Dining prices in cruise planner

[CruisingHogFan]

We have never purchased any of the specialty restaurants. I’m looking a booking  separately each night so I can pick my times now vs the unlimited plan. It’s also a little less expensive this way.

 

If I book them individually and the prices for down can you call for the price drop? I wouldn’t want to cancel and try to rebook through the online planner with the risk of losing my preferred time.

[Sunshine3601]

Yes you call and have them cancel and rebook at lower price, probably no guarantee they can save your reserved time.   

 

Has UDP gone up that much that it is now cheaper to book individually?    

Remember UDP gives you lunch on sea days as well as credit towards snacks, Wings, etc  at places like Playmakers.

[CruisingHogFan]

4 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Yes you call and have them cancel and rebook at lower price, probably no guarantee they can save your reserved time.   

 

Has UDP gone up that much that it is now cheaper to book individually?    

Remember UDP gives you lunch on sea days as well as credit towards snacks, Wings, etc  at places like Playmakers.

 

Depends on sailing if cheaper or not. We wouldn’t eat in the specialty restaurants for lunch as we are always on the go or at the pool during the day and plenty of included snacks.

 

I thought I read somewhere on here (can’t find it) that if you call you can get a refund without losing your spot (not a rebook but just a reprice) vs having to cancel and rebook online

[Sunshine3601]

2 minutes ago, CruisingHogFan said:

 

Depends on sailing if cheaper or not. We wouldn’t eat in the specialty restaurants for lunch as we are always on the go or at the pool during the day and plenty of included snacks.

 

I thought I read somewhere on here (can’t find it) that if you call you can get a refund without losing your spot (not a rebook but just a reprice) vs having to cancel and rebook online

You can try that if you see a lower price in the future but seems to vary based on the CSR that takes your phone call.  

[firefly333]

2 minutes ago, CruisingHogFan said:

 

Depends on sailing if cheaper or not. We wouldn’t eat in the specialty restaurants for lunch as we are always on the go or at the pool during the day and plenty of included snacks.

 

I thought I read somewhere on here (can’t find it) that if you call you can get a refund without losing your spot (not a rebook but just a reprice) vs having to cancel and rebook online

I called once and cant get charged for difference.  It was a really stupid employee who also said the excursion price didnt drop, the difference was the tax. There is no tax on excursions.  I finally hung up.

 

Found out just go into my planner and cancel myself. It turns out it's very easy. I use obc so refund was instant. 

 

Idk about losing your time but it's very easy to cancel and rebook. By yourself.

[KroozNut]

5 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Yes you call and have them cancel and rebook at lower price, probably no guarantee they can save your reserved time.   

 

Has UDP gone up that much that it is now cheaper to book individually?    

Remember UDP gives you lunch on sea days as well as credit towards snacks, Wings, etc  at places like Playmakers.

 

We're new to Royal, so still learning. And your comment above re: lunch on sea days caught my eye. Do I understand that lunch in the MDR on sea days is not included in the cruise fare? Is there a charge to dine in the MDR on sea days similar to dining in specialty restaurants?

If so, that is a new concept for us, from our experience with other lines..

[HicksRA]

You cannot get a price drop. You have to cancel and rebook with no guarantee your preferred time will still be available.  Usually not worth taking the chance to save five bucks or so 

[ARandomTraveler]

2 hours ago, KroozNut said:

 

We're new to Royal, so still learning. And your comment above re: lunch on sea days caught my eye. Do I understand that lunch in the MDR on sea days is not included in the cruise fare? Is there a charge to dine in the MDR on sea days similar to dining in specialty restaurants?

If so, that is a new concept for us, from our experience with other lines..

I don't think they serve lunch in the dining room (I could be wrong and just have never bothered to look), but there's free food in the buffet during lunch. 

[barb in ga]

Lunch is served in the main dining room on sea days only. It is included in the fare price. Breakfast is also served daily included as is dinner.

Barb

[Roybthered]

We sail on Symphony at the end of August (7 Nights) and on the cruise planner there are all the specialty restaurants priced to purchase, however the is no UDP for sale at all. We keep going on to look if the price is right to maybe get it but it is not listed at all. Has anyone else noticed this? Oh the UBP is £76 pp! that's £1064 for the trip.

[sgmn]

26 minutes ago, Roybthered said:

We sail on Symphony at the end of August (7 Nights) and on the cruise planner there are all the specialty restaurants priced to purchase, however the is no UDP for sale at all. We keep going on to look if the price is right to maybe get it but it is not listed at all. Has anyone else noticed this? Oh the UBP is £76 pp! that's £1064 for the trip.

I think they only sell a certain number so they may of sold out.  They definitely had 3, 5 night and UDP dining package available on Symphony in May to prebook in planner

Are they only selling individual restaurants?

[Roybthered]

26 minutes ago, sgmn said:

I think they only sell a certain number so they may of sold out.  They definitely had 3, 5 night and UDP dining package available on Symphony in May to prebook in planner

Are they only selling individual restaurants?

Yes only individual, we have always seen UDP for sale on all the cruises we have been on. Strange as there is always seats available when you are on board and throughout the cruise.

[KroozNut]

11 hours ago, barb in ga said:

Lunch is served in the main dining room on sea days only. It is included in the fare price. Breakfast is also served daily included as is dinner.

Barb

 

Thank you for clarifying this for me. And this is in line with our experience on several other lines.
Although I'm still not clear on what @Sunshine3601 meant by the comment
"Remember UDP gives you lunch on sea days".
On further thought, they might have been referring to lunch in specialty restaurants, and not the MDR which would make sense.

[monorail81]

14 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

Although I'm still not clear on what @Sunshine3601 meant by the comment
"Remember UDP gives you lunch on sea days".
On further thought, they might have been referring to lunch in specialty restaurants, and not the MDR which would make sense.

Anyone can have lunch at the MDR. If you purchase the UDP, you are able to have lunch at whatever specialty restaurants are open on sea days. Lunches are included. 

[ARandomTraveler]

20 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

 

Thank you for clarifying this for me. And this is in line with our experience on several other lines.
Although I'm still not clear on what @Sunshine3601 meant by the comment
"Remember UDP gives you lunch on sea days".
On further thought, they might have been referring to lunch in specialty restaurants, and not the MDR which would make sense.

They just meant that you can also use the dining package at lunchtime on sea days (on port days most, if not all of, the specialty restaurants are closed during lunchtime). 
 

Using the package for lunches as well as dinners makes the value higher because your price per meal goes down.

 

For example, if the package is $300 on a 7 day cruise, you could think of it as being for 7 dinners, making each dinner cost $42.86 (=$300 divided by 7), or you can think of it as also being for lunch on 4 of those days too, making each meal $27.27 (= $300 divided by 11).

 

From my experience with the dining package, you really have to force yourself to eat a lot more big meals than you may want to, in order to feel like you got the best deal out of your package. Eating at specialty restaurants for lunch was a stretch for us, and made us not hungry for dinner. But since we already had reservations for dinner, we'd eat them anyway. It was way too much food, and way too much vacation time spent eating. 

Now that they've raised the price of the dining package, it's much less of a good deal. For my next cruise I just booked a couple restaurants individually. 

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by ARandomTraveler

[KroozNut]

9 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

From my experience with the dining package, you really have to force yourself to eat a lot more big meals than you may want to, in order to feel like you got the best deal out of your package.

 

 

Lol.. You can substitute 'eat a lot more' with 'drink a lot more' in your comment, and you would have exactly what many folks say about the DBP. 😁

[CruisingHogFan]

That’s one of the main reasons I don’t want to do unlimited. Too much time and food for lunch. We probably will just book 3-4 specialty restaurants for dinner including the supper club and do the other nights in the main dinning room. 
 

Does Royal care if you have a traditional time and only show up 3-4 nights or is it better to do my time?  
 

We have been cruising for 20 years on Royal and just now starting to try the specialty restaurants. Haha