How many days dining package to buy for a 16night cruise?

[fstuff1]

16night panama canal on the Joy, going solo in a sail away cabin (no perks).

 

I have $200 obc from the casino.

best bang for the buck is the 6meal dining package at $139 + 20% tip = $167.

 

i'm also Platinum so i will have 2 free diners.

(Since there's no Moderno or La Cuchina on the Joy, what are the substitutes?)

so 6+2 = 8 speciality meals.

 

And that would leave me $33 obc left over that i could apply whatever little things might come up during the cruise.

 

if i want to use up all the obc, then 9sdp = $169 + 20% = $203.

9+2 = 11 meals

 

With $200 obc and traveling solo, how many days sdp package would you buy for a 16day cruise?
Why?

 

Edited February 11, 2020 by fstuff1

[TPgal]

Setting your OBC math aside personally, I would book enough SDP to cover the sea days, and the last night on the ship.   I like to have a reason to be somewhere on sea days and like to cap off the cruise with a 'special' dinner on the last night.  

 

You might consider the night of the canal transit as well.  Once the sun goes down there isn't much to see and people will have been "busy" all day getting their moment at the windows/on deck, so having a place to land for dinner where you don't have to elbow others might be nice.

 

It sounds like a wonderful adventure, have fun.

[jdc987]

We had 5 meals for 16 day trip and it was plenty. 7 + 2 seems like alot, but the paid dining venues seem nicer to me.

[insidecabin]

Check what  there will be open for lunch sea days. 

 

I prefer food Republic as a lunch option. 

[fstuff1]

3 hours ago, insidecabin said:

Check what  there will be open for lunch sea days. 

 

I prefer food Republic as a lunch option. 

 

woah.. Food Republic prices are reasonable?! (did Del Rio forget he had this restaurant thus missed raising prices for it?)

 

i could buy the 6 meal package and with the $33 left over obc, eat lunch twice at Food Republic.

[DarkJedi]

8 hours ago, TPgal said:

Setting your OBC math aside personally, I would book enough SDP to cover the sea days, and the last night on the ship.   I like to have a reason to be somewhere on sea days and like to cap off the cruise with a 'special' dinner on the last night.  

 

You might consider the night of the canal transit as well.  Once the sun goes down there isn't much to see and people will have been "busy" all day getting their moment at the windows/on deck, so having a place to land for dinner where you don't have to elbow others might be nice.

 

It sounds like a wonderful adventure, have fun.

Same plan we use for determining our meal plans.

When on board we eat almost exclusively by the ding plan or the buffet. And on sea days that means a LOT of grazing if there aren't set meal plans for us. OK, for me, DW isn't such an issue.

[insidecabin]

7 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

woah.. Food Republic prices are reasonable?! (did Del Rio forget he had this restaurant thus missed raising prices for it?)

 

i could buy the 6 meal package and with the $33 left over obc, eat lunch twice at Food Republic.

 

Got extra 6 dinner package on 9n Encore TA worked out at $26 per meal including tip.(bought in UK as a special we had 6 from free at sea and platinum)

Used 1 for Q evening, rest lunch, one for American Diner and 4 food republic

 

At Food republic you get 4 items with the package and there is the 20% tip on top.

pick 4 items over $5.50 and I was up with a package.

4 items is a lot of lunch I did struggle a couple of times as I went on my own you can hit $50 bill inc tip  with 4 items.

 

You going from SDP6 to SDP9 is ($203-$167) $36 that's $12 per lunch or $2.50 per item cheapest is $5 most are over $10,  just one sushi roll you are up they are $12-$15

 

If you go with people they can share(that's the idea of the place)  if you can't eat it all.

 

IMO once over the 5 meal package might as well get more as it is only $10($12 with tip) a meal.

 

 

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by insidecabin

[megansdad1]

I would just buy the 9 and have 11 meals and use a few on lunch. 

[don't-use-real-name]

Since traveling SOLO consider the option of perhaps meeting another solo mate best if that person

also is Platinum so you can share your dinner vouchers increasing your meal count by 2.

 

You can purchase the meal plan for every night of the cruise NCL LINK:

 

https://www.ncl.com/onboard-packages/dining-packages

 

The JOY has some new name restaurants and the traditional Le Bistro and Cagney's.

You will have to read the readers reviews of these new name dining and plot a dining course (reservations)

with your meal plans.

My favorites I always hit twice - including O'Sheehan's and at least once in a MDR.

And then there is the Buffet as an ole standby when all else sparks no interest. Snack and Grab !  

[Robkat]

To the OP:

You said that there's no La Cucina on the Joy.  Not so ...

i was pretty sure that we had booked into La Cucina a couple of times for our upcoming Joy cruise, and when I read what you wrote, I got worried.

i checked our confirmation and sure enough, we've got LC bookings for 2 nights.

Since  no one has chimed with a correction, thought I'd mention it and it might help you plan your meals.

[Viajera7]

Yes, there is a La Cucina restaurant on the Joy. We had dinner there last Christmas and it was delicious. I    had the 3 day Dining Plan plus the 2 restaurants for being Platinum. I don't know if it was because of the holidays or because of the ship but we could reserve only  the Q and the Teppanyaki pre cruise but it was difficult to reserve the 3 remaining restaurants on board. The restaurants were sold out. We decided to show up and ask if they had a table available. For Cagneys, we  ate at the Waterfront which is not our choice but that was the only way we got it and it is our favorite restaurant.  We are going on the Joy again for a 15 days  Panama Canal cruise in the fall. This time we have a 5 day Dining Package plus 2 Platinum =7 restaurants and we plan to eat at the 2 restaurants that we didn't cover in December. We are going to reserve restautants as soon as we can.       

[Bocadude85]

On our upcoming 14 night Jewel cruise we have 13 of the 14 nights booked in a specialty restaurant. We just think the food and service is so much better in the specialty restaurants.