Aft on Deck 8 is the self-service restaurant, styled in P&O's favoured International Food Court (IFC) branding. This is by some distance the largest space on board and has seating for 602 passengers in what are effectively a pair of seating areas divided by the central funnel casing. The port-side seating is located just aft of the port-side servery area. Rather surprisingly, the rigid fixed seating seen on all P&O/Townsend vessels from the later Free Enterprises right through to the Pride of Burgundy is again retained for this space, albeit now upholstered in the bright and colourful IFC style. The flooring is made up of squares of laminate tiling whilst the walls are finished in the same colours as the seating.
The Darwins saw P&O amend their on-board catering options slightly - the fast food First Base (first seen on the previous Pride of Kent after her stretching in 1991/92 and later spread fleet-wide) was relegated from being a stand-alone operation to merely a small counter within the IFC servery. The New York Deli name was abandoned and Caffé Oliveto (aft on Deck 7) was brought in - an amended version of the facility on Portsmouth's Pride of Bilbao. |
