UDP- How easy are reservations to get once on board?

[Buckeyes Rock]

I am considering the UDP but concerned that only the first night is reserved and then you have to  reserve all of the other dining times once on board (at least that is how I am reading the rules). How successful have people been with getting a reservation for all nights at the various dining venues? We will be on an 8 night cruise on the Vision so also limited specialty venues.

Thank you!

[taglovestocruise]

We have had the UDP on a 14 night cruise. We eat late and have never had a problem getting the reservation times we need. Board early and go straight to the reservations. Only problem on Vision and all smaller ships is there is only a few venues for dining. For us on a small ship we would go with a three or five night plan. 

Edited September 10 by taglovestocruise

[PhillyFan33579]

I have never had on issue making reservations with the UDP, to include Utopia last week and Wonder this week. From my experience the key is to get on the ship as early as possible and head right to a speciality restaurant as soon as you board the ship. You can make reservations for every restaurant at any specialty restaurant. 

[Tree_skier]

I've not had a problem getting the times I want.  I generally board early and make that my first stop once on the ship.  I will usually have a printed out list of my preferences and just hand it over to the host at the podium and tell him to give me whatever he can that is close.  The only thing ive had to be really flexible with has been hibachi... What ship are you on?

[artvlay]

4 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

I've not had a problem getting the times I want.  I generally board early and make that my first stop once on the ship.  I will usually have a printed out list of my preferences and just hand it over to the host at the podium and tell him to give me whatever he can that is close.  The only thing ive had to be really flexible with has been hibachi... What ship are you on?

Going to be on Odyssey 

[Tree_skier]

7 minutes ago, artvlay said:

Going to be on Odyssey 

 

I had great success getting everything I wanted when on Odyssey...

[artvlay]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

 

I had great success getting everything I wanted when on Odyssey...

Thank you. Which restaurant was less crowded  to do all the reservations? 

[taglovestocruise]

2 minutes ago, artvlay said:

Thank you. Which restaurant was less crowded  to do all the reservations? 

We have always found Wonderland or Izumi to have no lines.,

[ARandomTraveler]

Get on the ship at 11:30am or earlier and make that the first thing you do and you'll be fine. You might have to be flexible with your dining times, but everything (except hibachi) will have availability. 
 

The other thing you can do, if you don't get a restaurant you want, is to throughout the cruise and check for cancellations. The one thing that sucks about having to make all your reservations on the first day is that you really don't know what you'll feel like eating on any given day, or at what time you'll be hungry, so there's always people who decide they don't want to go to their reservation. 

[Roybthered]

Make yourself a list of each day and what restaurant /time you would like to eat and when you go to book ask them to book what they can for you at those times, you will need to be a bit flexible. We have mostly had the places and time we wanted.

[Cruise a holic]

We have had on many cruises without an issue.  We do dine 5:30 or 6:00 and the later you dine, the harder it seems to make a reservation.  As soon as you board, go to any restaurant- or if you are concierge or suite class, go to your concierge person.  We sometimes had to adjust and substitute restaurants- but always got all.  Enjoy your cruise

[SAT Spurs]

Only used UPD 1 time, but absolutely not an issue, got everything we wanted for 7-7:30 pm, and some lunches too.  There was also availability later in the cruise, because we went back to Jaime's twice.  We got on the ship about 11-11:30 and went first thing to make the reservations.  Everything was available.

[danoconnl]

We had udp on odyssey, boarded pretty much as early as possible.  Had a sheet with our preferred places/times(all roughly 6:30).  Had to move Wonderland to a different date since it was being used for a private event the night we picked, but other than that we got every night we wanted.  We switched from Giovannis to chops on day 2 or 3 of our cruise and we got like 8:15 using the app.  My experience on Wonder when we decided we wanted to try Mason Jar for dinner was to go to the place itself and make a change, we did that and they got us in when the app showed no availability. 

 

The one that is hard now is the Hibachi since, at least on Wonder, they only accept reservation for it at the place.  We made ours in 2022 at Chops on Odyssey.

 

As long as you board relatively early and are a little flexible, you should have no problem.

 

Dan

[Tree_skier]

11 hours ago, artvlay said:

Thank you. Which restaurant was less crowded  to do all the reservations? 

We did everything at Giovanni's and then had lunch there as well.

[Buckeyes Rock]

Thank you for your replies. This gives me confidence that we will be able to make it work. We are sailing on the Vision which has more limited specialty options. I am also sailing with my adult daughter and her family so we may end up splitting up for some of the dining. Having a printed sheet of what we want to provide the person doing the reservations is. A really great idea!