Freedom dining on Arvia - is it any good?

[Helenk1234]

Hi fellow cruisers. We are going on the Arvia shortly and we have Freedom dining. We like to eat late (8.30pm onwards). Just received email saying we could book our dining now but the main dining rooms only seem to be available between 5pm and 6pm. We prefer to eat in the main dining rooms at night. Can anyone tell me how this freedom dining thing works? Will I be able to eat in the main dining room or not? Hope someone out there can share their experiences. I've tried searching to see if anyone has asked this before but I am not great at searching and nothing is coming up. 

[AlanCruise]

All dining on Arvia in the Main Dining Roms is freedom dining. You can book early times in advance but for later times you can use the virtual queue on board when you are ready to eat or just go to the restaurant and join the real queue. You may be given a pager and can then go away until the table is ready.

There are also a number of other restaurants that are included - look up the information from P&O or other sources for the different restuarants.

[TigerB]

46 minutes ago, Helenk1234 said:

Hi fellow cruisers. We are going on the Arvia shortly and we have Freedom dining. We like to eat late (8.30pm onwards). Just received email saying we could book our dining now but the main dining rooms only seem to be available between 5pm and 6pm. We prefer to eat in the main dining rooms at night. Can anyone tell me how this freedom dining thing works? Will I be able to eat in the main dining room or not? Hope someone out there can share their experiences. I've tried searching to see if anyone has asked this before but I am not great at searching and nothing is coming up. 

 

Hi Helen.

Essentially, you have two choices on Arvia: freedom dining, and the speciality restaurants which you pay supplements for. 

The two main MDRs are Zenith and Meridian; they are exactly the same size, more or less, but the Meridian does not have tablecloths.

You can also choose to eat your evening meal in either the 6th Street Diner or Olive Grove, both of which are free. The former also opens for breakfast/brunch at 10:00.

For casual dining, you have a wide choice, including the Quays, the Horizon Buffet, and Taste 360; again, all are free.

If you wish to dress up the formal evenings, and do not wish to eat in either of the MDRs, you can book ahead for the Chef's Table; it is free and is held in a closed off section of the Horizon Buffet. They have a 20:00 sitting, which may suit you. It has though been a bit 'marmite' amongst contributors on here.

 

Of the speciality restaurants, you can generally book ahead for Sindhu, Epicurean, and Green & Co. You will save 20% by doing so.  The other speciality restaurants can be booked once onboard.

 

You have found that the MDRs only allow booking ahead for the early slots. For the time you want to eat, you have a couple of options:

- do a walk-in, for which you may be lucky and get in after a few minutes wait, especially if you are prepared to share a table; it's more likely that you may be given a pager and told the wait is up to an hour;

- join the virtual queue on My Holiday; this usually opens at 18:30;

- if you have a large group, or someone with special needs, go and see a restaurant host on the first day to see if you negotiate a table for the same time and location each evening.

 

P&O would rather you use My Holiday for all dining reservations.

 

When Arvia started sailing there were some reports of really long waits to get a table, up to several hours according to some. We've sailed on her twice and have not experienced that, but we do like to dine early. There has been anecdotal evidence though of there still being a wait of an hour or more for a table.

My best advice to you, if you want to eat at 20:30, is to join the virtual queue about 19:30. You do have fifteen minutes grace to get there after it goes off.

[purplesea]

I would like to add that if you walk up to Meridian and get given a pager you will be advised to wait in Andersons, the bar just down the corridor, so as not to be out of range!  

[TigerB]

@Helenk1234

 

To assist you, here are a few threads that discuss the dining on Arvia:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2905927-arvia-ta-k301a-initial-thoughts/#comment-64611149

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2909585-arvia-dining-expectations-vs-reality/#comment-64692301

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2916637-live-report-arvia-14-nights-from-barbados-18th-feb-onwards/#comment-64852579

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2929233-po-arvia-k307-not-the-experience-we-were-expecting/#comment-65157237

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2931167-arvia-k308-all-aboard/#comment-65211876

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2937460-arvia-adventure-begins-may-2023/#comment-65375268

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2944615-looks-like-po-are-changing-the-way-dining-bookings-are-done-on-arvia/#comment-65562768

 

 

If you can ignore the posts where some contributors argue with one another, you should find some useful information.🙂

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, TigerB said:

 

The two main MDRs are Zenith and Meridian; they are exactly the same size, more or less, but the Meridian does not have tablecloths.

 

We are due to cruise on Arvia in September for the first time and amazed that one of the MDRs does not have tablecloths for dinner. The more I am finding about Arvia the more I wished I hadnt booked on her. How low are standards going to drop on P&O.

[bobstheboy]

8 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We are due to cruise on Arvia in September for the first time and amazed that one of the MDRs does not have tablecloths for dinner. The more I am finding about Arvia the more I wished I hadnt booked on her. How low are standards going to drop on P&O.

I too find this very odd. 

[Kittyonions]

We too were surprised regarding the lack of tablecloths in Meridian MDR. However, having experienced very long wait for tables in the virtual queue on several evenings, we came to realise that at least they were able to “turn” the tables in the restaurant without tablecloths more quickly.We found that if you wanted to eat at around 8.30, it was necessary to join the virtual queue around 7.00. The usual wait was between 1.30 to 2.00 hours.

[TigerB]

3 hours ago, majortom10 said:

We are due to cruise on Arvia in September for the first time and amazed that one of the MDRs does not have tablecloths for dinner. The more I am finding about Arvia the more I wished I hadnt booked on her. How low are standards going to drop on P&O.

 

That's the only similarity to 'Spoons, I'm glad to stay. At least the tables and carpets aren't sticky!😉

[Shelley61]

We found it easy to get a table using the Virtual queue.

 

One thing they don't advertise though is that you can book a table at the same time every night, even after 6.30pm.  You just can't do it before you go.  On your first night, go through the virtual queue as usual, then ask to reserve a table each night.

 

We were in a suite and our butler booked a table for us that they showed up in the "My diary" section of the My Holiday pages on our phones.

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, Shelley61 said:

 

 

We were in a suite and our butler booked a table for us that they showed up in the "My diary" section of the My Holiday pages on our phones.

 

Have you used your Butler to reserve any speciality restaurants.  Could they get you in.?  Thanks 

[smokey01]

15 hours ago, Shelley61 said:

We found it easy to get a table using the Virtual queue.

 

One thing they don't advertise though is that you can book a table at the same time every night, even after 6.30pm.  You just can't do it before you go.  On your first night, go through the virtual queue as usual, then ask to reserve a table each night.

 

We were in a suite and our butler booked a table for us that they showed up in the "My diary" section of the My Holiday pages on our phones.

We could not book a table at 8pm every night in April, we asked about 3 times. Maybe it was because you were in a suite or maybe they have just changed the rules since April.

[Megabear2]

15 hours ago, Shelley61 said:

We found it easy to get a table using the Virtual queue.

 

One thing they don't advertise though is that you can book a table at the same time every night, even after 6.30pm.  You just can't do it before you go.  On your first night, go through the virtual queue as usual, then ask to reserve a table each night.

 

We were in a suite and our butler booked a table for us that they showed up in the "My diary" section of the My Holiday pages on our phones.

Was this on Arvia since beginning of Juky? I understand there is now a sort of two tier approach to the MDR, ie 50% app 50% bookable.

[Shelley61]

1 hour ago, smokey01 said:

We could not book a table at 8pm every night in April, we asked about 3 times. Maybe it was because you were in a suite or maybe they have just changed the rules since April.

Strange.  We only had one MDR booking on the second formal night.  The rest of the time we just used the virtual queue.

 

My comments re booking came from another guest's posts on Facebook where they said they had a standing booking each night for a table of six.  Another couple said to us on the first night that they'd been told by the waiter they could have the same table every night if they wanted.

[Shelley61]

15 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Have you used your Butler to reserve any speciality restaurants.  Could they get you in.?  Thanks 

We asked if he could get us a reservation at Keel & Cow and he said it didn't work - he'd tried with other guests but they wouldn't take bookings in advance.  That was a shame as we wanted to go there on the last night.  He told us to join the virtual queue at around 6pm, but when we tried it was already full for the night.  It seems everyone wanted K&C the final night!  The MDR menu didn't appeal and we'd already done 6SD and Olive Grove and didn't fancy it again.  Our last night was the one and only night we ate dinner in the buffet!

 

Keel & Cow wasn't one that was pre-bookable anyway though, so it might be different for other restaurants such as Beach House or Sindhu.  We'd pre-booked the other speciality restaurants before we got on board, but I imagine the butler would have been able to book them for us otherwise.  We noted he'd reserved us a breakfast table at Epicurean, though we didn't ever get round to using it as it was closed by the time we'd dragged ourselves out in the mornings!