availability restaurants with Unlimited dining package

[relo]

Hi,

 

I purchased the unlimited dining package for our Oasis 7 night cruise in a few weeks. We like to try different restaurants and usually prefer the specialty restaurants over the main dining room. The price was $180 pp and with the 40% discount on bottle of wines in the restaurant this looks like a good deal. 

 

But I'm a little worried about to be able to make reservations at our preferred time between 7 and 8 pm. Do they keep part of the inventory open for bookings after boarding? 

 

We will be in the cruise terminal around 11:30/12:00 (Barcelona). This is the first time on RCI, but are platinum due our status with Celebrity. I understand that with platinum we have some priority on boarding. The plan is as soon as we have boarded to make the reservations for all nights.

 

Thanks!

[Clarea]

All dining package bookings must be made  onboard.  If you go to any specialty restaurant as soon as you board, you will have the best chance of getting your desired times.

 

By 11:30am, boarding will likely have  already begun.

[relo]

Our flight arrives at 10:30 so will be difficult to board earlier 😀. On our Set SailPass  it states that check-in starts at 12:30.

 

Do they also have stand-by for the restaurants, in our experience with other cruises some people don't show up and their table keeps empty.

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, relo said:

Our flight arrives at 10:30 so will be difficult to board earlier 😀. On our Set SailPass  it states that check-in starts at 12:30.

 

Do they also have stand-by for the restaurants, in our experience with other cruises some people don't show up and their table keeps empty.

 

I've not heard of stand-by for restaurants, but it would not hurt to ask.

[Merion_Mom]

relo, if I were in your shoes, I would not worry. The chances of you getting all of the restaurants you want, at or near the times you want, are very high. 

 

This is not a guarantee, of course, just my opinion.  🙂

 

[relo]

53 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

relo, if I were in your shoes, I would not worry. The chances of you getting all of the restaurants you want, at or near the times you want, are very high. 🙂

 

 

Thanks

 

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, relo said:

Our flight arrives at 10:30 so will be difficult to board earlier 😀. On our Set SailPass  it states that check-in starts at 12:30.

 

Do they also have stand-by for the restaurants, in our experience with other cruises some people don't show up and their table keeps empty.

We boarded Symphony in Barcelona.  First stop was at a specialty restaurant to make all our reservations.  We made 11 reservations and had no problem getting all the days and times we wanted. We eat late which adds to the availability.  

[cindivan]

I would love to hear about anyone with personal experience getting reservations in the 7-8 timeframe.  I would like to do the UDP, but am concerned about getting what we want in the timeframe we want. 

[relo]

Thanks all for replying. I will try to remember to post our experiences after our cruise.

[relo]

Just returned. We had no problem with making reservation at the times we wanted. But our cruise was not sold out (about 3600 passengers were on board) so that could have contributed to the availability.

[JuliaMS]

Does it include lunch on embarkation day? or on the second day of an overnight? We have 13 night cruise with only 2 sea days so wondering if that means only 2 lunches.

[relo]

2 minutes ago, JuliaMS said:

Does it include lunch on embarkation day? or on the second day of an overnight? We have 13 night cruise with only 2 sea days so wondering if that means only 2 lunches.

We didn't have lunch in the speciality restaurant on embarkation or on the one sea day we had.