Food and dining on P&O ships

[Snibs]

Can anyone confirm if Peroni has been replaced by Moretti onboard Azura. This could reduce the bar bill if true 

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 8/1/2023 at 5:33 PM, Snibs said:

Can anyone confirm if Peroni has been replaced by Moretti onboard Azura. This could reduce the bar bill if true 

Sorry but didn't ask the Italian waiter his name, do you remember what Peroni look like ?

[Sunshine453]

Thanks for your help all!

[SeaJane]

I was one of the people who experienced dreadful food in the MDR on Ventura in May. When we had a phone call afterwards to discuss our complaint we were assured that due to a volume of complaints the issue was being addressed as a matter of urgency. I’m pleased to hear that it seems as though considerable improvements have indeed been made and that she are enjoying the food Sarah. The photos that you posted of your meal on the first night certainly looked excellent and bore no resemblance to anything we were served! 

[Selbourne]

13 minutes ago, SeaJane said:

I was one of the people who experienced dreadful food in the MDR on Ventura in May. When we had a phone call afterwards to discuss our complaint we were assured that due to a volume of complaints the issue was being addressed as a matter of urgency. I’m pleased to hear that it seems as though considerable improvements have indeed been made and that she are enjoying the food Sarah. The photos that you posted of your meal on the first night certainly looked excellent and bore no resemblance to anything we were served! 

That’s good to hear. Thanks for sharing. 

[posford]

Hi Selborne and SeaJane,

 

I was the one who posted about the awful food on Ventura last month.

I contacted Paul Ludlow’s office and got an apology and £200 obs on my next cruise.

It was a real shame as everything bar the dining experience was excellent. So much so that we are doing the same itinerary on Aurora in 2 weeks time.

 

Going back to the complaint, it seemed to me that that P&O knew about the Ventura dining problems. Hopefully they are now sorted.

 

In my opinion, P&O have no clue how to organise freedom dining.

I have a few ideas, the first being that they treble the number of tables for 2.

 

Anyway, roll on 2 weeks to Aurora, hoping that they still have the loyalty buffet and not a sit down 3 course lunch.

If we are the only couple who enjoy the buffet, so be it, but we do enjoy it.

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, posford said:

Hi Selborne and SeaJane,

 

I was the one who posted about the awful food on Ventura last month.

I contacted Paul Ludlow’s office and got an apology and £200 obs on my next cruise.

It was a real shame as everything bar the dining experience was excellent. So much so that we are doing the same itinerary on Aurora in 2 weeks time.

 

Going back to the complaint, it seemed to me that that P&O knew about the Ventura dining problems. Hopefully they are now sorted.

 

In my opinion, P&O have no clue how to organise freedom dining.

I have a few ideas, the first being that they treble the number of tables for 2.

 

Anyway, roll on 2 weeks to Aurora, hoping that they still have the loyalty buffet and not a sit down 3 course lunch.

If we are the only couple who enjoy the buffet, so be it, but we do enjoy it.

Thanks. We were very happy with the MDR food on Britannia recently, but the Freedom Dining concept had definitely taken a big step backwards as a result of the app.
 

In spite of my reservations, I quite liked using the app and preferred a virtual queue to getting a pager. However, it was clear that the restaurants simply cannot cope with multiple systems (app, walk-ups, pagers) all competing with one another and, as a result, those using the app were going to the bottom of the queue, with it often being switched to ‘queue full’. We know from taking to multiple people that those who were just doing a walk-up were often getting seated quicker than those of us in virtual queues. On top of that, tables were sitting empty for ages whilst waiting for those who had received a notification to arrive. Under the previous sole ‘first come, first served’ system, as soon as a table was cleared and re-layed, the next guests to arrive were shown to it immediately. 

 

If we were early diners I don’t think that we would have had any issues at all, as there was always good availability and fast moving virtual queues if you were wanting breakfast, lunch or dinner during the first hour or so that service opened. However, whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner, we prefer to go within the last hour (or half hour) of the session, and that’s where the problems now seem to arise. 
 

We have always loved Freedom dining, but I think that we are being pushed back towards Club (fixed), but my reservation with that is that you cannot guarantee a table for 2. It is pushing us more towards Cunard, as we like their Club concept, where you have a dedicated table for your sole use at whatever time that you like (for all meals), with no apps or queues (virtual or physical). More expensive, but it completely removes the hassle. 

[SeaJane]

1 hour ago, posford said:

Hi Selborne and SeaJane,

 

I was the one who posted about the awful food on Ventura last month.

I contacted Paul Ludlow’s office and got an apology and £200 obs on my next cruise.

It was a real shame as everything bar the dining experience was excellent. So much so that we are doing the same itinerary on Aurora in 2 weeks time.

 

Going back to the complaint, it seemed to me that that P&O knew about the Ventura dining problems. Hopefully they are now sorted.

 

In my opinion, P&O have no clue how to organise freedom dining.

I have a few ideas, the first being that they treble the number of tables for 2.

 

Anyway, roll on 2 weeks to Aurora, hoping that they still have the loyalty buffet and not a sit down 3 course lunch.

If we are the only couple who enjoy the buffet, so be it, but we do enjoy it.

Yes I was interested to read that you had also had a similar poor experience.  It was only the excellent meals in Epicurean that redeemed our dining experience on Ventura! We also received an apology and OBS for our next cruise on Aurora. On that cruise we are returning to our preferred option of fixed dining, second sitting. 

[Selbourne]

14 minutes ago, SeaJane said:

Yes I was interested to read that you had also had a similar poor experience.  It was only the excellent meals in Epicurean that redeemed our dining experience on Ventura! We also received an apology and OBS for our next cruise on Aurora. On that cruise we are returning to our preferred option of fixed dining, second sitting. 

Having articulated our recent experiences with Freedom dining on Britannia on this thread an hour ago, I had a conversation with my wife and we discussed the pros and cons of Freedom (as it is now) and Club (fixed) in relation to our October and March Ventura cruises.
 

We have also now decided to go back to fixed dining, second sitting, for the first time since Freedom dining was introduced. We have asked our cruise specialist TA to add a note on P&Os system that our request for a table for 2 isn’t just a personal preference, but needed due to my wife’s disability. Hopefully that will happen, but if it doesn’t I am hopeful that the restaurant manager will resolve it for us. 
 

I just don’t fancy two weeks of faffing about with pagers every time we want to have a table for 2 at dinner, not knowing whether it will go off in 10 minutes or an hour. 

[Presto2]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

We have always loved Freedom dining, but I think that we are being pushed back towards Club (fixed), but my reservation with that is that you cannot guarantee a table for 2. It is pushing us more towards Cunard, as we like their Club concept, where you have a dedicated table for your sole use at whatever time that you like (for all meals), with no apps or queues (virtual or physical). More expensive, but it completely removes the hassle. 

Mr Presto and I were talking today and said that we will see how things go on Britannia and if it isn't improved we will probably aim for something more expensive like Cunard or Celebrity Edge class for the same reason. No use going on a cheaper holiday if you come back more stressed than when you left !

[Presto2]

36 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Having articulated our recent experiences with Freedom dining on Britannia on this thread an hour ago, I had a conversation with my wife and we discussed the pros and cons of Freedom (as it is now) and Club (fixed) in relation to our October and March Ventura cruises.
 

We have also now decided to go back to fixed dining, second sitting, for the first time since Freedom dining was introduced. We have asked our cruise specialist TA to add a note on P&Os system that our request for a table for 2 isn’t just a personal preference, but needed due to my wife’s disability. Hopefully that will happen, but if it doesn’t I am hopeful that the restaurant manager will resolve it for us. 
 

I just don’t fancy two weeks of faffing about with pagers every time we want to have a table for 2 at dinner, not knowing whether it will go off in 10 minutes or an hour. 

Or 2 hours as was our case !

[Book bug]

We had good food on Ventura back in April,  but our tablemates had spoken with others who had had poor food.  We had requested table for 2 but got table for 8 on first sitting ,  all good company but have gone for freedom dining next cruise and cross our fingers we don't have too many problems 

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, Book bug said:

We had requested table for 2 but got table for 8 on first sitting 

Had you booked a Select or Saver fare and, if the former, had you requested second sitting? Obviously with a Saver fare you can end up with anything, but with Select you can usually get Freedom, 1st or 2nd sitting confirmed before you cruise, with just the table size as a preference that is confirmed on the cruise.

[Book bug]

Yes we were on select booking and had asked for first sitting so that was all good, only the table size was very different. It worked out okay in the end as they were all good company

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, Book bug said:

Yes we were on select booking and had asked for first sitting so that was all good, only the table size was very different. It worked out okay in the end as they were all good company

Thanks for clarifying. We would hate first sitting as it would be far too early for us, so that’s a relief to hear that you had requested it. We don’t tend to do much of the evening entertainment (other than perhaps the 10.30pm show), so a late meal is our main evening entertainment 😂 

[Book bug]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks for clarifying. We would hate first sitting as it would be far too early for us, so that’s a relief to hear that you had requested it. We don’t tend to do much of the evening entertainment (other than perhaps the 10.30pm show), so a late meal is our main evening entertainment 😂 

We find the late sitting just a bit too late. We went to epicurean one evening so much food but wonderful- couldn't do anything else afterwards!!!

[posford]

Problem is that it is not Freedom dining.

It is, when you can get in, dining.

If you fancy dining at 7.30. It could be anything between 7,30 and 9.30.

And as for people saying they can’t get in anywhere, and go to the buffet - disgraceful.

 

P&O must somehow fix this.

 

We went on Iona last September and we’re able to book every night before we went. We even got the same table every night.  Worked a treat.

 

Ventura did not even use the My Holiday “app”. It was suspended. 
Dining room chaos every night.

 

Don’t know what else to say, really.

 

41 cruises, 36 on P&O, I know how good they can be.

[Presto2]

1 hour ago, posford said:

Problem is that it is not Freedom dining.

It is, when you can get in, dining.

If you fancy dining at 7.30. It could be anything between 7,30 and 9.30.

And as for people saying they can’t get in anywhere, and go to the buffet - disgraceful.

 

P&O must somehow fix this.

 

We went on Iona last September and we’re able to book every night before we went. We even got the same table every night.  Worked a treat.

 

Ventura did not even use the My Holiday “app”. It was suspended. 
Dining room chaos every night.

 

Don’t know what else to say, really.

 

41 cruises, 36 on P&O, I know how good they can be.

Couldn't have put it better.. Still wondering if you have any thoughts Molechip re this matter. Am praying PO eat humble pie and change what is a failed system.  

Edited August 9, 2023 by Presto2

[Megabear2]

Just now, Selbourne said:

Good to hear that you enjoyed Madeira Sarah. We are looking forward to our second visit there in October when we are on pretty much the same cruise as yours and on the same ship!

 

Interesting to hear that you still had a reasonably long wait for a table for dinner, even dining early, and I’m not surprised that you are considering swapping to fixed dining for your next cruise - as we have just done. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens going forward. Freedom dining has been the most popular choice since it was introduced, but a lot of us are now abandoning it due to all the current problems.

If you all abandon it no doubt P&O will have to change around the dining rooms to accommodate you!  However I can't see them doing that in reality as the new cruisers won't like it.  You like us have a specific need of a table for 2 and with the best will in the world P&O aren't in a position to offer everyone that.

 

I appreciate you are moving across to Cunard to facilitate this request. However the same situation would apply if you were not Club.  Incidentally I priced a Queen Anne cruise in September 2024 yesterday. Britannia balcony £7198 or Britannia Club £8198 so a thousand pounds more for what is basically dining choice.

[AndyMichelle]

3 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Good to hear that you enjoyed Madeira Sarah. We are looking forward to our second visit there in October when we are on pretty much the same cruise as yours and on the same ship!

 

Interesting to hear that you still had a reasonably long wait for a table for dinner, even dining early, and I’m not surprised that you are considering swapping to fixed dining for your next cruise - as we have just done. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens going forward. Freedom dining has been the most popular choice since it was introduced, but a lot of us are now abandoning it due to all the current problems.

As we have discussed before, freedom dining no longer exists in reality. 

It's join a queue or take a pager, then wait up to 2 hours for your dinner, that's not eating when 'you' choose. 

We were so happy to know we had a table saved at a fixed time for us and planned our day/evening around that. 

Unfortunately, with so many switching to club dining, this may become unmanageable with less tables for 2 etc available and I fear 'freedom' dining will become the saver option that nobody wants... 

P&O really need to sort this out... 

Andy 

 

 

 

[Selbourne]

23 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

If you all abandon it no doubt P&O will have to change around the dining rooms to accommodate you!  However I can't see them doing that in reality as the new cruisers won't like it.  You like us have a specific need of a table for 2 and with the best will in the world P&O aren't in a position to offer everyone that.

Yes I agree but, of course, this won’t be an issue on the new ships (as there is no fixed dining option) and even on the other ships, with the large numbers of first time cruisers that P&O are successfully targeting, I should imagine that the vast majority of them will go for Freedom dining.

 

23 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I appreciate you are moving across to Cunard to facilitate this request. However the same situation would apply if you were not Club.  Incidentally I priced a Queen Anne cruise in September 2024 yesterday. Britannia balcony £7198 or Britannia Club £8198 so a thousand pounds more for what is basically dining choice.

Yes I understand that the standard Britannia dining on Cunard works the same way, and that is why we have booked Club for both our 2024 Cunard cruises. Whilst we aren’t paying anything like those prices (significantly less than half in fact for one cruise, after allowing for the OBC offer) we are extremely happy to pay the premium for Club. Having our own dedicated table for breakfast, lunch and dinner and being able to turn up when we want with no need to book or queue (virtual or physical) makes it worth every penny for us, as it completely removes all the hassle. The fact that there’s an a’la carte menu on top of the standard Britannia menu is just an added bonus as far as we are concerned. Dining is a huge part of the cruise experience for us, and we are thankfully at a stage in our life where we can afford to pay more for a better experience and are very happy to do so. 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Selbourne

[Megabear2]

20 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes I agree but, of course, this won’t be an issue on the new ships (as there is no fixed dining option) and even on the other ships, with the large numbers of first time cruisers that P&O are successfully targeting, I should imagine that the vast majority of them will go for Freedom dining.

 

Yes I understand that the standard Britannia dining on Cunard works the same way, and that is why we have booked Club for both our 2024 Cunard cruises. Whilst we aren’t paying anything like those prices (significantly less than half in fact for one cruise, after allowing for the OBC offer) we are extremely happy to pay the premium for Club. Having our own dedicated table for breakfast, lunch and dinner and being able to turn up when we want with no need to book or queue (virtual or physical) makes it worth every penny for us, as it completely removes all the hassle. The fact that there’s an a’la carte menu on top of the standard Britannia menu is just an added bonus as far as we are concerned. Dining is a huge part of the cruise experience for us, and we are thankfully at a stage in our life where we can afford to pay more for a better experience and are very happy to do so. 

I understand exactly what is important to you, I was only highlighting for any other readers the quite substantial difference in costing.  Many of us are on different budgets though so it's always good to know where things stand.  You also have had the good fortune to be able to book a very long way in advance which many may not have the opportunity to do.  My family were actually looking yesterday as one of them has a very elderly father who has moved in with them recently and he does not travel.  As such they needed to book care for him to facilitate them taking a holiday booked for December this year and were told the earliest availability for this particular set of carers was August/September next year!  The whole family minus myself were due on the Aurora December cruise and have as a result cancelled.  We are all now on Queen Anne next year instead.

 

Queen Anne of course has an added problem in the number of obstructed balcony cabins is quite high and she is also a new ship so carries a big premium at present.

 

With all the new pay for restaurants on her as well it will be interesting to see how many move to use them.  Certainly in 20 years since the first one appeared on a Cunard ship there's never been a rush to dine in them.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Megabear2

[Selbourne]

23 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I understand exactly what is important to you, I was only highlighting for any other readers the quite substantial difference in costing.  Many of us are on different budgets though so it's always good to know where things stand.  You also have had the good fortune to be able to book a very long way in advance which many may not have the opportunity to do.  My family were actually looking yesterday as one of them has a very elderly father who has moved in with them recently and he does not travel.  As such they needed to book care for him to facilitate them taking a holiday booked for December this year and were told the earliest availability for this particular set of carers was August/September next year!  The whole family minus myself were due on the Aurora December cruise and have as a result cancelled.  We are all now on Queen Anne next year instead.

 

Queen Anne of course has an added problem in the number of obstructed balcony cabins is quite high and she is also a new ship so carries a big premium at present.

 

With all the new pay for restaurants on her as well it will be interesting to see how many move to use them.  Certainly in 20 years since the first one appeared on a Cunard ship there's never been a rush to dine in them.

Sorry to hear about your caring challenges. Friends have the same issue. Very difficult. 
 

Thankfully neither of our balconies on Queen Anne are obstructed. We booked the first one on launch day (as there are only 2 accessible Club cabins) and we have indeed paid a handsome price for that cruise (albeit still quite a bit less than the example you gave). As newbies to Cunard at the time (although we have since cruised on QM2) we knew no different and also, as you say, assumed that it was carrying a premium being just the second cruise on a brand new ship. 
 

Interestingly, our November 24 Queen Anne cruise, which we booked more recently, worked out at considerably less for the same duration cruise and, once you take into account the high level of OBC that came with it, is working out about the same as many pay for a P&O cruise in a standard balcony cabin (and considerably less than most pay on Aurora and Arcadia), with none of the benefits that you get with Club on Cunard. 
 

We are hoping that our future cruises will be a mix of P&O, Cunard and (possibly) Saga. Our recent Britannia cruise reassured us that P&O still has a place for us - at the right price. We shall see how we get on with Iona in a few weeks and on our two Ventura cruises before firming up on that though 😂 

[Megabear2]

23 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Interestingly, our November 24 Queen Anne cruise, which we booked more recently, worked out at considerably less for the same duration cruise and, once you take into account the high level of OBC that came with it, is

Over the years Cunard has traditionally had less take up on their November Med/Canaries cruises with many undertaking the long Caribbean cruises which come up sooner after in preference.  It used to be they were the first cruises where singles were offered reasonable fares on Cunard commenced on 1 November- cue the shouts of why can't we travel reasonably at other times of the year!  Also of course a much smaller UK level of Cunard travellers and less overseas people flying in to cruise during the winter months reducing demand.

 

Apa

Edited August 10, 2023 by Megabear2

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

If you all abandon it no doubt P&O will have to change around the dining rooms to accommodate you!  However I can't see them doing that in reality as the new cruisers won't like it.  You like us have a specific need of a table for 2 and with the best will in the world P&O aren't in a position to offer everyone that.

 

I appreciate you are moving across to Cunard to facilitate this request. However the same situation would apply if you were not Club.  Incidentally I priced a Queen Anne cruise in September 2024 yesterday. Britannia balcony £7198 or Britannia Club £8198 so a thousand pounds more for what is basically dining choice.

Not just the new cruisers who won't like it. Sorry, but 6.30,or 8.30 dinner every day ,fixed for the whole cruise?. No thanks. We will work in dinner around our other plans.  If that means dinner in the buffet, that's fine. I understand all this is important to some folk, but not all. Not by a long way.