How to make dining reservations once I have purchased a Royal Caribbean Dining Package

[janets]

I have purchased Ultimate Dining Package for 5 rooms (family of 10 sailing together). I am unable to make a reservation for the 1st night and cannot get any assistance for RCCL support. I know I cannot make more than one - I just want to make one for the 1st night. Appreciate any help

[Psycho and Barb]

As far as we know you can't but you can as soon as you get onboard.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Psycho and Barb

[Jasukkie]

Piggybacking on this...is there usually a specialty restaurant available on boarding day for lunch for UDP? If so, is it Chops or does it vary?

[BND]

3 minutes ago, Jasukkie said:

Piggybacking on this...is there usually a specialty restaurant available on boarding day for lunch for UDP? If so, is it Chops or does it vary?

Yes, one is usually open.  Depends on the ship and itinerary.  For example on EN, Chops is open for lunch on boarding day for our 8 and 12 night itineraries, but not our 6 night one.  It could be Chops, Giovanni's, Jamie's, etc.  You can tell by whatever shows up in your planner as open for lunch.  

[Jasukkie]

So the first day is to be determined, not a problem. Will the first night's dinner show up in the cruise planner at some point prior to boarding or not until you get onboard?

[BND]

Here's a thread where it's discussed:

 

[George C]

If your in a suite then concierge could do it, if not just go to any specialty restaurant as soon as you board and make the reservation. 

[megr1125]

You can't and while the app showed I had a reservation at 6 PM on day 1, in actuality, I did not. 

 

I had a hard time getting the times I wanted but I was often able to just pop in early as I was a solo diner and was able to be seated within a few minutes.  Royal needs to make advance reservations available for people buying the UDP. I will not buy it again although I got my money's worth since I got it on sale for around 175 for my 8 night cruise.  

[taglovestocruise]

3 hours ago, Jasukkie said:

So the first day is to be determined, not a problem. Will the first night's dinner show up in the cruise planner at some point prior to boarding or not until you get onboard?

99 times out of 100 there is no reservation made for night one, they ask about night one time only as a place holder with no pre reservation. 

[Jasukkie]

17 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

99 times out of 100 there is no reservation made for night one, they ask about night one time only as a place holder with no pre reservation. 

Good to know. Fortunately we have an early boarding time on this cruise, so hopefully we won't feel shut out. I can be completely flexible about times, but I'm really hoping for two nights each at Chops, Jamie's and Izumi, and one night at Wonderland. Does not matter what order.

[swoopy2110]

Wish they had a better way of doing this. Even if you could do it via the app once onboard would be fine.

[ginadcnj]

3 hours ago, swoopy2110 said:

Wish they had a better way of doing this. Even if you could do it via the app once onboard would be fine.

I believe you can do it via the app once onboard, and maybe even as soon as you connect to ship's Wifi. Someone in the thread referenced above said this, referring to a recent Allure cruise: "When I was in the cruise terminal waiting to board the ship I was able to connect to the ship’s WiFi and make all my trips dinner and sea day lunch reservations with no problem at all." 

 

My plan for our April Oasis cruise is to try that in the cruise terminal, and if it doesn't work for whatever reason head straight from embarkation to Giovanni's Table (or whatever restaurant is open on embarkation day) with our list of days/times/restaurants. Honestly, having just done a Disney/Universal trip back in August/September 2021, I'm expecting this process of booking dining and shows to be a lot less complicated and stressful than that one was!