Dining options - club

[Meg 50]

do you think P&O are trying to phase out club dining in favour of freedom?

I was investigating Azura and looked at dining options here

As you'll see there's mention of both freedom venues - but no mention of the Oriental - which appears on the deck plan

[Ray B]

We prefer club dining. It's bad enough making small talk at the breakfast table but not keen on doing it every night. We'll take our chance with club and hope that we get a friendly table , which is usually the case.
The conversation flows more easily as you get to know your table companions.

[CaroleF]

We had some great experiences with Club Dining, always second sitting, table of eight. There are still people I keep in touch with. It wouldn't surprise me if P&O were trying to phase out Club Dining, although probably not on Aurora and Arcadia. They will see Freedom Dining as the modern way, the way younger people want to eat, the people at whom P&O are now aiming their cruises. Us older passengers who, I think, they see as still wanting all the older trimmings of cruising are good for filling the longer cruises, the World cruises but not as their every day passengers who are going to do the fly cruises and who want everything to be informal. If they are removing Club Dining from Azura, I would assume that goes for Ventura too.

Carole

[screwy]

We were on Azura in May,November and February. We always book freedom but have found it horrendous to get a table for 2, we have had to wait up to 2 hours ! It’s gone ridiculous. We have Azura booked for November,we asked Bolsover if we could change freedom for club first sitting, P&O came back and confirmed the change.
I would agree that everything appears to be aimed at the younger cruisers,the my holiday app is in my opinion a ridiculous thing.A couple were on a virtual list for dinner, they were 78 in the queue.!

[Stephen]

I agree with screwy.

Freedom dining always for us. What you have to do to get a table for two though I don’t know apart from camping outside the restaurant hours in advance, and that ain’t going to happen.

We actually don’t mind sharing a table providing it’s no bigger than six. A table for eight is horrendous, trying to keep up with different conversations and hoping you’re smiling at the right moment, especially for me who suffers with constant tinnitus and not the best of hearing.

It’s surprising how quickly you learn to lip read

[david63]

It may be that the passenger demographic of Azura when it is in the Med is more aligned to Freedom Dining.

Personally I totally detest the way that P&O operate Freedom Dining and will never use it after my one experience - other cruise lines operate a far better system.

[towny44]

I guess it depends which ship you are on, we had no problem on Iona's 35 night Caribbean. We walked up at any time we wanted, agreed to share a table, and were immediately seated. We tried the app a couple of times, but found the large numbers in the virtual queue, so just ignored it.

[Onelife]

I think it must be my lovely personality as we’ve always enjoyed good company during our club dining experiences, something we hope to enjoy again next year now that my wife has finally agreed to go on another cruise.

[Meg 50]

we have never had a problem with Club - one or 2 people we've been glad the cruise was no longer - but not enough to spoil the experience

[barney]

Horses for courses I think.

We always choose Freedom dining and have never had issues getting a table for two.

I use the 'app' . Simply join the queue about 45 minutes before you want to dine and it works very well.

To be fair, we do tend to eat later, usually after eight o'clock so maybe it's easier then, after the early mob have departed.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We still prefer Club.

[allatc]

We've had mixed experiences in club dining, some good, some ok, one horrendous.
On the whole prefer Freedom.

[towny44]

Our preference for freedom dining is because we don't want to be forced to choose early or late club dining, neither choice suits us, and we want to be able to decide our dining time at the last minute, dependant on what we want to do each evening.

[Onelife]

We've had mixed experiences in club dining, some good, some ok, one horrendous.
On the whole prefer Freedom.

I can see that you would only have to have one bad club dining experience to make you hesitant about experiencing the same again.

[barney]

We've had mixed experiences in club dining, some good, some ok, one horrendous.
On the whole prefer Freedom.

I can see that you would only have to have one bad club dining experience to make you hesitant about experiencing the same again.

We also had one very bad experience although years ago on Oriana. Actually it was the same year that they introduced Freedom dining.
Ours was so bad that we didn’t look forward to the evening meal because of one dominant obnoxious Scotsman.
I actually ended up blanking the guy.
Luckily, every cruise since, we’ve done Freedom.
And always a table for two, even breakfast and the odd lunch

[Onelife]

It begs the question, what do you do if you find yourself in that situation…move, and risk upsetting your other table companions or sit it out and suffer?

[barney]

We just decided to ignore the guy and his permanently pished wife
We spoke with the other three couples who were lovely.
As are we

[Stephen]

It begs the question, what do you do if you find yourself in that situation…move, and risk upsetting your other table companions or sit it out and suffer?

Go elsewhere to eat.

[Ray B]

It begs the question, what do you do if you find yourself in that situation…move, and risk upsetting your other table companions or sit it out and suffer?

If it was making us feel uncomfortable, we would have no hesitation to move. It's our holiday and we want to enjoy it.
Luckily that situation has not happened to us.