Unlimited dining package question

[later]

57 minutes ago, jimd909 said:

If you buy the unlimited dining package are you able to order food and have it delivered to your stateroom on RCCL?

No

[dswallow]

9 minutes ago, jimd909 said:

Is Johnny Rockets Express included with the unlimited dining?  I see they give you a $35 credit for a la carte restaurants.

 

It is included.

 

What Restaurants are Included in The Unlimited Dining Package? | Royal Caribbean Cruises

[dream2cruise]

Slight change of topic but still related.  I have been curious about the UDP for smaller ships like Enchantment of the Seas.  With Chops as the only pay "restaurant" option, what else does one get extra for an upcharge of $192 per person on an 8-night cruise?  I enjoy Chops, but I doubt I would want to go there for every meal.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, jimd909 said:

If you buy the unlimited dining package are you able to order food and have it delivered to your stateroom on RCCL?

No.  You must dine in the restaurant 

[dswallow]

5 minutes ago, dream2cruise said:

Slight change of topic but still related.  I have been curious about the UDP for smaller ships like Enchantment of the Seas.  With Chops as the only pay "restaurant" option, what else does one get extra for an upcharge of $192 per person on an 8-night cruise?  I enjoy Chops, but I doubt I would want to go there for every meal.

 

8 nights plus a lot of lunches at Chops. That's it. 🙂

 

That said, I'll probably be eating at Chops most every night for 7 nights on Adventure, because I despise Giovanni's and dislike Sushi/Fish/Seafood/Weeds. Though I will lunch at Johnny Rockets. And will likely to the main dining room once or twice. I chose that simply to have a quick alternative if I don't care for whatever they do in the main dining room since I'll be on the first 3 sailings out of Nassau.

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by dswallow

[Ourusualbeach]

4 minutes ago, dream2cruise said:

Slight change of topic but still related.  I have been curious about the UDP for smaller ships like Enchantment of the Seas.  With Chops as the only pay "restaurant" option, what else does one get extra for an upcharge of $192 per person on an 8-night cruise?  I enjoy Chops, but I doubt I would want to go there for every meal.

That’s all you get, nothing else. 

[dream2cruise]

13 minutes ago, dswallow said:

 

8 nights plus a lot of lunches at Chops. That's it. 🙂

 

That said, I'll probably be eating at Chops most every night for 7 nights on Adventure, because I despise Giovanni's and dislike Sushi/Fish/Seafood/Weeds. Though I will lunch at Johnny Rockets. And will likely to the main dining room once or twice. I chose that simply to have a quick alternative if I don't care for whatever they do in the main dining room since I'll be on the first 3 sailings out of Nassau.

 

Best wishes to you on your upcoming cruise.  It remains to be seen if the CDC will even allow the 8-night cruise I have booked for December 2021.  If it happens, great.  If not, I hope I have an answer before final payment is due in September.  🙂 

[RFerrington]

2 hours ago, jimd909 said:

If you buy the unlimited dining package are you able to order food and have it delivered to your stateroom on RCCL?

No. No room service from specialty restaurants unless you are Star Class.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, dream2cruise said:

Best wishes to you on your upcoming cruise.  It remains to be seen if the CDC will even allow the 8-night cruise I have booked for December 2021.  If it happens, great.  If not, I hope I have an answer before final payment is due in September.  🙂 

The restriction on sailings greater than 7 days ends Nov. 1, 2021

[dream2cruise]

12 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The restriction on sailings greater than 7 days ends Nov. 1, 2021

Fingers crossed that Nov. 1st remains the end for that restriction.  I am praying that all goes well for 7 day or shorter cruises in Aug., Sept. & Oct.  Maybe the CDC will be able to pull back on the restrictions once the cruise lines prove they can handle the restart with few, if any, people taking ill.

[seabeew]

15 hours ago, dream2cruise said:

Slight change of topic but still related.  I have been curious about the UDP for smaller ships like Enchantment of the Seas.  With Chops as the only pay "restaurant" option, what else does one get extra for an upcharge of $192 per person on an 8-night cruise?  I enjoy Chops, but I doubt I would want to go there for every meal.

I purchased the ultimate dining package for a six-day cruise on the Empress, which only had Chops. I had no problem eating there every night because the Chops menu included a variety of appetizers, soups, and salad. Entrees included filet, strip steak, ribeyes, salmon, half a roasted chicken, a grilled shrimp dish, lamb chops, and grilled lobster as an upcharge.

 

Now I’m hungry!

[killsport]

Thanks again for the feedback, everyone. I decided to purchase ($168/pp for the week). It will be fun, and hopefully I can restrain myself 😆

[RFerrington]

2 minutes ago, killsport said:

Thanks again for the feedback, everyone. I decided to purchase ($168/pp for the week). It will be fun, and hopefully I can restrain myself 😆

I think you've made the right decision.  That's a good price, too.

[denamo]

On 5/1/2021 at 12:46 PM, dswallow said:

No, Unlimited truly is Unlimited. During the transition from the "Ultimate Dining Package" there was a lot of confusion aboard ships about it. That should not happen anymore. There's limitations in places that provide a credit value towards a la carte pricing, for instance like Izumi. But even there if you came back a second time and they were able to seat you, that limit restarts. If you buy dining for a specific night/number of nights, the flat fee includes a single entrée and as many appetizers and desserts as you want, but if you wanted a second entrée there'd be a charge. That is not the case with the Unlimited Dining Package. There also are items at upcharges which would apply even to Unlimited Dining Package.

 

Now all that said, it's a nice concept in principle, but you just are not going to have room for more food. And even if you really, really push yourself, by the time you're a few nights in, you are not going to be well. 🙂

 

 

Wanting to make sure I understand.  On the Symphony, there is  Portside BBQ and Playmakers that have a $20 food limit within the UDP   If we wanted to go more than one time throughout our cruise to either of these restaurants, the monetary limit would restart each time? 

[George C]

1 hour ago, seabeew said:

I purchased the ultimate dining package for a six-day cruise on the Empress, which only had Chops. I had no problem eating there every night because the Chops menu included a variety of appetizers, soups, and salad. Entrees included filet, strip steak, ribeyes, salmon, half a roasted chicken, a grilled shrimp dish, lamb chops, and grilled lobster as an upcharge.

 

Now I’m hungry!

I agree Chops has lots of options for lunch and dinner, but I am glad we will be sailing on Allure , I typically just get the 5 night package but bought the UDP for this 8 night cruise, also can eat in CK.

 

[Ourusualbeach]

39 minutes ago, denamo said:

Wanting to make sure I understand.  On the Symphony, there is  Portside BBQ and Playmakers that have a $20 food limit within the UDP   If we wanted to go more than one time throughout our cruise to either of these restaurants, the monetary limit would restart each time? 

Yes it’s either a per day or per visit limit. 
 

Symphony does not have Portside BBQ, just Playmakers.

 

Oasis has Portside BBQ and Playmakers. 

[dswallow]

40 minutes ago, denamo said:

Wanting to make sure I understand.  On the Symphony, there is  Portside BBQ and Playmakers that have a $20 food limit within the UDP   If we wanted to go more than one time throughout our cruise to either of these restaurants, the monetary limit would restart each time? 

 

The food credit limits are per meal, most certainly not per-cruise. 🙂

[CruiserRob]

Is a specialty restaurant open on embarcation day?  Is this included in the UPD since technically it is a port day?

[RFerrington]

30 minutes ago, CruiserRob said:

Is a specialty restaurant open on embarcation day?  Is this included in the UPD since technically it is a port day?

Pre-COVID there was at least one specialty restaurant open on embarkation day (depending upon the ship/class) and lunch was included in the UDP.  Whether boarding will occur early enough to include a specialty lunch after cruising resumes is yet to be determined. Lunch generally goes until 2PM and there are rumors that boarding may not even begin until mid-to-late afternoon when cruising resumes.  We won’t know until we know.

[CruiserRob]

1 minute ago, RFerrington said:

Pre-COVID there was at least one specialty restaurant open on embarkation day (depending upon the ship/class) and lunch was included in the UDP.  Whether boarding will occur early enough to include a specialty lunch after cruising resumes is yet to be determined. Lunch generally goes until 2PM and there are rumors that boarding may not even begin until mid-to-late afternoon when cruising resumes.  We won’t know until we know.

I'm on the Allure but not until next May.  I'm hoping that things will be back to pre-Covid normal by then.

[dswallow]

1 minute ago, RFerrington said:

Pre-COVID there was at least one specialty restaurant open on embarkation day (depending upon the ship/class) and lunch was included in the UDP.  Whether boarding will occur early enough to include a specialty lunch after cruising resumes is yet to be determined. Lunch generally goes until 2PM and there are rumors that boarding may not even begin until mid-to-late afternoon when cruising resumes.  We won’t know until we know.

 

When The Key is offered, it usually is inclusive of a lunch at Chops (or more likely situated in the dining room, but with the menu from Chops because of the size of the group), which also is usually then open for those with the Unlimited Dining Package. Further there is often a lunch for those who are doing back-to-back from the prior sailing that usually shares the space with its own menu, too.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, George C said:

I agree Chops has lots of options for lunch and dinner, but I am glad we will be sailing on Allure , I typically just get the 5 night package but bought the UDP for this 8 night cruise, also can eat in CK.

 

Royal has done away with the 5 night package except for some longer cruises.

[RFerrington]

The Key definitely caused some re-calculations for embarkation lunches.  On our last Oasis cruise, they decided to close Chops altogether on embarkation day.  Presumably this was due to a shortfall of staff to adequately service both the “public” Chops lunch and the Key folks who were dining in the MDR.  The last time we were on Anthem, they had both Chops and Jamie’s open for embarkation b/c Chops was slam packed with Key lunchers (this was before they started serving the Key folks in the MDR); they were not allowing UDP-holders to eat in Chops at all.  If you wanted embarkation lunch using the UDP it was Jamie’s or nothing.  What was really strange was that we were B2B on Anthem that trip.  The first embarkation day they let us eat in Chops but the turnaround day they made us go to Jamie’s.  Go figure. It was fine though. We never went hungry !

[George C]

7 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Royal has done away with the 5 night package except for some longer cruises.

I once bought the 5 night then While on the cruise bought a three night.

Edited May 2, 2021 by George C

[denamo]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Yes it’s either a per day or per visit limit. 
 

Symphony does not have Portside BBQ, just Playmakers.

 

Oasis has Portside BBQ and Playmakers. 

Oops...We were to have gone on the Oasis in April of 2020 as the pandemic began.  Blended the Oasis and Symphony together.  I was thinking both ships had Portside BBQ.  Thanks for letting me know.