Explain Britannia Dining, Please

[napria]

When our TA booked 3 of our Queen Mary 2 cruises, she selected anytime dining for us.  When I booked the fourth cruise (our TA wasn’t available) I didn’t see anytime dining available so I chose the earlier of the seating times.

 

Do we have an assigned table for the assigned early seating?  Are assigned dining passengers seated in a different area than anytime dining passengers? If so, where?And what happens when we decide to eat at a different restaurant, such as The Golden Lion? Do we need to eat there at our assigned time?

 

So sorry if I’m asking questions that seem obvious to most.  We’re kind of new to this.

[shippmates]

Yes you do have an assigned table and waitstaff on deck 2 of the Britanina.  You will find your table and deck listed on your seapass card when you get onboard.  

When you want to dine elsewhere in the evenings, just let your tablemates and waitstaff you will not be there.  I also tell them if I am not there five minutes after start time, you will not be there and do not wait for me.

The Golden Lion does not reserve tables and they do not serve dinner.  They just serve lunch everyday beginning at noon.  It gets very crowded so if you want to eat lunch there, arrive about 11:30, order a drink and wait till noon to order your lunch.

[TheOldBear]

With assigned time dining, after the first evening you just go directly to your table - no lining up to see just were your table will be that night.

If you have a partial bottle of wine, it will be waiting for you.

You will have the same wait staff every dinner [on longer sailings there may be a change]

It's a courtesy to tell wait staff or your table mates if your dinner plans change - we had two evening excursions in Tromso Norway back in 2022, so we told our table mates not to wait.

 

The folks paying higher prices for Britannia Club and the 'Grills' all have assigned seating - but their table is waiting anytime their restaurant is serving [breakfast, lunch & dinner]

 

For alternative dining - the Veranda and the King's Court pop ups [rotating themes] take reservations, The Kings Court buffet also has a small Chef's Gallery section with table service. There is also room service as a choice [the Grills offers the dining room menu for room service dinner]

[Pushpit]

I think most of your questions have been answered. 

 

Open dining is mostly on deck 3 on QM2, and Fixed dining is mostly on deck 2, but there are plenty of exceptions in both directions, a lot is about what table is available, where, and staff resourcing issues. 

 

I'm surprised that Open / Anytime dining is not showing as an option on my.cunard - it is showing on all my future bookings in Britannia. If you are in Club or Grills then all you get is the table size preference, not the Fixed/Open options. Cunard are in the habit of changing the naming of this option for some reason, in my.cunard, under Your Dining Choice, it's down as Open Dining.

[napria]

Having no experience with Cunard, I’m leaning toward keeping the open dining for our upcoming trip in September and then deciding if I want to change our fixed time dining for our trip the following year.  I don’t actually see a problem for us to have fixed time dining and it’s nice to have the same table and waitstaff.  Hopefully we’ll have lovely table mates and it will be a pleasant experience all around. This seems preferable to waiting in line to be seated.

[exlondoner]

I’m sure you are right, providing the time itself isn’t irksome.