freedom dining

[Mervyn and Trish]

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).

Don't think it would help unless the size of the dining room was increased (at the expense of loss of public space elsewhere). I think the problem is that P&O, and others, design ships on the assumption that every table can be used twice in the evening. That works okay for Club dining, where they can manage the two sitting times. However with Freedom, if the first intake don't sit down till 7 or 7.30, that inevitably means tables aren't free again until 9 or later.

And as a p.s. we wouldn't welcome it anyway. We much prefer Club dining and getting to know fellow passengers and staff over a number of nights. A ship that was all Freedom wouldn't appeal.

[Kendhni]

My line of thinking (which may or may not be valid) is that those that partake in club dining quite often do so because they prefer to eat at those alotted times ... often because it works well with the entertainment (some may actually like to eat earlier and some may like to eat later). Last time we were on Azura there was a lot of free space in the club dining area ... it was being under utilised.

Therefore it is feasible that this utilisation could be increased by converting all dining rooms to freedom.


Our preference would still be first sitting club dining ... or failing that freedom dining. ... but I think overall there will be more of a drift towards freedom in the future.

[davecttr]

As a solo cruiser i used to prefer club dining but having tried freedom, it was on Thomson and that is the only option, I found freedom was just fine and I tended to end up in the same waiter areas each evening anyway with much the same people. Since then I have choosen the freedom option with for me the advantage that if i decide to give the mdr a miss I don't have to worry about informing everyone else.

[melsea]

If it was all freedom, it would be like any Restaurant on land and if you have to wait for a while to eat then whatever plans you had for the evening could be spoilt because you could not get a table. Kind of defeats the whole option, so all freedom may or may not actually work. Also I don't like waiting too long for anything. Having the option is the whole point in life. Although one might say all club dining is not a choice but it is if you want or don't mind the times of the sittings.

As I shall soon be sailing on Arcadia on a saver fare, I do not know what dining option we will be getting, if we get freedom I'll report on it.

[Capt Black]

Having previously been 2nd sitting club dining die-hards, we gave Freedom a go on Ventura in the caribbean earlier this year. We found on this occasion that it worked really well for us. Admittedly we only used the MDR on the formal nights and a couple of other nights that had favourites on the menu, and used The Beach House and buffet on the other nights.

What we found was that we had much more flexibility. Of course with Club you can still use the other dining venues, but there's no need to inform the dining room or your table mates that you won't be turning up that evening.

Next cruise is on Aurora pre Freedom dining, but we'll be giving 1st sitting a go as were travelling with friends this time.