Dining package question: How best to include kids? Separate level package or just pay per meal for them?

[TheMaxRebo]

Hi everyone,

 

We have our first Royal Caribbean Cruise coming up next February. Checked for our sailing online and they have introduced a sale on the Dining Packages so we are keen to book one.

 

It is a 7 night sailing with 3 sea days so I feel like my wife and I would get good use out of the unlimited plan, but our thoughts are that we would likely only have our kids join us for a few of the meals. Kids will be ages 14, 11, and 8 for the sailings.

 

I have read posts here and elsewhere and blogs, etc and am still confused the best way to make this work. Is it easiest to just get the package for my wife and I and then book any meals we want to do together for 5 people and pay the per meal cost for the kids? Can we get the unlimited for us but then the 3 meal package for the kids - or does mixing packages confuse things?

 

And for these meals, for the 14 year old, if we do just pay per meal, if she requests a kids meal is it the kids cost or will she have to pay the adult rate?

 

Thanks - just saw the indication of a 45% off the package price for the unlimited plan and got excited and also anxious lol 

[AshleyDillo]

It depends on the cost of the package for the kids. I believe 12 and under you can pay $10 per meal for them to join you. The 14 year would be considered an adult at every meal, so if you don't think they would eat enough meals with the dining plan for it to make financial sense, then pay out of pocket for her or purchase one of the smaller dining packages for 3 meals or Chops +1.

Remember the package includes lunch when the specialty restaurants are open and also the ala carte dining places that may be on your ship such as Playmakers, Portside BBQ and Izumi sushi.  Those give a per meal stipend with the dining packages, so you'd only have to be for anything ala carte over and above that stipend when dining with the children.

[TheMaxRebo]

2 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

It depends on the cost of the package for the kids. I believe 12 and under you can pay $10 per meal for them to join you. The 14 year would be considered an adult at every meal, so if you don't think they would eat enough meals with the dining plan for it to make financial sense, then pay out of pocket for her or purchase one of the smaller dining packages for 3 meals or Chops +1.

Remember the package includes lunch when the specialty restaurants are open and also the ala carte dining places that may be on your ship such as Playmakers, Portside BBQ and Izumi sushi.  Those give a per meal stipend with the dining packages, so you'd only have to be for anything ala carte over and above that stipend when dining with the children.

Thanks for the response - right now the pricing for the 3 meal is showing up as $101.99/adults and $29.99/kid (with the "up to 40% off" promotion). We were thinking of doing this for the kids ... is there any issue with mixing packages like that - if we get the unlimited for my wife and myself? I assume we just pick the same preferred dining time for the preselected one they would do and hopefully we get assigned the same one

 

Guess in the end just trying to weight the pros and cons of doing the smaller package for them vs just doing out of pocket for any we might do 

[Ampurp85]

2 hours ago, TheMaxRebo said:

Thanks for the response - right now the pricing for the 3 meal is showing up as $101.99/adults and $29.99/kid (with the "up to 40% off" promotion). We were thinking of doing this for the kids ... is there any issue with mixing packages like that - if we get the unlimited for my wife and myself? I assume we just pick the same preferred dining time for the preselected one they would do and hopefully we get assigned the same one

 

Guess in the end just trying to weight the pros and cons of doing the smaller package for them vs just doing out of pocket for any we might do 

There will be no problem with mixing packages. You just need to link the reservations and reserve the proper number of guests for each one. 

[AshleyDillo]

16 hours ago, TheMaxRebo said:

I assume we just pick the same preferred dining time for the preselected one they would do and hopefully we get assigned the same one

Choosing the time when purchasing the dining packages is irrelevant to anything. They speak of a "courtesy" reservation that they make on your behalf for the first evening at that time, but I haven't ever seen that in practice. What you do is visit the dining kiosk in the promenade or visit one of the specialty restaurants as soon as you board and make the dining reservations for your entire party at that time.  Whether you have a dining package or not doesn't come into play until you actually eat at the restaurant and they need to figure it out when settling the bill.

If you're going to do hibachi, they charge $10 additional for each person with a dining package, so keep that in mind when considering if the child price point for the package is worth it.

 

[CruisingNewb]

As mentioned before, Kids are $10 a la carte....meaning, if all other family members have the dining package, the only charge would be $10 per kid.

We just opted to pre-pay and get the dining package for our child.  We have read on many posts, that some restaurants just let your kids order off of the main menu instead of the kids' menu, and vice-versa.  We intend to try that because (1) my 9 year old eats like a 20 year old, and (2) we want the option of ordering an extra adult entree to maximize our experience in tasting everything.

 

At the end, whether you pay the $10 now or later is up to you but I have not personally seen the kids' dining package dip below $10 per-purchase or not.