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Booking resturants with Unlimited Dining Package


Bobglo31

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Hi everyone, new here and I have a question about the unlimited dining package. I understand that we cannot book all of our specialty resturants until we are on board and that makes me nervous as I have 2 other families along with us totalling 11 people, so its a very large group and we have to do it asap on board. What do you recommend is the best and timely way of booking the resturants immediately upon boarding? Would you recommend visiting guest services, or by stateroom phone, or by visiting a restaurant?

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I plan ahead of time.  I figure out what I want for lunch and dinner.  Then as soon as I get on the ship I do directly to one of the Speiclaty Restaurants and have them book all of my days.  If you have multiple rooms have all of their information with you.  What I would do is make sure each family has the plan and each one head to a different restaurant.  Some of the time they are closed, or they have a long line of people trying to book.  If you are setting waiting to get on the ship some of the time you can connect to the ship WiFi and book your own rooms on the phone app.

 

 

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  • SpeedNoodles changed the title to Booking resturants with Unlimited Dining Package

Depending on the ship and your time of embarkation, some specialty restaurants will not be open until after 11:30. So the reservations will mostly be made at the specialty dining kiosk located on deck 5 when you board or by staff from the main dining room(MDR) on iPad. It is important to know everyone's rooms numbers so they can make the reservations, also having times and backup times will be key. 

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2 hours ago, RoseofTX said:

I have seen several posts that suggest that you can book them in advance in the planner and either not get charged or get a (refundable) OBC for the price if you use the OBC. For places like Izumi, this would seem the best way to assure you get in. 

I just posted about this on the other topic but seems like Royal is getting hip to this. A coworker of mine said they did this and had to pay for the first night as they are requiring 24hrs notice before specialty dining cancellations. It says so in the app, but they weren't enforcing it. 

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1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I just posted about this on the other topic but seems like Royal is getting hip to this. A coworker of mine said they did this and had to pay for the first night as they are requiring 24hrs notice before specialty dining cancellations. It says so in the app, but they weren't enforcing it. 

It seems like they could allow for bookings the UDP restaurants in advance.  Of course it probably reduce sales since people would reconsider booking it once the prime slots were filled.  


But as you say, I can see now how the hack works. Since it says you can cancel on board beyond 24 hours with no penalty for OBC.  But I don't think you should be able to automatically swap your reservation from paid to UDP. A wait list for example would solve that.   

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13 hours ago, RoseofTX said:

It seems like they could allow for bookings the UDP restaurants in advance.  Of course it probably reduce sales since people would reconsider booking it once the prime slots were filled.  


But as you say, I can see now how the hack works. Since it says you can cancel on board beyond 24 hours with no penalty for OBC.  But I don't think you should be able to automatically swap your reservation from paid to UDP. A wait list for example would solve that.   

If Royal's IT was better, and this would make the process easier for everyone involved with a dining package including their staff, is when booking the dining package passengers choose their preferred restaurants and times blocks (ex. Day 3; Teppanyaki; 6:00pm - 7:00 pm) then reservations are assigned and sent out closer to the sailing. On 3-5 night packages, Royal could guarantee the day, restaurant and time block; with UDP they could guarantee the time block and that you'll be able to visit each restaurant selected for a reservation at least once during the sailing. Or Royal could go for broke, turn the dining packages into a Restaurant GTY, and have purchasers select which restaurants they'd like to use the package at, then assign dining times between 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm and which day the reservation is happening on. Toss in a comped MDR lobster tail, during specialty dining, if the reservation falls on lobster night to keep people happy.

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On 3/24/2023 at 5:49 PM, RoseofTX said:

It seems like they could allow for bookings the UDP restaurants in advance.  Of course it probably reduce sales since people would reconsider booking it once the prime slots were filled.  

But you can already book dining now by paying full price.  The point of the UDP is to trade booking now for a lower price.  If their IT people were better, perhaps they could reduce the prices the more you book.  Like first reservation is always full price, then 2-3 get 10% off, the next 2-3 get 20% off, etc.  Unfortunately, that will get complicated if you then go back and cancel the original full price meal which means your second one should have been full price, etc.

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3 hours ago, Atlantix2000 said:

But you can already book dining now by paying full price.  The point of the UDP is to trade booking now for a lower price.  

But that's the hack some people have worked out, book now to get your desired spot and buy the UDP.  Once they get on board, they cancel their paid booking and swap in their UDP.  To me, I don't want to use the hack, but it makes the UDP less attractive not knowing what is going to be left when I get the option to book.

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3 hours ago, RoseofTX said:

But that's the hack some people have worked out, book now to get your desired spot and buy the UDP.  Once they get on board, they cancel their paid booking and swap in their UDP.  To me, I don't want to use the hack, but it makes the UDP less attractive not knowing what is going to be left when I get the option to book.

Right.  Less attractive,  less costly per meal.  That's the tradeoff.  It isn't for everyone or every situation,  but if there is flexibility,  there can be a lot of savings.

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