Unlimited Dining and Boarding Day Lunch

[steve ch]

On our upcoming Anthem Cruise, we have the unlimited dining package.

 

We have a courtesy reservation for dinner on the first day, but don't know where. I do know that once aboard, we have to go to a specialty restaurant to book the rest of our meals.

 

My question is this. Jamie's Italian is open for lunch on boarding day. Can we go there and have lunch without a prior reservation? Would this covered by the dining package?

Edited March 15, 2023 by steve ch
typo

[TYMAN]

We have the UDP for the Wonder later this year and booked (and paid) for Giovanni's for lunch on boarding day. My guess is they will give me OBC for the $$ I paid for the lunch. I just wanted to make sure we had a reservation since that's our normal routine. 

[SAN415]

It is covered by the UDP. We always plan to book our meals and then go to where we want to have our lunch on the first day and ask them when we can get in. This next cruise we plan to have lunch at the Mason Jar, and what ever time they can sit us will be fine, it can be hard to get seated right away but they will reserve you a spot as soon as they can. 

[SAN415]

I'm not sure if reserving all our lunches and dinners is best done at Mason Jar. We plan to go to Chops or the Izumi restaurant to make our reservations, then stop by the Mason Jar.   I'm not familiar with the Mason Jar and if they are able to do so. I am thinking it might go better making our reservations at one of the specialty restaurants that are not serving lunch but will have a host/hostess on hand to make guests reservations.  

 

[Surfguyxxx]

Yes, you can eat there for your boarding day lunch.  I make a list of which restaurant I'd like to go to and the times.  While I have lunch, I give my list to the maitre'd and they usually take care of my reservations for that sailing.

[sheezsmith]

1 hour ago, TYMAN said:

We have the UDP for the Wonder later this year and booked (and paid) for Giovanni's for lunch on boarding day. My guess is they will give me OBC for the $$ I paid for the lunch. I just wanted to make sure we had a reservation since that's our normal routine. 

I don't believe they will give you OBC for that. If you make a prepaid reservation, that's on you.

[Seville2Cabo]

I've never seen a crowd and not had an issue getting seated for lunch on embarkation day.  We just go to which ever restaurant is open that day.  I do have a list of dinners for other nights that I asked to be reserved before we are seated.  Never had an issue.  

[crewsweeper]

8 minutes ago, Seville2Cabo said:

I've never seen a crowd and not had an issue getting seated for lunch on embarkation day.  We just go to which ever restaurant is open that day.  I do have a list of dinners for other nights that I asked to be reserved before we are seated.  Never had an issue.  

That's our plan as well.  May want to get it out of the way, is the Mason Jar, on WOS open for lunch on Embarkation Day? 

[Funky Fusion FoodsJ]

1 hour ago, sheezsmith said:

I don't believe they will give you OBC for that. If you make a prepaid reservation, that's on you.

I agree, won't happen.

[taglovestocruise]

36 minutes ago, Funky Fusion FoodsJ said:

I agree, won't happen.

 

2 hours ago, sheezsmith said:

I don't believe they will give you OBC for that. If you make a prepaid reservation, that's on you.

Yes they will. We always have a package and usually make a pre paid reservation for a specific  night and time. There has never been a issue swapping out for the package.  A fully refundable OBC is issued with out a question as to why.

[maudde]

Last year on Symphony, we had udp. On embarkation day we went to Jamie’s when they opened and couldn’t get lunch as they were full with reservations. That was our experience. As far as booking everything for dinner, we went to one place and booked everything, as well as changing our first night choice with no issues. But the lunch was a no go without a reservation. 

[steve ch]

Thanks to all for your prompt replies.

[Incognito1]

We've never done the UDP before, but are considering it for our upcoming Iceland/Scotland cruise.  There are 7 port days and only 4 cruising days.  Did y'all find that you use the package enough that it's worthwhile?  I know we wouldn't be using the lunches on the port days, but this is really tempting.  This would amazing on a TA :-).

 

Also, is it worth the Teppanyaki surcharge?

[Surfguyxxx]

11 hours ago, Incognito1 said:

We've never done the UDP before, but are considering it for our upcoming Iceland/Scotland cruise.  There are 7 port days and only 4 cruising days.  Did y'all find that you use the package enough that it's worthwhile?  I know we wouldn't be using the lunches on the port days, but this is really tempting.  This would amazing on a TA :-).

 

Also, is it worth the Teppanyaki surcharge?

Not sure the speciality restaurants on port days.  It's usually only on sea days I believe.

 

And, definitely worth it for Teppanyaki 😋

[TYMAN]

22 hours ago, sheezsmith said:

I don't believe they will give you OBC for that. If you make a prepaid reservation, that's on you.

Thanks for your input. Since I've done it before and have gotten OBC, we'll just go with that. 

[TYMAN]

19 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

 

Yes they will. We always have a package and usually make a pre paid reservation for a specific  night and time. There has never been a issue swapping out for the package.  A fully refundable OBC is issued with out a question as to why.

Thanks for your response. Yes, we've done it many times before and never had an issue getting the charge returned as OBC. Happy Sailing! 

[Rogueperson]

20 hours ago, Incognito1 said:

We've never done the UDP before, but are considering it for our upcoming Iceland/Scotland cruise.  There are 7 port days and only 4 cruising days.  Did y'all find that you use the package enough that it's worthwhile?  I know we wouldn't be using the lunches on the port days, but this is really tempting.  This would amazing on a TA :-).

 

Also, is it worth the Teppanyaki surcharge?

Depends on the ship.  I'm guessing you have an 11 night cruise? 

 

I had it for a 5 night, and the food started getting a little repetitive for me.  We had two sea days on that 5 night.  So I had a total of 3 lunches and 5 dinners, including Chef's Table.  We were on Adventure of the Seas that had 3 specialty restaurants plus Johnny Rockets (I don't really like Johnny Rockets, so i don't really count it). 

 

After eating at Izumi's once, Chops 4 times and Giovanni's twice.  I was done.  If I had to go longer with just those three, I dunno.  I was on a b2b and to be honest, I actually enjoyed the MDR for the remaining 9 nights of my 2nd leg of that trip and did not care or want to eat in another specialty restaurant for the remainder of the trip.  The fallout for me, was I did not even want to look at a steak until maybe day 3 or day 4.  On my 5 nights, Izumi's and Giovanni's did not open for lunch as often as I liked or was closed due to special events like sushi rolling class and taste of Royal.

Keep in mind, that there is NOTHING wrong with the food.  It was amazing.  But you start realizing how limiting the menu is when you start eating at the Specialty restaurants multiple times.  But there a couple things I discovered.

 

If you have a dietary restriction, your choices are even more limited.  My wife is gluten free and she felt the limited menu limited her even more.  The MDR was actually better at accommodating her Allergies and diet.

Johnny Rockets has chili cheese fries which I got with the UDP.  But what I discovered was that if you do NOT have the UDP, and just get Chili Cheese fries, you pay only 7.99, not the full 14.99.  But in my opinion, its about as good as 7-11 Nachos.  

 

Chops' burger at lunch is AMAZING.  I'm a bit of a burger snob, but this one may kick Princess off as Best Burger at Sea.

And to answer your question, Teppanyaki is decent, if you've never done it before on Royal, its somewhat worth it.  I think the Sushi/Saki Lunch is a better value for the upcharge.

 

For sanity, i think your best bet is 2 days per specialty restaurant onboard the ship.  That's assuming you like all the specialty restaurants onboard.  I'm a little meh with Izumi's.  So if your ship has 4 specialty restaurants you like, anything longer than 8 nights maybe too much, in my opinion.  The issue is if you decide NOT to eat at a specialty restaurant, you lose value on the UDP.

[Incognito1]

Thanks you so much for the details.  I think you're probably right that the 2 day is a better choice.  Much appreciated.

[Roybthered]

You should have no problem going straight to the restaurant and having lunch with the UDP. We have had it on a number on occasions and done it, and whilst there book every other restaurant for the lunches and evening meal that we wanted for the cruise (they are able to book all the specialty restaurants from there). It can get repetitive but you do have sports bars etc to have lunches at. 

[ARandomTraveler]

On 3/15/2023 at 7:23 AM, sheezsmith said:

I don't believe they will give you OBC for that. If you make a prepaid reservation, that's on you.

 

On 3/15/2023 at 9:14 AM, Funky Fusion FoodsJ said:

I agree, won't happen.

I pre-paid for the hibachi on symphony to make sure I had a reservation, and I was able to get my money refunded since I had the UDP. They refunded it to my credit card, not as OBC.