3 night specialty dining package

[crusin1112]

Hey everyone, i am traveling on the Symphony of the Seas in August and when i checked the pre-cruise planner i see a deal for 3 nights of specialty dining for dinner for $154.99 (gratuities INCLUDED).  Any honest thoughts on this offer? Does anybody know how much a restaurant like Chops or 150 Central Park costs when booked onboard on Symphony? Normally i only do one night of specialty dining in a week long cruise, but this seems like a decent deal (mainly because of the included gratuities) so im tempted to go for it.  Thanks!

[jean87510]

9 minutes ago, crusin1112 said:

Hey everyone, i am traveling on the Symphony of the Seas in August and when i checked the pre-cruise planner i see a deal for 3 nights of specialty dining for dinner for $154.99 (gratuities INCLUDED).  Any honest thoughts on this offer? Does anybody know how much a restaurant like Chops or 150 Central Park costs when booked onboard on Symphony? Normally i only do one night of specialty dining in a week long cruise, but this seems like a decent deal (mainly because of the included gratuities) so im tempted to go for it.  Thanks!

I would and then continue to monitor if price drops.  If it does, cancel and rebook.  You may already know this but you can do this all on the website.

[crusin1112]

3 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

I would and then continue to monitor if price drops.  If it does, cancel and rebook.  You may already know this but you can do this all on the website.

If i used some onboard credit to purchase this and then cancelled (to rebook if the price does drop), are there any issues or lags with the original OBC being returned to my account to use again?

[jean87510]

6 minutes ago, crusin1112 said:

If i used some onboard credit to purchase this and then cancelled (to rebook if the price does drop), are there any issues or lags with the original OBC being returned to my account to use again?

no.  It will go back automatically.  

 

I am not sure if it does go back automatically if you received OBC from TA.  I never use a TA and never have OBC as a result.  The 2024 Alaska cruise I booked on my own did have $300 OBC that I used to cancel and rebook UDP when price drops occured.  I had no issue but as I said, not sure how it works with TAs.

[SanzD]

In my experience any obc from a travel agent is not available for use until you are on board the ship. You cannot use TA obc for prebooking items only obc rcvd directly from Royal.

[taglovestocruise]

3 hours ago, crusin1112 said:

Hey everyone, i am traveling on the Symphony of the Seas in August and when i checked the pre-cruise planner i see a deal for 3 nights of specialty dining for dinner for $154.99 (gratuities INCLUDED).  Any honest thoughts on this offer? Does anybody know how much a restaurant like Chops or 150 Central Park costs when booked onboard on Symphony? Normally i only do one night of specialty dining in a week long cruise, but this seems like a decent deal (mainly because of the included gratuities) so im tempted to go for it.  Thanks!

You can see the full price in the cruise planner as well as the 3 night package. Several years ago the three night was $99, two years ago it was $119, last year it was $139 on the cruises we booked. 

[crusin1112]

All these cruise packages are getting more expensive year after year for sure. But for what the packages and individual speciality restaurant costs are going for now, this seems like a decent deal to me. The OBC credit I have is from Royal. 

[timf2001]

In my experience, the 3 night dining package never goes on sale below the standard 20% off.  They recently changed from gratuities added at checkout to gratuities included, but the total price stayed essentially the same.  It's best to lock it in as soon as you can as it can sell out or the price could increase.

[crusin1112]

Ended up purchasing the 3 night dining package at the price stated in the original post. Thought it was interesting that the UDP for this 9 night cruise was listed for 45% off in the pre cruise planner (coming to $320 pp)…..but I don’t need to stuff myself in the speciality restaurants for all 9 nights…only 3! Haha

[crusin1112]

Ok since this is my first time purchasing a dining package i want to piggyback off my question in the OP.  I purchased the 3 night package and it says that Royal will make a courtesy reservation on either night 1 or 2 for me and the other 2 dinners i will have to reserve once onboard.  Question is.....am i able to see the ''courtesy reservation TIME that Royal has made on night 1 or 2'' for me in advance?  Just wondering, thanks all!

[taglovestocruise]

2 hours ago, crusin1112 said:

Ok since this is my first time purchasing a dining package i want to piggyback off my question in the OP.  I purchased the 3 night package and it says that Royal will make a courtesy reservation on either night 1 or 2 for me and the other 2 dinners i will have to reserve once onboard.  Question is.....am i able to see the ''courtesy reservation TIME that Royal has made on night 1 or 2'' for me in advance?  Just wondering, thanks all!

We have had a package on every cruise we have taken in the last 15 years, there has never been a pre reserved reservation for us. I think it is just a place holder in their system for overall reservations. 

[Mike-Cruisin]

On 3/5/2024 at 12:59 PM, crusin1112 said:

Ok since this is my first time purchasing a dining package i want to piggyback off my question in the OP.  I purchased the 3 night package and it says that Royal will make a courtesy reservation on either night 1 or 2 for me and the other 2 dinners i will have to reserve once onboard.  Question is.....am i able to see the ''courtesy reservation TIME that Royal has made on night 1 or 2'' for me in advance?  Just wondering, thanks all!

I can see on the App and on the calendar on the website that they made a courtesy reservation for us at 6PM on Day 1.  Unfortunately they don't say which restaurant it is for and 6PM is a little early for us on Day.  I called (the standard RCL phone number) to try and see if I could move it to Day 2 or later and they said I would have to do that on the ship.  Has anyone had any luck getting them to change it before the cruise?

[firefly333]

7 minutes ago, Mike-Cruisin said:

I can see on the App and on the calendar on the website that they made a courtesy reservation for us at 6PM on Day 1.  Unfortunately they don't say which restaurant it is for and 6PM is a little early for us on Day.  I called (the standard RCL phone number) to try and see if I could move it to Day 2 or later and they said I would have to do that on the ship.  Has anyone had any luck getting them to change it before the cruise?

They said they are working on being able to reserve the nights before you board. Right now its non existent. Once you board, book all 3 nights asap to get the times you want.