Ultimate dining package - pros / cons

I am interested to hear feedback from those on cruises since NCL Started the package promotions.

We will be on the Breakaway in August and want to get feedback from recent cruises.

-- any issues getting reservations?

-- any tips for us CC friends?

Thanks

A month later and I'm still curious...

I could tell you what I know, but then a bunch of the posters will jump on here and call me a liar.

I suggest making your reservations as early as possible.

I didn't have any issue getting reservations for my November cruise, but some have recently reported that they could not get good times for their reservations. Hopefully, they are giving preferential treatment to those with the UDP, over those without one, since we either have paid for it or given it as a perk.

A month later and I'm still curious...

OP -- YOu waited a month, and after I posted, it took two minutes for another response.

I believe my message is clear.

I am interested to hear feedback from those on cruises since NCL Started the package promotions.

 

We will be on the Breakaway in August and want to get feedback from recent cruises.

 

-- any issues getting reservations?

-- any tips for us CC friends?

 

Thanks

I would make reservations in advance. We did try to make on board reservations, and if it wasn't for the concierge, we wouldn't have gotten in. This was specific to Le Bistro. Everything else I had booked in advance.

I am interested to hear feedback from those on cruises since NCL Started the package promotions.

 

We will be on the Breakaway in August and want to get feedback from recent cruises.

 

-- any issues getting reservations?

-- any tips for us CC friends?

 

Thanks

I think its worth it overall because the food is much better...we love Cagney's, Le Bistro and Teppanyaki. Now, that being said - you have to be on a ship to enjoy it and get your money's worth. Your itinerary is very important because if your ship's port time is say 1pm to 8pm, well you may want to eat a local restaurant to experience the culture. However, if you ship is leaving at 5pm, then you are already onboard and looking for a place to eat anyway.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Any updates?

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Any updates?

 

 

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Have you read any of the countless posts here on the subject? How about some of the many reviews posted here by folks who had the UDP?

I had reservations with the UDP. When I didn't like my time, I showed up and asked to be seated. At Le Bistro, I sat outside, which was fine. I think they save the outside seating for the no reservation people. Switching at Moderno was no problem. It would have been a problem at Cagneys and Tempanyaki. I don't like La Cucina, so I can't guess about there.....hope this helps. Book your reservations as close to the desired time and then just change them. I think you have a better shot that way.[emoji41][emoji41][emoji41][emoji41]

I am on the Epic at the moment, and it seems that the UDP promotions mean that all the restaurants are fully booked out. They have all being showing red for everything except the 5.30 or 10pm sitting since day 2.

As a result of the restaurants being so full, the staff are completely overstretched, and service is certainly suffering.

.thanks. We still have a couple of months. I am interested to hear how things are in prime vacation time.

.thanks. We still have a couple of months. I am interested to hear how things are in prime vacation time.

Please let us know how you experienced it when you return. I'm curious as well. Thanks and have a great cruise! :D

Will do. Mid August though.

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I had reservations with the UDP. When I didn't like my time, I showed up and asked to be seated. At Le Bistro, I sat outside, which was fine. I think they save the outside seating for the no reservation people. Switching at Moderno was no problem. It would have been a problem at Cagneys and Tempanyaki. I don't like La Cucina, so I can't guess about there.....hope this helps. Book your reservations as close to the desired time and then just change them. I think you have a better shot that way.[emoji41][emoji41][emoji41][emoji41]

We had the UDP while aboard NCL's Dawn in late April 2015 and had no complaints with it. We sat outside at Le Bistro's twice - and had made reservations to be seated in that area both times. It was delightful and we enjoyed listening to the artist and his music - that was playing in the area.

Be sure and make any dining reservations as early as you can as there are times when they do fill up quickly. Peter and Carol

I had the UDP on the Breakaway last week May 10 and it was fabulous. I made a few reservations when the booking window opened up. I downloaded the iConcierge app and made the rest of the reservations while we were on the ship.

I did notice while booking a few restaurants on the ship that Cagney's and Le Bistro were completely full. It was easy to get into La Cucina, Moderno and Teppanyaki. I should mention the times available were around 5:30 -6:00 pm or 9:00pm.

I thought the service and the food in all the specialty restaurants was fantastic, much better than my previous experiences in the MDR. I think our waiting in Moderno was new, he didn't seem too confident about anything and the meats were very slow coming out of the kitchen.

I would suggest book what you can ahead of time, you can always change your reservations once you're on the ship.

Was in a haven suite on breakaway a few weeks ago. I reserved Teppanyaki several months ahead of time so can't speak to that one. I called the concierge to make a reservation on night one and it was recommended we make our reservation requests for all nights because "many many people on the ship have UDP and have been making their reservations for months." That being said, the haven concierge accommodated us the few times we ate at speciality restaurants within 15 minutes of requested times.

Teppanyaki was jammed tight, and the night we ate at Moderno we had an 830 reservation and were not seated until 9pm because they were crazy busy. We had a weird screw up on the last night where we had our Cagney's reservation but when we called to check on the time, we were told it had been canceled by the concierge - an error that was quickly corrected.

Personally, if I do it again, I'd make reservations ahead of time and then shuffle the times once I got on the ship if needed. There were A LOT more people in the speciality dining restaurants as compared to my January cruise (though that was a 12 day).

Just my personal experience; hope it helps.

The only downside we faced when going for the UDP was missing the interaction of being on a mixed table as we would have been in the MDR. It is harder to start up a conversation with tables as the spacing is more generous in the speciality restaurants than the main dining room.

My solution for the next holiday is to put a card on the board about finding others who are on the package and feel like sharing some meal times.

We had no issues with booking (excluding New Years Eve) but as it was a seasonal holiday, can not really blame the cruise line for that as a lot of people wanted bookings made that where most likely not on the UDP.

We used the UDP last October. I made all the desired reservations for every night online when it opened up with 90 days prior to sailing. We ate in a specialty restaurant every night, saving breakfast and lunch either at the buffet or the main dining rooms....we had no problem at all.

P.S. We ate at Cagneys three nights...LOL

We are going on the BA again this October and will make our UDP reservations when it opens up online in July!

I am interested to hear feedback from those on cruises since NCL Started the package promotions.

 

We will be on the Breakaway in August and want to get feedback from recent cruises.

 

-- any issues getting reservations?

-- any tips for us CC friends?

 

Thanks

You said "since the package promotions", which have been occurring off and on for more than a year. So then you said "recent cruises", so I take it to mean you are only interested in recent package promotions, for some reason?

We sailed Getaway in May 2014 (a full year ago) with a free promo UDP package. We booked all of our dining reservations in advance. We noticed that the restaurants were never more than half full, with the exception of Le Bistro, which was packed, and Teppanyaki.

Last night at 9pm there was not a single free seat in Cagney's on the Epic, and the waiting staff and grill were struggling to cope.

Oddly, there always seem to be tables outside, which I prefer...

I booked ours (sailed last Sept) a while before we went so we could get reasonable times. I was even able to book for 4 people even though there was only 2 on our booking.

I had UDP on the Jade couple weeks back and it was pretty nice to eat in a specialty dining restaurant almost every night. We did make one reservation like 3 months in advanced but because we had access to Concierge, he was able to make reservations easily. Like others said, it can be tough to make reservations since a lot of guests will have UDP as well so they definitely wanna dine in a specialty restaurant. When you decide to get UDP, make your reservations asap so you can get your preferred times.

Thanks for all the responses. I'm very interested to see what happens when school is out and the summer vacation season is in full strength. I hope all the above encouraging comments continue.

Stay tuned...

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