MattG

Yes. You can see it from port. It’s not big, but it’s there. We didn’t get any closer during sail-away.

I had $50/day on Anthem to Canaveral/Nassau/PDCC last December. I am truly curious what goes into the algorithm of setting prices. I'm a statistics nerd, so my best guess is: There are "high" and "low" prices that are set for each cruise (every ship, every sailing, every itinerary, based on some fuzzy logic). These prices are normally at the high value, but then go to the low value during a "sale". They just toggle back and forth for months. As the departure date approaches, certain thresholds are checked (120 days out, 60 days out, etc) and if the threshold isn't met, the low price is adjusted for the next "sale" - for instance: If The Key isn't selling as well, they may drop it another 10%. Then throw in a RC-wide sale like (Black Friday) where everything gets a few more dollars knocked off, until they're adjusted back up to the high value at the end of the sale.

Thank you! I was thinking the same thing. When I do my table, i'll be sure to have columns for: Day of Week (Mon, Tue) Cruise Day (Day 1, Day 2) Destination (Sea Day, Nassau, PDCC) Time Venue

Lowest i've seen it personally is $50/day, so you're right in the sweet spot. I had to regularly remind myself that DBP isn't just alcohol, so I made sure to regularly get coffees, fresh-squeezed OJ from Windjammer/Two70 Cafe, Milkshakes from Johnny Rockets, soda, etc. At $52/day (plus gratuity takes you to $61/day), you'll need 5x $13 cocktails/day to break even, and everything on top of that (plus the non-alcohol I mentioned before) is gravy.

A quick update for everyone: A new "sale" has dropped in the Cruise Planner, at least for my sailing (Oasis in October). UDP is back down to the original price I saw at booking (re-booked!), DBP is back up to $88 BOGO50 from $70/each. Another note is this is the cheapest i've seen The Key at $29/day

I didn't even think this was an option!

Awesome information, thank you! To the community: I think I know the answer to this, but I want to double-check: Can I book specialty restaurants on UDP prior to embarkation? Or do they have to be done on-board? When I booked UDP, it made me choose a time which I assume is for Day 1 dinner.

Thank you! Your responses are always so thorough and thoughtful We're keeping an eye on lunches - I also have a concern about over-eating on lunch impacting appetite for dinner. If we can do specialty dining for each dinner with UDP, we consider that a big win, and lunch on UDP is just icing on the cake. For lunch, we're planning on Izumi, Portside BBQ, and Johnny Rockets, with Windjammer sprinkled in. Another wrinkle is half of our party is kids 6 and under, and they really thrived on the WJ/MDR routine (Our last cruise was exclusively Windjammer for breakfast and lunch, and MDR for dinner). We'll be putting them to the test with a meal in a different place every day!

Hi friends, We picked up the UDP on Oasis on a 7-nighter in October 2022. Knowing there’s five specialty options for dinner (150CP, Chops, Giovanni’s, Izumi, Hibachi), we figured we’ll double-dip a few, but won’t really know which until we’ve tried them all. What are your UDP reservation strategies? Should we lock in one night of each specialty restaurant, then mid-cruise figure out what we want to double-dip to round out the cruise? Any specialty we should definitely do twice?

That was my thought too, but the Kummelweck needs staff for cutting, serving, and cleaning. I just looked at @Matt's walkthrough of Mariner on YouTube from 4 months ago, and didn't see anything resembling a Kummelweck cutting station in Cafe Promenade. Matt - did you see a Kummelweck anywhere on Mariner?

Ooh, this is a good question. Kummelwecks are usually served in Park Cafe (Cafe Two70 on Quantum-class), but Mariner doesn't have a Park Cafe. I heard one guest on another ship say Kummelwecks were being served in Windjammer, but that's no guarantee.

Cruise Planner -> "Plan My Cruise" -> Click on your Initials (upper right corner), then Order History -> Locate your Drink package, and click View Details -> Cancel

The only way to know this is through the Cruise Planner for your specific cruise, ship, and departure date. It's going to be more, but by how much? Nobody knows, or could say.

BOARDING DAY! Have a blast!

We did Chef's Table on Anthem a few weeks before @BrianAlt, and had the identical preparation. The Chef's Table menu is the same across the entire fleet. HOWEVER, it seems that the chefs on each ship are free to interpret within the constraints of the menu. For instance, a week after our Chef's Table on Anthem, @Traveler live-blogged their Chef's Table on Symphony, and had a completely different (and, in my opinion, better) preparation than Anthem.

Just to hit home AGAIN how important it is to lock in prices... I thought I was in the middle of a Cruise Planner sale and had a day or so to lock in prices. Unfortunately, the sale seemed to end yesterday. Here are updated prices: UDP Yesterday: $167 Today: $183 (oof) DBP Yesterday: $88 Today: $70 DBP+VOOM Yesterday: $79 Today: $85 The Key Yesterday: $39 Today: $31 I finally started a spreadsheet to track the hilarity that is Cruise Planner pricing If anyone wants me to track something (only on my cruise, but just for fun) let me know!

On Anthem a month ago, and Cruise Compasses were only available upon request. I've seen photos on other ships of Cruise Compasses being available "in bulk" in what looks like a magazine holder? This wasn't anywhere on Anthem. By Day 3 we asked our stateroom attendant for a copy each day, and they happily obliged. They're definitely being printed, but maybe it was a suite perk?

Reaffirming what others have said - If you know you're 100% committed to something in the Planner, buy it today, assume the price will only go up, and be pleasantly surprised if it goes down. If it DOES go down, you can 100% cancel it within the Planner and re-buy it immediately at the lower price - I did this with DBP going from $60/day to $50/day and it took about 2 minutes. The only time I would say "hold off" is if you want something in the Planner, but the price is outside your comfort zone. In that case, check back often (once per week?) and re-check prices.

Not to deviate from the topic, but what's the general consensus on tipping in specialty restaurants? what about with UDP? We've done MDR in the past, and tipped a little extra to the wait staff at the end of the cruise. But if we're restaurant-hopping, is tipping expected (America-style), or only for exceptional service (European-style)?

Yeah, we're thinking about this too, but don't want to subject the kiddos to too much specialty dining fatigue We also want to check out Portside and Playmakers for lunch (kiddos can nosh on some of our food), so we'll definitely be putting the UDP to good use!

Yep, it would make more sense if there were two adults in the room. We have two adjoining rooms, with my wife and some kids in one room, me and the rest of the kids in another. DBP+VOOM makes the most sense at this point (cheaper than DBP AND we get internet), but at $78/day it's still too expensive.

Hi everyone, I know that at specialty restaurants, kids 6-10 are $10 each and kids under 5 are free. We're looking at UDP for Oasis for the adults ($167 for a 7-day cruise), but there's ALSO an offering in the Cruise Planner for UDP for Kids at $79. At $10/meal, that would mean we'd need 8 specialty dining meals to break even. Am I reading this right? Would it just make more sense to pay the $10 surcharge if we're doing 5-7 specialty meals? For our party (3x adults, 1x 6-year old, 2x under 5), we'd need 3x UDP plus 1x $10 surcharge at Chops, Giovanni's, 150CP. I know Izumi Hibachi charges a $10 surcharge on top of UDP, would the 6-year old still be $10? And the 2x under 5 still free? Thanks, everyone!

Neither package is available? Or it's available, just not at that price?

Hi everyone, Curious of everyone's experience with regards to Cruise Planner price trends. Do you notice DBP is more/less expensive on larger/smaller ships? How about UDP? Some fascinating differences between our upcoming cruise (Oasis in October 2021) versus our last cruise (Anthem in December 2020): DBP Oasis: $88/day BOGO 50% off Anthem: $50/day (as high as $63/day) DBP+VOOM Oasis: $79/day Anthem: $59/day UDP Oasis: $166.99 Anthem: As low as $190 (Black Friday), as high as $230 Coco Cay: Thrill Waterpark Oasis: $79 Anthem: As low as $39 (Black Friday), as high as $79 Chef's Table Oasis: $81 Anthem: $94 (never changed) Coco Cay: Floating Beach Mat Oasis: $17 Anthem: $9 (never changed) For us, MDR was average on Anthem, so seeing UDP at it's lowest price on Oasis is a no-brainer. For DBP, we were "in the black" at $50/day on Anthem, but anything above $60 is a no-go ($88/day is a joke). What's everyone else's experience been?

I'm 100% in this camp. Due to how much crew quarantine we've been seeing, I bet the "one session per cruise" limitation was a hedge against AO staff possibly needing to quarantine mid-cruise. The staff would much rather set the expectation of one session per cruise, then "surprise and delight" by opening more sessions, then having to call guests and cancel sessions because AO staff popped a positive test and shut down AO.