P&O Extend Freedom dining Across Their Fleet Of Ships

[Delboy]

It appears P&O are going to roll out Freedom dining across their fleet of ships

Which ships offer freedom dining?

Freedom dining is available on Azura, Oceana and Ventura.

Freedom dining will also be available on:
Arcadia as of 15 December 2013
Oriana as of 18 May 2014
Aurora as of 19 December 2014.

Further information on freedom dining is available via the question "What is freedom dining?"

Freedom dining is a flexible style of cruise dining. You can arrive at the restaurant at any time between 18.00 and 21.30 and ask to be seated. Tables for four, six or eight can be requested and there is a limited number of tables for two. These are provided on a first come, first serve basis. If your requested table size is not available, you will be given a pager so you can take a pre dinner drink at one of the bars or explore the ship whilst waiting for your table. Freedom dining offers you the opportunity to be seated with different people every night on different sized tables and with different waiters serving you.

Freedom dining is available on Azura, Oceana and Ventura plus Arcadia (15 December 2013) Oriana (18 May 2014) and Aurora (19 December 2014)

Freedom Dining will be held in the following restaurants:

Azura - The Meridian Restaurant
Oceana - The Ligurian Restaurant
Ventura - The Cinnamon Restaurant and The Saffron Restaurants
Arcadia (from 15 December 2013) - upper tier of Meridian Restaurant
Oriana (from 18 May 2014) – The Peninsular Restaurant
Aurora (from 19 December 2014) – The Medina Restaurant

[Kendhni]

There is no doubt that it is the way to go ... club dining will just be a curio from the past (similar to having to trek down the corridor to the shared bathroom facilities). Freedom does however incorporate elements of club dining so it will not necessarily die out completely.

[Manoverboard]

Sounds good to me.

The concept could also be extended to include pre purchased non dated bookings in the select dining venues with discounted prices for multi bookings in any single venue.

[CaroleF]

I certainly hope Club Dining is to stay as well as Freedom Dining. We much prefer Freedom Dining. I like the fact that there is a choice. On other cruise sites some of those people who much prefer Freedom Dining want to see Club Dining abolished - why? I don't like Freedom Dining but I don't wish it to be abolished. It just surprises me that some - I emphasise 'some' people want to see only Freedom dining - again why?

Long live Club Dining! As a choice!

Carole

[Islander]

It's great that we have a choice. We prefer club dining but on a couple of cruises when we chose freedom it worked out okay for us.

[Dark Knight]

my only concern with making everyship freedom, is that on the larger ones it can be a bit of a scrum , early doors and you can wait a while for a table for 2 should you want one

[Peter D]

Agree islander, nice to have the choice. We experienced freedom dining for the first time on Azura early this year and now feel it is the way to go for us on future cruises.

[Ray Scully]

What's cruising coming to ??
I always felt that 'freedom' dining was an anathema to the cruise experience. We have met and still cruise with some delightful people we have become friend with at dinner. Given we Brits usual reserve I doubt that these friendships would have been struck up with freedom dining. What next P&O? buffet dining in the MDR's

Ray

[qbman1]

What's cruising coming to ??
I always felt that 'freedom' dining was an anathema to the cruise experience. We have met and still cruise with some delightful people we have become friend with at dinner. Given we Brits usual reserve I doubt that these friendships would have been struck up with freedom dining. What next P&O? buffet dining in the MDR's

Ray

Agree with that wholeheartedly, Ray. I do, however, appreciate that some people prefer the "freedom" aspect so I think it is important that the ships retain the choice between club and freedom dining.

[Delboy]

What's cruising coming to ??
I always felt that 'freedom' dining was an anathema to the cruise experience. We have met and still cruise with some delightful people we have become friend with at dinner. Given we Brits usual reserve I doubt that these friendships would have been struck up with freedom dining. What next P&O? buffet dining in the MDR's

Ray

No just yet Ray, but this may be of interest:-)

New Marco Pierre White menu

Marco Pierre White has speciality restaurants onboard all of the P&O ships but by the end of 2014 there will also be signature dishes available in the main dining restaurants. The special menus will be available during the formal nights for those on a fixed dining time and Freedom dining at no extra charge and will be designed in a different style to those in the speciality restaurants.

The Marco Pierre White menus will be available on formal night from the following dates:

Ventura - 11th October 2013
Arcadia - 15th December 2013
Oceana - 13th March 2014
Azura - 7th April 2014
Oriana - 18th May 2014
Adonia - 6th June 2014
Aurora - 19th December 2014

P&O are also bringing back a 'Classic Favourites' section in the menu in the main dining restaurants that feature popular dishes such as Sirloin Steak, Salmon Fillet and Caesar Salad. After receiving a lot of customer feedback, they will also no longer be serving extra accompaniments and side orders separately in order to serve the food more quickly and at a more suitable temperature.

Ray we have struck up lasting friendships, with people who have just come and sat next to us in a wine bar on board. Freedom dining in my experience does not prevent friendships being struck up, but obviously more chance with club dining.

[Russtm]

Just found this Forum site, nice to see a lot of user names from the old P&O forum. Question about freedom dining. On a long cruise can you 'mix and match' between 2nd sitting in the MDR and freedom dining? Some days 20.30 is a bit too late and it would be good to eat an hour earlier without having to use the buffet or themed restaurant .

I

[Delboy]

Just found this Forum site, nice to see a lot of user names from the old P&O forum. Question about freedom dining. On a long cruise can you 'mix and match' between 2nd sitting in the MDR and freedom dining? Some days 20.30 is a bit too late and it would be good to eat an hour earlier without having to use the buffet or themed restaurant .

I

Russtm


Welcome to the forum, as you say it has a lot of the old P&O forum members, including David 63 who started the forum.

No I do not think you can "mix and match" between Freedom and Club dining, you have to nominate one or the other, when making your booking.

[Dark Knight]

as far as I know it is a choice of early or late fixed and freedom, you may be able to request a change on board, but at the time of booking you have to specify which you want
and if you do ask to change you may not be able to subject to demand

[Gill W]

Just found this Forum site, nice to see a lot of user names from the old P&O forum. Question about freedom dining. On a long cruise can you 'mix and match' between 2nd sitting in the MDR and freedom dining? Some days 20.30 is a bit too late and it would be good to eat an hour earlier without having to use the buffet or themed restaurant .

I

Hi Russ

On Freedom you have a MDR allocated to you, so you can turn up at 20.30 , or any other time that suits. So you can eat at the same time as 2nd sitting if you feel like it, or earlier if you want to

I certainly hope Club Dining is to stay as well as Freedom Dining. We much prefer Freedom Dining. I like the fact that there is a choice. On other cruise sites some of those people who much prefer Freedom Dining want to see Club Dining abolished - why? I don't like Freedom Dining but I don't wish it to be abolished. It just surprises me that some - I emphasise 'some' people want to see only Freedom dining - again why?

Long live Club Dining! As a choice!

Carole

Likewise, there are club diners who would like to see Freedom dining axed !

I think it's great that there the choice.

I think in the mid to long term, club dining will probably fade out, but in the meantime there's no reason why the two can't exist side by side

my only concern with making everyship freedom, is that on the larger ones it can be a bit of a scrum , early doors and you can wait a while for a table for 2 should you want one

On Azura last month, it did seem as if a lot of people on freedom wanted to dine early, and there were queues before the MDR opened. Sometimes we got a pager for a table for two, average wait time 45 minutes. But it was nice to have a drink in the bar while we were waiting. This is the first time this has happened, on other cruises we've been able to breeze in any time up to 6.30 and get a table for two with no wait.

[david63]

I'm still in two minds about Freedom Dining - which I admit I have not tried.

A major part of our cruise experience is the evening meal and having a drink or two prior to going in for dinner. With Club Dining we know exactly where we are - we go down for a drink and time it so that we have finished our drinks in time to go for dinner.

With Freedom Dining the way that I understand and have seen it work is that you trot along to your allotted MDR when you are ready to dine and if there is a table available then you can sit down but if not you are given a pager and paged when a table becomes available. - and this is the part that I am not sure about.

On the plus side Freedom, at least in theory, allows you to eat when you want and I have to say that early sitting Club is too early and late sitting Club is a bit on the late side.

On the minus side I would miss the camaraderie that develops with table companions when on Club Dining.

From my perspective for Freedom to work there would need to be some facility to be able to book a table for a specific time - just as they do with Select Dining. I know when Freedom started that you were able to book a time but that developed into a fiasco and was discontinued.

[Susan Watt]

We have always went for freedom dining when available (Oceana, Ventura and Azura). We have have been on 1st sitting Club dining on Oriana and Aurora. 2nd sitting is too late for my husband. He has trouble with his sugar levels if he eats too late. Up to now we have always got a table in freedom when we want it. If we can't we would go to the buffet.

[Delboy]

I'm still in two minds about Freedom Dining - which I admit I have not tried.

A major part of our cruise experience is the evening meal and having a drink or two prior to going in for dinner. With Club Dining we know exactly where we are - we go down for a drink and time it so that we have finished our drinks in time to go for dinner.

With Freedom Dining the way that I understand and have seen it work is that you trot along to your allotted MDR when you are ready to dine and if there is a table available then you can sit down but if not you are given a pager and paged when a table becomes available. - and this is the part that I am not sure about.

On the plus side Freedom, at least in theory, allows you to eat when you want and I have to say that early sitting Club is too early and late sitting Club is a bit on the late side.

On the minus side I would miss the camaraderie that develops with table companions when on Club Dining.

From my perspective for Freedom to work there would need to be some facility to be able to book a table for a specific time - just as they do with Select Dining. I know when Freedom started that you were able to book a time but that developed into a fiasco and was discontinued.

When we first tried freedom dining on both Ventura and Oceana, you used to be able to book a table at a time to suit you, and we found it worked very well. However in order to make sure you got the time you required, you had to ring as early as possible in the time slot allowed for booking, you could only book for that and the following evening. As David has said you can no longer book a time with P&O.

We have also had anytime dining on RCI IOS, you can still book a table with them and it works very well, they have far more tables for two than P&O. Only once we did not book, and were given a pager, wait time approx 15 minutes.

Thomson cruises, you just turn up when it suits you, and select a table size, never had to wait to get a table, the only problem is a lot of their tables are oblong, and so a table for 8, virtually turns into two tables of four.

So far we have never had Club dining, and for us Freedom works extremely well.

[arcadialover]

I personally wouldn't cruise if it was freedom only, but good there will be a choice across the fleet.

[Capt Black]

Given the choice, we will continue to choose Club Dining. However, it's all about choice, and so extending the choice of Freedom dining to most of the ships in the current fleet must be the way forward.

[Delboy]

When Ventura was first launched in 2008, it was always advertised as going to have two Freedom dining rooms, as this extract from details at the time

"Bay Tree is a club dining restaurant, offering 2 sittings of 6.30pm and 8.30pm. The other 2 main dining rooms, Saffron and Cinnamon, both offer freedom dining between 6pm-10pm.

However in reality only the Cinnamon restaurant was used as a Freedom dining Restaurant.

They now appear to be reverting to what they originally intended, which was to have both the Cinnamon and Saffron as Freedom.

[wolfie]

What's cruising coming to ??
I always felt that 'freedom' dining was an anathema to the cruise experience. We have met and still cruise with some delightful people we have become friend with at dinner. Given we Brits usual reserve I doubt that these friendships would have been struck up with freedom dining. What next P&O? buffet dining in the MDR's

Ray

No just yet Ray, but this may be of interest:-)

New Marco Pierre White menu

Marco Pierre White has speciality restaurants onboard all of the P&O ships but by the end of 2014 there will also be signature dishes available in the main dining restaurants. The special menus will be available during the formal nights for those on a fixed dining time and Freedom dining at no extra charge and will be designed in a different style to those in the speciality restaurants.

The Marco Pierre White menus will be available on formal night from the following dates:

Ventura - 11th October 2013
Arcadia - 15th December 2013
Oceana - 13th March 2014
Azura - 7th April 2014
Oriana - 18th May 2014
Adonia - 6th June 2014
Aurora - 19th December 2014

P&O are also bringing back a 'Classic Favourites' section in the menu in the main dining restaurants that feature popular dishes such as Sirloin Steak, Salmon Fillet and Caesar Salad. After receiving a lot of customer feedback, [b]they will also no longer be serving extra accompaniments and side orders separately in order to serve the food more quickly and at a more suitable temperature.[/b]

Ray we have struck up lasting friendships, with people who have just come and sat next to us in a wine bar on board. Freedom dining in my experience does not prevent friendships being struck up, but obviously more chance with club dining.

There was sirloin steak on the menu in the MDR on Aurora recently, every night. Salmon was available as a lighter option as a main course, as was Caesar Salad & prawn cocktail as a starter and chicken as a main.

Does, not serving the extra accompaniments separately mean that the whole meal will be plated with ALL the extras that frankly, are not needed or taken up by most, based on the take up of the extras on our recent cruise?