Dining Allocation

[cinnamon]

I’ve booked as a Solo on Ventura for the Christmas cruise. I haven’t been on P&O for many years but cruised many times with my late husband. 
Due to the high cost of the single supplement I have booked a Saver fare. I gather my cabin will be Forward (eek……Bay of Biscay) but don’t know about dining. 
 

How will it be allocated and will I only know once I’m onboard?  As a Solo I think I’d prefer Club Dining, getting to know the same tablemates and perhaps avoiding the queues I’ve started to hear so much about. 
 

Thanks for any replies. 

[molecrochip]

If you don’t get club, go see the restaurant manager on embarkation afternoon - they will sort it out.

[Fionboard]

2 hours ago, cinnamon said:

I’ve booked as a Solo on Ventura for the Christmas cruise. I haven’t been on P&O for many years but cruised many times with my late husband. 
Due to the high cost of the single supplement I have booked a Saver fare. I gather my cabin will be Forward (eek……Bay of Biscay) but don’t know about dining. 
 

How will it be allocated and will I only know once I’m onboard?  As a Solo I think I’d prefer Club Dining, getting to know the same tablemates and perhaps avoiding the queues I’ve started to hear so much about. 
 

Thanks for any replies. 

If you get Freedom see the Maitre D on board and change to a sharing table in Club. However as a solo you will probably get sharing in Club anyway. 

[daiB]

2 hours ago, cinnamon said:

I’ve booked as a Solo on Ventura for the Christmas cruise. I haven’t been on P&O for many years but cruised many times with my late husband. 
Due to the high cost of the single supplement I have booked a Saver fare. I gather my cabin will be Forward (eek……Bay of Biscay) but don’t know about dining. 
 

How will it be allocated and will I only know once I’m onboard?  As a Solo I think I’d prefer Club Dining, getting to know the same tablemates and perhaps avoiding the queues I’ve started to hear so much about. 
 

Thanks for any replies. 

I would expect you will be given second sitting club dining. That is the one which seems to be least popular with first sitting the most popular.

[Son of Anarchy]

Interesting how times have changed.

 

When we started cruising with P & O back in 2009, Club Second sitting was the one that usually filled up first.

 

One time we did a late booking on Oceana (about 2 weeks before sailing).  We were allocated Freedom which wasn't a problem.  There was notice outside the dining room saying that the allocations for Club had been done in order of booking, and had filled up several months before departure.

 

Our first experience of freedom dining and went well.  Still chose Club second sitting for a few years.  Like most others though have gravitated to Freedom.  Apart from our booked Arcadia jolly, where we've gone for Club, first sitting

[cinnamon]

Thank you. 
When we first started cruising we always chose late sitting. Latterly we went for the equivalent of Freedom dining but the reports on P&O of frequently waiting up to an hour for a table have been off putting. 
Hopefully I’ll get late dining as I imagine there’ll be lots of families on a Christmas cruise who prefer early. 

[Fionboard]

Sure you will be ok. Have a great time. By the way, one of the Freedom restaurants on Ventura is called Cinnamon!  

[cinnamon]

Thank you Fionboard. I chose this board name 22 years ago when I had two cats, Nutmeg and Cinnamon. I wanted something a little anonymous as Social Media was all very new then and I had no idea how popular it would become. 

[Fionboard]

4 minutes ago, cinnamon said:

Thank you Fionboard. I chose this board name 22 years ago when I had two cats, Nutmeg and Cinnamon. I wanted something a little anonymous as Social Media was all very new then and I had no idea how popular it would become. 

The other Freedom is Saffron and the MDR is BayTree.