Ultimate Dining Package on Wonder of the Seas question

[Debe7ing]

We have not cruised RCCL since COVID shutdown and will be on the Wonder of the Seas first time in April.  

 

We have always bought the Ultimate Dining package, but it has REALLY increased in price and my question is, has anyone that has bought it sailing on the Wonder had difficulty getting a reservation with the ship being so huge?  Obviously, the ships we have sailed on previously are much smaller.  We were on the Mardi Gras last month, and specialty dining was VERY difficult to get if you were not willing to eat at 9pm (which we are not).  We normally shoot for the 5:30 dining option when it is our choice.  Any and all feedback from the Wonder experience would be most appreciated and help us make our decision.  Thanks in advance.

[NightOne]

1 minute ago, Debe7ing said:

We have not cruised RCCL since COVID shutdown and will be on the Wonder of the Seas first time in April.  

 

We have always bought the Ultimate Dining package, but it has REALLY increased in price and my question is, has anyone that has bought it sailing on the Wonder had difficulty getting a reservation with the ship being so huge?  Obviously, the ships we have sailed on previously are much smaller.  We were on the Mardi Gras last month, and specialty dining was VERY difficult to get if you were not willing to eat at 9pm (which we are not).  We normally shoot for the 5:30 dining option when it is our choice.  Any and all feedback from the Wonder experience would be most appreciated and help us make our decision.  Thanks in advance.

We don't like to eat late either.

 

We could only get 8:15pm the first night in Chops but we got 5:30-6pm time slots the rest of the week for every restaurant we wanted including Chops again.

 

However, we went straight to the dining reservations line when we boarded.

[molly361]

I sailed in December and had no problems getting early  reservations 

[sharktums]

We did the Ultimate Dining over Thanksgiving on Wonder and while it was the most challenging ever to get the reservations we wanted we did really well and got almost everything at the early times we like. Hibachi was by far the hardest, followed by Mason Jar. 

[Ourusualbeach]

We didn't have a problem over Christmas but we were on board before 11am

[nimbex1970]

you really have to hit them up asap as you board and book your times.  I am a procrastinator which gives me a 9pm dinner in specialty dinning, grr.

[crzndeb]

I had the 5 night package on TA, and a hint I got was to go directly to Izumi’s to make all your reservations. Nobody was there and I got all the early times I wanted.

[Bead Pirate]

Wonderland and Mason Jar are a challenge to be sure... As others have said, get there early and do reservations right away.

[JessyCruises]

We are sailing Wonder for the 1st time on 3/5 & have the UDP booked and have a piggy back on this question.  I understand they recently changed the rules for the a la carte restaurants and the T&Cs now read "For restaurants with a la carte pricing, you’ll receive a $20 food credit, which can only be used once a day." Does that mean you can only visit one a la carte a day, or that you can only visit a specific restaurant once per day.  As an example, could I go to Izumi for lunch and just order a sushi roll but then still go to Playmakers for a snack in the evening?

[Newbieflorida]

We had UDP last week on Wonder. We got all the reservations we wanted. The most important thing is we had 10:30 boarding and did our dining immediately. I was worried about getting Izumi Hibatchi, but it wasn't a problem. All our reservations were between 5:30-7:00. We went to Chops to make all reservations, then to Izumi for just that one. There was a long line at Izumi. It moved very slowly, as people were doing all 7 nights' reservations there. I think those behind us in line appreciated that we were so quick as we only had to book our Izumi. We also did Mason Jar brunch on embarkation day, and lunch twice at Playmakers. Someone told us they were able to make their UDP reservations while waiting to board the ship (I think they were in terminal VERY early) by logging on to ship's WiFi.