When did Free at Sea downgrade to 2 Specialty Dinners instead of 3?

[KeithJenner]

42 minutes ago, jumbojem96 said:

Can you purchase the new extra dinners deal on the app, or is it on board only?

When the discounted additional meals were introduced earlier this year, they were only available on reservations booked after a specific date. I assume that is still the case, so if you can't see the upgrade my guess would be that your cruise was booked before that date.

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, jumbojem96 said:

Can you purchase the new extra dinners deal on the app, or is it on board only?

Bought it on my PC for the most recent booking that we had that only offered a single meal as part of the FAS promo.  If it's under the 120 day mark regarding reservations, don't fret, you can get reservations on board but make sure you do it as soon as you board.

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

When the discounted additional meals were introduced earlier this year, they were only available on reservations booked after a specific date. I assume that is still the case, so if you can't see the upgrade my guess would be that your cruise was booked before that date.

I believe that the upgrade is only offered to those that have the reduced number of dinners included with their FAS.  We have a B2B booked on the Prima, with the first week we had two dinners included and the second week we only had one.  We were offered the promo for the second week.  The reason we had two for the first week was because it was from a group booking with my TA.  

[BatchawanaBabe]

On 10/2/2022 at 1:22 AM, BirdTravels said:

We booked our 21 day cruise in January 2021 and got 5 specialty dining meals back then in a balcony!  Happy because we have a lot of sea days.  Just booked a 9 day cruise and got 2 meals but since there are only 2 days at sea, it's fine.

Add-ons

1 x Shore Excursion Discount
2 x 5 Meal Speciality Dining Package
1 x Internet Package (500 Minutes) on 14 + sailings

 

[pacruise804]

On 10/2/2022 at 11:03 AM, BirdTravels said:

What you get is still free. I'll take free on NCL versus... well... nothing on Royal (where we are Diamond members). 

 

snip

 

Not exactly in context, and you probably know this, but Royal does have a Diamond lounge with food for Diamond members at no cost.

 

(I'm truly just trying to help in case you weren't aware.  I saw it on a YouTube review and wasn't aware - but also not Diamond yet).

[nferr]

5 minutes ago, pacruise804 said:

 

Not exactly in context, and you probably know this, but Royal does have a Diamond lounge with food for Diamond members at no cost.

 

(I'm truly just trying to help in case you weren't aware.  I saw it on a YouTube review and wasn't aware - but also not Diamond yet).

 

You also get four free drinks a day as a Diamond member which is a pretty big perk. And anyone can bring two bottles of wine onboard with RCL. So as a solo cruiser that allows me to skip purchasing the expensive drink package. The Diamond lounge is really only snacks btw. It does have a nice cappuccino/espresso machine though open all day.

[pacruise804]

Thanks @nferr

 

Based on the videos I saw it is more appetizer type food, but I would be happy with it for a light breakfast or lunch (still a ways from Diamond).

 

4 drinks per day would be plenty for us too.

[nferr]

25 minutes ago, pacruise804 said:

Thanks @nferr

 

Based on the videos I saw it is more appetizer type food, but I would be happy with it for a light breakfast or lunch (still a ways from Diamond).

 

4 drinks per day would be plenty for us too.

  

I might buy a beer or two daily and save the four free ones for "fancy" drinks lol. Two bottles of wine for a seven day cruise will help too 😅. Especially solo. I'll probably use the Diamond lounge mainly for the cappuccinos..this cruise upcoming is my first one as Diamond. 

[pc_load_letter]

I have to admit, I am amused. After our last dozen or so cruises on Carnival out of Long Beach, I mentioned to my wife that I would like to try NCL out of LBC. We've sailed NCL several times and it's always been a great cruise.

 

Hilarious though that the exact same arguments are happening here on the NCL boards as are going on over at CCL. Oh well, guess every line is cutting back and people will surely argue about it.

 

Although I am bummed there is no Moderno Churrascaria on Bliss. Meh, plenty of other options.

[mikebisch]

I don't know, every time I compare like to like out of the same port, NCL with FAS is usually the same as others with out a drink package.  My latest booking was between the Joy or RCL out of NY departing Feb 18/19...

 

8 day NCL Joy. 5 passengers with FAS, one inside one ocean view $5475

 

7 day RCL. Best I could come up with for for same type cabins and one less day, no FAS and no drink package. $5614.

[nferr]

19 hours ago, mikebisch said:

I don't know, every time I compare like to like out of the same port, NCL with FAS is usually the same as others with out a drink package.  My latest booking was between the Joy or RCL out of NY departing Feb 18/19...

 

8 day NCL Joy. 5 passengers with FAS, one inside one ocean view $5475

 

7 day RCL. Best I could come up with for for same type cabins and one less day, no FAS and no drink package. $5614.

 

Wow. I have a 7 nights on Anthem out of NY next month. Solo balcony $775 all in. No drink package but 4 free drinks a day since I'm Diamond.

 

Next October, 7 nights on the Oasis out of NY two people (yes inside room) $980 with $175 on board credit. I'll bid on Royal Up for a balcony. My experience has been pretty good with that for a couple hundred dollars total. 

 

You just have to really pick your spots for cruise deals and i know that can be difficult if you're limited to certain cruising dates.

[mikebisch]

8 hours ago, nferr said:

 

Wow. I have a 7 nights on Anthem out of NY next month. Solo balcony $775 all in. No drink package but 4 free drinks a day since I'm Diamond.

 

Next October, 7 nights on the Oasis out of NY two people (yes inside room) $980 with $175 on board credit. I'll bid on Royal Up for a balcony. My experience has been pretty good with that for a couple hundred dollars total. 

 

You just have to really pick your spots for cruise deals and i know that can be difficult if you're limited to certain cruising dates.

Limited cruising dates.  Kids have the week off.  The travel industry seems to know this.  They seem to almost double pricing when school is out.

[nferr]

15 hours ago, mikebisch said:

Limited cruising dates.  Kids have the week off.  The travel industry seems to know this.  They seem to almost double pricing when school is out.

 Yup. Always.  We would pull ours out of a school for a week sometimes. Teachers would give them work to do. Same if we went to Disney for a week.  Much lower cost and far less crowds.

Edited October 6, 2022 by nferr

[weltek]

This is the one big change that I've been okay with because they obviously couldn't handle specialty restaurant capacity when most guests had 3-5 nights of specialty dining. There just weren't enough reservations available, period. Remember all the people complaining about not being able to get a reservation?

Hoping this recent change has made it more manageable.

[DaCruiseBug]

On 10/6/2022 at 2:47 PM, weltek said:

This is the one big change that I've been okay with because they obviously couldn't handle specialty restaurant capacity when most guests had 3-5 nights of specialty dining. There just weren't enough reservations available, period. Remember all the people complaining about not being able to get a reservation?

Hoping this recent change has made it more manageable.

 

Ok so the cruiseline can't handle the volume of customers going to specialty restaurants so instead of adding staff, space, or an additional restaurant...let's just cut down how many times they can go by as much as 80%. Put it all on the customer right? 🤔

[BirdTravels]

On 10/4/2022 at 2:28 PM, pacruise804 said:

 

Not exactly in context, and you probably know this, but Royal does have a Diamond lounge with food for Diamond members at no cost.

Royal Caribbean Diamond Benefit: "Dinner Buffet" in the Diamond Club (August 2022). We never bother with the Diamond Lounge because there is a lot better food just about everywhere else on the ship, at no cost. I would take my two NCL specialty dining dinners over dried out meatballs any day. 

 

 

NCL Diamond Benefit:

 

Edited October 8, 2022 by BirdTravels

[CruizinSusan70]

9 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Royal Caribbean Diamond Benefit: "Dinner Buffet" in the Diamond Club (August 2022). We never bother with the Diamond Lounge because there is a lot better food just about everywhere else on the ship, at no cost. I would take my two NCL specialty dining dinners over dried out meatballs any day. 

 

 

NCL Diamond Benefit:

 

But with RCI once you reach Diamond, you start getting free drinks with an extra per day at Diamond Plus and two extra at Pinnacle.  That's the best perk on any of the cruise lines and a major reason that the frequent RCI cruiser doesn't care about their Dynamic Pricing policy regarding buying a drink package.