1st time on Cunard- Getting a nice dining table

[f1jon]

We're booked on QM2, 31-day round trip from New York, July 2025. We've cruised lots on HAL, Princess and Celebrity. Normally, on embarkation day we seek out the dining room manager and politely ask for a "secluded" table for 2 or table for 4 that we can have for ourselves. Is this something you can do on QM2? Also, I believe we'll be in the Britannia restaurant (sheltered balcony) with anytime dining.

 

Regards,

Jon

[TheOldBear]

From what I saw [October & November 2022] Britannia anytime dining meant that you got a chance to stand in a long line to be shown to a different table and service staff every night.

 

Perhaps things have improved since then, but according to some recent reviews / YT videos there are still some unresolved issues.

 

We have no problems with getting a suitable table for our party - we will visit the table assigned on our stateroom card and might ask for a different table if the original proved to be unsuitable. We tend to plan on late seating, at a table for 6 as we enjoy conversation with other passengers.

[Jack E Dawson]

37 minutes ago, TheOldBear said:

From what I saw [October & November 2022] Britannia anytime dining meant that you got a chance to stand in a long line to be shown to a different table and service staff every night.

Those days are gone OldBear, for sometime I think. We had Anytime Dining on the QM2 two weeks ago. Never a line. The first 2 nights we had the same table and staff. The third night they just gave it to us permanently. M'd said to not even bother stopping at the front stand. 

Jack

[Pushpit]

Yes if you are on Open / Anytime dining then each night, at a time of your choosing, you go to the Deck 3 entrance to Britannia (on QM2) and the front desk will look at their computer, scan around them and give you a table. Each night a separate table. However it may be that the front desk is willing to give you a specific table for the sailing since it's all about workload balancing, given the staff and given the huge surface area of Britannia and given hundreds of other guests. 

 

If you are OK with different tables each night then there may be a short queue at peak times just to get to the front desk (particularly night1 and night2) but usually it flows very quickly. 

 

This is one section of the QM2 area on deck 3 for Open dining, and there two galleries, upper and lower. The upper gallery has the windows, but the lower gallery has the two-top tables on their own. You will notice, particularly in the upper gallery photo, that a lot of two-top tables are close to each other, and when you dine the table may have another couple on it, or may be empty. Personally I think it's a good set-up but others may disagree. If you would be very uncomfortable with the tables in the upper gallery then you may want to move to Fixed dining, which you can do when you embark.

 

Upper gallery above

 

 

Lower gallery below

 

 

Edited June 25 by Pushpit

[f1jon]

Thank you Pushpit, very helpful.

 

So the M'd is not available for requests prior to dinner time?

 

What is the Britannia Club?

Edited June 25 by f1jon
added question

[exlondoner]

9 minutes ago, f1jon said:

Thank you Pushpit, very helpful.

 

So the M'd is not available for requests prior to dinner time?

 

What is the Britannia Club?

He is usually available for a while on embarkation day. See note in our DP from last month.

 

[Clewgarnet]

Britannia Club is one step up from Britannia and one step below Princess Grills. It has its own dining room with slightly fancier fare than bog-standard Britannia.

[Pushpit]

8 minutes ago, f1jon said:

Thank you Pushpit, very helpful.

 

So the M'd is not available for requests prior to dinner time?

 

What is the Britannia Club?

Yes the maître d is available on embarkation day, so you can go to Britannia before the captain's safety briefing (typically 16:00 hrs but it does vary) to discuss tables. However the usual people to do this are those on Fixed dining, since obviously they will get stuck with one table for the whole sailing. On Open dining then you will - in normal circumstances - be on a different table every day, depending on which table is free when you turn up so the maître d can't really help.

 

[I say maître d, but it is whoever is on the front desk of Britannia, it may actually be someone else handling the matter]/

 

Club is the stateroom grade for Balcony's higher up on QM2. So it's a separate area at the back of QM2, where all tables are fixed for the sailing. You would need to be in the right stateroom category to get that dining room. Club on QV and QE is an excellent product, wonderful dining area, but I'm not quite so convinced for QM2 for various reasons.

 

 

[rakkor]

8 hours ago, Jack E Dawson said:

Those days are gone OldBear, for sometime I think. We had Anytime Dining on the QM2 two weeks ago. Never a line. The first 2 nights we had the same table and staff. The third night they just gave it to us permanently. M'd said to not even bother stopping at the front stand. 

Jack

 

I can see that working in isolated cases, but since there are far more guests than available tables in Britannia, adopting this would cause chaos before long.

 

I prefer Fixed dining for many reasons, one of which is being able to request a move from the Maitre'd on boarding if you don't like the allocated table - this may be screwed up if you have a late boarding allocated and don't get to the MDR before he clocks off

[f1jon]

Is the Pursers Office I see on the deck plan considered the front desk?

[rakkor]

It is - It's down on Deck 2 at the bottom of the central staircase

[david63]

15 minutes ago, f1jon said:

Is the Pursers Office I see on the deck plan considered the front desk?

That is the "front desk" but the front desk that is being referred to in these posts is the front desk of the restaurant.

[f1jon]

8 minutes ago, david63 said:

That is the "front desk" but the front desk that is being referred to in these posts is the front desk of the restaurant.

 

Thanks!