BOGO at specialty restaurants

[Mike n Ky]

I recently became aware of this for diamond and above and that it is only available once you get on board. I was told that each of us can book it that way for up to 2 people on each booking. Has anyone done this and how does it match up for cost rather than online booking?

FWIW, we already had a Chops+1 paid for when I heard of this on the ship.

[steverk]

I did it twice. It worked fine. Went to the restaurant.  Told them I wanted to do the bogo deal. Easy peasy.

A couple points though. I believe this is a D+ benefit rather than D.

It's only valid for the first 2 nights. And I  think it's limited in the restaurants you can visit.

[Ampurp85]

I am told on small ships they will allow D members to partake of the BOGO offer. YMMV on all ships as some will require you to book and dine on night 1 and/or 2. While other only care that you book then and can dine any night. 

But it is based on onboard prices which according to CP list Chops at $65+ grats. If you only want to do two nights of specialty dining, then it is a good deal as you pay for one night and get one night free. Hooked and Hibachi along with Chefs table aren't included in the offer. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

I’ve never known BOGO to be offered to D but there’s lots of things I don’t know !  . To my knowledge, it is just available to D+ and Pinnacle.

Our recent experience with BOGO has been mixed.  On Wonder we were required to use both of our BOGO on nights 1 and 2.  On Grandeur, we were allowed to pay for our meals on night #2 and then eat our “free” meal later in the cruise.  The second scenario is much better IMO.

When you get on the ship and go to the kiosk or restaurant to make you specialty dining reservations, tell them that you want to book a specialty restaurant on day 1 or 2 (whichever is your preference) and that you will both be paying FULL price on that first night.  Then, make another reservation later in the week and for that one, you should get a -0- balance bill. Where it can get confusing is if you pay (on night #1) for a cheaper restaurant and then go to a more expensive one on the second night, they may or may not charge you for the more expensive restaurant and refund you the money for your earlier, less expensive choice.  For this reason, we always choose Chops as our “pay” restaurant so that the second night will never be more expensive than the first, was.  There are also some who pre-purchase a reduced price meal prior to boarding and try and use that as their “paid” meal.  This is slightly scammy IMO so we never do this but I have read of those that try it.  Some get away with it, I guess…

In general, Chops+1 will run you about $90 PP (plus grats) depending upon the ship and sail date and full onboard price for a Chops dinner is approximately $65 PP (plus grats) so it will always be cheaper to do BOGO than Chops+1…at least as far as I have experienced.

 

[Ampurp85]

@WAAAYTOOO Coincidentally enough I was on Grandeur when they were allowing D to do the BOGO. Thats why I said YMMV. I asked about it and several people said they were able to partake on Radiance and Vision class. But we both know that Royal is really inconsistent . 

[OCSC Mike]

3 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Coincidentally enough I was on Grandeur when they were allowing D to do the BOGO.

Just curious, what would make someone who is Diamond even ask? Was there some sort of announcement or invitation from staff? Did someone see a D+ book a BOGO and ask if they could get in on that?

I've been Diamond for a while and it would never even cross my mind to ask for a D+ perk I know I shouldn't receive.

[Doug_Texas]

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I’ve never known BOGO to be offered to D but there’s lots of things I don’t know !  . To my knowledge, it is just available to D+ and Pinnacle.

Our recent experience with BOGO has been mixed.  On Wonder we were required to use both of our BOGO on nights 1 and 2.  On Grandeur, we were allowed to pay for our meals on night #2 and then eat our “free” meal later in the cruise.  The second scenario is much better IMO.

When you get on the ship and go to the kiosk or restaurant to make you specialty dining reservations, tell them that you want to book a specialty restaurant on day 1 or 2 (whichever is your preference) and that you will both be paying FULL price on that first night.  Then, make another reservation later in the week and for that one, you should get a -0- balance bill. Where it can get confusing is if you pay (on night #1) for a cheaper restaurant and then go to a more expensive one on the second night, they may or may not charge you for the more expensive restaurant and refund you the money for your earlier, less expensive choice.  For this reason, we always choose Chops as our “pay” restaurant so that the second night will never be more expensive than the first, was.  There are also some who pre-purchase a reduced price meal prior to boarding and try and use that as their “paid” meal.  This is slightly scammy IMO so we never do this but I have read of those that try it.  Some get away with it, I guess…

In general, Chops+1 will run you about $90 PP (plus grats) depending upon the ship and sail date and full onboard price for a Chops dinner is approximately $65 PP (plus grats) so it will always be cheaper to do BOGO than Chops+1…at least as far as I have experienced.

 

This is all very interesting.  We've always followed the program rather strictly.  I use my BOGO on evening 1 so pay for my meal and my wife is no charge.  My wife uses her BOGO on night 2 and my meal is no charge. These alternative approaches are very interesting.

[Ampurp85]

7 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Just curious, what would make someone who is Diamond even ask? Was there some sort of announcement or invitation from staff? Did someone see a D+ book a BOGO and ask if they could get in on that?

I've been Diamond for a while and it would never even cross my mind to ask for a D+ perk I know I shouldn't receive.

The staff for the specialty restaurants were going around asking people to book. I was in the DL and they said as long as you were D, they would give you the BOGO. Nobody asked, the staff offered to get covers. I saw a couple of people take advantage, but Grandeur has Giovanni's table, Chops and Izumi only. I didn't partake because I had already eaten at Chops and I loathe Giovanni's table. I recall making a post because the staff tried to convince me this was a perk for D members. 

[OCSC Mike]

11 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

The staff for the specialty restaurants were going around asking people to book. I was in the DL and they said as long as you were D, they would give you the BOGO. Nobody asked, the staff offered to get covers. I saw a couple of people take advantage, but Grandeur has Giovanni's table, Chops and Izumi only. I didn't partake because I had already eaten at Chops and I loathe Giovanni's table. I recall making a post because the staff tried to convince me this was a perk for D members. 

That was one of the only scenarios I could think of that made sense.

We used to take advantage of "First Night Done Right" when night one was BOGO for anyone on the ship. Oh... the good old days.

[CruiseGus]

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

The staff for the specialty restaurants were going around asking people to book. I was in the DL and they said as long as you were D, they would give you the BOGO. Nobody asked, the staff offered to get covers. I saw a couple of people take advantage, but Grandeur has Giovanni's table, Chops and Izumi only. I didn't partake because I had already eaten at Chops and I loathe Giovanni's table. I recall making a post because the staff tried to convince me this was a perk for D members. 

Restaurant Manager trying to make their revenue quotas.  This can happen and does happen, but is rarely seen anymore. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 hours ago, Doug_Texas said:

This is all very interesting.  We've always followed the program rather strictly.  I use my BOGO on evening 1 so pay for my meal and my wife is no charge.  My wife uses her BOGO on night 2 and my meal is no charge. These alternative approaches are very interesting.

This is how we did it for a long time but then actually one of the suites concierges suggested that we space them out a bit so we did.  It really works either way but sometimes you just don’t want to do a specialty the first 2 nights in a row.

[CrznTxn]

When we use our BOGO it is generally on nights 1 and 2. As stated before, we schedule a reservation on night one where I use my BOGO and then on night 2 where the wife uses her BOGO. We did not see this until we reached D+ and never thought to ask when we were Diamond. It is a great perk although it does make us spend a little more than we used to as we almost never reserved a specialty restaurant before D+.

[Mike n Ky]

i appreciate all the feedback. I may have been mistaken about the D but the info was given as to why the bookings were so difficult since so many had taken advantage of the BOGO on our cruise last week. I thought he said D but may have missed that it was a D+ bene. That said we have one more sailing and then we step off D+ so I will be looking into the added benefits in the future.

[OCSC Mike]

1 minute ago, Mike n Ky said:

we have one more sailing and then we step off D+ so I will be looking into the added benefits in the future.

We're in the same boat... already planning our BOGO's for the cruises after that. We don't do much specialty dining but looking forward to the BOGO's.

[Dad2Cue]

12 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

... sometimes you just don’t want to do a specialty the first 2 nights in a row.

This is how we feel about it too.  We like going to the MDR on the first night just to meet the waiter and the assistant waiter.  We also evaluate how long it takes for the entire MDR experience because it can sometimes take 2 hours or more.  Some of the time is on us depending on how enjoyable it is.

To a certain extent our experience on the first night in the MDR  dictates how often we might be willing to consider a specially restaurant for the rest of the cruise.  I'm thinking the overall MDR experience is going down so people will go to the specialty restaurants more often.  I used to think the MDR experience was equal to the specialty restaurant experience. 

As it currently stands we plan on touching base with someone who does the reservations on the first day of the cruise.  We will ask what is allowed and not allowed. We always find the crew to be accommodating but more consistency would be better.

[OCSC Mike]

30 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

As it currently stands we plan on touching base with someone who does the reservations on the first day of the cruise.  We will ask what is allowed and not allowed. We always find the crew to be accommodating but more consistency would be better.

Agree and that's exactly our plan as well. Depending on the answers, we'll have a plan A and plan B.

[asquared17]

On 9/15/2023 at 7:41 PM, Ampurp85 said:

I recall making a post because the staff tried to convince me this was a perk for D members.

i remember this AND i remember thinking we were going inquire about it while on harmony in may. …we never did get around to it

[WAAAYTOOO]

Yet another DIFFERENT result in the BOGO situation....

Boarded Grandeur yesterday and wanted to do our usual - both pay full price for our first night and then get our follow-on meal later in the week would be $-0-.  We wanted to eat on nights 1 and 4 (Dan's birthday).  We were fully willing to pay full price for the more expensive meal (Chops) and get the second less expensive meal (Gios) for free.

No

So, it turns out that we had to go through WAAAY more maneuvers than was necessary, but in the end, it saved us money so - there's that !!

We went to Giovanni's Table last night and paid full price for 1 BOGO for which one of us paid, and the other got our meal "free".  Then, we were required to go to Chops (where we will be having our second meal, on night #4) on day #2 and pay for our second BOGO where we paid full price for one and received our second meal for $-0-. The Chops manager did some kind of maneuvering with reservations where she made us reservations for night #2 and then cancelled them and rescheduled for night #4 or something....I never fully understood what she was doing....but IMO it was all completely unnecessary.  If we had just paid full price on night #1 for both of us it would have been done....but we're getting what we want in the end, and since we only paid full price for Chops once and full price for Gios once, we ended up saving a few bucks, so.....whatever....

WHEW.  What a complete PITA

[Pattycruise]

9 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Yet another DIFFERENT result in the BOGO situation....

Boarded Grandeur yesterday and wanted to do our usual - both pay full price for our first night and then get our follow-on meal later in the week would be $-0-.  We wanted to eat on nights 1 and 4 (Dan's birthday).  We were fully willing to pay full price for the more expensive meal (Chops) and get the second less expensive meal (Gios) for free.

No

So, it turns out that we had to go through WAAAY more maneuvers than was necessary, but in the end, it saved us money so - there's that !!

We went to Giovanni's Table last night and paid full price for 1 BOGO for which one of us paid, and the other got our meal "free".  Then, we were required to go to Chops (where we will be having our second meal, on night #4) on day #2 and pay for our second BOGO where we paid full price for one and received our second meal for $-0-. The Chops manager did some kind of maneuvering with reservations where she made us reservations for night #2 and then cancelled them and rescheduled for night #4 or something....I never fully understood what she was doing....but IMO it was all completely unnecessary.  If we had just paid full price on night #1 for both of us it would have been done....but we're getting what we want in the end, and since we only paid full price for Chops once and full price for Gios once, we ended up saving a few bucks, so.....whatever....

WHEW.  What a complete PITA

I'm not surprised they can make anything work, if they want to!
I've been following all of these posts and I'll throw a different happening into the arena.
The BOGO must be booked on Day 1 or Day 2, but does not necessaarily have to be eaten on Day 1 or Day 2....meaning you can use it to book for another night, wihich appears is what happened to you.  Of course this experience can vary from ship to ship, heck even from specialty dining manager to specialty dining manager.

Another idea for those booking in the cruise planner, book for later in your sailing as you have 48 hours prior to your booking to cancel.  When you board you can inquire about the BOGO, if it works out cheaper for you book that and then cancel your cruise planner dinner reservation.  
Ex. Book cruise planner for night 5 or 6.  Board, check into BOGO-it works, cancel that day 5 or 6 dinner.  
The only "issue" with canceling cruise planner is you have to wait for the $ to go back on your credit card. 

[RCIfan1912]

On 9/15/2023 at 2:16 PM, steverk said:

I did it twice. It worked fine. Went to the restaurant.  Told them I wanted to do the bogo deal. Easy peasy.

A couple points though. I believe this is a D+ benefit rather than D.

It's only valid for the first 2 nights. And I  think it's limited in the restaurants you can visit.

That's a lot of odd rules.

[Advika]

I love a good BOGO deal, especially when it comes to specialty restaurants! It's a fantastic way to explore new culinary experiences without breaking the bank. Whether it's trying out exotic cuisines or indulging in fine dining, BOGO offers make dining out twice as enjoyable. It's a win-win for foodies and the restaurant, as it encourages customers to try their unique dishes. Count me in for BOGO at specialty restaurants any day.

[WAAAYTOOO]

Forgive this intrusion....not about BOGO, but on a peripheral topic.

For the first time EVER, Dan and I did an ala carte meal (Izumi, Grandeur) yesterday.  We wanted something light for lunch but honestly, I could not face going to the WJ (it has been a nightmare....this cruise has SO.MANY.CHILDREN.  Why aren't they in school ?...).  So we just went up to Izumi (no rez) and ordered some soup and dumplings.  Came out to $25 (including grat.) for both of us.  What a GREAT decision.  I will consider this again ANY time. 

Honestly, we rarely eat lunch...but this was a great solution for a quick, tasty meal....and worth every penny.

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

SO.MANY.CHILDREN.  Why aren't they in school ?

Add in that you're on an older ship and that's very odd. I know more and more parents are pulling their kids out of school to go cruising when it's more affordable (i.e. not summer) but I wouldn't expect them to pick a ship like Grandeur. Hope the cruise is going well otherwise.

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Add in that you're on an older ship and that's very odd. I know more and more parents are pulling their kids out of school to go cruising when it's more affordable (i.e. not summer) but I wouldn't expect them to pick a ship like Grandeur. Hope the cruise is going well otherwise.

Totally agree.  This came as a surprise to me.  I do understand that "kids sail free" is a big magnet...so not completely surprised but this cruise is OVERWHELMED.  I am staying out of public spaces whenever I can.  

On a side note, the casino is being VERY good to us on this one !!

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

On a side note, the casino is being VERY good to us on this one !!

Not a bad silver lining. Hope your luck continues.

[WAAAYTOOO]

8 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Not a bad silver lining. Hope your luck continues.

Thanks, Mike !!

[Xaa]

35 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Why aren't they in school ?

A lot of the schools that start early August have a "Fall break" this time of year, so that could be impacting this week and probably next.

[JimnKathy]

23 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Yet another DIFFERENT result in the BOGO situation....

Boarded Grandeur yesterday and wanted to do our usual - both pay full price for our first night and then get our follow-on meal later in the week would be $-0-.  We wanted to eat on nights 1 and 4 (Dan's birthday).  We were fully willing to pay full price for the more expensive meal (Chops) and get the second less expensive meal (Gios) for free.

No

So, it turns out that we had to go through WAAAY more maneuvers than was necessary, but in the end, it saved us money so - there's that !!

We went to Giovanni's Table last night and paid full price for 1 BOGO for which one of us paid, and the other got our meal "free".  Then, we were required to go to Chops (where we will be having our second meal, on night #4) on day #2 and pay for our second BOGO where we paid full price for one and received our second meal for $-0-. The Chops manager did some kind of maneuvering with reservations where she made us reservations for night #2 and then cancelled them and rescheduled for night #4 or something....I never fully understood what she was doing....but IMO it was all completely unnecessary.  If we had just paid full price on night #1 for both of us it would have been done....but we're getting what we want in the end, and since we only paid full price for Chops once and full price for Gios once, we ended up saving a few bucks, so.....whatever....

WHEW.  What a complete PITA

Sounds like a techy limitation in their reservation system. Sorry you had to go through all that to accomplish something that should be a simple thing to do.

[OCSC Mike]

54 minutes ago, Xaa said:

A lot of the schools that start early August have a "Fall break" this time of year

I wish they did here with how early in August my teacher wife goes back to work. We're sneaking in a 5-nighter at the end of the month but that's just b/c there was a good price and there's a random Friday that school is closed (one of those teacher non-workdays or whatever) so she's not missing much.

If she had an actual fall break we'd likely have taken a 7-nigher and hit D+. 1st world problems, I know.

[togo]

Our recent experience on Anthem and first as D+.

We booked chops precruise for second night for one person.  Once onboard, we went to chops and the manager understood the BOGO and added my wife to the reservation.

Not sure if we were supposed to book in advance but in this case it worked. 

[RCIfan1912]

We are definitely a family that is hated and given looks because we sail mostly in the fall. We take our son out of school and we have a 18 month old. I'm very prepared for dirty looks next month on Liberty. Actually I booked it way far in advance and immediately after booking it I thought about that aspect. But in the end, of well we paid just like everyone else. We will do our very best not annoy people. 

[OCSC Mike]

3 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

We are definitely a family that is hated and given looks because we sail mostly in the fall. We take our son out of school and we have a 18 month old. I'm very prepared for dirty looks next month on Liberty. Actually I booked it way far in advance and immediately after booking it I thought about that aspect. But in the end, of well we paid just like everyone else. We will do our very best not annoy people. 

As long as you're not doing anything obnoxious, those people can go hide in the Solarium or move to Virgin. Enjoy your cruise!

[FionaMG]

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Forgive this intrusion....not about BOGO, but on a peripheral topic.

For the first time EVER, Dan and I did an ala carte meal (Izumi, Grandeur) yesterday.  We wanted something light for lunch but honestly, I could not face going to the WJ (it has been a nightmare....this cruise has SO.MANY.CHILDREN.  Why aren't they in school ?...).  So we just went up to Izumi (no rez) and ordered some soup and dumplings.  Came out to $25 (including grat.) for both of us.  What a GREAT decision.  I will consider this again ANY time. 

Honestly, we rarely eat lunch...but this was a great solution for a quick, tasty meal....and worth every penny.

DD and I did this for dinner on our Anthem cruise in July, on an evening when we really didn't fancy the MDR menu. It was really nice and because we went à la carte there was no reason to feel we weren't getting our money's worth, which is my major bone of contention with the speciality restaurants. I would definitely do it again.

[Ampurp85]

Children only bother me when they are misbehaving. I was shocked at the number of teenagers on my Grandeur sailing this past Jan. But it was ridiculously cheap, so I understand why a lot of families booked.

But back to the topic. I booked the first of my BOGO for mariner in Jan. Hopefully they allow the pre-book and there is no issues.

[RCIfan1912]

12 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Children only bother me when they are misbehaving. I was shocked at the number of teenagers on my Grandeur sailing this past Jan. But it was ridiculously cheap, so I understand why a lot of families booked.

But back to the topic. I booked the first of my BOGO for mariner in Jan. Hopefully they allow the pre-book and there is no issues.

See I honestly can't think of a time I was annoyed with children misbehaving but I ran out of fingers and toes on how many adults misbehave. Adults unfortunately constantly piss me off on cruises. My number one piss me off thing is treating crew poorly or like personal slaves. 

[Xaa]

1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:

We are definitely a family that is hated and given looks because we sail mostly in the fall. We take our son out of school and we have a 18 month old. I'm very prepared for dirty looks next month on Liberty. Actually I booked it way far in advance and immediately after booking it I thought about that aspect. But in the end, of well we paid just like everyone else. We will do our very best not annoy people. 

You might be imagining the dirty looks.

[Ampurp85]

1 hour ago, RCIfan1912 said:

See I honestly can't think of a time I was annoyed with children misbehaving but I ran out of fingers and toes on how many adults misbehave. Adults unfortunately constantly piss me off on cruises. My number one piss me off thing is treating crew poorly or like personal slaves. 

Omg I can unfortunately. While I agree adults are equally bad, children behavior can be corrected. To name a few: the young children running in the WJ and knocking over some vintages, children digging in their butts and getting food in the WJ, playing with wet floor materials causing slippage, children playing on the wheelchairs at PDCC. I like to keep in mind that most behavior is learned, so those parents are probably the main entitled ones that demand crew remove the lobster from the shell. 

Taking children on cruises during normal school season is not a dirty look action......well not from me. Your child hitting all the buttons in the elevator or cutting lines, yes. 

[RCIfan1912]

On 10/2/2023 at 2:38 PM, Ampurp85 said:

Omg I can unfortunately. While I agree adults are equally bad, children behavior can be corrected. To name a few: the young children running in the WJ and knocking over some vintages, children digging in their butts and getting food in the WJ, playing with wet floor materials causing slippage, children playing on the wheelchairs at PDCC. I like to keep in mind that most behavior is learned, so those parents are probably the main entitled ones that demand crew remove the lobster from the shell. 

Taking children on cruises during normal school season is not a dirty look action......well not from me. Your child hitting all the buttons in the elevator or cutting lines, yes. 

I would strangle my kid [kidding yes] if he pushes all the buttons. I rarely take the elevator, stairs for me. Claustrophobic, so pushing all the buttons would set me off. Thank goodness I steer clear of the elevators. Nothing but bad behavior and selfishness.  

[Ampurp85]

2 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

I would strangle my kid [kidding yes] if he pushes all the buttons. I rarely take the elevator, stairs for me. Claustrophobic, so pushing all the buttons would set me off. Thank goodness I steer clear of the elevators. Nothing but bad behavior and selfishness.  

That's because you are a kind individual who teaches your children right from wrong. I often take the stairs but when I travel with vintages, I do elevators. 

[Ampurp85]

@WAAAYTOOOWas the staff on Grandeur offering BOGO to Diamond? That was the ship I was on in Jan that was offering it.