Unlimited Dining on Harmony

[Dcun201]

Just returned from my Harmony Cruise that sailed on Nov. 3. and they were not honoring the unlimited portion of the dining package.  The crew members were only allowing us to only dine once during lunch and once during dinner. That was the old Ultimate Dining package policy but the fine print on the Unlimited states you can dine as much as you want and at any restaurants you as you like every night. I bought the package so I can do small apps mid day and then dinner later into the evening but of course the crew member said I already used my credit for the day already when I went in for apps earlier.

 

I had to argue a bit and the manager finally let us dine for that night. That whole ordeal ruined my dinner experience for that night.  It is my first time sailing with Royal Caribbean so what are the rules to the Unlimited package for dining multiple restaurants on the same night.

 

Thank you for reading my semi rant.  I want to confirm with you guys on the policy before I do a formal complaint to Royal Caribbean. 

 

 

[Clarea]

My understanding is that the unlimited package is supposed to be unlimited.

[Dcun201]

Yeah that was my understanding as well. I even went to guest services as and they also told me 1 restaurant per night as well. 

[Clarea]

8 minutes ago, Dcun201 said:

Yeah that was my understanding as well. I even went to guest services as and they also told me 1 restaurant per night as well. 

 

See what it says on this page:

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/dining-packages

[Dcun201]

UNLIMITED DINING PACKAGE 

Savor the savings with the Unlimited Dining Package! For one low price, you can enjoy multiple entrees and visit multiple specialty restaurants every night of your sailing. And as an added perk, this unlimited package also applies to lunch at specialty restaurants on sea days. Plus, enjoy a discount of 40% off bottles of wine under $100 and 20% off bottles above $100 while dining in specialty restaurants..

 

Even their official site does not list about the 1 restaurant per night limit. Either the Harmony crew needs some kind of retraining on the policy of the Unlimited package or we are missing some wording somewhere. 

[molly361]

Let mus know how you make out after reporting it  Good luck

[Ourusualbeach]

Unfortunately every hotel director seems to have the power to interpret things as they feel like leading to different practices aboard different ships.  While you can complain to Miami after the fact it does not change your experience on board and the best you can hope for is some sort of credit towards a future cruise.

[Clarea]

Unfortunately, this kind of situation is not uncommon with Royal.  You might try some social media posts, they seem more likely to react to those.

[Snit13]

2 hours ago, Dcun201 said:

Yeah that was my understanding as well. I even went to guest services as and they also told me 1 restaurant per night as well. 

What did the ship's Restaurant/Bar Manager say?  I bought the package for Brilliance in April and would love to know the rules.  LOL.

[Snit13]

There was a recent thread by a HARMONY cruiser who had this dining package and he seemed to be eating at 2 or 3 restaurants each evening.  Posted great photos of the food.  I gained weight just reading his thread.  Wonder what changed in less than a month.

[seabeew]

We had similar issues on Harmony when we sailed on October 27. A new hotel director came on board that day. Could not eat lunch at Sabor on boarding day, had to pay $15 pp for hibachi grill, no milk shakes at Johnny Rockets. We have always been allowed to do all these things. Even if it didn’t benefit us, I’d like to see some consistency so I could know what to expect.

Edited November 10, 2019 by seabeew

[CP3o]

13 minutes ago, Snit13 said:

There was a recent thread by a HARMONY cruiser who had this dining package and he seemed to be eating at 2 or 3 restaurants each evening.  Posted great photos of the food.  I gained weight just reading his thread.  Wonder what changed in less than a month.

Maybe someone with a similar package couldn't get in for ONE meal at dinner if someone makes multiple reservations dining on apps and drinking in mulitple restuarants the same night.  There are only so many restuarants on the ship and Oasis class holds a lot of pax.  I agree the fine print should reflect any limitations.

[Dcun201]

4 hours ago, Snit13 said:

What did the ship's Restaurant/Bar Manager say?  I bought the package for Brilliance in April and would love to know the rules.  LOL.

I called the Dining Manager and he didn't believe me that the fine print on the Unlimited package says you can dine multiple restaurants in one night. He told me he has to pay his cooks and there's no way he can accommodate multiple dining visits in one day for everyone that has that package. I told him that's not what the fine print says on the official site and he invited me to meet him at Central Park to show him the fine print.

 

Fast forward he didn't end up meeting me, but he sent his assistant manager and I showed him the fine print. He agreed the fine print state you can dine multiple restaurant per night but says there is a mistake with the fine print online. He agreed to honor the package just for my cabin and that was the end of it. 

 

It was already the 4th day so I was already over it. I ended up not even bothering to go during mid day for small apps/tapas. The experience was already ruined and the workers were not even trained about the Unlimited dining policy. They were still thinking it is the same as the Ultimate package which had the dining limit.

 

During the day Johnny rockets 90% empty and Sabor usually only had 1 or 2 party. I couldn't even go there just to get guac and chips just to hang out doors without burning a lunch or dinner "credit".

[Ren1216]

This is a bummer!  😝  Seems we may be about to see the end of the Unlimited dining pkg.

[Illbcruzn4life]

Seems like the food and beverage department run so different from the rest of the fleet.

 

This ships dining is a mess.

[Cruise a holic]

We typically purchase the unlimited dining package as we prefer the specialty restaurants.  However, since even watching what we eat- and walking as much as possible, still manage to gain a few pounds.  Why would we want to have dinner twice in the evening?  

 

We might enjoy lunch at a specialty restaurant if available, and dinner at another- which is still much to many calories!  Have to skip desserts and bread of course!  LOL

 

Will be on the Harmony in a few weeks for the 4th time- love it!

Edited November 11, 2019 by Cruise a holic

[Snit13]

7 hours ago, Dcun201 said:

I called the Dining Manager and he didn't believe me that the fine print on the Unlimited package says you can dine multiple restaurants in one night. He told me he has to pay his cooks and there's no way he can accommodate multiple dining visits in one day for everyone that has that package. I told him that's not what the fine print says on the official site and he invited me to meet him at Central Park to show him the fine print.

 

Fast forward he didn't end up meeting me, but he sent his assistant manager and I showed him the fine print. He agreed the fine print state you can dine multiple restaurant per night but says there is a mistake with the fine print online. He agreed to honor the package just for my cabin and that was the end of it. 

 

It was already the 4th day so I was already over it. I ended up not even bothering to go during mid day for small apps/tapas. The experience was already ruined and the workers were not even trained about the Unlimited dining policy. They were still thinking it is the same as the Ultimate package which had the dining limit.

 

During the day Johnny rockets 90% empty and Sabor usually only had 1 or 2 party. I couldn't even go there just to get guac and chips just to hang out doors without burning a lunch or dinner "credit".

So glad to read you took action and sorry to hear they did not know what Miami is selling.  Wish I knew how to forward your post to Headquarters in Miami.

[Ourusualbeach]

20 minutes ago, Snit13 said:

So glad to read you took action and sorry to hear they did not know what Miami is selling.  Wish I knew how to forward your post to Headquarters in Miami.

Cut and paste and e mail it to mbayley@rccl.com

[Dcun201]

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

We typically purchase the unlimited dining package as we prefer the specialty restaurants.  However, since even watching what we eat- and walking as much as possible, still manage to gain a few pounds.  Why would we want to have dinner twice in the evening?  

 

We might enjoy lunch at a specialty restaurant if available, and dinner at another- which is still much to many calories!  Have to skip desserts and bread of course!  LOL

 

Will be on the Harmony in a few weeks for the 4th time- love it!

It may be too much if you ate full blown meals but I would like the option to come in a specialty restaurant for just espresso and dessert or to Sabor for chips and guac. I usually dine late at 7:45-8pm for my main dinner time so I have a lot of time through out the day. 

 

During port days if you have the unlimited package you don't have a "lunch" credit so if you eat at 3pm that would count towards your only "dinner" credit for later in the evening.  I usually come back from port early before 2pm.  Windjammer works but we paid for Unlimited and I would love the option to dine wherever we like.  The workers were awesome but management need to get their act together.

[thrifty99]

It is unfortunate there is no consistency. We had UDP on Harmony in September and ate at multiple restaurants a couple of nights with no problem. 
 

How difficult is it to teach your restaurant managers something as simple as this?  Too difficult for RC it seems. 

[Ourusualbeach]

46 minutes ago, thrifty99 said:

It is unfortunate there is no consistency. We had UDP on Harmony in September and ate at multiple restaurants a couple of nights with no problem. 
 

How difficult is it to teach your restaurant managers something as simple as this?  Too difficult for RC it seems. 

The managers are simply following the direction of the Hotel Director . A new HD came on board after your cruise and changed policies. 

Edited November 11, 2019 by Ourusualbeach

[Clarea]

45 minutes ago, thrifty99 said:

 ...
 

How difficult is it to teach your restaurant managers something as simple as this?  Too difficult for RC it seems. 

 

Not difficult at all if the company is willing to live up to the terms under which the dining package was sold, but as we've seen many times, this is the way RC works. 

[seabeew]

Dcun201, 

 

if you contact Michael Bayley’s office, would you mind providing a summary of the conversation? I’m not interested in information about any compensation, but just their response. I also felt they were not living up to terms and conditions on my sailing. 

[budmeister]

Watching for an update on this one.  I have UDP booked for the first time on Harmony in Jan. I hope it is cleared up by then!

[seabeew]

3 hours ago, budmeister said:

Watching for an update on this one.  I have UDP booked for the first time on Harmony in Jan. I hope it is cleared up by then!

The hotel directors probably will charge around that date so you may be in luck! I hope it gets resolved before that!