Britannia MDR dining choice

[smokey01]

We are booked on Britannia July 5th 2024. Originally we asked for second sitting with a preference for a table for 2. Our original invoice just said dining choice was TBA. But at some point I choose to change it to Anytime and our newest invoice has that as our selected choice.

 

But after a difficult time on Arvia booking our table each night I am thinking of seeing if we can get a confirmed second sitting slot. Is that still a thing? In the old days the system would say ‘second sitting confirmed’ but nowadays there is nothing on the P&O cruise personaliser to say which dining choice is confirmed. We really don’t want early sitting so what is peoples opinions on how successful we will be?

[Fionboard]

2 minutes ago, smokey01 said:

We are booked on Britannia July 5th 2024. Originally we asked for second sitting with a preference for a table for 2. Our original invoice just said dining choice was TBA. But at some point I choose to change it to Anytime and our newest invoice has that as our selected choice.

 

But after a difficult time on Arvia booking our table each night I am thinking of seeing if we can get a confirmed second sitting slot. Is that still a thing? In the old days the system would say ‘second sitting confirmed’ but nowadays there is nothing on the P&O cruise personaliser to say which dining choice is confirmed. We really don’t want early sitting so what is peoples opinions on how successful we will be?

Never had a problem changing once on board. 2nd sitting is usually less popular. Go and see the Maitre D when you board. 

[Selbourne]

Did you book a Select fare? If so, you should be able to choose whether you want first sitting, second sitting or Freedom dining. You can change your mind as long as what you want is still available. Freedom Dining tends to sell out first, so you might still be OK. Best to call your travel agent or P&O (if you booked direct) and ask. Table size with fixed dining is always a preference and never guaranteed. Changing this close to the cruise may increase your likelihood of having to share. Of course, if you booked a Saver you can only express a dining preference but it’s not guaranteed. 

[Selbourne]

5 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Never had a problem changing once on board. 2nd sitting is usually less popular. Go and see the Maitre D when you board. 

We have been on several cruises where there have been signs up at the Freedom Dining restaurants at the start of the cruise saying that Freedom Dining is full and they cannot accommodate any requests to change. However, I agree that 2nd sitting fixed dining is usually the least popular choice so the chances of changing to that are much better. 

[AndyMichelle]

My understanding is, even with select fare, that you can request your preference, but it is not guaranteed and will be confirmed on board? 

Please correct me if this is wrong. 

Andy

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, AndyMichelle said:

My understanding is, even with select fare, that you can request your preference, but it is not guaranteed and will be confirmed on board? 

Please correct me if this is wrong. 

Andy

Not our experience Andy. All our bookings have the dining choice showing as ‘confirmed’. That’s for both freedom and fixed. Only the table size (where we have booked fixed) is showing as a preference and will be confirmed on board. 

[Britboys]

13 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

My understanding is, even with select fare, that you can request your preference, but it is not guaranteed and will be confirmed on board? 

Please correct me if this is wrong. 

Andy

The booking confirmation for a select fare states "Sitting Confirmed" and your choice.

[Son of Anarchy]

31 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Never had a problem changing once on board. 2nd sitting is usually less popular. Go and see the Maitre D when you board. 

We've changed dining whilst on board.  Both times we were on Saver fares.  First time it took two days, a Christmas cruise that was full.  The other time they were able to change our dining the same afternoon (embarkation day).  Both times we changed from Club second sitting to Freedom.

[AndyMichelle]

19 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Not our experience Andy. All our bookings have the dining choice showing as ‘confirmed’. That’s for both freedom and fixed. Only the table size (where we have booked fixed) is showing as a preference and will be confirmed on board. 

Aah yes, just checked our booking confirmation. 

It does say the time is confirmed, just the table size to be confirmed. 

Thank you. 

Andy 

[smokey01]

31 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Did you book a Select fare? If so, you should be able to choose whether you want first sitting, second sitting or Freedom dining. You can change your mind as long as what you want is still available. Freedom Dining tends to sell out first, so you might still be OK. Best to call your travel agent or P&O (if you booked direct) and ask. Table size with fixed dining is always a preference and never guaranteed. Changing this close to the cruise may increase your likelihood of having to share. Of course, if you booked a Saver you can only express a dining preference but it’s not guaranteed. 

We are select fare and still 13 months away. I know Anytime is the most popular so I could wait until the cruise and try to change then and ensure we could get second sitting/table for 2 first but then I’m a planner and like to have things sorted (I know they will not confirm table for 2 until on board) so I will contact our travel agent.

[Al_W]

1 hour ago, smokey01 said:

We are booked on Britannia July 5th 2024. Originally we asked for second sitting with a preference for a table for 2. Our original invoice just said dining choice was TBA. But at some point I choose to change it to Anytime and our newest invoice has that as our selected choice.

 

But after a difficult time on Arvia booking our table each night I am thinking of seeing if we can get a confirmed second sitting slot. Is that still a thing? In the old days the system would say ‘second sitting confirmed’ but nowadays there is nothing on the P&O cruise personaliser to say which dining choice is confirmed. We really don’t want early sitting so what is peoples opinions on how successful we will be?

A wise idea, we are just back from a cruise on Britannia, had freedom dining and had to wait up to an hour and a half on a number of occasions. That’s joining queue around 7pm. Said we would chose 8.30 fixed if we ever returned to a fixed dining ship. 
 

In the end we ate much more than usual in the specialty restaurants as they were easier to get into and much better food. 

 

Hope you can get it sorted out ok.

[Selbourne]

17 minutes ago, smokey01 said:

We are select fare and still 13 months away. I know Anytime is the most popular so I could wait until the cruise and try to change then and ensure we could get second sitting/table for 2 first but then I’m a planner and like to have things sorted (I know they will not confirm table for 2 until on board) so I will contact our travel agent.

If you are in a Select fare best to do it now. That way you should get 2nd sitting confirmed and your chances of getting a table for 2 are greater than if you leave it until the cruise. 

[smokey01]

Thanks everyone, I will contact our travel agent asap and (hopefully) switch back to second sitting.

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, Al_W said:

A wise idea, we are just back from a cruise on Britannia, had freedom dining and had to wait up to an hour and a half on a number of occasions. That’s joining queue around 7pm. Said we would chose 8.30 fixed if we ever returned to a fixed dining ship. 
 

In the end we ate much more than usual in the specialty restaurants as they were easier to get into and much better food. 

 

Hope you can get it sorted out ok.

Interesting. We are on Britannia in July and have booked Freedom, having had no problems with it on our 3 pre Covid cruises on her (before P&O started ‘fixing’ problems that never existed). We tend not to dine until around 8.30pm so I am hoping that we shouldn’t have such a long wait (my theory being that it’s best to wait until all the early diners have left and it’s a bit more free flowing before joining the queue). We will use specialty restaurants for possibly half the nights, but not all 14, so the MDR needs to work for us. If it proves to be too problematic I shall see if we can change to 2nd sitting, but only if they can give us a table for 2

[Al_W]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Interesting. We are on Britannia in July and have booked Freedom, having had no problems with it on our 3 pre Covid cruises on her (before P&O started ‘fixing’ problems that never existed). We tend not to dine until around 8.30pm so I am hoping that we shouldn’t have such a long wait (my theory being that it’s best to wait until all the early diners have left and it’s a bit more free flowing before joining the queue). We will use specialty restaurants for possibly half the nights, but not all 14, so the MDR needs to work for us. If it proves to be too problematic I shall see if we can change to 2nd sitting, but only if they can give us a table for 2

On our last 2 Azura cruises post Covid we never had any issues or long delays. So not sure why Britannia is suffering so much.

 

The joke on board was that Arvia & Iona have taken so many of the staff and P&O are now short, but why was it so easy on Azura?

 

It did seem like Britannia is being a bit forgotten about. Although they constantly said in announcements she is their flagship. We loved her on our previous Caribbean cruise, but was left a bit meh after the Baltic.

 

Hopefully they will pay her a bit more attention as she gets towards the 10 year anniversary and give her and the guests the right levels of service.

[Ilovemygarden]

54 minutes ago, Al_W said:

A wise idea, we are just back from a cruise on Britannia, had freedom dining and had to wait up to an hour and a half on a number of occasions. That’s joining queue around 7pm. Said we would chose 8.30 fixed if we ever returned to a fixed dining ship. 
 

In the end we ate much more than usual in the specialty restaurants as they were easier to get into and much better food. 

 

Hope you can get it sorted out ok.

Was that wait for a table for two?  On Azura earlier this year you could just turn up at the dining room and ask to share a table.  There was never a wait (at least to get in) although sometimes a while before any food arrived!  

[Al_W]

5 minutes ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Was that wait for a table for two?  On Azura earlier this year you could just turn up at the dining room and ask to share a table.  There was never a wait (at least to get in) although sometimes a while before any food arrived!  

Table of 4 and we prefer not to share so happy to wait a while but 1.5 hours on Britannia was a bit excessive we thought. Max wait on Azura was 30 mins 

[No pager thank you]

1 hour ago, Al_W said:

A wise idea, we are just back from a cruise on Britannia, had freedom dining and had to wait up to an hour and a half on a number of occasions. That’s joining queue around 7pm. Said we would chose 8.30 fixed if we ever returned to a fixed dining ship. 
 

In the end we ate much more than usual in the specialty restaurants as they were easier to get into and much better food. 

 

Hope you can get it sorted out ok.

I was on the same cruise and yes, this was my experience too.

 

I tended to eat, almost exclusively, in the specialty restaurants, as I can't be doing with 1 1/2 hour waits for dining, which I heard several guests complain about (the app was working, just had more than 100 guests in the queue on occasion).  Tip is to get everything booked early when on board, particularly the first evening.

 

With one exception from The Beach House, I can say that the quality and standard of service was noticeably better, in the specialty restaurants, indeed being more equivalent to the pre-pandemic P&O standard.

 

My general impression is that, if travelling on the smaller ships, I will now choose fixed dining (on a non-sharing table), as there are insufficient other non MDR restaurants to use to "dodge the queue" every day.  On the larger ships, I will just factor in £20 per day extra charge for dining and see how P&O stacks up compared to others, with this taken in to account.

 

As an aside, I also noticed that the buffet offering had gone down on Britannia and the set up felt more chaotic than normal.  I do tend to think that's the strategy by the way - to have guests either pay more, or choose to eat in the buffet, as opposed to restaurant service each evening.  That said, overall, it was a good cruise and certainly much better organised on board than my previous experience of Arvia.

 

Other small food cutbacks...nothing major, but noticeable...

 

Packets of butter and margarine - Lurpak gone.

Pots of jam and marmalade (seems to havr been "down branded". 

Toast now on a request basis.

[BertieRulesOK]

Does anyone know what they do for seating with solos on guaranteed fare?

[Winifred 22]

I always ask for a table by myself and never had a problem. I have seen others on their own too. You can also join a shared table if you prefer. Some solos on know go the solo meet-ups and then dine with people they have met. I’ve never been to a meeting but a colleague at work always goes and enjoys it. 

[BertieRulesOK]

4 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

I always ask for a table by myself and never had a problem. I have seen others on their own too. You can also join a shared table if you prefer. Some solos on know go the solo meet-ups and then dine with people they have met. I’ve never been to a meeting but a colleague at work always goes and enjoys it. 

Thanks for your response.  I was a bit confused by all the mentions of fixed dining as I have not been asked how I wish to dine.  I was intending to make plans at solo meet ups, as you suggest... but that would be scuppered if I am assigned a fixed dining table all on my own.  

[jeanlyon]

On 5/28/2023 at 3:10 PM, Son of Anarchy said:

We've changed dining whilst on board.  Both times we were on Saver fares.  First time it took two days, a Christmas cruise that was full.  The other time they were able to change our dining the same afternoon (embarkation day).  Both times we changed from Club second sitting to Freedom.

I have booked Select and it says Dining Preference - 8.30 second sitting table 8, not guaranteed.

[Canberra forever !]

1 hour ago, BertieRulesOK said:

Does anyone know what they do for seating with solos on guaranteed fare?

I was on Britannia last week as a solo early saver fare and was placed on a table of singles first sitting. 

For my own reasons I wanted to eat alone and spoke to the rest manager who switched me to freedom. 

[Canberra forever !]

Just now, Canberra forever ! said:

I was on Britannia last week as a solo early saver fare and was placed on a table of singles first sitting. 

For my own reasons I wanted to eat alone and spoke to the rest manager who switched me to freedom. 

Apparently it was a table for 8