Flo71

To be honest not that bothered, we are only on a 3 night cruise. We have only ever had freedom dining with P&O but as we have a late saver fare we won't know our dining until they tell us. I am expecting us to be allocated club as I believe that freedom usually fills up quickly but not sure if this is the same on the Arcadia.

Hubby isn't keen to share a table and I wondered if we were allocated club if there was an option for a table for 2?

I'm doing a 3 night short cruise on her and its nice to her such positive things. :)

Thanks will keep an eye out for notifications and in my personaliser :)

Just wondering if in practice it is allocated at the terminal? I believe it says day of departure on my info just know that sometimes what is in print and what happens can be different.

Very excited about the child free Arcadia and its only a 3 day cruise, lol. :D

You can get sandwiches and cakes in the buffet from around 3pm. However, it is far better to go to the main restaurant for afternoon tea at 4pm - sandwiches, scones, toasted teacakes, crumpets, cakes and clotted cream. Choice of six different types of tea or coffee., all waiter served. Much more civilised.

Brian

Sounds perfect, I have just booked a 3 nighter in July :D Thank you

Thank you, we enjoyed the variety of places to eat on Ventura, especially the Beach House. I know there is no Beach House on Arcadia but am hoping the buffet is as good.

From memory on Ventura we had sandwiches and lovely cakes tea time in the buffet, would love to know if this is likely on the Arcadia.

When we cruised last year with Celebrity, on the Infinity, we loved the service and entertainment but outside of the MDR the food that didn't require a surcharge was poor in my opinion. I wouldn't rule out never cruising with Celebrity again but it wouldn't be on the Infinity.

We are thinking of a short break cruise on Arcadia. Just wondering what the standard of food in the buffet is and whether there is a grill or pizzeria option too?

Thanks

Thanks both, I saw the Aug 23rd one and its too late for me as its a 14 nighter. I am expecting school to restart 1st Sept.

As a teacher I can only cruise school holidays. I would love to sail on the Independence out of Southampton but the cruises are very expensive. Do they ever drop the price close to sailing date? If there is a chance I may wait rather than book with a cheaper cruise company.

Thanks x

children refer to the toddler group-- not a 13 year old teen. who should wear long pants in the dining room.

Not according to P&O:

We apply the dress codes in the majority of restaurants and bars for passengers aged 18 and over.

Children

Children are of course welcome in all of our restaurants, when dining in the informal buffet restaurants children can be casually dressed, if children are going to be with you in the evening in the more formal restaurants and theatre then, even on our Black Tie and Smart evenings, children can still dress more casually adopting our Evening Casual dress code, although denim isn’t allowed on these nights.

Your son might get away with it though I don't think children have to adhere to dress code.

It's on the p and o website. Pop evening wear in the search box in the question and answer bit

Found it.

Looks like from Nov Azura will be 2 dress codes and then Britannia when it launches - fantastic! Wish Azura was it now.

Hi flo

There is a table with all the ships and what dress codes they have. Azura to the caribbean in November only has 2 dress codes. That makes life easier for me

Regards Karen

Thank you x

Is that on here or on P&Os website? I am pretty much stuck to summer holidays as I am a teacher and when cruising I prefer to sail from Southampton. I have been on a fly cruise to the Caribbean some years ago before I started teaching and the Caribbean is definitely worth the flight just extortionate prices during the holidays.

Ventura have always had only a 2 dress code, Oceana changed to it shortly after Ventura sailed and had hoped Azura would follow suit.

It makes no difference to me as a woman I can pretty much wear whatever I please on casual, semi-frormal and formal nights but whilst hubby will either dress or buffet for formal he isn't keen on wearing a jacket for another number of nights.

I never asked for P&O to change their policy for me I simply asked of any of the others are more relaxed like Ventura and Oceana. If Ventura sailed from Southampton in the summer I wouldn't care about dress code on other ships.

I have tried Celebrity, who didn't need to make men wear a jacket to dinner most nights and found their service, entertainment and standard of dress on there to be higher than P&O but I personally prefer the food overall with P&O.

I shall keep looking for a good deal with both P&O and Celebrity whilst hoping that P&O join the 21st century across its whole line.

It really isn't that big a deal some people on here need to chill out! :D

Semi formal just means the male wears a jacket (no tie) Could be the formal jacket doing double duty if needs be.

For the female well pretty pretty.

If you do not want the formality then do pick another cruise line, but please do not say you want P and O to fall into step with what you want.

:D Heaven forbid I would want a service provider to provide a service I wanted.

I believe the Ventura and Oceana are the ships with just 2 dress codes, just wanted to check on Azura and Arcadia.

I would like to sail with P&O again (loved the Ventura) and am happy with the occasional formal night but would rather not have semi formal.

Since the Ventura is fly cruise now in the summer holidays, to holiday with my daughter from Southampton would mean going on the Oceana which is an older ship.

My husband and are also lookign for a shortish break and an adult only cruise seems heaven but all the adult only ships seem to be 3 dress code.

We found Celebrity as a cruise line was excellent for facilities and entertainment but on the Infinity the buffet food was poor. Perhaps we need to wxplore other ships with them or go with Royal Caribbean or Princess if P&O don't modernise their dress code.

They are evening casual code as is The Rising Sun, The Globe, The Piano Bar, Orchid Bar, Spinnaker Bar, East restaurant, Buffet,

Great information, thank you x

Just answered my own question by finding the link on the p&o website. 1 formal and 2 smart casual, so will decide later about whether to pack formal or go buffet that night.

Also interesting as P&O only list these areas as dress code enforced: Intermezzo, Crow's Nest, Meridian and Ocean Grill restaurants.

So casino and theatre are not dress code enforced.

I am considering the 3 night cruise to Guernsey on the Arcadia 22 July. Will there be a formal night or semi formal wear needed? I was hoping on a 3 nighter it would be all casual wear.

We like a bit of casino fun on a cruise but only bet very little. Hubby had a nice win on the roulette on a Carnival ship, he was on a bit of a winning streak and then put several chips on 13, more on the corners of 13 etc the croupier joked it must be his lucky number then it came in! I made him cash out lol. then on the way out he put a dollar in a slot and won $100. He reckons I should have let him carry on playing but I was happy with what he had won covering our spends and cruise excursions.:D

We loved the Ventura and hope that P&O go the next step and make it smart casual for all evenings, they are already taking a step in the right direction with the Britannia only having 2 dress codes.

There is no need on the Ventura to adhere to formal nights if you don't wish to the buffet or room service is adequate on these couple of nights. We saw plenty of smart casual as evening wear on formal nights and it didn't appear to shock or spoil anyone's holiday ;)

I love this thread, cruising first time with celeb soon, hope the food lives up to this.

There were passengers on here who said that staff were confused due to the taxes being included in the drinks prices onboard in Europe/ex UK cruise recently. I will see if I can find the comments.

This is the thread I read

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1843107&highlight=drink+package

What teething problems have you read about Flo71?

 

We had the premium package on our Connie Mediterranean sailing back in 2010 and again on the Silhouette inaugural (Europe) sailing in 2011 so the packages have been around or quite some time now.

 

On both these cruises we had no problems using the package and had good service from the bars. The only complaint was slow service in the MDR but this seemed to be due to too few sommeliers trying to service too many tables.

 

We got into the habit of getting a glass of wine from one of the bars on our way into the MDR so we were not without a drink until he sommelier got around to us.

There were passengers on here who said that staff were confused due to the taxes being included in the drinks prices onboard in Europe/ex UK cruise recently. I will see if I can find the comments.

Is the class non-alcoholic package the same price for children, DD is 12?