freedom dining

[swissmiss]

Just had a look at the new P & O brochure and interesting to see that freedom dining is being introduced on some ships - think it was Oriana and Arcadia from May 2014, although club dining will still be available.

[GillD46]

Which, from our point of view at least, is excellent news.

[towny44]

It's to be offered on all ships except Adonia, which only has one single level MDR.

[Suekersh]

Freedom dining on Arcadia will be available from January 2014. We have changed our world cruise booking to freedom dining.

Sue

[Gill W]

We've booked freedom on Arcadia for Christmas 2014.

I think it's great that the choice of freedom has been extended to all ships.

It's clearly becoming popular, although there are still some (including a certain someone who is not a member of this board)who think freedom dining is the end of the cruising world as we know it.

I think club dining will still be with us for a few years yet, but over a period of time I predict that it may eventually disappear completely.

[Dark Knight]

Brilliant, that means we would now look at other ships, now the school dinners system has been modernised and we can eat when we want , not when we are told to
a positive move IMHO

[ChesterfieldJohn]

Is it available on Aurora??

[Gill W]

Yes, it'll be on Aurora from next year.

In fact it'll be on all ships apart from Adonia

[ChesterfieldJohn]

Yes, it'll be on Aurora from next year.

In fact it'll be on all ships apart from Adonia

Cheers thats great for us

John

[Mariner Mike]

Great - the only thing that put us off going back on Arcadia was the lack of this. I'm now price tracking Arcadia for Baltic next summer but am waiting for Getaway to book closer to.

Happy Sailing

Mike

[arcadialover]

I am not a fan of Freedom, although I haven't tried it. My thinking is that I prefer to get to know a table rather than having the same discussions every night with different people as is my experience at lunchtimes if we share in the MDR.

[Manoverboard]

Well done P&O ... another good example of them listening to their customers.

Ironically, of all their ships we are most inclined to book Adonia.

Out of interest why would it not be possible to have FD on Adonia, other Lines have this facility with only one MDR .... just split it up ?

[arcadialover]

I would hate to be sat in a restaurant with people coming and going all the time so perhaps that is why it is not on Adonia.

[sunseeker16]

So do you never dine out on land arcadialover? Surely people come and go at various times there?

Each to his own, and excellent that there is now a choice, but if part of the essense of holiday is freedom then I don't see how fixed dining times fit

[Kendhni]

I think club dining will still be with us for a few years yet, but over a period of time I predict that it may eventually disappear completely.

I think we are a long way from it disappearing completely and one may even see a resurgence in years to come .. but I agree that at the minute freedom dining is the way to go.

Mind you it does seem to bring out more than it's fair share of complaints from people who have to wait for a few minutes for a table.

[arcadialover]

So do you never dine out on land arcadialover? Surely people come and go at various times there?

Each to his own, and excellent that there is now a choice, but if part of the essense of holiday is freedom then I don't see how fixed dining times fit

Yes we dine out at least once a week, but in the places we go the "traffic" isn't anything like what it would be on freedom dining on a ship.

[Jan Rosser]

So do you never dine out on land arcadialover? Surely people come and go at various times there?

Each to his own, and excellent that there is now a choice, but if part of the essense of holiday is freedom then I don't see how fixed dining times fit

Yes we dine out at least once a week, but in the places we go the "traffic" isn't anything like what it would be on freedom dining on a ship.

Sorry Arcadialover have to disagree with your comment about "traffic" - I've used freedom dining and an area of the dining room is usually "filled up" just as in club dining and then it's pretty much the same - can't say I've ever been aware of a lot of coming and going. It's very similar to the open dining at lunch time but the meal takes longer to serve and eat and so not as hectic.

[Gill W]

I am not a fan of Freedom, although I haven't tried it. My thinking is that I prefer to get to know a table rather than having the same discussions every night with different people as is my experience at lunchtimes if we share in the MDR.

Maybe you need to try it.

When freedom was first introduced, people's reaction was that they wouldn't like it. Yet those who've tried it generally love it. If you tried it, you might surprise yourself by liking it.

Although you have complete freedom to dine where and when you like, most people tend to dine around the same time each night, so on the occasions that dine in the MDR, you'll find that the same faces pop up each night. So it's not a completely different batch of people each night, chances are you'll dine with the same people more than once. So if getting to know people is important, if gives you an opportunity to get to know even more people.

Also, this thing about people coming and going all the time. That is a common misconception amongst people that haven't tried freedom. They fill up the same parts of the restaurant at the same time, so it ends up that people come and go at around the same time in that corner.

It's certainly better than 500 people arriving at the same time, all talking at top volume!

[Quizzical Bob]

On balance we prefer freedom dining, mainly because 6:30 is too early and 8:30 is too late for us. I can't say that I have ever noticed any difference in the 'traffic' between the two. Tables are filled up in sequence.

[Dancing Queen]

So do you never dine out on land arcadialover? Surely people come and go at various times there?

Each to his own, and excellent that there is now a choice, but if part of the essense of holiday is freedom then I don't see how fixed dining times fit

Yes we dine out at least once a week, but in the places we go the "traffic" isn't anything like what it would be on freedom dining on a ship.

Sorry Arcadialover have to disagree with your comment about "traffic" - I've used freedom dining and an area of the dining room is usually "filled up" just as in club dining and then it's pretty much the same - can't say I've ever been aware of a lot of coming and going. It's very similar to the open dining at lunch time but the meal takes longer to serve and eat and so not as hectic.

We've only tried it once ( on Eclipse ) it worked perfectly well and allowed for better planning around what we wanted to do, I was never aware of a lot of coming and going, we found most people tended to stick more or less to the MDR times anyway but it just gives that little more flexibility which can't be a bad thing, I'm sure it must make it a little easier for the waiters too not having xx people descend on them the minute the doors are opened.

[katiecrunch]

We'd like to try freedom dining sometime particularly on Azura or Ventura as there are so many more dining options. On the other ships where we'd eat in the MDR most nights I think I'd prefer to share with the same people and get to know them over the cruise. Everyone likes something different so it's good that the choice is available. Hope it isn't the beginning of the end for club dining though.

[Dark Knight]

"Traffic" on freedom is actually much less ,as you don't get the herd mentality of all those sheep waiting for the doors to open at 6.30 or the lemmings Qing from 8.00 , getting under foot

[Mervyn and Trish]

I think it's great that people have the choice on most of the ships, but having tried it a couple of times it's not for us.

The first reason is that we discovered that on our cruises when we did give it a go it wasn't as free as we hoped. If you hadn't sat down by 7 you found that tables were filled until 9. On another cruise, on which we were fortunatley not on freedom, they were on the PA every evenig encouraging freedom diners to eat as early as 6 because, it seems, on that cruise at least the freedom diners were eating later and later and it was getting silly at the back end.

The other reason is that, whatever dining plans you have, the entertainment is still built round the club dining times, so if we wanted to do a late show (our preference) we tended to want to eat at around second sitting time anyway, so it seemed daft to worry whether we would get a table when we wanted it when by going club we could have it sorted before we left home.

[Kendhni]

There is no right or wrong answer to the dining selection.

However I wonder if the entire ship went 'freedom dining' would this remove many of the sort of problems highlighted by M&T (which we have also seen).

[towny44]

On P&O Freedom dining the only time we have ever been given a pager and had to wait has been if we requested a table for 2 or once when with our son & DIL we asked for a table for 4, however on Captains formal night there can be a long queue, mostly we agree to share and are seated immediately. Similarly experiences on Celebrity and Princess.
We have never encountered the issues highlighted by M&T, but do agree that P&O entertainment timing is very much geared to club dining times, not quite as much on Princess and celebrity though.
I do not think Ken's suggestion of everyone on Freedom dining would be sensible, but each cruise line should monitor their requests and aim to provide a suitable split of club and freedom.