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Feedback on Britannia restaurant open dining

Host Hattie

By Host Hattie,
in Cunard Line

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Host Hattie

Host Hattie

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Have you sailed since this was introduced fully ?

- voyages departing on Monday the 3rd of October 2022 aboard Queen Elizabeth, Sunday the 23rd of October 2022 aboard Queen Victoria and Tuesday the 1st Of November 2022 aboard Queen Mary 2. 

 

I know some people were unhappy with the interim arrangements on QM2 with no fixed second sitting but is the new system working OK?

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TheOldBear

TheOldBear

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Mrs Bear and I sailed voyage M234A, which included the changeover to normal fixed table assignments on deck 2.

The show time for the second seating was adjusted slightly later after fixed seating was re-introduced, but we did not encounter any noticeable issues.

For our eastbound crossing segment, open seating was in force, but we were able to obtain a fixed table assignment [#355 right by the podium] as folks in our linked booking had dietary restrictions. We also had 'Victor' a waiter who served us on several previous cruises at our table for the entire 26 night round trip.

As a result, we never needed to queue for a table assignment, so things were normal for us.

 

I did see a YT video of a couple on the Christmas Market cruise who reported open seating problems - perhaps they are CC members, and will relate their story. 

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Minnie29

Minnie29

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We recently cruised on QV in December for 12 nights and found no issues with open dining.

We dined both early 6pm, 7pm and once at 8pm and there was never a problem getting a table for 2. There was a small queue a couple of nights but it all seemed to work well.

We did miss the familiarity of having the same wait staff each night though. 
It was interesting to sit in different places on Deck 2 though. A couple of evening we were right at the aft and the view was wonderful.

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bluemarble

bluemarble

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We chose the open dining option for our Nov 20-Dec 3, 2022 Caribbean cruise on QM2. We thought it worked well but that may have had a lot to do with us choosing a relatively late 8:00pm time for most evenings. We also chose a table for two this time rather than the larger tables for eight we generally choose with fixed time dining. I can't speak to how well the new system works for a couple that would like to join others on a larger table.

 

It was clear from the reservation system that earlier times were a lot more popular since those times were unavailable to reserve via the My Voyage app a day (or more) ahead of time most days. For the later times we reserved there were never more than one or two couples ahead of us to be seated when we arrived at our reserved time.

 

One down side to open dining that has been mentioned before is that your wait staff doesn't get to know you and your preferences as well as they do with fixed dining. My wife has food allergies and makes her dinner selections each evening for the following evening. With fixed dining, the wait staff would automatically have her selections for the evening at our set table. With open dining, that involved an additional step each evening to tell the wait staff our room number when we were seated. They would then go track down what she had selected for that evening. That usually only took a few minutes but it is an extra step for the staff.

 

On the subject of the My Voyage app, I ran into a minor glitch when I went to reserve a dining time for "tomorrow" one evening. I ended up making a reservation for the day after tomorrow. I was able to determine that was probably down to the app using GMT rather than the ship's local time to determine which day was "tomorrow". Since we were four to five hours behind GMT for this cruise, a reservation made after 8:00pm ship's time meant "tomorrow" was a day later than expected.

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  • Host Hattie changed the title to Feedback on Britannia restaurant open dining
DaisyDancer

DaisyDancer

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We had open dining on the QM2 Christmas markets cruise in December. We had no trouble getting a reservation for a table for five at 7pm each evening and we didn't have to queue. I prefer open dining as 6pm is too early for me and 8.30 is too late. 

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LEESRE

LEESRE

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Sailed on QV pre Christmas cruise and we had no problems, even had the same waiter and table for 11 nights of the 12 night cruise.

Would do it again. We also noticed that the tables around us the same people sat there most of the time, we pre-booked at 7.45pm each evening.

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foodsvcmgr Great Review Rare

foodsvcmgr

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Open is not for me, but good to hear it is functioning smoothly with minimal waits.

Read the HAL and Celebrity boards, open is typically a nightmare.

Interesting that Cunard seem to have it sorted when the others have been doing it for years and so many issues.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Bell Boy

Bell Boy

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1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

Nobody has mentioned them so I'm hoping they're not required. 

 I Certainly witnessed  just one couple given one on the itinerary of 11th December  ( Q.V)

Had a wonderful Birds Eye view of all the goings on below , most evenings from my dedicated table  (Fixed dinning late) upper level 😅

Pagers or standing line 'in the evenings' is not my idea of premium dining . 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
canoncruiser

canoncruiser

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On QV now - the Britannia is thinly populated during 8PM open seating. Some folks have moved upstairs to an assigned table -some have tried that and come back down. We arrive in Sydney on the day after tomorrow - lot’s of folks getting off -don’t know how many getting on. My serious complaint has been with the food- mediocre to poor and very small portions. Not anywhere near what I enjoyed on QM2 last winter.

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roscoe39 Great Review Rare

roscoe39

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7 hours ago, elaine5 said:

any new info from recent cruisers?

Hi Canon I hope apart from that you are enjoying our trip. I have also noticed the thin patronage of the Opne seating and how full and lively we are on deck three. I do hope that Cunard reconsiders the open seating as I can not see that those paying the extra premium to dine "club" are that impressed with the same benefit being available to those having paid a lot less.

 

The menu is pretty well restricted especially from the old days when it covered  several pages, Klaus told me the other night that one of the reasons for the reduced menu was the broken supply chains and that any number of ingrediants are now unavailable in amounts that we require. 

 

The 2023 World Cruise was always going to be an experiment. Already there has been 7 ports cancelled and the usual parties (alebit returning on a reduced capacity and presentation) there are a lot of things that were or are, never going to be the same again. The reported WC party for the QM2 is not a surprise to me or anyone else watching the situation from onboard a ship.

 

The good thing and I don't know if you agree but the good thing is that we are back and the feel of the trip is basically the same and I am confident that the World Cruise hopefully will be back to its previous glory next year.

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