3 Night Dining Package on a 10 night cruise

[cruisingcpl]

We're not interested in having dinner every night in a specialty restaurant, so we're thinking of just buying a 3 night UDP instead. For those who have bought this, does this have to be 3 consecutive nights or can it be spread out over the 10 night cruise?

 

From what I understand, UDP can be used once per day per venue, I assume that would mean that I would need to have lunch at a specialty restaurant the same day that I will be eating dinner at another specialty restaurant.. Or does the 3 night UDP only limit you to 3 dinners at specialty restaurants and does not include lunch at another venue?

 

If I choose to upgrade to Chef's Table for the additional $49.99, does this count as one of the nights or is this an add-on to the 3 nights UDP?

 

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated..

[WAAAYTOOO]

6 hours ago, cruisingcpl said:

We're not interested in having dinner every night in a specialty restaurant, so we're thinking of just buying a 3 night UDP instead. For those who have bought this, does this have to be 3 consecutive nights or can it be spread out over the 10 night cruise?

 

From what I understand, UDP can be used once per day per venue, I assume that would mean that I would need to have lunch at a specialty restaurant the same day that I will be eating dinner at another specialty restaurant.. Or does the 3 night UDP only limit you to 3 dinners at specialty restaurants and does not include lunch at another venue?

 

If I choose to upgrade to Chef's Table for the additional $49.99, does this count as one of the nights or is this an add-on to the 3 nights UDP?

 

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated..

First of all, let me concur with your instinct.  IMO, the UDP for 10 nights would be waaaytooo much food.  Is there a 5 night plan offered on your sailing ?  You didn't mention which ship...but if you are on an Oasis or Quantum class ship, you will have many more options for specialty dining than if you are on one of the smaller classes.

With the 3 (or 5) night packages, you can choose any night (or lunch, if you so choose).  They do not have to be consecutive....and you can eat in any restaurant that can accommodate you, any time they are open for service.  IOW, if you wanted to have all 3 meals in Chops...that's ok...as long as Chops has the seating available.

Regarding the 1 day/night per restaurant...there seems to be some confusion about this at the moment.  In the past, the UDP (Unlimited) would allow you to dine anywhere at any time so long as the restaurant can seat you.  Recently there has been discussion about whether or not you can visit more than 1 restaurant per day.  There are definitely restrictions on how often you can visit the ala carte restaurants (Playmakers, etc.) but you have always (previously) been able to visit any of the flat fee restaurants as often as you wanted.  Perhaps that is changing.  I cannot say.  Just an aside - anyone who can visit one of the full service restaurants twice in 1 evening has my admiration.  That is a LOT of food !  Personally, I cannot even visit a specialty restaurant for lunch and then follow up with another specialty restaurant for dinner !  We normally don't eat lunch at home, but on a ship overeating is an art.  LOL

You are correct re: Chef's Table.  If you decide to enjoy the CT, it will cost you one of your package nights (unless you choose to pay full price) + the upcharge.  Frankly, the upcharge is primarily to cover the extra wine but I'm sure part of it is to cover additional food as well.  If you have never done the CT before, I do recommend it.  It's a fun night - lots of food, lots of wine and generally, excellent company.

Enjoy your specialty dining, whatever you decide.  My personal recommendation would be for a 5 night plan, followed by a 3 night plan.  The UDP would be overkill, for sure.

[Ryan79]

One thing you are confusing is that the 3 nighter is not an UDP. You get three meals out of it….that’s it. You could substitute a lunch for a dinner, but that would be one of the three meals. The actual UDP does allow you to also book lunches in addition to dinners. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

27 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Just an aside - anyone who can visit one of the full service restaurants twice in 1 evening has my admiration.  That is a LOT of food !  Personally, I cannot even visit a specialty restaurant for lunch and then follow up with another specialty restaurant for dinner !  We normally don't eat lunch at home, but on a ship overeating is an art.  LOL

This is so true! A few months ago, before we took my parents on HM, they were telling us they had friends who were cruising Wonder just after we got off Harmony. This was in March 2023. Anyhow, these friends of theirs were telling my parents how they planned to go town with eating because they had purchased the UDP for Wonder. I told my parents to tell them that is a crazy amount of food. These friends were even planning to eat dinner at 5:30pm and try again at 9pm at another restaurant.

Fast forward to our Harmony cruise where my parents had a chance to experience the UDP, I asked my Dad after an early dinner at Chops if he felt he could eat another meal after that. He laughed and said no way of course. They quickly told their friends afterwards it might be overdoing it if they tried multiple meals a day with the UDP. In the end, their friends just had one dinner each night lol.

We are like that too. Normally at home we eat light at choose our foods carefully. The first few days of cruising is always a shock to the system.

[Ampurp85]

As other have stated its not an UDP but 3 nights. Which can be used in any combination of lunch and dinner but for a total of 3. Please be advised you have to book the Chef's Table onboard because they will not refund you if you pre-book.

So my brother got the UDP this past Jan for the first time. He can eat, he made plans to take advantage by hitting the a la carte for lunch and snacks. FYI you can visit each one, once a day they kept track of this with a clipboard on Oasis. This only happened once as he got some wings to go from Playmakers after we left a show. To get our money worth we skipped breakfast, had lunch in one of the specialty restaurants around 12/1 and then dinner around 8:15/8:45. I am shocked people want to double dip....also considering the dining times are at least 90min .

[cruisingcpl]

Thanks for the replies.. I think we'll just book individual meals.. Not that much savings if it's just 3 meals and booking individual specialty restaurants means we can book ahead of time before going on board..