[Symphony of the Seas] Ultimate Dining Plan TIPS & REVIEW

[romesauce]

My husband and I got off of the Symphony as we sailed the Eastern Caribbean on her for seven nights. We had purchased the UDP during their Black Friday sale. We planned on purchasing the plan regardless if we got the plan on sale or not. I just happened to see the price and purchased it then.
 

Cost: $152/person (this included gratuities)

What was included: Seven dinners at any specialty restaurant. Lunch on embarkation and sea days, which equaled out to four lunches. Total specialty meals: 11

 

Booking your meals: Our plan was to get onto the ship early and go directly to a restaurant to book our restaurants. We were on the ship around 11am and headed directly to 150 Central Park. There was only one person ahead of us and she was wrapping up her bookings. We did walk by Chops and Jamies and they had a decent line of people wanting to book their reservations. Booking reservations was super easy. Just come with a plan in mind with which restaurants you want to eat at every night and where you want to do lunch. I say this because I didn't come with a plan in mind as to where to eat every night but just with times so it lines up with the shows we had reservations for each night. The hostess just kept on saying okay which restaurant you want to eat at next and didn't offer suggestions. However, we did get reservations at the times we wanted at every restaurant we wanted to go to. We got 12:30pm lunch every sea day and 6pm dinners except for one night which was at 7pm.

TIP: I'd suggest going directly to Hooked on Deck 16 to do your bookings there. A lot of people don't know where this restaurant is or even know it exists yet. It's right above Solarium Bistro. There shouldn't be a line there. 150CP is also another great choice to do your bookings at.

 

Our meal schedule was the following:

Day 1 - Dec. 15	Day 2 - Dec. 16	Day 3 - Dec. 17	Day 4 - Dec. 18	Day 5 - Dec. 19	Day 6 - Dec. 20	Day 7 - Dec. 21
Miami	At Sea	At Sea	St. Maarten	San Juan	Labadee	At Sea
Lunch: Jamies 12:30pm	Lunch: Playmakers*	Lunch: Izumi 12pm				Lunch: Hooked 1230pm
150 central park 6pm	Chops 7pm	Hooked 6pm	Jamies 6pm	150 central park 6pm	Izumi 6pm	Chops 6pm

 

Why not Wonderland? We went on the Harmony in 2016. We experienced Wonderland on that ship and we decided that while we enjoyed the experience, the food, not so much. It was just okay for us. We understood that the Symphony has the Madhatter but we decided to just double up on other restaurants. HOWEVER, if you have not yet experienced Wonderland, you should not be deterred by my comment and you should at least experience it. Food is subjective. Just because we didn't like the food, doesn't mean you won't like it either.

 

*Playmakers: Be warned as we weren't. Playmakers is NOT included in the UDP. We thought since it's an a la carte place, we'd get the $35 dollars to use per person for lunch here. That was not the case. We were NOT told this when we mentioned to the hostess booking our reservations we wanted to do lunch at Playmakers on Sunday since it would be football Sunday. FYI, seating is super limited and gets crowded quickly. They also let people not paying for food or drinks just sit in the booths and watch whatever game is on. We came in for lunch and because there were no seats available in the main area, we sat at a booth in the arcade area. This booth did have the game we wanted to watch on the tv but no sound. We talked to the manager whom was awesome and asked if we could have audio for the game and he said he couldn't since the speakers in the arcade area is on a different system. We mentioned that we were charged for our food and we came here since we thought we would be covered with our UDP. He said that Royal considers Playmakers a "bar with food" and not a specialty restaurant and this is why it's not part of the UDP. He told us that this has happened quite a bit and there should be notice about it. He also refunded us the amount we were charged because of the confusion.

Why UDP? My husband and I LOVE going to specialty restaurants. We dined at Wonderland, Chops and Jamies on the Harmony and enjoyed it. We feel like the main dining on Royal was lacking on the Harmony. We decided to go with the plan this time around to try Izumi, Hooked and 150 CP along with going to Chops and Jamies. However, we also enjoy going to the buffet. We did feel like we were missing the buffet on a few days. We did go there for breakfast when we were at port. We also went there for lunch once. Honestly, we felt the buffet was lacking compared to Harmony. Breakfast had the same food every day. Same thing for lunch the one time we went. Again, this is subjective.

TIP: GET THE INDIAN FOOD. If you want authentic Indian food, get it at the buffet. My husband and I are both Indians, and we always tried their Indian options and yep, it's authentic. We had the chicken curry, dahl (lentils) at lunch and pao bhaji every breakfast we went to. All were delicious and authentic. This is probably because a lot of the cooks are Indian.

 

UDP vs booking restaurants separately: I think this is a no-brainer. We paid 152/person for the UDP. We got to experience all restaurants we wanted to. Here are the prices if booked separately: Chops Grille ($49), 150 CP ($49), Jamies Italian lunch ($25) dinner ($35), Hooked ($39), Playmakers (we spent $39 total for lunch), Izumi lunch (we spent $63 total), Izumi dinner (we spent $55 total). UDP total: $304 If we booked/paid a la cart separately: $747 (not including Hooked lunch as I can't remember what that cost was). If you want averages, the cost came out to be $13.81/meal or $21.71/night.

 

Was it worth it? YES! We believed it was totally worth it since we got to experience every restaurant we wanted to and we did not miss the main dining room at all. The only issue we felt was the slow service in a few restaurants. We felt like our time during the day was wasted a bit because of all the time we spent at these restaurants. Each dining experience took at least an hour with some being close to two due to the restaurant being busy or just slow service. The worst being Jamies lunch on embarkation day and the night we had Hooked for dinner. I say this because we were simply used to going to the buffet, eating our food and leaving. We'd be done within 30 to 40 minutes. Again, with some, the time spent in these restaurants won't be a big deal. It won't be a deterrent for us at all if we sail on RCCL again. We will most likely buy this plan again. Be warned though, you will be severely bloated, heart burn induced and sluggish at the end of your sailing but IT'S OH SO WORTH IT!

 

If you would like reviews of the food at the restaurants itself, I will provide them. I didn't in this initial post because food is highly subjective. There were some food items we did not enjoy but you may enjoy them. However, if you would like to know our thoughts on certain restaurants, I shall provide our opinions!

[LuCruise]

Great review.  Interesting hearing your experience and the UDP.  When you do the math it sure is worth it.

 

Silky question...can you book your reservations at Hooked if you are not planning on booking with them?  Sounds like a great secret of shorter lines but don't want to insult them (or for them to refuse to do any booking if not with them)

[romesauce]

8 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Great review.  Interesting hearing your experience and the UDP.  When you do the math it sure is worth it.

 

Silky question...can you book your reservations at Hooked if you are not planning on booking with them?  Sounds like a great secret of shorter lines but don't want to insult them (or for them to refuse to do any booking if not with them)

 

Of course. They might question why you're not dining there or try to convince you to eat there but you are not obligated at all to dine there nor can they refuse to book you at other restaurants. We were questioned why we didn't want to eat at Wonderland but not forced at all to book a reservation there.

[vacationlover_mn]

Thanks so much about the Playmakers info.  We had been wondering about that...

[LuCruise]

5 minutes ago, romesauce said:

 

Of course. They might question why you're not dining there or try to convince you to eat there but you are not obligated at all to dine there nor can they refuse to book you at other restaurants. We were questioned why we didn't want to eat at Wonderland but not forced at all to book a reservation there.

Great. Thank you.

Btw.. I know it's subjective but what was your favorite dinner?  We're debating what to book for BOGO

[romesauce]

10 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Great. Thank you.

Btw.. I know it's subjective but what was your favorite dinner?  We're debating what to book for BOGO

 

150CP! Both dinners we went to were phenomenal. It was our favorite restaurant the entire week. Not busy, quiet, phenomenal service and food. This restaurant also had our favorite dish of the week which was the fried cheesecake for dessert! Ah, I'm drooling just thinking about it now.

[lizzy911]

Did you use the 40% off bottles of wine? Is using that discount straightforward?

[taglovestocruise]

One small point. What is included in the package is a .. service charge.. not gratuities.  We were made aware of this while onboard Symphony.  A service charge is put into the pool for all crew who share,  Our server in Jamie's told us she gets a few dollars from the  service charge, any tips that are left are for her alone to keep.  We always leave a extra $10.00 on the final bill. 

[romesauce]

7 minutes ago, lizzy911 said:

Did you use the 40% off bottles of wine? Is using that discount straightforward?

 

Unfortunately we didn't. My husband doesn't drink, however I do but not much. We did have the Refreshment package which we took full advantage of.

[romesauce]

10 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

One small point. What is included in the package is a .. service charge.. not gratuities.  We were made aware of this while onboard Symphony.  A service charge is put into the pool for all crew who share,  Our server in Jamie's told us she gets a few dollars from the  service charge, any tips that are left are for her alone to keep.  We always leave a extra $10.00 on the final bill. 

 

Yep! Thank you for that point. I should have added that to my original post. We always tipped as well. 🙂

[taglovestocruise]

5 minutes ago, romesauce said:

 

Yep! Thank you for that point. I should have added that to my original post. We always tipped as well. 🙂

Merry Christmas, happy cruising

[larrbehr]

Thanks for the wonderful review.  We will be on the Symphony in January with the 3 dinner package.  We knew we wanted to do Hooked and Wonderland, but didn't know which one to chose for our third.  We decided on 150CP, thanks to your review.

[romesauce]

8 minutes ago, larrbehr said:

Thanks for the wonderful review.  We will be on the Symphony in January with the 3 dinner package.  We knew we wanted to do Hooked and Wonderland, but didn't know which one to chose for our third.  We decided on 150CP, thanks to your review.

 

No problem! Make sure to get the fried cheesecake! I also loved the tenderloin (it says it's for two but you can get it for one person). The bread at the beginning of the meal was amazing too!

[AUgirl]

1 hour ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Thanks so much about the Playmakers info.  We had been wondering about that...

We had been wondering too . . . great information and review . . . Thank You!!

[Lmm79]

1 hour ago, romesauce said:

 

Yep! Thank you for that point. I should have added that to my original post. We always tipped as well. 🙂

I have a question about this- we always tip extra as well in specialty restaurants but if the OP left her tips in place (which we do, and this is not a question about doing that) what happens to the portion of tips that are supposed to go to their servers at the MDR that they don’t use?  Does that also go into the tip pool for the specialty restaurants?  Or the CK servers if you have access to that location? 

[romesauce]

12 minutes ago, Lmm79 said:

I have a question about this- we always tip extra as well in specialty restaurants but if the OP left her tips in place (which we do, and this is not a question about doing that) what happens to the portion of tips that are supposed to go to their servers at the MDR that they don’t use?  Does that also go into the tip pool for the specialty restaurants?  Or the CK servers if you have access to that location? 

Sorry, I don't know the answer to this. 

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, Lmm79 said:

I have a question about this- we always tip extra as well in specialty restaurants but if the OP left her tips in place (which we do, and this is not a question about doing that) what happens to the portion of tips that are supposed to go to their servers at the MDR that they don’t use?  Does that also go into the tip pool for the specialty restaurants?  Or the CK servers if you have access to that location? 

 

Last time someone reported info on this, they said the dining room tips go to the Windjammer staff if you don't use the dining room at all during a cruise.

[Biker19]

12 minutes ago, Lmm79 said:

I have a question about this- we always tip extra as well in specialty restaurants but if the OP left her tips in place (which we do, and this is not a question about doing that) what happens to the portion of tips that are supposed to go to their servers at the MDR that they don’t use?  Does that also go into the tip pool for the specialty restaurants?  Or the CK servers if you have access to that location? 

All dining servants share is some pool, either the grats added to your account or the 18% grats added to a purchase - everyone gets paid.

[crusinthrough]

1 hour ago, taglovestocruise said:

One small point. What is included in the package is a .. service charge.. not gratuities.  We were made aware of this while onboard Symphony.  A service charge is put into the pool for all crew who share,  Our server in Jamie's told us she gets a few dollars from the  service charge, any tips that are left are for her alone to keep.  We always leave a extra $10.00 on the final bill. 

I know the crew works hard and most are very nice.  However, if you leave the daily gratuities on your account, pay the "service charge" when buying the UDP and leave extra gratuity when eating at a speciality restaurant, at what point are you over paying gratuities?  What is the break even point for the consumer?  

 

Very similar to the drink package.  When purchased 18% is added to the cost.  Then bar staff prints out receipts so a person can add an extra tip.  How many people give an 18% tip ($1.80 on $10) on every drink when ordering at a bar?

 

There is always the perception that the crew is short changed if individual gratuities are not given.  I'm just not convinced this is true. 

[Merion_Mom]

34 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

All dining servants share is some pool, either the grats added to your account or the 18% grats added to a purchase - everyone gets paid.

 

I am sure that you meant "servers".  😮

[tomservo]

3 hours ago, romesauce said:

If you would like reviews of the food at the restaurants itself, I will provide them. I didn't in this initial post because food is highly subjective. There were some food items we did not enjoy but you may enjoy them. However, if you would like to know our thoughts on certain restaurants, I shall provide our opinions!

 

I would be interested in reviews. Taste is subjective, but opinions and recommendations are always welcome!

[Ralphinsc]

I was going to ask 150CP or Chops but you covered it up above! Thanks for the UDP review! 

[Biker19]

10 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

I am sure that you meant "servers".  😮

Some may use the latter definition from merriam-webster:

 

Legal Definition of servant 

: a person who serves others: as

a : an individual who performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer

b : a person in the employ and subject to the direction or control of an individual or company

 

Some think of a server as a computer in the data center.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Biker19

[taglovestocruise]

15 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

I am sure that you meant "servers".  😮

10 - 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, 6 - 12 month contracts.  She may of used the word servant correctly. 

[molly361]

A friend that just boarded the Allure yesterday was told embarkation day lunch was not included. We had the package on the Oasis last week and it is allowed on there