Ultimate dining package/Oasis of the seas question

[aricczona]

I tried to search but was unable to find an answer to my question. I had OBC that covered the "Ultimate Dining" package. I have only had one Royal cruise to date, but enjoyed the specialty dining on Explorer of the seas. I purchased the Ultimate package so that I could sample all that Oasis has to offer. I have an idea of what I want to schedule, but realize I have to wait until I am on board. For those who have done this before, what was your success rate as to your choices for venue and dining times? Also, I know that scheduling on embarkation day gives an advantage. A second question is regarding the "sea day" lunches.Do they need to be schedules as well? I see that the terms state only from noon to 2 pm on sea days is covered, was worried I might not get in as a walk up. Is day one considered a "sea day"? I would be great if I could just go to schedule my nightly dining and stay for lunch.

[Ourusualbeach]

We haven't done the ultimate package but we have done the 4 or 5 night package our last 4 cruises. We have had no issues in making reservations for where we want and within half an hour of our preferred time. I would make all your reservations upon boarding as they do fill up.

[aricczona]

Thank you, I am an obsessive planner, and giving up my power to book in advance was a huge obstacle for me. However, the savings the plan offers was to good to pass up!

[Cruisegirl6]

We dine in the specialty restaurants every night of our cruises....we always paid full price so that we could make sure we are locked in our day and time dining at the restaurants of our choice. This past cruise on the Oasis, three weeks ago, we decided to pay for the ultimate dining package since it was a wonderful rate we would be crazy not to take. We were assigned to Izumi (we don't eat at these types of places, we don't eat raw fish and I have to stay away from sodium, foods served in this restaurant always contain high sodium)....we changed our first night from Izumi, which RC chose for us the first night and I have to honestly say, we got all our restaurants the time we wanted when we boarded the ship. We didn't care for Giovanni's, this was a first, but were able to change our restaurants and get our times we wanted days into our cruise....but we prefer to eat at 8pm so not sure if this is a more undesirable time for dinner but 8-8:30pm were always open, I am unfamiliar with the earlier times, but what I do know, when we board the ship and went to make our reservations they had earlier times.

[goodml]

We boarded Oasis yesterday. Our group of three couples had booked the UDP for all of us on one reservation and added the pax from the other 2 reservations so we’d be linked. We stopped at the desk on deck 5 as soon as we boarded and RCL’s wonderful IT system strikes again:'). Unfortunately all three couples were assigned different restaurants for the first night. They were wonderfully efficient on board though and got us our chosen time all together without issue. We booked the rest of the week at the same time. I think it may have helped to get on early though because she definitely jockeyed others around to make room. Obviously it would be people who haven’t discovered their first night assignment yet.

 

 

Our first dinner was in Chops. The food, service and the lovely restaurant were wonderful.