Dining reservations - only able to be made on board?

[Lupush]

I booked the unlimited dining package for my 4 night run on Freedom of the Seas next week.  It says a complimentary reservation is made for night 1 and 2, but no others?  Is it not possible to book all times in advance?  

[not-enough-cruising]

The trade off for the discounted per meal rate with the plan, is that one must wait to book reservations onboard 

[taglovestocruise]

1 minute ago, not-enough-cruising said:

The trade off for the discounted per meal rate with the plan, is that one must wait to book reservations onboard 

Very slight chance any reservation has been made,  you are simply making a place holder. As soon as you board go to any Specialty Restaurant to make all four of your reservations.  I would guess the line at Giovannis would be the quickest, seems everybody likes to line up in Chop's.  

[Lionesss]

This has me amazed.

 

We are not on the UDP and we have had our dinner reservations for awhile at pay restaurants.

Mind you we only booked 2.

But if many people booked 1-2 before hand then that could limit the selection for those who cannot book till onboard.

 

Just needed to vent.

Guess that discount is not for us, if we cannot get the times we want.

But it may be great for others.

 

Take care

[Lupush]

14 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

The trade off for the discounted per meal rate with the plan, is that one must wait to book reservations onboard 

That's a really crappy policy.  

[taglovestocruise]

4 minutes ago, Lionesss said:

This has me amazed.

 

We are not on the UDP and we have had our dinner reservations for awhile at pay restaurants.

Mind you we only booked 2.

But if many people booked 1-2 before hand then that could limit the selection for those who cannot book till onboard.

 

Just needed to vent.

Guess that discount is not for us, if we cannot get the times we want.

But it may be great for others.

 

Take care

We have had a Chops + 1,  3 night, 5 night or the UDP on every cruise we have ever been on. We have never had a problem getting the time, day or restaurant we wanted. We do tend to eat at 8pm or later. UDP usually saves well over 60% of the cost of the meal. We have the UDP on our upcoming 10 night Quantum, 10 dinners and 6 lunches drop the price per meal to 15.50pp with the added 18% included.  We have pre paid several times to make sure we get the exact time and restaurant for Anniversary dinners and then use the  package and get a refund for the full price we paid, but I don't think that strategy is actually needed. 

[ARandomTraveler]

Can you make reservations at 2 places in the same day? Like a 5:30pm dinner and an 8:30pm dinner somewhere else?

[not-enough-cruising]

16 hours ago, Lupush said:

That's a really crappy policy.  

You can pay full price and make your reservations now. 

[not-enough-cruising]

15 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Can you make reservations at 2 places in the same day? Like a 5:30pm dinner and an 8:30pm dinner somewhere else?

Yes

[Dewaldcruiser]

We like to eat at 6:00 pm at the specialty restaurants.  We always have at least Chops +1 on every cruise and often 3-night, 5-night or UDP packages.  We make reservations shortly after we board and the only specialty restaurant we could not been able to get the exact day/time we wanted has been Izumi Hibachi.

[orville99]

We usually book our specialty choice for the first night pre cruise for one person, and they refund the cost as OBC once we are on board and make reservations for the week using the package.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

16 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

...We have pre paid several times to make sure we get the exact time and restaurant for Anniversary dinners and then use the  package and get a refund for the full price we paid, but I don't think that strategy is actually needed. 

 

Good idea 🙂