Diamond+ BOGO Dining Not currently offered on Ovation

[njkruzer]

7 minutes ago, yogimax said:

Varies from ship to ship.  Many, if not most, require it to be used first or second day.

Never had to use it 1st or 2nd night,  just have to reserve and pay for it. 

[leaveitallbehind]

12 minutes ago, yogimax said:

Varies from ship to ship.  Many, if not most, require it to be used first or second day.

Just for clarity, as your spouse also has the same BOGO, you typically are asked to initiate the first dinner plan on day one or two.  But the second dinner can be anytime.  And you are correct that it varies by ship based on the dining reservation availability with the restaurants of choice with the BOGO. 🙂

 

This is also complicated and influenced by any other dining package that you may have purchased and that package also having the requirement of a day one or two initiation as well.  In our experience the maître d's have been very flexible in accommodating you with these conflicting requirements.

Edited May 26, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[pcur]

41 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

You don't actually have to use it on the 1st or 2nd night,  you just have to reserve and pay the 1st or 2nd night.  As we said we used it on Jewel but later in the cruise, a 14 nt TA.  Just picked our reservation for Giovanni's and paid the 1st day. 

Agree.  Just go in and pay for the first night, and then ask them to call and tell you what nights to show up.  I've always thought the first two nights policy was not a good business decision.  

 

It could be use it any night between the hours of x and x, or any time where they usually have lighter bookings.

[HicksRA]

1 hour ago, njkruzer said:

Never had to use it 1st or 2nd night,  just have to reserve and pay for it. 

But most aren’t aware of this. 

[JessyCruises]

10 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

Well, I suppose it is a coupon offer (albeit a long standing one), not a promised part of the loyalty program, so there is not much one can say.

Hope you had a great time.

 

Yes we did thank you!

[JessyCruises]

We have never actually used the benefit before.  If one of us prebuys a dinner in the cruise planner, can we still use a BOGO?

[Aquahound]

12 hours ago, JessyCruises said:

I meant to post this earlier but I forgot.  I was on the Ovation for the 5/5/22 and 5/13/22 sailings and tried to use our D+ BOGO dining both weeks.  They are not currently offering it. 

 

That's disappointing. I was on Quantum for the 5/16 sailing and I was able to use mine.  Quantum was also running well under 100% staffing.  Funny how 2 sister ships running out of the same port can be so inconsistent with this stuff.  

[Aquahound]

19 minutes ago, JessyCruises said:

We have never actually used the benefit before.  If one of us prebuys a dinner in the cruise planner, can we still use a BOGO?

 

Yes.  I had the 3-night plan and was still able to use both mine and DW's.  

[JessyCruises]

5 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

Yes.  I had the 3-night plan and was still able to use both mine and DW's.  

Did you use the BOGO for the other person to dine with you during those 3 nights?  

[leaveitallbehind]

10 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

Well, I suppose it is a coupon offer (albeit a long standing one), not a promised part of the loyalty program, so there is not much one can say.

Hope you had a great time.

 

It is not a coupon offer - there are no coupons or vouchers involved.  It is an on board benefit available to D+ and higher that has been in place for a number of years.  This is the first I have heard of any ship not offering it as we have had it, as mentioned, since the restart on Oasis, Allure and Anthem.  

[leaveitallbehind]

12 minutes ago, JessyCruises said:

Did you use the BOGO for the other person to dine with you during those 3 nights?  

I know you quoted @Aquahoundwith this but I will answer as well in that the D+ BOGO is available regardless of other dining packages and is available for both you and your spouse resulting in two dinners each.  We do this frequently. 

 

However, if you have the unlimited dining package you would essentially lose the value of two days of that by using the BOGO instead as you would essentially be paying for two dinners at the on board full price with two at n/c.  Based on the typically discounted price v a la carte for the UDP, the BOGO may not provide a good value.

Edited May 27, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[JessyCruises]

1 minute ago, leaveitallbehind said:

I know you quoted @Aquahoundwith this but I will answer as well in that the D+ BOGO is available regardless of other dining packages and is available for both you and your spouse resulting in two dinners each.  We do this frequently.  However, if you have the unlimited dining package you would essentially lose the value of two days of that by using the BOGO instead you would essentially be paying for two at the on board full price with two at n/c.  

 

I did not buy a package, I purchased a dinner at Izumi in my name only for day 2. I am hoping they will let us use the BOGO to allow my husband to get his for free

[leaveitallbehind]

2 minutes ago, JessyCruises said:

 

I did not buy a package, I purchased a dinner at Izumi in my name only for day 2. I am hoping they will let us use the BOGO to allow my husband to get his for free

Under the BOGO, if you purchase a dinner at a SR, he would receive one free if dining with you.  But he should also have a BOGO available to him.  

 

Just as an FYI, Izumi's does offer one fixed price combination item dinner that would likely be a good value for the BOGO.  Everything else there is a la carte pricing.

[bonsai3s]

14 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I'm on her July 8.  Hoping it continues to improve. 

Ken,

It should be "much improved" by July 8.......E.

 

* President's Cruise: June 24, 2022, Ovation. 😁

[sailor05]

18 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Just my opinion but they should have either held off rushing to get all the ships back to service or sailing at close to full capacity so they could have the ships properly staffed so they wouldn't have to be cutting service.

I think so too. However, for our Alaska cruise in 2 weeks the ship is only showing a handful of rooms left, most of which are interiors. But for some reason they recently gave us a substantial price reduction on all 4 of our balcony cabins. Not sure why they would do that if not to fill up a bunch of empty rooms, so could they be trying to make it right? I've made it clear to everyone that the service will likely be less than what we're used to, but remember after the price drops we got one heck of a deal!!

[mac_tlc]

19 hours ago, JessyCruises said:

Yes they said it was specific to Ovation.  We are hoping to use it a few times

on our B4B on Oasis next week

We used it on 5/1 Oasis sailing.

 

mac_tlc

[HicksRA]

13 hours ago, JessyCruises said:

We have never actually used the benefit before.  If one of us prebuys a dinner in the cruise planner, can we still use a BOGO?

If you prepurchase for one in the cruise planner, that will guarantee the reservation you scheduled, but they will cancel your prepurchase and charge you the current onboard price to use your BOGO. 
I’ve done this before just to have a firm reservation. 

[leaveitallbehind]

40 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

If you prepurchase for one in the cruise planner, that will guarantee the reservation you scheduled, but they will cancel your prepurchase and charge you the current onboard price to use your BOGO. 
I’ve done this before just to have a firm reservation. 

Your method certainly is valid. But as an alternative, we just go the the maître d once we board (any will work, but we usually go to the first restaurant choice) and they set up the BOGO reservations for us during the week.  They also will coordinate any dining package reservations we may have as well with the BOGO.

 

While we have occasionally flipped the order of our choices due to preferred reservations, we have never had any issue getting times and days that we wanted.

 

And the point you make regarding the pricing is a good one as with the BOGO you will pay the full on board retail pricing for that sailing at the restaurants you select.  No package or other discounts are included with that.

Edited May 27, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[alfaeric]

On 5/26/2022 at 12:46 PM, njkruzer said:

Never had to use it 1st or 2nd night,  just have to reserve and pay for it. 

that's been our experience as well.  For many years now...

 

Also, we were just on the Oasis, and had no problem using the BOGO that was offered to us.  Another confirmation that this is a ship to ship thing.  I'd also wager that it would also depend on how many reservations there are for the first two nights- there was hardly anyone booked the first two nights at 150, but they were packed the rest of the week.  And BOGO fills that void.