Did the unlimited dining package on Oasis...won't do it again

[dmattinson]

My wife and I got away for a "just the two of us" cruise last week and given the whole premier debacle and the onboard credits they gave me as a courtesy, coupled with some Giovanni's lunch reservations I made that were pre-paid, I figured it would be a nice opportunity to book it at a discount.  

We boarded the ship right around 10:30A and went to the empty reservation desk in the Promenade.  We were only able to get 1 Chops dinner reservation and all the rest were split between Giovanni's and 150 Central Park save 1 night which we wanted for Hibachi.   Well, you can't make Hibachi reservations anywhere but Izumi so we booked all but night 4 and I make my way down to Izumi to book my hibachi reservation...and was greeted with a line out the door and to the stairs.  Looks like everyone is just heading to Izumi to make ALL their reservations during the cruise.  I find it odd that you can only make a hibachi reservation there but can make a sushi reservation anywhere.  Any restaurant can cancel the hibachi but they can't make a new one.  But other restaurants can book a reservation for anywhere else. 

So I wait in line about 45 minutes, watch people walk out either happy or pissed off.  The couple in front of me gave up and said they will do without hibachi this trip and left.  When I got up to the podium, I asked if there was anything for night 4 and the hostess said yes, for 2 people they can seat us at the 9:15 seating.  Great!  I'll take it and thank you!  Off I go...we hear Giovanni's is doing lunch for embarkation for the dining package folks so we go check it out.  As we are sitting there, I check the reservations for day 4 nothing is showing yet...maybe its a bit slow.  We'll check again later.

Well, later on we did check and still didn't see it - but I did look at the other days and found that she booked the hibachi as the same day as our only Chops dinner.  UGH!

We ask at Chops if they can change the day...they are sold out for the entire cruise.  So we just ask them to cancel hibachi and book sushi on the 4th night and we'll manage (we don't eat fish).

So, here's the good...it was food.  At Giovanni's, too much food.  Food brought out without asking....shameful wasting of food. I didn't think the food was all that great with a few standouts.  At sushi, we both very much enjoyed our selections from the bowls section of the menu.  I got beef udon and Tonkotsu pork ramen.  My wife got some fried rice and a chicken teriyaki dish.  Both of us were pleasantly surprised.  In 150 Central Park, the fried cheesecake bites were amazing.   Outside of that, the beef dishes were coated in a port sauce that had warm spices like cinnamon and/or nutmeg in them (aside from Chops), the beef cuts were all choice or worse cuts, the potatoes were loaded with garlic and/or truffles, and there were very few salad appetizer options.  Chicken piccata sauce was garlic gravy and not a bright lemon, white wine sauce with capers.  Veal medallions were OK but again, lower cut of beef that wasn't tender.  Just overall average food...I think the appeal is the abundance, not the over-arching quality.  

We also took advantage of the ala carte restaurants and very much enjoyed Johnny Rockets.  By the 6th night, we skipped a repeat of the same restaurant we had been to twice already that week and enjoyed a burger and fries dinner with apple pie ala mode for desert.  We also at at Portside BBQ on our 1st sea day...I thought the sausage was good and the brisket wasn't too bad.  The mac and cheese was flavorless and the beans tasted like Heinz English breakfast beans.   We also went to Playmaker's one evening for a snack after an early dinner. It was OK (and similar to other ships we have eaten at Playmaker's).

I wasn't sure what to expect...it would give us a chance to avoid the MDR and we hoped give a little variety to our meals.  However, it was very much eating the same over and over and I think we would have had a better variety from the MDR menus.  Given the cost of the package and the additional tips, I still was out more money than I expected as part of the deal.  Am I glad I tried it, sure, I guess...if anything to let me know that I shouldn't wonder about it again and just enjoy the MDR, buffet, and other included dining options with give plenty of variety.  

I can't imagine what was available for those that boarded after 1P - I don't know if people were able to secure dining reservations for all of their choices that boarder later...but I would be pissed if I spent over $500 and couldn't eat where I wanted because they oversold the package.

[ChessE4]

We prefer to book the occasional meal in cruise planner to avoid what you described.

[CanHardlyWait]

Thank you for an honest review. Now I really don't feel like I'm missing out on anything all that special. LOL.

[Ryan79]

This is why I don’t do dining packages and just fork over the $$ for stand alone speciality dining reservations. I’m just wayyyyyy too much of an OCD planning freak to not have dining nailed down prior to sailing. The discount isn’t worth my anxiety!

[CruiseGus]

The UDP can be hit or miss depending on the ship and sailing date.

The good news is if when you board and getting reservations is difficult and not to your liking, they will gladly allow you to cancel that package for a fully refundable OBC

[Linda R]

I enjoy Unlimited Dining.  We just go to a restaurant that is not serving lunch on embarkation and book for the week. Usually only 1 or 2 people in line.  Or we book at the table in lobby.  Can usually get what we are looking for in dining times.  I have also booked shows and dinners with host at the Diamond lounge.   Other times we go to lunch and I book the restaurants on my phone.   It just depends.  Sometimes we just show up at a restaurant and see if they have space for us.  More often than not they do.  Many people are no shows.  We do not always get Unlimited dining, but when we do we really enjoy it.   And tend to eat too much!  We like getting unlimited on transatlantic cruises as many sea days.  So you can enjoy both lunches and dinners.    

[Lexster]

Yeah, one of the issues is the menus for specialty dining don't ever change, so once you've gone there once, you've seen everything they have. This is opposed to the MDR and Windjammer which changes things up every day. For me, personally, I think the Chops +1 or the 3 day package is a good balance unless you're on a shorter sailing where you won't have to double up on visiting restaurants.

[FSUFAN]

I guess I'm just a cheapskate.  I can't justify the extra cost on top of the MDR meal that I have already paid for via the overall cabin cost. 

There has to be a soft cost for the MDR.  I can guess that it is at least $30/pp each night.  So, I forego the $30/pp (that I paid for) and then add another $40/pp to $80/pp on that.  So, a meal out at the specialty restaurant costs me, in soft and hard dollars, around $150-$200 (depending on the plan price).  And I am having to fight to get a reservation!  Sorry no.

I know that people like it and I know that it makes money for RCL.  Still, I am SMH .  

[ScottD]

18 minutes ago, FSUFAN said:

I guess I'm just a cheapskate.  I can't justify the extra cost on top of the MDR meal that I have already paid for via the overall cabin cost. 

There has to be a soft cost for the MDR.  I can guess that it is at least $30/pp each night.  So, I forego the $30/pp (that I paid for) and then add another $40/pp to $80/pp on that.  So, a meal out at the specialty restaurant costs me, in soft and hard dollars, around $150-$200 (depending on the plan price).  And I am having to fight to get a reservation!  Sorry no.

I know that people like it and I know that it makes money for RCL.  Still, I am SMH .  

You could just go to one and pay for a one time meal, or try a lunch for even cheaper. I haven't done specialty dining myself, but i can see the appeal once or twice...especially for an occasion, but not for a whole weeks worth. 

[Lexster]

1 hour ago, FSUFAN said:

I guess I'm just a cheapskate.  I can't justify the extra cost on top of the MDR meal that I have already paid for via the overall cabin cost. 

There has to be a soft cost for the MDR.  I can guess that it is at least $30/pp each night.  So, I forego the $30/pp (that I paid for) and then add another $40/pp to $80/pp on that.  So, a meal out at the specialty restaurant costs me, in soft and hard dollars, around $150-$200 (depending on the plan price).  And I am having to fight to get a reservation!  Sorry no.

I know that people like it and I know that it makes money for RCL.  Still, I am SMH .  

You're not wrong. Indeed, no doubt the cost of food in the MDR is factored into your ticket price and you can absolutely have a great time never paying anything extra. It is vacation, though, and some people enjoy splurging on extra things that may be a higher value than the included food and I think that's valid, too.

To be fair about "fighting for a reservation", the OPs issue was they wanted to book Izumi which can only be done there. Izumi has extremely limited seating, so that's likely why they do that. There are only two hibachi tables and dinner is probably around two hours, so that's why it sells out fast. If you're trying to go anywhere else, they have a reservation desk usually on boarding day on the Promenade and if you do it soon after boarding, you'll likely get most, if not all, of the spots you want with minimal issue.

That being said, I would agree that unless you're going to completely forego the MDR and Windjammer for your meals, I wouldn't get the UDP since you are then wasting your money.

[Xaa]

1 hour ago, FSUFAN said:

There has to be a soft cost for the MDR.  I can guess that it is at least $30/pp each night.  So, I forego the $30/pp (that I paid for) and then add another $40/pp to $80/pp on that.  So, a meal out at the specialty restaurant costs me, in soft and hard dollars, around $150-$200 (depending on the plan price).  And I am having to fight to get a reservation!  Sorry no.

Help me with your math here.

I get that you are valuing a dinner in MDR at a soft cost of $30.  With UDP, on a 7 nighter, it would be around $40 if you only used it for dinner. Let's add18% and w're at 47.20.  So soft plus hard then is $77.20.  How are you getting to 150-200?  I know if I eat at the local steakhouse (which i do like more than Chops), we end up leaving at about 150 per head, but this is coming out to under 80 per head by my calculations.  What am I missing.

Of course if you get UDP lunches your new hard dinner dollars per night go down but you sacrifice some soft lunch dollars.

I don't get UDP because I enjoy MDR.  I do like a 3 night package though.

[Jolly Ogre]

Wow that is unfortunate.  We were on Oasis in Dec and even at full capacity we went to Izumi's 1st thing when we boarded to make our reservations.

There was nobody there and we made all our other reservations for the week at the same time. Even when we were done there were no other passengers waiting for us to finish. 

When we got to each restaurant for the nights dinner there were only like 3-4 other couples/families in the place. Even when we finished and were leaving there were plenty of tables empty.

[Atlantix2000]

3 hours ago, Xaa said:

Help me with your math here.

I get that you are valuing a dinner in MDR at a soft cost of $30.  With UDP, on a 7 nighter, it would be around $40 if you only used it for dinner. Let's add18% and w're at 47.20.  So soft plus hard then is $77.20.  How are you getting to 150-200?  I know if I eat at the local steakhouse (which i do like more than Chops), we end up leaving at about 150 per head, but this is coming out to under 80 per head by my calculations.  What am I missing.

Of course if you get UDP lunches your new hard dinner dollars per night go down but you sacrifice some soft lunch dollars.

I don't get UDP because I enjoy MDR.  I do like a 3 night package though.

The $150-200 estimate doesn't say per person, that's the total cost for a couple.

[Xaa]

15 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

The $150-200 estimate doesn't say per person, that's the total cost for a couple.

It must be.  

$150 all in, which includes $60 in "soft" already sunk cost for a dinner at Chops doesn't seem like an outrageous amount to me.  I think it would be hard to get it for less at home.

[Atlantix2000]

5 hours ago, FSUFAN said:

I guess I'm just a cheapskate.  I can't justify the extra cost on top of the MDR meal that I have already paid for via the overall cabin cost. 

There has to be a soft cost for the MDR.  I can guess that it is at least $30/pp each night.  So, I forego the $30/pp (that I paid for) and then add another $40/pp to $80/pp on that.

I don't think you actually have to forego the MDR meal when you eat in specialty, but virtually everyone probably does do that.  I don't see why you couldn't eat at the MDR early seating and then have a late meal in specialty (or the other way around).  It would be a lot of food though.  Nor sure whether that helps or hurts your calculations though.

[FSUFAN]

19 hours ago, Xaa said:

Help me with your math here.

I get that you are valuing a dinner in MDR at a soft cost of $30.  With UDP, on a 7 nighter, it would be around $40 if you only used it for dinner. Let's add18% and w're at 47.20.  So soft plus hard then is $77.20.  How are you getting to 150-200?  I know if I eat at the local steakhouse (which i do like more than Chops), we end up leaving at about 150 per head, but this is coming out to under 80 per head by my calculations.  What am I missing.

That was a couple's price. In my case, Mrs Fan would join me for dinner (or I would be like a man on death row, my last meal).

So your $77.20 x 2 = $154.40. 

Chops +1 on our upcoming Quantum cruise is $85/pp.  So, in that case ($85+$30) x 2 = $230.  Add in the 18% and you are now at $260 for a couple. Add in a few glasses of wine and a couple of scotch on the rocks and you are in Smith & Wollensky territory.

Again, I'm not down on those who choose to spend that money - and it is their choice. 

[Xaa]

$260 total for 4 meals or $65 per head.  It's in line with on land.  Cheaper even.  The drinks are a wash because I assume you're going to get those whether you go to Chops or MDR.

Looking at Smith Wollensky menu, I don't see how you have an appetizer, 10oz filet, one side and dessert for less than $110 pp plus tip $133 pp or your $260 for just 1 dinner each.  That's before drinks.

Everybody should pick for themselves.  I don't do UDP, but cost wise it's not outrageous or really even close from where I'm seated.

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

I’ve never done specialty dining on any of my previous cruises and most likely all my future ones too!  I am not a big eater and cannot force myself to eat more than what I am used to…even on vacation.  At home I use a small dinner plate (typically a salad plate) and that fills me just fine.  If I overindulge I just feel like “crap” for the next few hours and that is not how I want to feel while on vacation.  Living in RI, we have so many exceptional restaurants…some pricey and some not so pricey.  There are so many choices…Thai, Hibachi, Italian, Steak, Seafood, Mexican, Mediterranean, Korean, etc, etc, etc.  While on a cruise vacation, I don’t feel the need to pay extra for a meal (or tons of food) which may or may not be served to me as I ordered it and most likely wasted!  At least at home, I can take my leftovers with me and enjoy 2 more meals from my one dinner selection!  
I do enjoy reading all about everyone’s food experiences on this blog and the pictures look amazing.  I’ve been tempted to at least try Chops (I am a huge fan of expensive cuts of beef) but haven’t bit the bullet yet.  Perhaps, if I am lucky enough someday to book a JS on a ship that has CK, I will get to try out the filet that is served there.  Maybe?  Someday?

In the meantime I will continue to enjoy reading about and viewing pictures of the dining experiences many of you post on this blog.  

[Pattycruise]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:36 AM, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

 I’ve been tempted to at least try Chops (I am a huge fan of expensive cuts of beef) but haven’t bit the bullet yet.  Perhaps, if I am lucky enough someday to book a JS on a ship that has CK, I will get to try out the filet that is served there.  Maybe?  Someday?

In the meantime I will continue to enjoy reading about and viewing pictures of the dining experiences many of you post on this blog.  

I enjoy Chops.  The lunch is 1/2 price of the dinner..cheapest to buy it in the cruise planner,  and the filet is slightly smaller than the dinner menu.   some items are not on the lunch menu (lobster bisque comes to mind). I LOVE the jumbo shrimp cocktail, it reminds me of shrimp in the MDR all those years ago .

as for CK, I had a JS on Anthem in February and do not recall filet on the menu.  Maybe it was served the first night? We were dining in the MDR and after our first night there decided to take advantage of CK, which still offers the classics. In addition to their menu.

[WAAAYTOOO]

Historically, filet night in the CK is the first night.  Just before the shutdown, Oasis decided to move their filet night to night #3 but I think they have since, moved it back to night #1.

[Wheeler825]

Royal really needs to rethink how they do unlimited dining and reservations, and completely fix the Izumi issue.  On Harmony in Feb I was talking to the host there while waiting for my sushi takeout and he said when they were designing the restaurant on ship they asked for twice the seating that they ended up with.

[Aron_Ross]

My girlfriend and I are new to Royal as of last year.  We sailed Freedom in May and only dined at Giovanni's which is our favorite specialty restaurant to date.  Then in Nov we decided to try the 3 night dining package, which was an 8 night sailing.  I was hitting a milestone bday so I figured let's splurge.  I just couldn't justify the unlimited.  It seemed like way too much food, plus we like our MDR and Windjammer time too.  By the way, Windjammer on the Harmony cruise...dinner was terrible!!  Food was often cold and tasteless.  I made sure they knew about it in the post cruise survey.  Skipping forward to Navigator in Jan of this year, we tried Izumi Sushi, Jaime's for a 2nd time and Playmaker's.  I have to say, we were not impressed with any of them.  Living in Los Angeles the food scene has gotten better since I moved here in 2007.  We have great sushi and some pretty good Italian...well better than Jaime's that's for sure.  Playmaker's was a bunch of fried frozen food, even the burger was just ok.  

Back to the 3 night dining Harmony sailing, our three choices were Chops, Wonderland and 150 Central Park.  We added a lunch at Jaime's for an extra cost.  Again, wasn't too impressed with Jaime's.  The reason we gave it another shot on Navigator, my girlfriend was not feeling well on Harmony the day of Jaime's and didn't eat much.  Surprisingly my favorite was Wonderland.  I liked the food a lot, but she didn't.  Chops was very disappointing, sides were bad and my ribeye was of poor quality.  150 Central was good, but I just feel like Wonderland and 150 are worth doing once only, especially for the price.  I'm glad I got most of the dining out of the way, and perhaps they are better depending on the ship, but I'm not willing to pay for them again to find out.  Unfortunately overall we are not impressed with Royal's specialty dining, but that's just us and food of course is very subjective.    

[CanHardlyWait]

1 hour ago, Aron_Ross said:

My girlfriend and I are new to Royal as of last year.  We sailed Freedom in May and only dined at Giovanni's which is our favorite specialty restaurant to date.  Then in Nov we decided to try the 3 night dining package, which was an 8 night sailing.  I was hitting a milestone bday so I figured let's splurge.  I just couldn't justify the unlimited.  It seemed like way too much food, plus we like our MDR and Windjammer time too.  By the way, Windjammer on the Harmony cruise...dinner was terrible!!  Food was often cold and tasteless.  I made sure they knew about it in the post cruise survey.  Skipping forward to Navigator in Jan of this year, we tried Izumi Sushi, Jaime's for a 2nd time and Playmaker's.  I have to say, we were not impressed with any of them.  Living in Los Angeles the food scene has gotten better since I moved here in 2007.  We have great sushi and some pretty good Italian...well better than Jaime's that's for sure.  Playmaker's was a bunch of fried frozen food, even the burger was just ok.  

Back to the 3 night dining Harmony sailing, our three choices were Chops, Wonderland and 150 Central Park.  We added a lunch at Jaime's for an extra cost.  Again, wasn't too impressed with Jaime's.  The reason we gave it another shot on Navigator, my girlfriend was not feeling well on Harmony the day of Jaime's and didn't eat much.  Surprisingly my favorite was Wonderland.  I liked the food a lot, but she didn't.  Chops was very disappointing, sides were bad and my ribeye was of poor quality.  150 Central was good, but I just feel like Wonderland and 150 are worth doing once only, especially for the price.  I'm glad I got most of the dining out of the way, and perhaps they are better depending on the ship, but I'm not willing to pay for them again to find out.  Unfortunately overall we are not impressed with Royal's specialty dining, but that's just us and food of course is very subjective.    

Thank you for your honest review. 

[Aron_Ross]

On 4/17/2023 at 2:39 PM, Ryan79 said:

This is why I don’t do dining packages and just fork over the $$ for stand alone speciality dining reservations. I’m just wayyyyyy too much of an OCD planning freak to not have dining nailed down prior to sailing. The discount isn’t worth my anxiety!

What you describe here is EXACTLY what I went through as soon as we got on board, in trying to plan our 3 night dining + Jaime's lunch, on our Harmony of the Seas sailing last year.  We were also trying to work out the show reservations and had questions about our Labadee excursion.  It gave my girlfriend and I anxiety and we started to argue...ha ha!  That is NOT the way to start an 8-day birthday celebration cruise!  Our next sailing will be on Ovation of the Seas in early May to Alaska with no dining reservations...thank god!  The Harmony cruise was the one to get most of them out of the way and mission accomplished.  Plus we are focusing on spending money on those expensive Alaskan excursions and eating the local foods.  

[Ryan79]

@Aron_Ross Funny that I was also on Harmony last year and going to Alsaka as well this summer (on Quantum). We also did a ton of specialty dining on Harmony, including a Jamie’s lunch, to try everything once and move on. We are doing only an embarkation day lunch as our only specialty dining for Alaska.  Agree 100% that the money is better spent on the excursions and local dining. This will be my second time going to Alaska and those Alaskan excursions are what makes the trip special. Almost every Caribbean port has a “beach day” option. How many RC cruises have options to take a helicopter to a glacier and then take a walk on the glacier? 

[Aron_Ross]

21 minutes ago, Ryan79 said:

@Aron_Ross Funny that I was also on Harmony last year and going to Alsaka as well this summer (on Quantum). We also did a ton of specialty dining on Harmony to try everything once and move on and are doing only an embarkation day lunch as our only specialty dining for Alaska.  Agree 100% that the money is better spent on the excursions and local dining. This will be my second time going to Alaska and those Alaskan excursions are what makes the trip special. Almost every Caribbean port has a “beach day” option. How many RC cruises have options to take a helicopter to a glacier and then take a walk on the glacier? 

Nice and wow what a coincidence.  Which Harmony sailing were you on?  We sailed 8 days Nov 12th thru Nov 20th to Labadee, Aruba and Curacao.  The ship turned out to be a floating infection.  A lot of people got sick and we did too.  My girlfriend got sick for a little over a day during our last two sea days, and when we disembarked in Fort Lauderdale, I caught the worst flu I've had in 20 years..103.5 fever that would not go away!  We had plans to fly to NYC after for Thanksgiving which we obviously cancelled.  Flying back home to Los Angeles the next day really sucked!!

How did you find the food in The Windjammer?  I posted earlier in this thread how dinner was terrible, cold tasteless food!

This will be our first time to Alaska and we are super excited!  I've watched some youtube videos from vloggers we follow and the images are breathtaking.  I can only imagine what it's going to be like in person.

[Ryan79]

@Aron_Ross I was on Harmony over New Years that went to Nassau, PDCC, Cozumel and Costa Maya. I was on the cruise that the ship made a hard u-turn and the pool water went cascading into Central Park. There is video all over YouTube of it, if you haven’t seen it. It was the first time we went with our kids and now we will get the stink eye from they should we ditch them on future cruises. I personally didn’t eat at WJ, but my kids did. Let’s just say…they didn’t go back a second time. I might give WJ a whirl in Alaska depending on the MDR menu. I’m not totally sold on the new MDR menus. Sorry to hear about you both getting sick. Hopefully Alaska and Ovation will treat you better, and if not, at least it will be a shorter flight home this time! LOL My wife and I did this cruise for a honeymoon and had so much fun we just had to go again…but this time with the kids.

[Aron_Ross]

1 hour ago, Ryan79 said:

@Aron_Ross I was on Harmony over New Years that went to Nassau, PDCC, Cozumel and Costa Maya. I was on the cruise that the ship made a hard u-turn and the pool water went cascading into Central Park. There is video all over YouTube of it, if you haven’t seen it. It was the first time we went with our kids and now we will get the stink eye from they should we ditch them on future cruises. I personally didn’t eat at WJ, but my kids did. Let’s just say…they didn’t go back a second time. I might give WJ a whirl in Alaska depending on the MDR menu. I’m not totally sold on the new MDR menus. Sorry to hear about you both getting sick. Hopefully Alaska and Ovation will treat you better, and if not, at least it will be a shorter flight home this time! LOL My wife and I did this cruise for a honeymoon and had so much fun we just had to go again…but this time with the kids.

Yessss!  I remember that whole story about the water falling down Central Park and I did see the video.  Jeez that could have been a lot worse!  I'm actually a little excited about the MDR menus, although I have read some bad reviews, thankfully not on the ships you and I are taking.  I'm thinking of doing a Chops filet in the MDR one night.  When I sailed on Freedom I did that and loved the filet, which made me excited about trying the whole Chops experience on Harmony months later.  Again, just my thoughts...not impressed at all.  Thanks for the healthy wishes.  I just got over a little sinus infection so I should be good to go in 14 days when we embark.  Had I gotten that sinus infection during Alaska, I would have been FURIOUS!!

[Aron_Ross]

@Ryan79 Did you try the roast beef sandwich at Park Cafe on Harmony?  Man, that was so disappointing!  The roll was stale and the beef was chewy.  Now that I think about it, anything bread related on that sailing was not good.  On Freedom those flower designed waffles in the Windjammer were so good!  On Harmony they were stale.  Sorrentos and the pastries were much better on Harmony compared to Freedom.  On Navigator food was average, but I do recall these WJ dinner cheese biscuits were so hard they could have injured a person if thrown at them.  My point, food seems inconsistent with Royal and I expected better.

[Ryan79]

@Aron_Ross I did try it and had the same experience with the stale roll and chewy meat. No thanks. I agree that it just seems like everything is inconsistent. For me, Navigator was actually one of the best MDR experiences I’ve ever had and loved the ship. Of course that was several years ago. I have a coworker going on Navigator in a few weeks, so I’m going to use him as a test dummy to see where their food stands now before I book a cruise on it. Wish we had more ship options out of LA and wasn’t Navigator or bust. LOL

[Aron_Ross]

@Ryan79 Are you also in the LA area?  Yeah I agree about the lack of options.  Navigator was a short test run cruise for us.  Unfortunately we didn't get to try the MDR.  That was end of Jan of this year and they were still serving the old menu.  We only did the 3-day Ensenada sailing, but I would definitely go on Navigator for the full 7-day Mexi Riviera.  I think we prefer the smaller Freedom/Voyager class ships.  They feel more connected to the ocean.  My girlfriend and I have done the Mexican Riviera twice already.  Once in 2019 on the refurbished Royal Princess and on the Carnival Panorama.  We've sailed both of those lines a few times, plus I had issues with Panorama and that's why we went on a little RC binge, to experience something different.  Those are the three cruise lines we have experienced and so far, they all have their pros and cons.  I see Celebrity in our near future but haven't booked anything yet.  My other half is team Carnival.  We do have The Celebration booked Nov 2024 out of Miami.  Looking forward to that one!  

[Ryan79]

@Aron_Ross Yes, sir I am from the LA area…born and raised. We are doing the 7 nighter Mexican Rivera at the end of this year, but doing Norwegian Bliss. The Norwegian itinerary dates worked out the best, so they were the winner for our cruise after Alaska. We did smaller ships before going with the kids. The end of 2024 we are doing a Vision class ship, so hopefully we will not be too spoiled rotten by Oasis and Quantum classes by then. LOL. I think the kids will notice the change more than my wife and I will. A couple of lava flows in us and we could be on a fishing boat and be happy! I’m also eyeballing a Celebrity cruise. I almost had one booked for 2024, but the dates just didn’t line up. Off by one day and that’s how we ended up booking the Vision class cruise instead. My bother and his wife are HUGE Celebrity fans, so we will have to give them a whirl sooner rather than later. 

[Lamont]

Is the dining package a per day charge or one price for the cruise?

[MarcBerger]

You can change and update the reservations daily, once you make the first ones with a host.

I've always done that because people end up cancelling and moving around their reservations, and days/times for certain restaurants will open up!

I love the UDP! I haven't been in a main dining room since 2017...to each their own....

[tjcruisers]

We've never done specialty dining yet (outside of Johnny Rockets). Gonna try it for a few places on our upcoming Wonder cruise. Even if we like it, would probably never get the unlimited dining package, we kind of like the MDR

[SpeedNoodles]

On 4/30/2023 at 11:13 AM, Lamont said:

Is the dining package a per day charge or one price for the cruise?

The price listed will cover the entire sailing.

[WAAAYTOOO]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:13 PM, Lamont said:

Is the dining package a per day charge or one price for the cruise?

The price you pay is for the entire cruise, per person.