Looks like P&O are changing the way dining bookings are done on Arvia

[Megabear2]

Well let's see how it works.  No doubt reports will come in pretty soon.  Which cruise has it first?

 

 

[Megabear2]

27 minutes ago, Happy afloat said:

I could have made myself a little clearer here, perhaps. Sittings for club dining are allocated but you may be able to change from one to the other once on board.

Whether you can upgrade to freedom dining once on board I'm not sure, not heard of anyone doing this.

I once went from club to freedom but that was mainly due to my husband not being classed as onboard - he was but his card didn't work.  After lots of hand wringing at the restaurant and reception the manager just said oh we'll put you on freedom, is that okay.  It was but everytime we went to the podium they still thought dining for one.

[solentsam]

55 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Well let's see how it works.  No doubt reports will come in pretty soon.  Which cruise has it first?

Well our cruise in 5 weeks on the 23 July. maybe some others will be on before then

[zap99]

2 hours ago, 9265359 said:

Fault - it depends. 
 

If it is a ‘see if you can book, and pay if you eat’ restaurant then obviously your fault if you didn’t book, whether that is a land based restaurant or ship based specialty restaurant.

 

But a ‘we will take your money in advance, with a flash website saying you can eat whenever you want there’, well that’s definitely the restaurant’s fault if they don’t let you in.

We have never gone hungry on a cruise ship.🍟

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Happy afloat said:

Perhaps I should have said swap, although given that freedom dining is usually part of the more expensive select fare, unless aboard Arvia or Iona, perhaps upgrade is correct?

IMHO. you are right, in as much as, if I needed to have fixed dining times, I wouldn't be on that cruise.

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I am seeing and learning from this thread there is way more freedom on the bigger ships for everyone than on the smaller ships for NOT everyone? 

 

And saver prices on the bigger ships give you the exact same choices and opportunities once on board as people who have paid select fares? 

 

The more I read and learn the more I think the big ships get unfair criticism on here from some

 

Finally you don't have to use the app on the bigger ships if you don't want to? And want to see what's available each night on spec.

 

 

What you fail to comprehend is that over the years cruise lines learnt how many passengers prefer club dining and how many freedom dining, and they set their dining rooms up to offer that split. Hopefully the cruise lines got  it right more often than not.

But of course any average does have seasons which dont follow the normal trend,  and over time it has seemed that an increasing percentage of passengers have shown a preference for freedom dining, which presumably is why P&O have opted for all freedom dining MDRs on Iona and Arvia. But you are correct that this does benefit saver fare passengers, and unless the extra OBC for select fares is high enough, some usual select fare passengers will undoubtedly decide to try a saver fare, until they end up in an unsatisfactory cabin.

I suspect that Aurora and Arcadia will totally drop the app system fairly soon, and maybe Ventura as well. But the demographic on Azura for fly cruises, and the tight MDR dining capacity on Britannia, will probably mean they will try to tighten up on the app usage.

Edited June 17, 2023 by terrierjohn

[JeanieC,Aston]

4 hours ago, zap99 said:

Knowing how the system works helps a bit. If you shower, dress, pop down for a drink and think at 7.00 ' time for dinner ,I'll join a virtual queue ', you may be in for a long wait. About 15 mins,or so before we were finished in the cabin we would join the queue. A bit earlier if the queue was getting  a bit big. We rarely needed to wait very long, sometimes being notified before we had even finished in the cabin, but we had 15minutes.

I always think dwelling on the numbers in the queue is misleading.

I not only depends on numbers in queue but table size asked for.

On my Iona cruise one night we joined the queue at #40 and was called in 30 mins.

 

On another night we where #14 and where will not called 90 min later at nearly 21:00,,,resulting in me and others demanding to be seated.

 

Then we had to agree to share a table of 8,,,which meant not having desert to leave to get into the Club for 22:30 show.

 

 

[Son of Anarchy]

3 hours ago, Happy afloat said:

I could have made myself a little clearer here, perhaps. Sittings for club dining are allocated but you may be able to change from one to the other once on board.

Whether you can upgrade to freedom dining once on board I'm not sure, not heard of anyone doing this.

Have done that on Oriana and Ventura.  The time on Ventura was post lockdowns.

[happy v]

5 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Are you coming with me?

 

Lol

 

Don't worry I will pre-book everything we need 

 

You won't have to do anything!

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Deal!!! Okay, when are we going?!!  If one of us gets the noisy cabin I'll swap with you and your good lady. You seemed to do far better than me on that one!

Please wait until I can cruise again and come with you. A cruise with you two certainly wouldn't be boring 😀

[daiB]

3 hours ago, Happy afloat said:

Perhaps I should have said swap, although given that freedom dining is usually part of the more expensive select fare, unless aboard Arvia or Iona, perhaps upgrade is correct?

Not sure how you make that out?? Set dining is still very popular especally first sitting which is why there is a problen with freedom, on all P&O ships, as so many want to go early there is a long queue and always has been and of course you can now book the erarly slot for the whole cruise, certainly on Iona. You are way off the mark with you assessment of the situation. Do not forget that on the big 2, the age of passengers is still high out of the school holidays.

Edited June 17, 2023 by daiB

[Fionboard]

4 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Only everyone who pays a select fare It appears?

 

The rest get pot luck?

 

And find out on board

 

Hence me saying you have to pay extra for freedom dining on the smaller ships?

For heavens sake. You obviously have not cruised as much as you make out. Select allows you to choose fixed (first or second) or freedom and table size. Saver does not but you can almost always change what you get if not what you want once on board. I speak from experience. Sorry if this is disrepectful but your labouring of your points is getting a bit tedious! 

[Denarius]

On 6/16/2023 at 4:29 PM, davecttr said:

As I understand it Arvia has MDR capacity for about 1/3 of the passengers per sitting so if there is only time for 2 sittings 1/3 of the passengers are expected to eat elsewhere. The problem is they DON'T want to eat elsewhere they want a MDR experience. If you want a traditional dining ship the size of Arvia you would need the space equivalent to the deck 8 cabins dedicated to another MDR. That would not generate enough profit for Carnival.

But if you restrict the number or MDR places available then some passengers who wished to dine there will be bounced into the buffet or into pay extra restaurants or cabin service, increasing Carnival's profit. A nice little earner!

[daiB]

3 hours ago, majortom10 said:

All I can say we have never yet cruised on Arvia so cannot give an opinion. We have cruised on Iona once 14 nts in March, not school holidays, and we pre booked Epicurean and Sindhu pre cruise. We ate in the evening in Keel & Cow on one occasion and Olive Grove 2-3 times both booked on app during cruise with no problems or issues booking. The rest of the time we ate in various MDRs booking on the virtual queue at varying times to suit us. We joined virtual queue on leaving cabin and we were buzzed telling us table on every occasion before we got to restaurant except on one occasion and we went in Anderson's for a pre dinner drink. We was buzzed before we had finished our drink so took it with us to MDR. The only great queue we had during the whole queue was at The Quays for fish and chips for lunch which is very popular and we struggled to find a vacant table. We had a great time on Iona and was impressed with space on the ship and available facilities. We never at any time day or night finding a seat to sit and in bars at night. One thing which has always been a struggle on Aurora/Arcadia is finding a seat in a bar in the evenings. I would book Iona again in a heart beat but unfortunately don't do 7 nt cruises so limited at the moment.

 

Fully agree, which is why we have booked Arvia in May and Iona Oct. we would even consider Iona for the long 35 night Caribbean although we do like Ventura for that cruise. 

[9265359]

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

We have never gone hungry on a cruise ship.🍟

Neither have I, but I wouldn’t be happy if the heavily advertised as a feature of the cruise MDR said “full, go use the canteen”.

[zap99]

30 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

Neither have I, but I wouldn’t be happy if the heavily advertised as a feature of the cruise MDR said “full, go use the canteen”.

Sometimes we choose to use the buffet and have never known the MDR to be full, but we are a bit flexible and join the Virtual queue in good time.

[Interestedcruisefan]

49 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

For heavens sake. You obviously have not cruised as much as you make out. Select allows you to choose fixed (first or second) or freedom and table size. Saver does not but you can almost always change what you get if not what you want once on board. I speak from experience. Sorry if this is disrepectful but your labouring of your points is getting a bit tedious! 

So actually it appears I am correct to say you have to pay extra to secure freedom dining when you book on the smaller ships?

 

You have to pay select fares to be able to choose it. Something you don't have to pay on Iona and Arvia and get automatically

 

I personally wouldn't be comfortable hoping to be able to swap to achieve what I want once on board

 

So that's a big advantage to the bigger ships for me

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Gettingwarmer]

If only we could pay Select to get a decent Freedom dining room on Arvia/Iona and leave Saver inside fares to those who are happy to eat anywhere available…….

[Presto2]

16 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Sometimes we choose to use the buffet and have never known the MDR to be full, but we are a bit flexible and join the Virtual queue in good time.

Good luck

[9265359]

12 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Sometimes we choose to use the buffet and have never known the MDR to be full, but we are a bit flexible and join the Virtual queue in good time.

I never choose to use the buffet - hell on earth with food that has been poked and prodded.
 

The first of those issues I can suffer, but the second - no thanks.

[zap99]

Just now, Presto2 said:

Good luck

Thanks. We have managed to get a table in the MDR every time we have decided to eat there. Perhaps being flexible with time, or table size helps.

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

Thanks. We have managed to get a table in the MDR every time we have decided to eat there. Perhaps being flexible with time, or table size helps.

Am not being awkward, just curious. School holidays under the new app system?

We like to eat about 7.30 - 8pm (and can live with it being about 8.15pm ish) Its when it got to 9.45pm and closer to 10pm we got twitchy.

I suppose we felt like newbies. Once upon a time we had a system and knew exactly what we were doing etc re FD and now we don't have a clue !

[zap99]

2 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Am not being awkward, just curious. School holidays under the new app system?

We like to eat about 7.30 - 8pm (and can live with it being about 8.15pm ish) Its when it got to 9.45pm and closer to 10pm we got twitchy.

I suppose we felt like newbies. Once upon a time we had a system and knew exactly what we were doing etc re FD and now we don't have a clue !

Our view of school holiday cruises is a bit like some folks views of the buffet. Something to be avoided. 🤣

[Presto2]

Just now, zap99 said:

Our view of school holiday cruises is a bit like some folks views of the buffet. Something to be avoided. 🤣

When we retire we will join you 😉

[zap99]

1 minute ago, Presto2 said:

When we retire we will join you 😉

We just had a week in Majorca. We didn't realise it was half term in Ireland. Can't win em all..🤣

[Interestedcruisefan]

25 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

If only we could pay Select to get a decent Freedom dining room on Arvia/Iona and leave Saver inside fares to those who are happy to eat anywhere available…….

If I had to pay extra to eat anywhere I wanted on Arvia and Iona when I wanted to. I would pay it as well.

 

But why pay something when you don't need to?