WAAAYTOOO

Thanks !  We love the big ships but sometimes you just need to get back to the basics.  We are on for 16 nights so I hope we really REALLY enjoy the basics.  

Hello !!

One question I can answer with confidence:  No, there is absolutely no difference between the menus regardless of whether you purchase individual meals pre-cruise or purchase any of the dining packages.  The menu options are exactly the same.  There are some minor differences between the lunch menus and the dinner menus of the various restaurants but how you purchase any of them is completely immaterial.

If you purchase meals through the Cruise Planner and pay for them when you make your reservations (which is mandatory - no option NOT to pay when you make the reservation) then you will be reserving the exact restaurant and time that you want...you will not have to wait until you get onboard....however, you will pay more for it, if you do it this way.

As you said, if you purchase a dining plan (3 or 5 night or Unlimited) you will pay when you purchase the plan online but you will not have any reservations until after you board.

As for the complimentary specialty dining meal that you received as part of your NC visit, I feel certain that you will have to wait until you board to redeem that.  Those kinds of vouchers are never redeemable prior to boarding the ship.

I don't know which ship you are on or the length of the voyage, but I will tell you what we do.  I almost, almost always purchase a 3 night dining package plus a lunch which we reserve for boarding day.  Since we are eligible for the Buy One Get One [Free] (BOGO) vouchers, we will also use those at some point during the sailing.  This give us pretty much 5 nights of specialty dining plus the lunch which we purchase separately.

Let me reassure you.  I have been cruising on Royal Caribbean for 18 years and only ONCE in all of that time have I ever been unable to reserve the restaurant for the day I wanted for a specialty meal.  It was for a formal night at Chops and they were completely booked when I went to the kiosk to make the reservation.  I simply chose a different night and all was well.  Yes, sometimes you have to adjust your time slightly - maybe go at 7:00 instead of 6:30 (just an example) but honestly, it is not a problem to wait until you board to get your reservations.  Don't let that stress you out !

Some people will tell you that they purchase a dining plan PLUS make the individual reservations beforehand through the Cruise Planner (and pay for all of them up front, as you must do) and then "convert" the individual reservations over to the dining plan once you are onboard, and the money from the pre-purchased individual reservations is refunded in the form of Onboard Credit (OBC).  I caution you NOT to do this.  Royal Caribbean has gotten wise to this like work-around and I have read many accounts, recently, of people being UNABLE to get their money refunded for the individual reservations that they made pre-cruise through the Cruise Planner.  Yes, I have read of accounts where this scheme worked, but personally, I would never do it.  It's just not worth the anxiety of having to wait until I get onboard to see if I can [maybe] get my money back !

It's important to remember the concept of the dining packages (from Royal Caribbean's standpoint).  They offer the meal packages at a DISCOUNT with the understanding that the trade-off for the discount is that you must wait until you board to make your reservations,  Trying to convert pre-purchases to a dining packages defeats that concept and Royal Caribbean is getting stricter about offering refunds using this work-around.  It's a no-no to me...but some have been successful ! Good luck if you decide to try it.

Sorry for the long-winded response.  I'm not even sure that I answered your question !!  Let me know if there's anything else that I can help you with !

Best of luck and most importantly - enjoy your cruise !!

My best - 

Raye

We aren't on AD in January 2026.  We are on Oasis 1-24-26 and then again on 2-1-26 (B2B).

Our last AD cruise is in April 2025, I think.

I still hope we can meet some time !!!!  I love your posts and it's so nice to get some intel from the left coast !!

Yes, of course !

When you have the UDP you can eat at any specialty restaurant any time the restaurant is open, if the restaurant can accommodate you.   Generally, that means as long as they have a table available.  There are a couple of exceptions- primarily associated with the Ala carte restaurants (Playmakers, Izumi etc).  For those restaurants, you can only go once a day.  I have never tried to make more than 1 reservation per day, for lunch and dinner, so I don’t really know whether there is a rule about making multiple reservations, but that wouldn’t surprise me.  I’m guessing they would limit you to 1 reservation each for lunch and dinner and any other restaurant that you may want to visit would be on a “space available” basis.  The statement that you would be limited to only 1 restaurant each for lunch and/or dinner is inaccurate. Frankly, I cannot even manage to eat both lunch and dinner at specialty restaurants on the same day - it’s just too much food - so the thought of 2 evening meals is more food than I could ever eat.  But it’s not forbidden.  

Me too.  Sail on !!!

I am so proud of you guys....taking full advantage of your relocation.  I wish we were able to.  One day, maybe.

Good morning, Jennifer !!!  So glad to you have you join the Blog.  It's a great group of folks and everyone is generally friendly and agreeable.  It's a nice change from some of the other larger cruise forums.  

Currently, we live in Florida and have reasonably close proximity to all of the major cruise ports.  That certainly helps in being able to cruise often.  I am semi-retired;  retired from my 20+ year job in August 2020 but am now back working part time for the same company doing the same thing !!  Dan is still working full time...right now.  Our plan certainly was to fully retire and cruise as much as we wanted but COVID changed a lot of those plans.  Since we cannot now cruise, Dan decided that it was prudent to just keep working until cruising resumes.  Those changes may come about soon...or not...depending upon what happens.

Even when we lived in northern Virginia (we relocated to FL in Nov 2020) we were able to cruise fairly frequently.  We both got a lot of annual leave and we maximized our time off by booking cruises inclusive of Federal Holidays.  It was a great gig while it lasted ! 

The reason that it looks like I have so many cruises booked (which....I guess I do...) is b/c there are so many COVID-related Lift & Shifts from previously cancelled cruises.  I have never EVER had this many cruises booked in advance before.  I usually would have 8-10 but never 30 !!  We have also benefitted from Royal's casino program.  We love to gamble (particularly on ship) and our seniority in their rewards program has granted us a large number of complimentary cruises as well as attractive upgrades over the years.  Unfortunately, almost all of those "freebies" for this year have been cancelled. Boooooo.....

We have been on Allure and have a few cruises scheduled on Allure (10-3-21, 10-10-21, 11-12-21).  It is a FANTASTIC ship.  If you have been on any of the Oasis class ships, you will be familiar with the ENORMOUS variety of things to keep you busy.  I love, love, love the O class ships.  They are the BEST thing that ever happened to cruising, IMO.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Allure to anyone.

Raye