Unlimited dining package questions

[sallybrown2012]

Hi!  We haven't been on Royal Caribbean in more than 20 years, so we're out of practice.  I saw the promotion for a deal on unlimited dining, but the package confuses me.

1.  On the first night, it says they will hold a "courtesy" reservation for you, but when I tried to secure this, it gave me only two times (something like 8 and 8:30 pm) and didn't tell me what restaurant we'd be at.  Do we get a choice?

2.  Is it the case that you can't book your other nights of dining until you get on the ship?  How, then, can you plan your show times and other plans, if you don't know what time you'll be dining?

3.  Is it possible to make sure you have a certain restaurant on a certain day?  How likely are you to be able to do this?  My daughter's birthday is during the cruise and she wants to go to Wonderland on her birthday.

What has your experience been with this - any luck getting what you want?  Are we better off just picking a few and doing the reservations in advance?

Many thanks for your input (and we're on Anthem, if that matters). 

[Clarea]

You can change / add reservations once onboard, pending space availability.  You cannot make any specific restaruant reservations pre-cruise.

 

If you must dine in a specific restaurant on a specific date/time, then you should pay full price for that restaurant so you can make your reservations pre-cruise.

 

If you are flexible with your timing, and you go to a specialty restaurant as soon as you board to make reservations for the entire cruise, then you should be OK.

 

 

[Sizzlechest]

2 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

If you must dine in a specific restaurant on a specific date/time, then you should pay full price for that restaurant so you can make your reservations pre-cruise.

 

Are you serious? The only way to make reservations in advance is to NOT get the dining package?

[Biker19]

Just now, Sizzlechest said:

 The only way to make reservations in advance is to NOT get the dining package?

Why do you think you get such a break on price?

[Sizzlechest]

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

Why do you think you get such a break on price?

 

Upfront high quantity purchase like most things in life.

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, Sizzlechest said:

Upfront high quantity purchase like most things in life.

Nope, like a GTY booking on a cabin it is to give the ship flexibility on venue and time assignment.The folks paying full price get first choice, you with the discount get the leftovers.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Biker19

[katiel53]

I have not been on Anthem, but I have used the UDP on Harmony and Allure.  Our most recent Allure cruise was in June and Harmony was in January.  On both cruises we chose a time, 6:30 for our first night's reservation.

 

When we were onboard we made all our other reservations.  We did find out that contrary to what is published online re the package, no reservations were made for us the first night.  When I questioned which restaurant was chosen for us, I was advised that many people changed their assigned reservations so no reservations were made and we were able to choose where we wanted to dine.

 

We were able to get every restaurant and time we wanted with the exception of Hibachi.  The night we wanted to go was full, so we ended up going another night, but that wasn't a problem for us.  

 

The restaurants we chose were Chops (several nights) Jamie's/Giovanni's two nights, Hibachi and 150 and Samba on Allure.  We did not go to Wonderland or Sabor for dinner.

 

I had printed out the cruise planner and knew where we wanted to dine nightly and at what time so we could visit the shows we had planned.

 

The only other night we had a problem was when we decided to not go to Giovanni's on Allure the last night and wanted to go to Samba again, but the time we wanted was full.  I realize it was a last minute change so we went a bit later than we wanted, but we were still accommodated.  I have no complaints regarding scheduling the UDP.

[UFMOM]

We are getting on Symphony tomorrow with the UDP. I’ve made all my show reservations online and will make all my dining reservations to compliment my showtimes as soon as I get on the ship. I have my list all made out of what I want  and when.  They do reserve a certain percentage of spots for on ship bookings so if you make your reservations asap on the ship you should get most of your times. 

 

Mary Ann

[Biker19]

9 minutes ago, UFMOM said:

 They do reserve a certain percentage of spots for on ship bookings so if you make your reservations asap on the ship you should get most of your times. 

Yes.

[sallybrown2012]

It's tempting - if it was just me and my husband I'd probably go for it, but with our (adult) kids along too, one of which has specific wishes for her birthday, we will probably just reserve a few nights of specialty dining, to avoid the uncertainty of having to wait until we're on board to make reservations (although honestly they could have sucked me in if when I started to buy it, there was a better explanation of how it worked, and the ability to select a first night dining time that would work for us - since we're waking up at 4 am to travel to the ship that day, we really would rather not wait until 8 for dinner).  Thanks!

[Merion_Mom]

8 minutes ago, sallybrown2012 said:

It's tempting - if it was just me and my husband I'd probably go for it, but with our (adult) kids along too, one of which has specific wishes for her birthday, we will probably just reserve a few nights of specialty dining, to avoid the uncertainty of having to wait until we're on board to make reservations (although honestly they could have sucked me in if when I started to buy it, there was a better explanation of how it worked, and the ability to select a first night dining time that would work for us - since we're waking up at 4 am to travel to the ship that day, we really would rather not wait until 8 for dinner).  Thanks!

 

When is your cruise?  (yes, it will make a difference on the Anthem re: popularity of specialty dining)

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, UFMOM said:

We are getting on Symphony tomorrow with the UDP. I’ve made all my show reservations online and will make all my dining reservations to compliment my showtimes as soon as I get on the ship. I have my list all made out of what I want  and when.  They do reserve a certain percentage of spots for on ship bookings so if you make your reservations asap on the ship you should get most of your times. 

 

Mary Ann

Just a little tip. When we were on Symphony the reservation kiosk and the restaurants in CP all had long lines of people making their reservations. We went up to Wonderland and there was no line at all, not sure about Hooked. We were also told reservations can be made on the App if you are waiting to board, it did not work for us. happy cruising 

[taglovestocruise]

4 hours ago, sallybrown2012 said:

Hi!  We haven't been on Royal Caribbean in more than 20 years, so we're out of practice.  I saw the promotion for a deal on unlimited dining, but the package confuses me.

1.  On the first night, it says they will hold a "courtesy" reservation for you, but when I tried to secure this, it gave me only two times (something like 8 and 8:30 pm) and didn't tell me what restaurant we'd be at.  Do we get a choice?

2.  Is it the case that you can't book your other nights of dining until you get on the ship?  How, then, can you plan your show times and other plans, if you don't know what time you'll be dining?

3.  Is it possible to make sure you have a certain restaurant on a certain day?  How likely are you to be able to do this?  My daughter's birthday is during the cruise and she wants to go to Wonderland on her birthday.

What has your experience been with this - any luck getting what you want?  Are we better off just picking a few and doing the reservations in advance?

Many thanks for your input (and we're on Anthem, if that matters). 

When we were on Symphony we wanted Wonderland for our Anniversary night dinner.  We also had 3 dining packages. We paid full price to book Wonderland on line. Once onboard we were able to get Wonderland on the night we wanted with a package, the Wonderland host, this is where we went to make all 11 reservations, just canceled the full price reservation and gave us a fully refundable OBC.  We had no problem getting all 11 reservations on the nights and times we wanted, we eat late which makes it easier.  happy cruising

Edited August 23, 2019 by taglovestocruise
wrong ship response

[sallybrown2012]

Oh, that's very clever - book and prepay the one you must have, and then buy the plan, then revise it all when you get there!  Thanks for this tip!

[sallybrown2012]

 

Our cruise is Christmas week - so likely very popular for specialty dining...

 

[Ourusualbeach]

8 hours ago, sallybrown2012 said:

 

Our cruise is Christmas week - so likely very popular for specialty dining...

 

If you see in the cruise planner that they are offering special holiday dinners (more expensive) for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day you won’t be able to use your dining package at those restaurants on those 2 days.