UDP Worth it? Odyssey, 12 night Holy Land Cruise

[Crey91]

Hello! My husband and I purchased the UDP for a 12 night holy land cruise on Odyssey of the Seas. When reading through forum posts and what’s on the website, there appear to be a lot of associated charges with some of the speciality restaurants and seems a bit complicated. Is the UDP even worth it? 

[Ampurp85]

There really isn't a lot of associated charges. The only one would be the upcharge for Hibachi, which will be $10-15pp each visit. Otherwise, there are just a few rules. Like the Sportsbar type venue Playmakers having a $20 credit pp and Izumi sushi side have a $35 credit. If the price was good and I knew I would be eating lunch and dinner at specialty places for half the time, it would be worth it. 

Now as far as UDP being worth it for you, that's personal preference but on a 12N cruise with 5+ ports, I would say no. How many places will I be getting off and trying the local cuisine from? The European cruises will have different options in the complimentary food venues from U.S. based sailing. Plus, Odyssey doesn't have a lot of specialty dining venues compared to other ships. 

[Jkaczano]

We purchased it for our 12 night May 2023 Holy Land at $255 per person.    While the restaurant choices are limited, I have 2 teenage boys who are somewhat picky eaters but could live on filet mignon (Chops and Giovanni’s) and burgers (PlayMakers).  Not sure how much local cuisine they will appreciate And even though there are a couple port days that will be long, there’s also 4 sea days so an additional chance to enjoy them.  

[Ampurp85]

@Jkaczanoat $255 that's a good deal, $26 a day and if you hit Chops or Playmakers 2x a day you will have easily gotten your money's worth.

I am all about the UDP in every case unless a ship only has about 3 specialty restaurants and an El Loco Fresh. I could survive off of E.L.F and an either a Chop+1 or 3N dining package . 

[Jkaczano]

4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

@Jkaczanoat $255 that's a good deal, $26 a day and if you hit Chops or Playmakers 2x a day you will have easily gotten your money's worth.

I am all about the UDP in every case unless a ship only has about 3 specialty restaurants and an El Loco Fresh. I could survive off of E.L.F and an either a Chop+1 or 3N dining package . 

I was looking at doing a smaller package but the 3 night package was $102 and 5 night was $157 per person.  Not sure it was “worth” it, but at least the teens won’t complain there’s nothing to eat.  

[mom2mybugs]

I will say that when we did our heavy port Mediterranean 12 day cruise, we were tired at the end of the day.  To be honest, my husband and I really used the windjammer more than on any other cruise.  It was nice to just relax and not overeat.  We did a couple specialty dining, but didn't want the huge "event" every night.  Plus we never saw our 16 year old at dinner because she found friends she ate with, so it would have been a waste of money.  Jane

[Traveling Mike]

I did the UDP on the Symphony of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas.  Both times I found it worth the cost and not much of a hassle.  The selection was much better on the Symphony, and I ended up eating every meal on the UDP.  Playmakers and Jonney Rockets was my friends at lunch time.  Every dinner was at a high-end restaurant.  My other 4 cruses this year I have just did a dinning package of 3 or 5 nights and was really happy with that also.  I would look through the main dining room menu and pick nights that did not look great, or I would go on formal nights.

Note:  On my Alaska cruise all the restaurants filled up and could not be booked by people with the UDP.  Plan your nights ahead of time and while waiting to get on the ship see if you can connect to the ships wifi.  If you can book your dinner reservations.  If not, as soon as you get on the ship go to one of the specialty dining restaurants and book all of your meals.

[Jill]

On 8/5/2022 at 10:50 AM, Crey91 said:

Hello! My husband and I purchased the UDP for a 12 night holy land cruise on Odyssey of the Seas. When reading through forum posts and what’s on the website, there appear to be a lot of associated charges with some of the speciality restaurants and seems a bit complicated. Is the UDP even worth it? 

We are on the 12 night Holy Land this October. We chose the 5 night plan. I plan to make reservations on the first 3 nights (embarkation and 2 sea days = plenty of time to enjoy a nice dinner). Night 4 will be when we are in Chania (Crete) as we leave there at 3:00. Night 5 will be our last sea day. 
 

We normally do UDP BUT I’ve heard enough from others that there may be nights you don’t even get back onboard until 7/8:00 at night. You either hit up windjammer and go to bed or get into the MDR in what you wore ashore. I just don’t think we will use it enough. We also are in a JS so will try to get into Coastal Kitchen for dinner once or twice if available. 

[Crey91]

Thanks, everyone! This is very helpful - all very good points. This will be our first cruise with RC, so I think we may go ahead with the UDP this go-round and see what we think.