Diamond plus bogo

[beachfanatic]

How does it work if you book ahead online.   You have to pay upfront but how do they handle the bogo 

[Dewaldcruiser]

Here is how my wife and I did it;  I booked the specialty for just me the first night and she booked the specialty restaurant for the second night for just her online before the cruise.  When we got to the ship, we went to one of the specialty restaurants and had them change the single reservations to a BOGO for the two of us for each meal.

 

Unfortunately, every time we have done this, we have had to pay the difference in price between the online price and the onboard price for the "buy one" meal.  Still cheaper than buying regular meals online, but not as much as you may think,  That, coupled with the restriction with using BOGO only the first two nights has had us rethink using the Diamond Plus BOGO perk.

[OCSC Mike]

Technically you are not supposed to book them ahead of time, only onboard, but many people do what was described above.

 

No judgment intended, just sharing info. I will turn D+ on my next cruise and am looking forward to using my BOGO's after that. Haven't decided how to handle it yet.

[RFerrington]

Technically, you must wait until you are onboard to book your BOGO meals and pay the full onboard price.  Additionally, per the rules of the program, all BOGO meals must be booked and consumed on days/nights 1 and/or 2.

 

While we always adhere to rule #1 (book once onboard) we do fudge rule #2 whenever we can.  We will always use one of our BOGO on night #1 or 2 and then book the second of our BOGO for later in the cruise.  Every ship handles this one differently and sometimes they handle it differently even on the same ship !  Sometimes they make us pay for the second BOGO (the one we use later in the cruise) NLT night #2 and sometimes they allow us to pay for it when we use it.  We just never know how that's going to go until we get onboard.  Regardless, BOGO is still a very good deal even when you have to pay full onboard price....which ends up being 50% off.

[firefly333]

I wrote to mbayley asking they standardize the rules. Which restaurants can we do. If it's not listed as excluded why cant we eat there. Izumi sushi and wonderland arent excluded so why not included. Then they said there is a rule to eat at the more expensive one first. If all these are rules put them in writing. Bogo has been a pain imo to use. Every ship has different rules as  noted above. 

[OCSC Mike]

12 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Every ship has different rules as  noted above.

 

You could be a weirdo and just sail on the same ship over and over... then you would know the rules. Who would do that though? 😁

[firefly333]

1 minute ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

You could be a weirdo and just sail on the same ship over and over... then you would know the rules. Who would do that though? 😁

Well I have mariner harmony adventure wonder utopia adventure voyager then oasis booked already. I'd like to get on and know ahead of time. 

 

Allure was the one who decided you had to eat night 1 and 2 and moved my 2nd bogo night from 5 pm night 4 to 7:45 pm night 2 without telling me. This shouldn't happen.

[OCSC Mike]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Well I have mariner harmony adventure wonder utopia adventure voyager then oasis booked already. I'd like to get on and know ahead of time. 

 

Allure was the one who decided you had to eat night 1 and 2 and moved my 2nd bogo night from 5 pm night 4 to 7:45 pm night 2 without telling me. This shouldn't happen.

 

It was a joke about me sailing Wonder over and over... which clearly missed. My bad. 🙈

 

I don't blame you for wanting standardized rules and agree 100%. The Allure situation was particularly crappy.

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

It was a joke about me sailing Wonder over and over... which clearly missed. My bad. 🙈

 

I don't blame you for wanting standardized rules and agree 100%. The Allure situation was particularly crappy.

I'd love sailing wonder over and over but it's too high for my blood. I've never done a TA before but it was all I could find the price was kinda ok. Right after adventure southern so timing isnt even good. Nothing booked the whole rest of 2025 after may 2025 TA. 

 

I'd hoped to sail over and over but not at these prices. Being much more picky and choosy. So looks like I see spain italy and greece. 

[OCSC Mike]

7 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I'd hoped to sail over and over but not at these prices. Being much more picky and choosy. So looks like I see spain italy and greece.

 

I've seen your posts. I know this isn't what you had in mind when you decided to move near PC but it may wind up working out since it made you try a TA and go to Europe. Hopefully you enjoy the new experiences.

[lovesthebeach2]

We’ve always been able to use the BOGO for lunch and not just on day 1 or 2, but that may depend on the way each ship handles BOGOs.

[taglovestocruise]

17 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

We’ve always been able to use the BOGO for lunch and not just on day 1 or 2, but that may depend on the way each ship handles BOGOs.

We also have never had a problem booking the BOGO for mid and end of week.  We do book and pay on day one but always make the reservation for later in the week. 

[OCSC Mike]

1 hour ago, taglovestocruise said:

We also have never had a problem booking the BOGO for mid and end of week.  We do book and pay on day one but always make the reservation for later in the week. 

 

All this stuff varies greatly by ship and sailing. There have been numerous threads about it.

[c-leg5]

14 hours ago, RFerrington said:

Technically, you must wait until you are onboard to book your BOGO meals and pay the full onboard price.  Additionally, per the rules of the program, all BOGO meals must be booked and consumed on days/nights 1 and/or 2.

 

While we always adhere to rule #1 (book once onboard) we do fudge rule #2 whenever we can.  We will always use one of our BOGO on night #1 or 2 and then book the second of our BOGO for later in the cruise.  Every ship handles this one differently and sometimes they handle it differently even on the same ship !  Sometimes they make us pay for the second BOGO (the one we use later in the cruise) NLT night #2 and sometimes they allow us to pay for it when we use it.  We just never know how that's going to go until we get onboard.  Regardless, BOGO is still a very good deal even when you have to pay full onboard price....which ends up being 50% off.

This has been our experience too.

 

And then there are those who claim to repeatedly book at the discounted pre-sail rate for one AND use their BOGO coupon.

 

I can understand trying to fill up the restaurant on Day 1. I have never understood the reasoning for Day 2 which is often formal night and overbooked. Seems like it would be better for the second night to be later in the week.

[OCSC Mike]

6 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

I can understand trying to fill up the restaurant on Day 1. I have never understood the reasoning for Day 2 which is often formal night and overbooked. Seems like it would be better for the second night to be later in the week.

 

I've always had the same thought.

 

Back in the day, Royal had "First Night, Done Right" where everyone got a BOGO for night 1 to help fill the restaurants. We used it on almost every cruise back then.

Edited January 11 by OCSC Mike

[RFerrington]

8 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

I have never understood the reasoning for Day 2 which is often formal night and overbooked. Seems like it would be better for the second night to be later in the week.

I'm so with you on this one.  Frankly, with the way specialty dining is going, I doubt they have any trouble filling ANY day anymore. 

[cruiselvr04]

We’ve been able to book Izumi on the first night on the smaller ships.  On Radiance both in San Diego and Seward we were one of 2 tables even there.  On another smaller ship we were told no then the maitre d called and said to come on up as again the restaurant was almost empty.  So asking doesn’t hurt.

 

I know on the bigger ships people haven’t been able to get their speciality dining package every night. ( Which by the way, would make me VERY unhappy. Do not sell what is not available. ) On the smaller ships they are rarely full, another reason to sail the smaller ships!

[PhillyFan33579]

22 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

We also have never had a problem booking the BOGO for mid and end of week.  We do book and pay on day one but always make the reservation for later in the week. 

For what it’s worth, when I was on Independence a few weeks ago, we were told RCI had updated their software so that it only allowed BOGO to be purchased on the first two days of the cruise. We also heard the same thing on Freedom two weeks prior. However, on both ships we were able to book a BOGO on the 3rd night for both cruises, but they charged us for it on first day of the cruise. 

[RFerrington]

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

For what it’s worth, when I was on Independence a few weeks ago, we were told RCI had updated their software so that it only allowed BOGO to be purchased on the first two days of the cruise. We also heard the same thing on Freedom two weeks prior. However, on both ships we were able to book a BOGO on the 3rd night for both cruises, but they charged us for it on first day of the cruise. 

This has been our experience as well.

[3yorkies]

Does anyone know policy on Harmony OTS recently?  Sailing next month

[firefly333]

3 minutes ago, 3yorkies said:

Does anyone know policy on Harmony OTS recently?  Sailing next month

Good question and I was just on harmony. I think I posted above my experience...dec 10 to dec 17 week. I'd call that recently.

 

First I was told izumi sushi no, then wonderland no, then they would make a exception for me, whe  I pointed out neither were excluded in their own publically written policy. 5 more times back and forth. I made the mistake of asking the crown lounge ambassador.. find someone else to ask. He kept coming back to me and ok, then he said I had to do wonderland first, it was more expensive. Then ok then you have to do izumi sushi twice... I asked where are these rules written. I had asked him to book me for the following week. This is when I wrote to mbayley... might be who told them to make a exception for me... exception to what? Idk. He acted like he expected a big tip for booking and aggravating me 5 times saying no. If I'm having to fight to get something... no tip. Dont keep telling me how you are doing me a huge favor. 

 

It's still unclear to me if izumi sushi sit down set price menu and if wonderland are included. Push. If the policy doesnt exclude then they should be included. Fix the policy if it's written wrong. I dont give a extra tip for making me upset. Do it. 

 

I was on for 3 weeks arguing with them about bogo.

 

But they will allow 2nd night to be later in the week. I'm solo so I cant split one meal at one setting.

[3yorkies]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

 

But they will allow 2nd night to be later in the week. I'm solo so I cant split one meal at one setting.

Thanks!   Solo here too.   I like to do second one on Italian night  and not do second cruise night.  I'm okay with doing the first one on night one.    I will likely do Chops and Jamie's or maybe Izumi.   Not a fan of Wonderland.  Once was enough, lol.   I've already booked Jamie's for first day lunch since I don't do buffets and like to start cruise with a good lunch in a relaxed atmosphere.  

[RosieRoo]

On 1/10/2024 at 4:25 PM, lovesthebeach2 said:

We’ve always been able to use the BOGO for lunch and not just on day 1 or 2, but that may depend on the way each ship handles BOGOs.

We’ve had the same experience as far as using it for lunch except for on the Jewel. I was told if I wanted to use it for lunch I’d have to pay the dinner pricing. How does that even make sense?  It would have cost me less to buy two full price lunches than to pay for one dinner 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Empehi]

If you are D+can an you book a specialty restaurant for day 1 or 2 prior to the cruise for one person and then show up and and with another D+ cruiser and have that person eat for free?

 

e

[PhillyFan33579]

From my experience, which I have.done on dozens of cruises, the answer is no. We have always been told the D+ BOGO is based on the full price, which no one pays ahead of time. Having said that, RCI is not very consistent enforcing their rules so doing what you described might work for you.