ARVIAS CELEBRATION NIGHT AND THE BUFFET

[davecttr]

As a casual cruiser these days I was interested in how Arvia handled the buffet on Celebration night. This was the 16th April departure

 

The image shows the buffet area. Port side left, Starboard right.

The yellow lines show the 2 pairs of serveries for a total of 4

The red lines are the fire doors

 

The top right hand section is the Beach House on normal evenings and the right hand fire door is closed. However both the forward serveries are unavailable to buffet diners. It was interesting to see the herding instinct or disinclination to walk more than 10 yards had the seating areas busy near the rear servery but less so further aft and the forward port seating areas were virtually empty.

 

On the first Celebration night the green lines show where access was blocked by chairs although people were still following the blue route to get to the buffet. the whole forward section was the chefs Table.

 

On the second Celebration night the port chair blockage was removed and the Chefs Table section ended at the fire door. The blue access route was still available

On this evening the Olive Grove was serving the 'formal' menu, maybe the first evening as well?

 

I went to the buffet via the rear stairway at about 7.15 when there were plenty of seats with only 3 tables occupied in the aft port window section. i left via the blue route and the tables were being laid for the Chefs second sitting.

 

My conclusion is Arvia and Iona were designed for the american market and P&O got the Crows Nest in compensation.

[terrierjohn]

11 minutes ago, davecttr said:

As a casual cruiser these days I was interested in how Arvia handled the buffet on Celebration night. This was the 16th April departure

 

The image shows the buffet area. Port side left, Starboard right.

The yellow lines show the 2 pairs of serveries for a total of 4

The red lines are the fire doors

 

The top right hand section is the Beach House on normal evenings and the right hand fire door is closed. However both the forward serveries are unavailable to buffet diners. It was interesting to see the herding instinct or disinclination to walk more than 10 yards had the seating areas busy near the rear servery but less so further aft and the forward port seating areas were virtually empty.

 

On the first Celebration night the green lines show where access was blocked by chairs although people were still following the blue route to get to the buffet. the whole forward section was the chefs Table.

 

On the second Celebration night the port chair blockage was removed and the Chefs Table section ended at the fire door. The blue access route was still available

On this evening the Olive Grove was serving the 'formal' menu, maybe the first evening as well?

 

I went to the buffet via the rear stairway at about 7.15 when there were plenty of seats with only 3 tables occupied in the aft port window section. i left via the blue route and the tables were being laid for the Chefs second sitting.

 

My conclusion is Arvia and Iona were designed for the american market and P&O got the Crows Nest in compensation.

So far the majority of the Excel class ships have gone to Europe, Aida, Costa and P&0 have received 6 and Carnival has received 2. So IMO it's unlikely that US styling will have taken precedence over European styling, if that is what you are implying. It's more likely that P&O are just making bad arrangements about the evening buffet layout on Celebtation night.

[Son of Anarchy]

We went to Chef's Table on both formal nights on this cruise.  Exactly the same menu served at each.  Earlier in the day I had seen the MDR menu for the second formal night as was quite impressed.  Surprised and a bit disappointed that Chef's Table were simply doing the previous menu all over again.  I noticed there was no date on the menu.  Maybe they just serve the same menu week in week out up there.

 

 

[davecttr]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

So far the majority of the Excel class ships have gone to Europe, Aida, Costa and P&0 have received 6 and Carnival has received 2. So IMO it's unlikely that US styling will have taken precedence over European styling, if that is what you are implying. It's more likely that P&O are just making bad arrangements about the evening buffet layout on Celebtation night.

The basic problem is the MDR's are not big enough for the number of passengers with british dining preferences and the general unwillingness to use pay restaurants. For example I tried Green&Co and enjoyed it but at near £30 found it expensive. Later in the cruise the wait staff were redeployed to other restaurants because of lack of demand.. Maybe too niche market?

[Britboys]

9 hours ago, davecttr said:

The basic problem is the MDR's are not big enough for the number of passengers with british dining preferences and the general unwillingness to use pay restaurants. For example I tried Green&Co and enjoyed it but at near £30 found it expensive. Later in the cruise the wait staff were redeployed to other restaurants because of lack of demand.. Maybe too niche market?

That sounds very likely Dave. Whilst it can obviously appeal to anyone, the core market will be for vegetarians and vegans. The mdr/buffet now seem to have a fair choice for vegetarians and I suspect that the number of vegans on board at any one time is very small indeed.

[Megabear2]

I raised the point a while ago on ICF's Caribbean thread and Moley told me it's to accommodate the younger cruisers who are big time vegetarian.  It was pointed out Epicurean is not vegetarian friendly so was to balance the deal so to speak.  Seems fair enough, I've booked it for a night on my cruise.