Is the dining package worth it?

[Cruisingrampy]

Im on a 4 day cruise coming up on the navigator have a specialty lunch and dinner booked just wondering if the specialty package is worth it or if the included places are good enough? Its about $340 for the package for the 2 of us

[HaveWeMetYet]

There are two things to consider. The food will be better and the dining atmosphere will be slower paced.

At the specialty places you get an appetizer, then salad, then main entre and last, desert, if you want. So if you don't mind 2 hour dinner and lunches then that adds value to the package. If you intend to eat and run then the increase in quality does not offset the price increase.

If you are a wine drinker you do get the 40 percent off bottles of wine and there are some reasonably priced bottles considering you are on a cruise ship. So you could skip the beverage package and get the dining package and get a decent price reduction on wine. You can take the bottle back to your room or even to a bar to finish it. You can buy all the bottles you want. Knock one out for dinner and take a 2nd to the karaoke bar.

[Morecruisesplz]

1 hour ago, Cruisingrampy said:

Im on a 4 day cruise coming up on the navigator have a specialty lunch and dinner booked just wondering if the specialty package is worth it or if the included places are good enough? Its about $340 for the package for the 2 of us

No, imho.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Cruisingrampy said:

Im on a 4 day cruise coming up on the navigator have a specialty lunch and dinner booked just wondering if the specialty package is worth it or if the included places are good enough? Its about $340 for the package for the 2 of us

Nope. It is Royal’s ploy to get you to pay for something you already paid for in your cruise fare. 

[Seville2Cabo]

For  us it is well worth it. We love the food, atmosphere, and service in the specialties.  Never had a bad meal or bad service.

[clskinsfan]

Depends what "worth" means to you. Do you want a more laid back and quieter dining room than the main dining room? Than yes it is. If you are spending your money on better quality food? Than no from me. The MDR food is so close to SR food that it isnt worth it to us. But we still do one SR on every cruise for a date night. 

[ARandomTraveler]

$170 Per person for 4 days ends up costing $42.50/meal. That's not a good deal on any ship, but certainly not on Navigator, which only has 3 restaurants (I think). If it were me, I wouldn't buy it.

 

I got the dining package for $208 per person for 7 nights on the Symphony ($245 with the 18%, which I'm not sure if your $170 includes), which ends up being about $30/meal (or $35 with the 18%). 
 

Either way, whether mine is $30 or $35, it's still quite a bit cheaper than your $42.50, and I can pick from like 7 or 8 restaurants vs your 3. I think your dining deal is a bad one, personally. 

[Merion_Mom]

52 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

$170 Per person for 4 days ends up costing $42.50/meal. That's not a good deal on any ship, but certainly not on Navigator, which only has 3 restaurants (I think). If it were me, I wouldn't buy it.

 

I got the dining package for $208 per person for 7 nights on the Symphony ($245 with the 18%, which I'm not sure if your $170 includes), which ends up being about $30/meal (or $35 with the 18%). 
 

Either way, whether mine is $30 or $35, it's still quite a bit cheaper than your $42.50, and I can pick from like 7 or 8 restaurants vs your 3. I think your dining deal is a bad one, personally. 

 

I agree that at THAT price point, no way.  We did have the UDP on a 4 night cruise in May.  Our per person cost was $109.  And we had OBC to pay for a chunk of it.  THAT was worth it.

 

Navigator, @ARandomTraveler, has 4, plus Playmakers.  Chops, Izumi, Jamie's & Hooked.

[time4u2go]

9 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Nope. It is Royal’s ploy to get you to pay for something you already paid for in your cruise fare. 

Agreed. 

[RandomUser123]

Worth is a relative term. You are on vacation. MDR food is usually pretty good. But if you want to instead have every meal lunch and dinner in a specialty restaurant then go for it and get the package. If I bought it I would have all my lunches and dinners in the specialty restaurants to get my moneys worth. Have fun, you are on vacation. Plus another poster said if you like wine this can also be a great thing to use to save money on alcohol on the cruise. 

[Merion_Mom]

Here is one way to calculate "worth":

 

Take the total cost of your cruise that appears on your invoice.

 

Add the cost of the UDP to that total.

 

Now, just stare at that total.

 

Would you have been happy booking at that price?

 

If yes, it's "worth it".  

 

🙂 

[bruzin_for_a_cruizin]

We are just back from a 7-night cruise on Symphony. It was our first cruise with the UDP, and it was completely "worth it." I was able to secure the package for four of us during the Black Friday sale at 55% off; I wouldn't have paid full price for it. 

 

While I never really complained about the food in the MDR, it was always just "fine." Never really hot, but understandable when the galley is serving thousands of plated dishes during a service. The specialty restaurants each have their own galley, meaning food is prepared to order, and as such is hot and fresh. 

 

We particularly enjoyed the experience at Wonderland, which is something we would never have tried otherwise. Jamie's Italian was also quite good, and we ate there twice. I also used the UDP for wings, onion rings, fries and massive sundaes at Playmakers. The biggest disappointment was actually Chops, where my rib steak was clearly not of any quality grade.  

 

I'll definitely be buying the package for future cruises, and watching closely for the 55% off sale.

[Merion_Mom]

4 minutes ago, bruzin_for_a_cruizin said:

We are just back from a 7-night cruise on Symphony. It was our first cruise with the UDP, and it was completely "worth it." I was able to secure the package for four of us during the Black Friday sale at 55% off; I wouldn't have paid full price for it. 

 

While I never really complained about the food in the MDR, it was always just "fine." Never really hot, but understandable when the galley is serving thousands of plated dishes during a service. The specialty restaurants each have their own galley, meaning food is prepared to order, and as such is hot and fresh. 

 

We particularly enjoyed the experience at Wonderland, which is something we would never have tried otherwise. Jamie's Italian was also quite good, and we ate there twice. I also used the UDP for wings, onion rings, fries and massive sundaes at Playmakers. The biggest disappointment was actually Chops, where my rib steak was clearly not of any quality grade.  

 

I'll definitely be buying the package for future cruises, and watching closely for the 55% off sale.

 

I think that it's important to point out that you did not get a sale price of "55% off".  That 55% refers to the amount saved versus the full price on board of individual restaurants.  (and it's "up to 55" if you read the fine print)  It is not "55% off what the price of this package was before".

 

I just want to put that out there.  🙂 

[crewsweeper]

Depending on the ship, I would avoid the UDP for shorter cruises.  Longer cruises on Oasis type ships, definitively worth the $ and there are pre-cruise discounts available.

[rudeney]

14 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

Here is one way to calculate "worth":

 

Take the total cost of your cruise that appears on your invoice.

 

Add the cost of the UDP to that total.

 

Now, just stare at that total.

 

Would you have been happy booking at that price?

 

If yes, it's "worth it".  

 

🙂 

 

When planning every cruise, I have a spreadsheet I keep with all of our expenses.  I don't dare look at it until after I've had a few drinks.

[George C]

I love UDP but we paid 200 each for a 8 day cruise, 170 for a 4 day cruise is a ripoff.

[smokeybandit]

Lots of people don't think it's worth it.

 

But plenty of people do.  

 

 

 

 

[geneticsguy]

Specialty dining is definitely not worth it for first-time or early cruisers. I highly recommend getting a fixed diner time for dining and trying the MDR. You need to experience that traditional cruise ship experience first before making a judgement against.

 

Imo, specialty dining is more for seasoned cruise people who want to change things up a little, or go a little classier at a slower pace, but it is rarely ever worth the surcharge, imo.

[shepherdqueen]

We bought a 3 day dining package as this is our 5th sailing on the same Bahamas itinerary.  We've been to all the stops before so we are not planning on any shore excursions.  We do enjoy Wonderland, Izumi and Chops so it is our splurge.  With the 18% Gratuity included it averages $40pp for each meal.  We do enjoy the MDR experience so an UDP is not for us.

[RandomUser123]

58 minutes ago, shepherdqueen said:

We bought a 3 day dining package as this is our 5th sailing on the same Bahamas itinerary.  We've been to all the stops before so we are not planning on any shore excursions.  We do enjoy Wonderland, Izumi and Chops so it is our splurge.  With the 18% Gratuity included it averages $40pp for each meal.  We do enjoy the MDR experience so an UDP is not for us.

Cruise companies need to bring back the "cruise to nowhere". I would certainly do that. 

[Merion_Mom]

6 minutes ago, RandomUser123 said:

Cruise companies need to bring back the "cruise to nowhere". I would certainly do that. 

 

There are laws that prevent those.  (it involves the visas that would be required for the crew)

[Sea Dog]

We are getting the UDP on Symphony next week. I mainly wanted to get it to try all the restaurants on board. Some of these restaurants like CP150 are great and better than some land based restaurants that you would pay 2-3 times more. Worth it is subjective and I would never criticize anyone who wanted to buy it. It's a matter of personal choice. I like good food and good drinks. It's one of the reason why I cruise.

[Dreamcruiser2]

We are taking our first RCI cruise over Christmas.  We usually cruise with NCL but decided to try something different.  Initially, we did purchase a dining plan even though our ship only has three specialty options.  We cancelled it for two reasons:

1.  We wanted to use our dining plan on Christmas Eve and Christmas.  They don't accept the dining plan those nights at the steakhouse.  As a matter of fact, if you want to have dinner at that restaurant, it's an additional $99 per person on those two evenings.

2.  If you use the dining package, you can't make reservations for the specialty restaurants until you get on the ship.  We like to plan our meals based on excursions times so we don't want to have to fight for times and end up with 4:30 or 10:30.

It doesn't seem to be much of a benefit for us like it is with NCL.

[ggo85]

We usually buy the package.  We want a table for 2 and find that in the MDR we are always given an awful location.  We like the higher quality of food.  Also, the servers have fewer tables to cover so service is generally better.  
 

I do question the cost.  We are paying $204 pp for 6 nights.  Keep looking as prices could go down. 
 

I wouldn’t worry about lack of restaurant variety when it’s only 4 nights.  

[pattak619]

We got the UDP on our 11nt in January2023 for 250/pp (which includes the 18% grat),