the waiter/waitress in order to be served. Don't know whether the Cocktail Party has been reintroduced or if you are still getting a voucher for a drink ?

We had a similar experience on our first P &O cruise.  Also an engineer.  Oceana though.  Had what we considered the best table in the restaurant.  Afterwards, we used to request that table when on club dining on Oceana.  Not sure whether not or that is still possible.  Partly that fella''s fault we've spent so much money with P & O since!

 

At one of the Peninsula lunches we were hosted by a chap and his wife.  It was his last day at sea before retiring after over 40 years at sea.  Obviously it was luck of the draw that he was our host, but we felt "honoured" that he spent part of his last day working at sea with us and the others on that table. Conversation expanded into motorbikes as part of his retirement plan was to restore his old motorbike.  Another engineer. 

 

Must something about these maritime engineer types!

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 9/27/2022 at 5:11 PM, galeforce9 said:

Agree about the snooze 

I seemed to remember the last cruise we did the wine didn't flow so much as previously. It seemed to be available one minute and gone the next. I know cruise lines make a majority of their money by sales onboard via outlets and drinks, along with I dare say excursions. Seeing as you don't have a choice, apart from whether you buy drinks or not, if you drink then you have to pay according to your choice. But I do feel that paying £20 for a bottle of wine that is £7 in Asda is a bit over the top. If for instance they charged £12-£14 they would sell much more. I know not everyone watches what they spend. But under the current situation where they need to entice as many as possible to cruise they should consider what they charge.

[Angel57]

20 minutes ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

We were lucky enough to do a cruise on Artemis a few years ago and had a member of staff on our table every night. He was the Chief Engineer and moved to Adonia after Artemis went. We had wine every night paid by P&O and a Captains cocktail party. Not the usual one where you get G&T without the G and wine more attuned to cleaning out the sink. But one with very good wine and canapes and you didn't have to catch the eye of the waiter/waitress in order to be served. Don't know whether the Cocktail Party has been reintroduced or if you are still getting a voucher for a drink ?

I remember those days when you had the same officer allocated to your table most nights. That was in the beautiful Coral Dining Room on Victoria. We had a mix of officers from the bridge and also entertainment officers over the years and got invited some great cocktail parties!

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 10/5/2022 at 6:42 PM, Angel57 said:

I remember those days when you had the same officer allocated to your table most nights. That was in the beautiful Coral Dining Room on Victoria. We had a mix of officers from the bridge and also entertainment officers over the years and got invited some great cocktail parties!

Victoria was our first cruise back in 2002 her last season. Lovely ship with wood panelling and etched glass in the MDR. The cruise took in Madeira and the Canaries and as we sailed towards Madeira a guy called David gave us a commentary over the tannoy. If my memory serves me correctly we had a buffet outside towards the forward of the ship. She was a lovely vessel and we bought an album which I had photo's plus postcards of the ship inside and out and one of the labels I printed for the album said " Victoria, a true Queen" 

[annieuk]

I haven't cruised since the pandemic but previously I and my late husband went to several loyalty lunches and always found them incredibly interesting.  I remember one where the Chief Engineer was the host and he told us he liked attending the lunches as it gave him chance to meet the passengers and listen to their thoughts.  We also had one where Sam - can't remember his surname - who was the best Port Presenter by far was the host and he was so interesting and interested in the passengers.  I don't ever remember people asking or commenting on the amount they'd paid for their cruise.  We also always chose club dining because we enjoyed meeting up with our table mates each evening and hearing what they'd done that day, especially when it was a port day. I know this is some people  hate the idea of Club Dining and prefer Freedom which is fine, it's lovely to have the choice.