Just off Britannia, my thoughts and happy to try and answer questions

[jeanlyon]

19 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Jean. You don't have to use the app. No fixed dining times. You choose when you want to eat . Go on the app and join a virtual queue, or go to the restaurant reception and they will give you a pager. You don't need to have WiFi to use the app, indeed you put your phone on flight mode the app picks up WiFi, but you can only use it for their app. If you want to book dinning in advance, you can do that in the MDR, but only up to 6.30, but can book several days in advance and for multiple days.

 

 

 

Oh silly me.  Of course, I had forgotten you can use the P&O website on wifi without paying.  It's so long since I cruised.  Thanks for that.  We tend to eat around 8pm, so have never had to ask for a pager.

Edited August 13, 2021 by jeanlyon

[mercury7289]

58 minutes ago, zap99 said:

100% disagree. If you don't want to go on one , then don't. Most are sold out, so the cruise companies will live without you.

Get back in your hutch! I did not say that we did not want to go on one, I said that they do not work for us at this time!

[debsjc]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Oh silly me.  Of course, I had forgotten you can use the P&O website on wifi without paying.  It's so long since I cruised.  Thanks for that.  We tend to eat around 8pm, so have never had to ask for a pager.

8pm was very busy, expect to wait about an hour if you go an get a pager between 6.30 and 8.30pm 

[kalos]

1 hour ago, mercury7289 said:

Get back in your hutch! I did not say that we did not want to go on one, I said that they do not work for us at this time!

Yeah get back in your hutch Starsky   I mean Zapp

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, zap99 said:

I thought it was an artistic impression of the Atlantic. That beige stuff ( is it keenwah) looks like Africa and the Quinnell of goats cheese ( formed in a teaspoon ) looks a bit like South America. The big Reddy brown balls.....pass, but very artistic. Well worth 25 quid in a 3 star noshery. Embracing the nautical heritage of the company. Very impressed.

Methinks thou is rather taking the Michael.

[zap99]

39 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Methinks thou is rather taking the Michael.

Moi?. I couldn't possibly comment as I'm still in my hutch. Being honest it did look more like an amuse bouche🤣

[zap99]

1 hour ago, kalos said:

Yeah get back in your hutch Starsky   I mean Zapp

I upgraded to a superior, deluxe, balcony hutch. 🐰🐇

[Britboys]

4 hours ago, debsjc said:

It might have been yummy if people like tomatoes, but it wasn't really what I ordered! 
I do have a pic of our Glass House dessert, which is the only other food pic I took 😀
(my steak in the glass house was ordered medium, and come out well done, but it was still nice)
 

I like chocolate but that really is overload...🤢😀

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

...We tend to eat around 8pm, so have never had to ask for a pager.

That may be because you cruise on the smaller ships where early dining is more popular Jean. I suspect around 8pm is very popular on the larger ships...

[Adawn47]

51 minutes ago, Britboys said:

That may be because you cruise on the smaller ships where early dining is more popular Jean. I suspect around 8pm is very popular on the larger ships...

We cruise Arcadia or Aurora and like to dine 8 - 8.30ish, and as we have a table for two, we always have to take a pager. We've never had a long wait, 10 - 15 mins at the most. It's not a problem, we're on holiday.

Avril

[Glenndale]

6 hours ago, zap99 said:

I thought it was an artistic impression of the Atlantic. That beige stuff ( is it keenwah) looks like Africa and the Quinnell of goats cheese ( formed in a teaspoon ) looks a bit like South America. The big Reddy brown balls.....pass, but very artistic. Well worth 25 quid in a 3 star noshery. Embracing the nautical heritage of the company. Very impressed.

Think the brown balls are artistically arranged blobs of balsamic vinegar 🤣

 

[zap99]

9 minutes ago, Glenndale said:

Think the brown balls are artistically arranged blobs of balsamic vinegar 🤣

 

I think you have got that right. The more I look at this dish, the more impressed I am with the artistry of the chef. The little squiggly bit under the tomato reminds me of a seahorse.

[Bazrat]

8 hours ago, Britboys said:

That's appalling. Reminds me of a main course fish and seafood skewer I was served on Marella. The description included Scallops and I had one piece of scallop that was literally half the size of my finger nail. We ate about 8pm and by 1030 I was so hungry I had to go and find something to eat. Never have I felt like that on any other cruise.

You should have tried the prawn cocktail starter on explorers 2 no lettuce none I even searched the plate in case it was hiding.

[debsjc]

4 hours ago, Britboys said:

That may be because you cruise on the smaller ships where early dining is more popular Jean. I suspect around 8pm is very popular on the larger ships...

 

Also, now it's all UK guests later dining is more popular. 

[debsjc]

3 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

We cruise Arcadia or Aurora and like to dine 8 - 8.30ish, and as we have a table for two, we always have to take a pager. We've never had a long wait, 10 - 15 mins at the most. It's not a problem, we're on holiday.

Avril

10-15 mins would have been great, 1-2 hours not so much!

[Britboys]

22 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

You should have tried the prawn cocktail starter on explorers 2 no lettuce none I even searched the plate in case it was hiding.

I did get served Eggs Benedict one morning without any ham... Discovery 2...

[Britboys]

6 minutes ago, debsjc said:

 

Also, now it's all UK guests later dining is more popular. 

??? But P&O always has been mostly UK guests. A few Aussies maybe...

[Bazrat]

16 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I did get served Eggs Benedict one morning without any ham... Discovery 2...

I did inform the crew you was trying to be vegetarian 

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I agree with the review from debsjc . The only real poor part of the cruise was Celebration night in the main dining room. On the first night we ate in the MDR which was a pretty good meal . On night 2 we ate in the Ollys Gllass House and the meal was very good as was the wine. On night 3 we were given pagers and had to wait over an hour for us to be paged. However service in the MDR that night was exceptionally slow. The chefs amuse bouche was inedible ( some foul tasting cold tomato soup concoction) . I had the lobster as the main course which was very small. My wife had Stilton as a cheese plate instead of dessert and the Stilton was smaller than a sugar cube . On the last night we went back to the Glass House and had another lovely meal. My advice is avoid the MDR on Celebration night . Other than that the entertainment was excellent. 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by HalifaxYorksCruiser

[sandancer]

I think I read somewhere that you can’t book for the Glasshouse. Is that correct? 
Hoping  to try all of the restaurants on Britannia. 

[Denarius]

20 hours ago, Britboys said:

??? But P&O always has been mostly UK guests. A few Aussies maybe...

I suspect that it reflects the changing nature of P&O passengers.

When I first sailed with P&O in 1997 (on Oriana) there were two fixed sittings at dinner, 6:30 (?) and 8:30. The 6:30 was designated the Main Sitting; it was the most popular and was often oversubscribed. I always chose the 8:30 Late Sitting and never had a problem in getting it. Over the years however it became obvious that the the situation had been reversed and it was now the Late Sitting which was oversubscribed. This change coincided with a noticable reduction in average age. It appears that the older generation ate earlier than the newer. And then came freedom dining ......

Edited August 14, 2021 by Denarius

[zap99]

22 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I suspect that it reflects the changing nature of P&O passengers.

When I first sailed with P&O in 1997 (on Oriana) there were two fixed sittings at dinner, 6:30 (?) and 8:30. The 6:30 was designated the Main Sitting; it was the most popular and was often oversubscribed. I always chose the 8:30 Late Sitting and never had a problem in getting it. Over the years however it became obvious that the the situation had been reversed and it was now the Late Sitting which was oversubscribed. This change coincided with a noticable reduction in average age. It appears that the older generation ate earlier than the newer. And then came freedom dining ......

8-8.30 did seem busy. I guess it's so the guests can go to the 10.30 entertainment and then on to the silent disco on the main deck.

[debsjc]

1 hour ago, sandancer said:

I think I read somewhere that you can’t book for the Glasshouse. Is that correct? 
Hoping  to try all of the restaurants on Britannia. 

 

You can not book the glasshouse. You can only join the 'virtual queue' on the app (when they decided to actually put it on there - it's hit and miss) or go and waitlist in person on the evening.

[sandancer]

Sorry, I have another question. Do we both need the app or can we just use one phone?  Having heard such good things about the Glasshouse we are really looking forward to trying it. 

[debsjc]

21 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Sorry, I have another question. Do we both need the app or can we just use one phone?  Having heard such good things about the Glasshouse we are really looking forward to trying it. 

 

Just one of you is fine 🙂