9 Day SOTS Ultimate Dining Cost?

[firefly333]

20 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

For me, going forward, It'll be Chops plus 1 and embarkation day lunch.  That's it, I'm just to miserly to spend 325 on the UDP.  Usually by the day 6 I'm fooded out anyways and I don't mind the MDR at all.

Once you hit D+ its BOGO anyway. Hibachi and chefs table excluded. But you can do chops plus one. Just pay for chops. 

[Tree_skier]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Once you hit D+ its BOGO anyway. Hibachi and chefs table excluded. But you can do chops plus one. Just pay for chops. 

7 more cruises until I hit D+. They are all booked but that'll take a couple of years to knock out.

[Roybthered]

We are sailing on Symphony at the end of August this year and they have put on all the specialty restaurants but not the UDP , hoping they put it on so we can see the price soon. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Roybthered

[cruisegirl1]

7 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Once you hit D+ its BOGO anyway. Hibachi and chefs table excluded. But you can do chops plus one. Just pay for chops. 

Heads up. Once or twice the Chops plus one was cheaper than usual the BOGO once on board. Had to do with the pre purchase discount pricing with the Chops plus one and paying full standard price with the BOGO. Doesn’t happen often. A quick math exercise is all you need to do. 
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Edited June 6, 2023 by cruisegirl1

[Happytime22]

Thanks very much all.  We are ONLY Platinum so D+ is ... far far away in another Galaxy!

 

I was feeling cheap for telling my DW that the UDP was too expensive but I now don't feel so bad!

 

Also, that 'link' to the RCL Planner for the 8/24 sailing was GREAT!

 

Thanks again and I will be using CC more often! 

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, Happytime22 said:

Thanks very much all.  We are ONLY Platinum so D+ is ... far far away in another Galaxy!

 

I was feeling cheap for telling my DW that the UDP was too expensive but I now don't feel so bad!

 

Also, that 'link' to the RCL Planner for the 8/24 sailing was GREAT!

 

Thanks again and I will be using CC more often! 

Rcl keeps pushing the price boundaries to see where people will quit buying. If people quit buying then prices will come down. At some price people will just say no. 

 

I'm waiting until black friday to see if the sale is as good as in the past. 

[Rogueperson]

21 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Well well well... I have 3 that are 8 days and harmony just came up. Unlimited and 3 days. No chops plus 1 .. but I now have a dining tab. A week ago i didnt. 

 

I would assume 1 more day will be over $400 for unlimited pp.

 

 

That is high for the UDP.  The 3 night is a much better offer.  373.99 comes out to 53/person while the 3 night dining package comes to 43.99 per person.  If you throw in lunch at all the 3 days at sea, you're down to 37.39 per meal, but Lunch is only worth like 20-25 bucks depending where you eat (not to mention their $20.00 credit deal they tacked on)  That really isn't much of a deal.  I'm not even including tip as its going to be 18% off the top anyways.  Dynamic pricing hard at work squeezing the most it can.

 

[Happytime22]

28 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

That is high for the UDP.  The 3 night is a much better offer.  373.99 comes out to 53/person while the 3 night dining package comes to 43.99 per person.  If you throw in lunch at all the 3 days at sea, you're down to 37.39 per meal, but Lunch is only worth like 20-25 bucks depending where you eat (not to mention their $20.00 credit deal they tacked on)  That really isn't much of a deal.  I'm not even including tip as its going to be 18% off the top anyways.  Dynamic pricing hard at work squeezing the most it can.

 

Does that mean if you buy a 3 day or 4 day or.... you get both lunch and dinner?  I thought it was only for Dinner for those # of days?

[Rogueperson]

6 minutes ago, Happytime22 said:

Does that mean if you buy a 3 day or 4 day or.... you get both lunch and dinner?  I thought it was only for Dinner for those # of days?

For @firefly333's itinerary, he has 3 sea days, and can eat lunch with the UDP. The 3 specialty restaurant deal is for dinner only, but I suspect they'll be fine if you use one of those credits for lunch, but its not to your benefit.

 

 I did not count embarkation day and only counted his sea days as specialty restaurants are usually not open during port days.  That drops the per meal price a little as well.  All in all, Its still not a good deal at that price.  I was counting all the meals he could have with the UDP, which includes lunch on his sea days, and forgot embarkation day.

[Happytime22]

Thks for the clarity!

[orville99]

25 minutes ago, Happytime22 said:

Thks for the clarity!

Not sure if this helps establishing a price point since pricing can vary wildly by ship, but this is the UDP price for our 14 night westbound Panama Canal cruise on Serenade in November:

 

 

[Happytime22]

OUCH!  $450 p/person!   I'll ask the boys if they are willing to pay their own tuition this year!

[Tree_skier]

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Rcl keeps pushing the price boundaries to see where people will quit buying. If people quit buying then prices will come down. At some price people will just say no. 

 

I'm waiting until black friday to see if the sale is as good as in the past. 

They found the boundary for me...  Unless there is significant savings at a sale, I am more than content with my diamond vouchers and the included food.

[orville99]

1 hour ago, Happytime22 said:

OUCH!  $450 p/person!   I'll ask the boys if they are willing to pay their own tuition this year!

That is for 14 nights, however.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, Happytime22 said:

OUCH!  $450 p/person!   I'll ask the boys if they are willing to pay their own tuition this year!

That's actually not bad, compared to my 7 days which would be around $650 plus tips for 2 weeks. 

 

[Happytime22]

Sorry... I am looking through the eye's of a Dad with 2 kids in College (one undergrad the other grad) and retirement knocking.  Maybe I should change my screen name to AlmostBroke22????

[Happytime22]

It is definitely starting to look like a smaller package of meals, rather than the UDP, is the way to go.

[Tree_skier]

I've done the UDP a few times but have decided that I'm pretty much done.  With the UDP I noticed that almost every decision on the cruise revolved around eating.  There was an unconscious bias to maximize value of the UDP so I ate when I really didn't need to eat.  On my last cruise I remember coming back onto the ship in the early afternoon after St Thomas.  I went to Playmakers and had a plate of Nachos.  Not because I was hungry but because I could and I wanted to "get my moneys worth".  

 

What we've done in the past and what we will do going forward is purchase the Chop+1 and 2 single restaurant lunches.  I like embarkation day lunch and then another one on a sea day.  Add to that Chops and Jamies/Giovannis on different evenings and I am good.

 

I'm all about extracting maximum value from whatever I purchase.  At these new prices the internal pressure make it pay for itself is going to push me into way more food than I should eat.  

[Rogueperson]

2 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I've done the UDP a few times but have decided that I'm pretty much done.  With the UDP I noticed that almost every decision on the cruise revolved around eating.  There was an unconscious bias to maximize value of the UDP so I ate when I really didn't need to eat.  On my last cruise I remember coming back onto the ship in the early afternoon after St Thomas.  I went to Playmakers and had a plate of Nachos.  Not because I was hungry but because I could and I wanted to "get my moneys worth".  

 

What we've done in the past and what we will do going forward is purchase the Chop+1 and 2 single restaurant lunches.  I like embarkation day lunch and then another one on a sea day.  Add to that Chops and Jamies/Giovannis on different evenings and I am good.

 

I'm all about extracting maximum value from whatever I purchase.  At these new prices the internal pressure make it pay for itself is going to push me into way more food than I should eat.  

I did the UDP once.  It was only a 5 night cruise, but it was the 5 night leg of a total of 14 night b2b.  Nice comparison between the two.  Here are my takeaways.

 

Even 5 nights, i started to get sick of it.  I was on Adventure of the Seas, there were 3 specialty restaurants plus Johnny Rockets (I don't really count them because i'm not really a fan).  The menus obviously don't change.  Because my wife and I would never get the same things, we pretty much tried most of the menu pretty quickly.  The menus after a couple visits easily become stale.  Some lunch venues were not available due to special events on sea days, so i ate at Chops more times than I did at the others.  You have to like every specialty restaurant, or your choices get even more limited.  I found Izumi's to be lacking, so I ended up bouncing back and forth between Chops and Giovanni's.  By the 1st day of the 2nd leg, I could not eat steak anymore and it probably wasn't until my 4th night, I could eat it again because i got tired of it.

 

The sweet spot for the UDP, in my opinion, double the number of days to specialty restaurants you're willing to eat at.  Adventure had 3, so the sweet spot for the UDP, would be a 6 night cruise.  So anything on the Radiance, Vision and some Voyager classes would be wasted if longer than 6 nights.  Enchantment, I would not bother unless you wanted to eat Chops for the entire cruise to get your money worth.  So anything on Oasis or Quantum Class would be worth it., but smaller, i wouldn't do it for more than 6 nights

[Happytime22]

46 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

I did the UDP once.  It was only a 5 night cruise, but it was the 5 night leg of a total of 14 night b2b.  Nice comparison between the two.  Here are my takeaways.

 

Even 5 nights, i started to get sick of it.  I was on Adventure of the Seas, there were 3 specialty restaurants plus Johnny Rockets (I don't really count them because i'm not really a fan).  The menus obviously don't change.  Because my wife and I would never get the same things, we pretty much tried most of the menu pretty quickly.  The menus after a couple visits easily become stale.  Some lunch venues were not available due to special events on sea days, so i ate at Chops more times than I did at the others.  You have to like every specialty restaurant, or your choices get even more limited.  I found Izumi's to be lacking, so I ended up bouncing back and forth between Chops and Giovanni's.  By the 1st day of the 2nd leg, I could not eat steak anymore and it probably wasn't until my 4th night, I could eat it again because i got tired of it.

 

The sweet spot for the UDP, in my opinion, double the number of days to specialty restaurants you're willing to eat at.  Adventure had 3, so the sweet spot for the UDP, would be a 6 night cruise.  So anything on the Radiance, Vision and some Voyager classes would be wasted if longer than 6 nights.  Enchantment, I would not bother unless you wanted to eat Chops for the entire cruise to get your money worth.  So anything on Oasis or Quantum Class would be worth it., but smaller, i wouldn't do it for more than 6 nights

SMART!

[Tree_skier]

I just looked at my cruise planner and saw this…

 

7 day on Harmony…

 

 

Alas when you click through this is what you see…