$291 for Unlimited Dining Package - Too Expensive?

[ARandomTraveler]

12 hours ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

cancel if you want, but i know of many people who bought the UDP, and then individually bought restaurants for every lunch and dinner. then once on board, they just asked to keep the dining times for the UDP, and canceled the individual books. They got all of their money back as refundable on board credit. It's extra work, and a lot of money to lay out twice, but they got their reservations. 

 

I've done this. Just for one restaurant though, not all of them. 

[Sigyn]

On 2/22/2023 at 2:08 PM, cruisetorelax44 said:

cancel if you want, but i know of many people who bought the UDP, and then individually bought restaurants for every lunch and dinner. then once on board, they just asked to keep the dining times for the UDP, and canceled the individual books. They got all of their money back as refundable on board credit. It's extra work, and a lot of money to lay out twice, but they got their reservations. 

 

Are there gratuities due for housekeeping, etc, that you can use the OBC toward? 

[George C]

Ours for harmony was 533 including tip for 2 on November cruise, we are in a suite but don’t care for dinner in costal kitchen.

[Liljo22]

34 minutes ago, njsmom said:

Are there gratuities due for housekeeping, etc, that you can use the OBC toward? 

Yes, refundable OBC is able to be used for gratuities.  

[Biker19]

12 minutes ago, Liljo22 said:

Yes, any OBC can be used for gratuities.  

Fixed.

[resetjet]

a ton of new restaurants on that ship, thus the higher price.  More Al La Carte places that you could use your UDP.

[happy cruzer]

Thanks for posting; it reminded me to look at the pricing for my sailing.  The UDP was 225 plus grats which I booked and will watch for price drops.

 

291 plus grats is a bit much but you are going a new a ship so that might be the going price...

 

 

[HelloKittyNYC]

We're on the Harmony of the Seas early January 2024. I bought the UDP for our 7 Night Cruise early April 2023 as it was 50% off. I checked back a couple days later and the RC website said and still says the UDP is Sold Out. Our price was $266 per person and this included the 18% gratuity. I highly suggest that anyone who wants the UDP for their upcoming cruise and sees a good sale price to buy it ASAP. Then watch for the Black Friday Cyber Monday Sales and see if you can get it for a bigger discount if still available. Good luck! 

[mramella]

2 hours ago, HelloKittyNYC said:

I highly suggest that anyone who wants the UDP for their upcoming cruise and sees a good sale price to buy it ASAP. Then watch for the Black Friday Cyber Monday Sales and see if you can get it for a bigger discount if still available. Good luck! 

 

Yep, that's what I ended up doing 🙂. I bought the UDP a couple of weeks ago when the price was 50% off, which was slightly lower than the $290 price. Also purchased the DBP. I will continue to monitor the prices. 

 

I wasn't going to buy it, however, I saw the 4x points offer for the RCCL credit card for all RCCL purchases during the month of April. I'm also getting the 25k points for opening the card (no annual fee). I also put the remaining balance of my cruise on the card a couple of weeks ago (getting 4x points on that, too). So, I'll have over $500 in ship board credit by opening and using the card 🙂.

 

I normally never open a new card, and always use my cash back Bank of America card, however, when I ran the numbers, I calculated that I would come out $400 ahead by using the RCCL as opposed to my BoA cash back card. Math: 1% cash back on $10,000 is $100. $10k is my total cost for 2 rooms plus UDP and DBP. Yikes! That's an expensive trip! And that does not even include flights yet! Good times! LOL! I'm planning to use the $500 OBC for gratuities which will be over $400.

 

Thanks!