Just Disembarked Arcadia

[lindylooellalouise]

On our Arcadia June cruise, we were given pagers for breakfast lunch and dinner, unbelievable.

[Selbourne]

9 minutes ago, lindylooellalouise said:

we did speak to a couple of couples who had managed to get ( fixed dinning) same table  for two, same time at 7.30 in the freedom restaurant, and that’s not what I would call freedom dinning.

I agree. It shouldn’t happen. I am convinced that, along with having multiple systems operating on some ships (virtual queues, walk-ups and pagers) which seem to conflict with one another, having tables sat empty for periods for those who have effectively reserved them is a major contributory factor to the delays that people now experience with Freedom dining. 
 

Without asking, we were offered a table for a set time every night on our recent Britannia cruise by one of the waiters. We declined as we had speciality restaurants booked for over half the nights, but it would have been tempting otherwise! 

[gsmt47471015]

2 minutes ago, lindylooellalouise said:

On our Arcadia June cruise, we were given pagers for breakfast lunch and dinner, unbelievable.

And as I’ve mentioned before the lack of other dining venues on Arcadia does make things even more congested ,     Unfortunately 

[lindylooellalouise]

Thinking we should now just stick to club dinning at least you know what time you’ll be eating, too early or too late 😂

[Angel57]

13 minutes ago, lindylooellalouise said:

On our Arcadia June cruise, we were given pagers for breakfast lunch and dinner, unbelievable.

No pagers or queues to eat in Medina for breakfast or dinner (freedom) on Aurora when I was on on in June. I think the only crunch time was around 7.30/8pm…..

[lindylooellalouise]

Just now, Angel57 said:

No pagers or queues to eat in Medina for breakfast or dinner (freedom) on Aurora when I was on on in June. I think the only crunch time was around 7.30/8pm…..

Hopefully it will be like that when we’re onboard  we usually like to eat at around 7pm 😀 first time on Aurora and so looking forward to it.

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, lindylooellalouise said:

Thinking we should now just stick to club dinning at least you know what time you’ll be eating, too early or too late 😂

Thankfully, 8.30pm is about the time that we choose to eat on a cruise, so we have bitten the bullet and reverted back to 2nd sitting Club dining (on cruises where we can) for the first time since Freedom was introduced - something that I never thought we would do, as we have always been great fans of Freedom dining. However, as many others have said, the freedom aspect has all but gone when you have to develop a strategy as to when to join a queue in order to dine at roughy the time you want, only to find that your plan is scuppered by the app showing “Queue Full” or being given a pager and not knowing whether it will go off 10 minutes or 90 minutes later. It’s a level of hassle that I’d rather not have on a holiday. 

[Kittyonions]

How is it possible for a waiter in the freedom MDR to offer you a table at a fixed time each evening?

[lindylooellalouise]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Thankfully, 8.30pm is about the time that we choose to eat on a cruise, so we have bitten the bullet and reverted back to 2nd sitting Club dining (on cruises where we can) for the first time since Freedom was introduced - something that I never thought we would do, as we have always been great fans of Freedom dining. However, as many others have said, the freedom aspect has all but gone when you have to develop a strategy as to when to join a queue in order to dine at roughy the time you want, only to find that your plan is scuppered by the app showing “Queue Full” or being given a pager and not knowing whether it will go off 10 minutes or 90 minutes later. It’s a level of hassle that I’d rather not have on a holiday. 

Totally agree we will be changing future cruises to fixed dinning late sitting. Some evenings on Arcadia we were dinning even later than that, it’s a shame  freedom dinning is not working well as it’s great when it does.

[Megabear2]

2 minutes ago, Kittyonions said:

How is it possible for a waiter in the freedom MDR to offer you a table at a fixed time each evening?

It has been happening since the restart. Originally it was on Britannia for 5.30 to 6.30pm to fill in "dead time" with less guests and spare staff. It seems to have mutated to if a waiter likes you they will offer it if they see you at the same time more than once.

[Kittyonions]

Well, then, It is hardly surprising that the virtual/pager/walk up system is not working if every waiter offers to reserve his table for certain passengers. Thank you for enlightening me to this, and it confirms that I have made the correct decision on our next cruise. If this continues to be a new protocol, I will seriously consider “jumping ship”

[Fionboard]

Seems like fixed dining is making a comeback! Have always done it as there is no stress or uncertainty involved and you can plan your evening knowing what time you are dining. 

[Megabear2]

18 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Seems like fixed dining is making a comeback! Have always done it as there is no stress or uncertainty involved and you can plan your evening knowing what time you are dining. 

There's nothing wrong with fixed dining for the many but for those who for personal and health reasons it can be difficult and even embarrassing.  

 

My husband finds it very difficult to eat in close proximity to people he doesn't know, I had to cut my mother's food u for her and I've read on these pages of a deaf person who was personally insulted by table mates.

 

Freedom dining and tables for two help in these instances.  

 

 

[SeaJane]

23 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Seems like fixed dining is making a comeback! Have always done it as there is no stress or uncertainty involved and you can plan your evening knowing what time you are dining. 

I agree we decided to try freedom dining for the first time on Ventura in May and didn’t like the uncertainty. For our future cruises we have reverted to our usual 2nd sitting shared table.

[Cathygh]

We have fixed dining second sitting and we do prefer it but 21 days might be too much. We have never had to wait to be seated for breakfast in the MDR so far but then the ship is not full.

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Kittyonions said:

Well, then, It is hardly surprising that the virtual/pager/walk up system is not working if every waiter offers to reserve his table for certain passengers. Thank you for enlightening me to this, and it confirms that I have made the correct decision on our next cruise. If this continues to be a new protocol, I will seriously consider “jumping ship”

We all know why Freedom dining is not working, and possibly even P&O know. However the My Holiday app, and its virtual queue facility, clearly does not function efficiently, and with P&Os flawed IT dept, I guess management seem willing to try out any cockeyed system in the vain hope it might improve things, knowing their IT dept will never sort out the My holiday app this side of the next century.

Edited August 12, 2023 by terrierjohn

[Chrisdriving]

Booked another cruise on Arcadia for 2024 after the dry dock in November, chap who took the booking was adamant both Arcadia and Aurora have 10 years left with P and O due to their popularity with certain demographic of customer.

Cannot see it myself but would hope he is at least partly right in them both staying for a good while.

Both are having a huge amount spent on them in next refits for the benefit of P and O and it’s customers.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Chrisdriving

[paulatsea]

3 hours ago, Chrisdriving said:

Booked another cruise on Arcadia for 2024 after the dry dock in November, chap who took the booking was adamant both Arcadia and Aurora have 10 years left with P and O due to their popularity with certain demographic of customer.

Cannot see it myself but would hope he is at least partly right in them both staying for a good while.

Both are having a huge amount spent on them in next refits for the benefit of P and O and it’s customers.

Long may they live !

Which cruise Chris ? Good price ?
I have been looking at some world cruise segments. 

Edited August 21, 2023 by paulatsea

[LondonLad60]

4 hours ago, Chrisdriving said:

Booked another cruise on Arcadia for 2024 after the dry dock in November, chap who took the booking was adamant both Arcadia and Aurora have 10 years left with P and O due to their popularity with certain demographic of customer.

Cannot see it myself but would hope he is at least partly right in them both staying for a good while.

Both are having a huge amount spent on them in next refits for the benefit of P and O and it’s customers.

Or, as was mentioned in an previous thread, could they be tarting them up to make one or both of them more attractive to potential buyers...?

[tring]

On 8/12/2023 at 3:19 PM, lindylooellalouise said:

On our Arcadia June cruise, we were given pagers for breakfast lunch and dinner, unbelievable.

 

Different cruises, different preferences perhaps, but we were on  16 night Norway/Baltic on Arcadia in June and never touched a pager.  Later in the cruise we did at times go down between 6 and 6.30pm, but chose to share a table, rather than take a pager for a table for two.  Other days often ate later (after 8.30pm) and we were able to get a table for two.  A number of nights we used the buffet, usually when we were scenic cruising out of a port in glorious weather.  We also ate in speciality restaurants about four times.  We ate n the MDR for lunch on quite a number of sea days, never any mention of a pager, not did we see anyone using one, but it did take anything up to two hours to be served, even for just two courses, so gave that up be the end of the cruise.

 

The one night when the MDR was total chaos was the first night when we were told by a member of staff it was because of people on set sittings not wanting to eat at their allocated dinner time, so were allowed into the freedom restaurant, which is ridiculous, they should have been sent to the self service.  As I have thought all along it is because staff are not obeying the rules, if they were, the systems would work.

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by tring

[tring]

On 8/12/2023 at 4:00 PM, Megabear2 said:

 It seems to have mutated to if a waiter likes you they will offer it if they see you at the same time more than once.

 

Again a case of staff not obeying the procedure.  I have also become convinced it is a case of staff hoping they get a decent tip. 

 

Must admit we were very unhappy about them not having a tip pooling system in the Freedom dining restaurants.  I know tips are now included, but we would have left a smaller amount for a tip as a top up, but it was not going to work if we had different waiters each night, which was usually the case.  I do not understand why a tipping pool is not provided for those who would like to leave something.

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by tring

[Megabear2]

5 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Again a case of staff not obeying the procedure.  I have also become convinced it is a case of staff hoping they get a decent tip. 

 

Must admit we were very unhappy about them not having a tip pooling system in the Freedom dining restaurants.  I know tips are now included, but we would have left a smaller amount for a tip as a top up, but it was not going to work if we had different waiters each night, which was usually the case.  I do not understand why a tipping pool is not provided for those who would like to leave something.

 

Reading the latest "live froms" from Selbourne and DamianG they seem to have found because they have larger groups the restaurants are having to offer the tables for their groups to ensure they could actually eat in a MDR.

 

It must be extremely difficult for the staff to have the same large family groups every evening who have experienced little to no ability to get a table via the app.

[Cathygh]

I am now over half way through J310. I've not had a hot cup of tea or coffee  in the MDR. I am now finding the food repetitive. Someone on our table sends his food back everynight as it is not hot enough. Last night I had hot salmon and cold veg. I had lovely Greek yogurt with my fruit salad every morning until 3 days ago when it was served very runny and tasted bitter. It's improved in  the last 2 days but is still runny. I think it's being watered down with normal yogurt. Overall the food is not anything like what I had on Iona in June I am sorry to say. 

The staff get 10/10. I am enjoying having a dedicated waiter who has got to know us. 

 

.

[Megabear2]

24 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

I am now over half way through J310. I've not had a hot cup of tea or coffee  in the MDR. I am now finding the food repetitive. Someone on our table sends his food back everynight as it is not hot enough. Last night I had hot salmon and cold veg. I had lovely Greek yogurt with my fruit salad every morning until 3 days ago when it was served very runny and tasted bitter. It's improved in  the last 2 days but is still runny. I think it's being watered down with normal yogurt. Overall the food is not anything like what I had on Iona in June I am sorry to say. 

The staff get 10/10. I am enjoying having a dedicated waiter who has got to know us. 

 

.

How is the rest going? Hopefully no other problems.

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, LondonLad60 said:

Or, as was mentioned in an previous thread, could they be tarting them up to make one or both of them more attractive to potential buyers...?

Since they would be very unlikely to get back the full cost of any refurb, I doubt that is a viable option.