Hale

We did the UDP on the Vision last week (New Year’s Cruise). We always buy a three or four night specialty dining package on a seven night cruise because it changes things up a bit but there were no dining packages but the UDP available at all for this New Year’s cruise. We went to Chef’s Table one night and alternated eating dinner in Chops and Giovanni’s; we ate lunch once in Izumi’s.
We, too, found it a bit boring. While there are enough entree choices (beef/fish/chicken/vegetarian), they need to create more variety in soups/salads. I suggested to an officer, (he came into the Diamond Lounge for coffee one morning and struck up a conversation with us) that a little change they could make for these restaurants is add a soup of the day/salad of the day option. Very easy to do and may alleviate some of the “sameness” each evening.
As someone mentioned earlier, NCL seems to have mastered the art of flexible dining. We have sailed with them many more times than with Royal and dining on an NCL ship has never seemed as “hectic” as it is with Royal. Bottom line — we will not purchase a UDP again but, when available, will buy four or five night dining packages (depending on cruise length)and the Chef’s Table; this will give us a (somewhat) similar feeling as to choosing restaurants on a land vacation.