What to pre book re restaurants (P&O)

[fishtaco]

So we haven't cruised for a few years and believe it or not  love the old P&O Trad Dinning! So question is when pre booking evening restaurants in advance should I just book shared tables? (love shared tables) 

We have been through the change from TD to ATD and in the past we just booked 8.30pm for every night at the main dinning room once onboard.

 

Any advise will be appreciated.

 

Cheers

[MicCanberra]

IIRC, You can book for a larger table at the same time each night, but then you can always see the Maitre De once you board and let them know exactly what you want.

[fishtaco]

Our most recent cruises have all  been RCL and Carnival in the USA, so with P&O AU can I still approach Matre De on boarding day and ask for shared table every evening meal like we did when TD switched to ATD.?

I know this still works on US cruises but We have not done P&O AU for many years!

We are late dinners  and enjoy company even if its not reciprocal lol

 

Cheers

[Ozwoody]

50 minutes ago, fishtaco said:

Our most recent cruises have all  been RCL and Carnival in the USA, so with P&O AU can I still approach Matre De on boarding day and ask for shared table every evening meal like we did when TD switched to ATD.?

I know this still works on US cruises but We have not done P&O AU for many years!

We are late dinners  and enjoy company even if its not reciprocal lol

 

Cheers

When you get to your cabin, you will find a sheet listing what dinning you have been assigned, it may or may not be what you requested on the app.

On the sheet it will tell you which dinning room to go to to make any changes you wish, from what's on the sheet.

Do this first thing after you find your assignments if you don't like them, it can get very busy at the dinning room.

However my experience was that the later sittings where less popular, but that may have been just the cruise I was on.

 

Have fun

 

Regards

John

[MicCanberra]

Most people prefer to eat early, so late settings are always easier.

[arxcards]

Hi Den,

The dining room menus repeat a bit. They consider Dragon Lady & Angelo's as part of the dining room loop, and if given the opportunity to rotational dine through the 3 venues I would recommend it. Of the three, I would prefer Angelo's anyway, as it feels more like a contemporary dining room and a good range of dishes on the menu.

Edited January 26 by arxcards

[Ozwoody]

Good point Geoff.

 

Den, P&O is different to Princess for example, in that all the MDR's serve the same menu meals, where on P&O the three MDR's all serve a different cuisine choice.

Waterfront - Modern Australian 

Angelo's - Italian

and

Dragon Lady - Asian

 

I agree with Geoff, I favoured the latter two, but recycling through all three is a good idea, at least at first.

You will be able to change things at any time you feel you prefer a change, just by advising the dinning room staff at any of the MDR's.

 

[MicCanberra]

I agree, as the menus are in 3 day cycles,

Menu A for 3 days, Menu B for the next 3, sometimes a Menu C or back to Menu A, etc

My suggestion 

Day 1 - Angelo's - Italian

Day 2 - MDR

Day 3  - Dragon Lady - Asian

Rinse and repeat.

[fishtaco]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Hi Den,

The dining room menus repeat a bit. They consider Dragon Lady & Angelo's as part of the dining room loop, and if given the opportunity to rotational dine through the 3 venues I would recommend it. Of the three, I would prefer Angelo's anyway, as it feels more like a contemporary dining room and a good range of dishes on the menu.

I am probably over thinking it as we wont go hungry lol.

All of the reviews I have read people seem to prefer Dragon Lady over Angelos so just goes to show how subjective reviews are!

[ceeceeDee]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Hi Den,

The dining room menus repeat a bit. They consider Dragon Lady & Angelo's as part of the dining room loop, and if given the opportunity to rotational dine through the 3 venues I would recommend it. Of the three, I would prefer Angelo's anyway, as it feels more like a contemporary dining room and a good range of dishes on the menu.

Totally agree, Geoff. We opted to go to Angelo's for the majority of our evening meals. We even booked a specific table in our favourite waiter's section.

[fishtaco]

5 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

I agree, as the menus are in 3 day cycles,

Menu A for 3 days, Menu B for the next 3, sometimes a Menu C or back to Menu A, etc

My suggestion 

Day 1 - Angelo's - Italian

Day 2 - MDR

Day 3  - Dragon Lady - Asian

Rinse and repeat.

Thanks, Tracey is off to Tassie for 10 days and wont be around for when dinning bookings are open so we need to have some sort of plan so I can pre book online.

Given this is a fully booked cruise during School holidays I dont think we will have much problem booking late seatings.

[MicCanberra]

I prefer DL as well but variety is the spice of life

[arxcards]

5 minutes ago, fishtaco said:

I am probably over thinking it as we wont go hungry lol.

All of the reviews I have read people seem to prefer Dragon Lady over Angelos so just goes to show how subjective reviews are!

It is all just personal taste. I personally find the Waterfront menu to be 1/2 stodge, and there was only a couple of dishes I like for each course in Dragon Lady. That in itself is OK, but the menus have changed little since 2015 and I feel restricted to having a pork belly starter just about every time I eat there. Angelo's menu hasn't changed much either, but there are more dishes that suit my palate. As a concept, Dragon Lady feels much more intimate, and that goes a long way to it being popular.

 

Just go with what menu suits you best, but being aware that the menus will repeat if you stay in the one venue. And if you have a few bob spare, Luke Mangan's is still an excellent dinner if you are celebrating an occasion.

[MicCanberra]

10 minutes ago, fishtaco said:

Thanks, Tracey is off to Tassie for 10 days and wont be around for when dinning bookings are open so we need to have some sort of plan so I can pre book online.

Given this is a fully booked cruise during School holidays I dont think we will have much problem booking late seatings.

When we were last on P&O, we had 6 of us, most nigh5s no bookings, and roch up after 7.30 and get a table, often with the usual servers in both DL and As.

[Aus Traveller]

10 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

When you get to your cabin, you will find a sheet listing what dinning you have been assigned, it may or may not be what you requested on the app.

On the sheet it will tell you which dinning room to go to to make any changes you wish, from what's on the sheet.

Do this first thing after you find your assignments if you don't like them, it can get very busy at the dinning room.

However my experience was that the later sittings where less popular, but that may have been just the cruise I was on.

 

Have fun

 

Regards

John

John's advice is spot on.

[Aus Traveller]

21 minutes ago, fishtaco said:

I am probably over thinking it as we wont go hungry lol.

All of the reviews I have read people seem to prefer Dragon Lady over Angelos so just goes to show how subjective reviews are!

Angelos is excellent. Dragon Lady isn't for us!

[ceeceeDee]

5 minutes ago, arxcards said:

It is all just personal taste. I personally find the Waterfront menu to be 1/2 stodge, and there was only a couple of dishes I like for each course in Dragon Lady. That in itself is OK, but the menus have changed little since 2015 and I feel restricted to having a pork belly starter just about every time I eat there. Angelo's menu hasn't changed much either, but there are more dishes that suit my palate. As a concept, Dragon Lady feels much more intimate, and that goes a long way to it being popular.

 

Just go with what menu suits you best, but being aware that the menus will repeat if you stay in the one venue. And if you have a few bob spare, Luke Mangan's is still an excellent dinner if you are celebrating an occasion.

Luke's is awesome!

[fishtaco]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

Angelos is excellent. Dragon Lady isn't for us!

Another vote for Angelos! So strange that most online and YT reviews say Angelos isnt great and DL is much better?

I think I will stick with CC recommendations.

[fishtaco]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

It is all just personal taste. I personally find the Waterfront menu to be 1/2 stodge, and there was only a couple of dishes I like for each course in Dragon Lady. That in itself is OK, but the menus have changed little since 2015 and I feel restricted to having a pork belly starter just about every time I eat there. Angelo's menu hasn't changed much either, but there are more dishes that suit my palate. As a concept, Dragon Lady feels much more intimate, and that goes a long way to it being popular.

 

Just go with what menu suits you best, but being aware that the menus will repeat if you stay in the one venue. And if you have a few bob spare, Luke Mangan's is still an excellent dinner if you are celebrating an occasion.

I actually bought the Ultimate Romance Package (Not for the romance lol) But it includes a specialty restaurant  value and am sure it can be used at Lukes?

I bought it because it seemed good value given what it includes.

[arxcards]

46 minutes ago, fishtaco said:

I actually bought the Ultimate Romance Package (Not for the romance lol) But it includes a specialty restaurant  value and am sure it can be used at Lukes?

I bought it because it seemed good value given what it includes.

Yes, it is. 

We have bought similar packages on P&O in the past.

[Ozwoody]

Different tastes are interesting, on our two cruises on P&O, our group tended to like Angelo's over all, but really enjoyed the dragon Lady, we too found the Waterfront a little hit and miss, but not bad, just little things not to our taste.

I guess the fact that I like Asian food gets me off to a good start, if your a little so so with Asian food, it may not be to your taste.

 

But initially try all three, then make up your mind which you prefer.

 

I found the concept of the Pantry Buffet intriguing at first, but was not a fan at the end, others loved it.

 

Try them all, make up your own mind.

[fishtaco]

Another question is Angelos DL and WF closed on port day evenings especially if in port overnight.

 

Cheers

[MicCanberra]

21 minutes ago, fishtaco said:

Another question is Angelos DL and WF closed on port day evenings especially if in port overnight.

 

Cheers

No.

[ceeceeDee]

For anyone interested, this is the current Ultimate Romance package

 

 

 

For us we probably wouldn't get our money's worth. Hubby is not the champers aficionado (pearls before swine springs to mind 😂), we already get canapes every night from day 2 with a Byron suite, we don't find breakfast in bed romantic (yeah, I know, we have no soul), dinner at Luke's last year was less than $140 for the two of us and a photo portrait of Gatsby night was around $30 from memory. Luke's and the photo were covered by our OBC.

 

We found this more to our liking and pre-ordered it to be delivered to our room upon arrival on embarkation day. It was a really good Sav Blanc, too:

Edited January 27 by ceeceeDee
Add more information

[fishtaco]

1 hour ago, ceeceeDee said:

For anyone interested, this is the current Ultimate Romance package

 

 

 

For us we probably wouldn't get our money's worth. Hubby is not the champers aficionado (pearls before swine springs to mind 😂), we already get canapes every night from day 2 with a Byron suite, we don't find breakfast in bed romantic (yeah, I know, we have no soul), dinner at Luke's last year was less than $140 for the two of us and a photo portrait of Gatsby night was around $30 from memory. Luke's and the photo were covered by our OBC.

 

We found this more to our liking and pre-ordered it to be delivered to our room upon arrival on embarkation day. It was a really good Sav Blanc, too:

We just have a standard balcony so seemed worth it, so what canapes do I get and when/where do I get them? Is it on Formal/Theme nights?