Simply remove towels and other paraphenalia (spelling!) which people leave on "their" sunbed and use it, you are entitled to do so, particularly with those lines who say it is not allowed. You do need to be reasonable though, and recognise that people may have gone off for a light bite, or for a swim etc. But for those who simply want to reserve theirs for when they deign to return.....sorry, we need ours now!!

To be honest we have never had to do this on a cruiseship, and have always found sunbeds somewhere suitable even if not ideal location for us, but have done so at holiday resorts! Secret is to fold towel, and place other paraphenalia neatly so you cannot be accused of "throwing" the towel off the sunbed.

Had another thought.....it might be helpful to retain the nightly "pillow" chocolates for placing on said folded towel etc.!!

IF there is a policy, many are 30mins, then after the neatly folding ask the next attendant to deal with the stuff.

If the balcony is big enough a lounger should be available even if not standard issue ask the cabin steward for one.

Thanks both. P&O unfrotunately do not police the beds, although their daily newspaper say they do not endorse the reserving of sunbeds.

We are on a C Deck Balcony on Ventura. I believe these are larger than any other outside cabin balconies. Do you really think the steward would bring us one if we asked ?

Unfortunately, the reviews arent very good for Ventura, but I am reserving judgement until I get there.

Kath x

Kath HT Admin wrote:

Do you really think the steward would bring us one if we asked ?

Unfortunately, the reviews arent very good for Ventura, but I am reserving judgement until I get there.

Absolutely yes, ask him to bring 2, but make sure and give him a fiver and keep him sweet for the rest of the cruise!

Have also seen the reviews, but many seem to be from diehard P&O'ers who do not seem to like the change of focus to "freedom dining" and "family orientated". The marketing strategy is directed clearly in these areas, and many are whingeing about the number of kids on board and their "behaviour" etc. As I posted in a cruise critic forum responding to a complaint that there were "upwards of 600 children on board"......."pity the poor kids having to put up with 3000 adults on board!"

We were on Norwegian Jade late May into June and were saddened at the whingeing by many seasoned cruisers, complaining (often unfairly) about this thing and that thing and failing to enjoy themselves....how sad. No cruiseline or ship is ever going to be perfect, and always remember that the worst day you can have on a cruise is a whole lot better than the best day you can have at work, or wherever you spend your days at home.

We are always open minded and try to be fair in our judgement, and are looking forward very much to a wonderful cruise departing on 10 October. Which sailing are you on?

Oo are you on the Ventura ? if so you get on as I get off!

Yes lots of people are complaining about the children but it goes with the booking. Its sold as a family ship.

Personally, I booked it because it was new, big and we could afford a balcony on it. Unfortunately, I lost my husband earlier this year and he had saved hard for us to go on it. After much soul searching, I decided to continue and am now going with my brother
As I have said I will reserve judgement until I am on her myself. Although I am worried aboput the reports on freedom dining which unfortunately we are on. Again booked as we thought it would be better for my husband.

Kath x

PM sent Kath.

Sue

Thank you x

There won't be many kids onboard in October will there?

I wouldn't worry about Freedom Dining Kath. We had that on the Sea Princess and it worked for us.

On the plus side, I like the fact that you meet different people every night and you are not tied to one set time. However we did find that we would go to the restaurant at roughly the same time most nights, usually around 8pm. I think Club Dining is 8.30pm. If you are seated with the couple from hell, you aren't stuck with them for the whole cruise, but most people are nice anyway.

On the minus side, you don't get the same chance to strike up a rapport with your fellow diners. If you are with the same people every night you can become friends and may arrange DIY excursions together or to put a team in for the quizzes.

luci

There won't be many kids onboard in October will there?

Emdia, I read somewhere that there will be 600 Seems high for school term, but not high when there are a few thousand adults.

Luci, I heard that Freedom Dinining works on the Princess ships but is failing miserably with P&O. Apparently it doesnt seem very organised because everyone seems to be wanting to eat at the same time ? However, I have also heard that you can book two days in advance if your quick enough. I have also read that apparently P&O made an annoucement one night that they would give away a glass of wine if people ate at 6pm!! Much too early for me.

I wish we had gone for Club Dining now as like you say we made some lovely friends last time and organised DIY trips with them. Only good thing is that I have visited all the Canary Islands we are calling at quite a few times before, so I know what we want to see/do.

Kath x

I'm sure I read that it was only a problem on the first night. On other nights people had to wait no more than 10 mins and were given a pager while they were waiting. Can remember which ship this was though.

I did read about them tannoying for people to go at 6pm and get a free glass of wine!

It has crossed my mind that we should have gone for Club dining, but only because it is the more popular option and I was worried I would be missing out!

I don't like having to be ready at a set time every evening and prefer the freedom of Freedom dining. I guess we both won't kno whow it pans out until we try it.

As we have gone seriously I shall change the title of this topic.
luci

Sorry Luci

Thanks for the change of title.

Kath x

Not read any P&O reviews but I guess they might be suffering from the traditional diners not adapting yet. The other thing is people will tend to try to fit around the shows so you get peak times then.

One of the tricks with the freedom/anytime/freestyle dining is to find out when the queues start and get there 5 mins before adapting to the pattern that forms on your trip. Ask when they expect the waits to start and aim to eat just before then and see how it goes.

Most people just don't work this out and if they want to eat at 8:00 get there at 8:00 and then end up eating at 8:30 and getting upset about a wait, then do the same thing the next day.
If you still want to eat at a peak time just plan to get there a little early and have a pre-dinner cocktail while you wait, if called early take the cocktail to the table.

want to eat at 8:00 and there is no queue at 7:30 go then, sit and take your time ordering and eating the starters so you still eat at 8:00 ish anyway.

Another trick is you don't have to have all the meal at the same time, if an early meal is going to be too much skip desert and take that later you can always return to the dinning room for desert and coffee after a show for example, or just hit the buffet.

Another thing to watch is the port schedules this can skew the timings for a day especialy a late departure.

One thing that is worth thinking about is moving your normal schedule forward or back to avoid the peak times, early B,fast,early lunch, early dinner, late b,fast skip lunch early dinner etc. the one down side to an early dinner is the long evening, fine if there are a couple of good events on, one thing that traditional late sitting does well is split an evening.

I would not worry too much about the food side of things it's not like we go hungry on a cruise, go with the flow and try to make the most of the other things going on, try the buffet or alternative dining options.

We still like the traditional cruise experience(no thinking required) but the flexable approach is great if you adapt to it and make it work for you.

Many thanks for the insight Windjammer.

Really like the idea of what you suggest.

kath x

When I cruised on Princess and moved from traditional to freestyle dining as we had a dreadful couple at the table. We enjoyed it and never waited any length of time. It was also possible to book a particular table every night so you had the same time waiter etc.

My Sister and I laughed a lot as one night we were seated with 2 men travelling solo amongst others. At the end of dinner they said would we eat with them again. We just said whatever. We were then so surprised to be taken swiftly by OSCAR the Maitre D to a table where they were seated. Our waitress said they had booked the table and how Oscar knew who we were ?? No idea.
This happened for the final few nights of the cruise. One of them had an eye on my Sister and we had such a lot of fun avoiding them at other times. He went home with his photo's of us with him and would probably tell everyone Kay was a close friend he met on his travels and here was the photo to prove it. It was just fun and really no big deal. Incidentally this man had been on 100 cruises with Princess.

Just go with an open mind and if there are 600 children then you can easily find places to sit or to spend time in where it is not overrun.
I think that Graham is right there are the traditional P&O cruisers who are stuck in the time "WARP" and who are not receptive to change. Ventura has been built for the UK market and as a family ship which is in direct competition to RCI with Independance. They either cruise on P&O previous ships or swop for the very Americanised RCI or move to say Cunard or Fred Olsen. There is plenty for everyone and all will find a product to suit their needs.

As said you will be able to work out the time that suits you best and then eat accordingly. I would say that a lot of the older generation from experience want to eat early.

Have a great time and will be keeping you very much in my thoughts.

Sue

Kath HT Admin wrote:

There won't be many kids onboard in October will there?

Emdia, I read somewhere that there will be 600 Seems high for school term, but not high when there are a few thousand adults.

Luci, I heard that Freedom Dinining works on the Princess ships but is failing miserably with P&O. Apparently it doesnt seem very organised because everyone seems to be wanting to eat at the same time ? However, I have also heard that you can book two days in advance if your quick enough. I have also read that apparently P&O made an annoucement one night that they would give away a glass of wine if people ate at 6pm!! Much too early for me.

I wish we had gone for Club Dining now as like you say we made some lovely friends last time and organised DIY trips with them. Only good thing is that I have visited all the Canary Islands we are calling at quite a few times before, so I know what we want to see/do.

Do remember that the 10 October cruise covers both the Scottish and English school holiday week, and that this cruise offered free kids places.....then work it out!! Guess there could be more than 600 but, as I said earlier, pity the poor kids having to put up with 3000 adults many of whom will moan.

We are freedom dining too but, based on previous experience with other lines, this is a bit of a misnomer as the vast majority of freedom diners will go at a time to facilitate one of the two main shows each evening....hence the bottlenecks.

Will not say any more as W/J's long post sets out some solutions to resolve the dining problem, many of which we have used.....good advice.

These Freedom, Freestyle, Flexible dining arrangements seem to take up an awful lot of time planning and reserving.
Part of my goal on vacation is to not have to think too much about meals other than showing up and enjoying them.
Hamrag hit the nail on the head really- most need a time slot that will allow them to eat then go to whatever entertainment is planned.

Thank you all
I go on the 28 September and thought most children would be back in school then ?

However, I havent got a problem with them, I have four of my own (all grown up now).

Kath x

You are right children will be back at school and the half term break will not be until I would say 2 weeks later.
Of course there will be people with children younger than school age but they won't present the same problems.

Sue