Why More Cruisers Are Skipping the Main Dining Room
Although Royal Caribbean’s cruise fare includes unlimited food, you may want to consider paying extra for one of the ship’s specialty restaurants.
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30 Comments
Matt, if you could only do one for the rest of your (cruising) life, would you rather eat at (and pay for) specialty dining or eat "free" at the MDR?
Graphic misleading – "$50" covers 1 person (easily exceed that add'l cost) everyone traveling as a couple or a family so extra $100-$300 a day. And imagine adding specialty lunches – No way Jose!
i have been cruising since 1995 and i simply refuse to pay extra for food. Although we did do Wonderland and usually get the nachos from Playmakers.
Maybe these specialty restaurants can have lessons on how to properly use a fork and knife as well! Wow, just observing these people handle basic western eating utensils is alarming! BTW, we did not do any specialty dining on our Symphony of the Seas sailing three weeks ago. The MDR was slightly above average and not what it was from RC years ago! Doing Discovery Princess or MSC Seascape next.
I always do the unlimited dining package and love it. Always get a single table, better service and food and less crowded
My favorites are 150 central park, wonderland, hooked, and Giovanni's. Only one I hated was Mason jar.
The wait staff are annoying. Talk about themselves rather than pretend to have interest in the customer. I just want to eat, not hear about your future job goals. Leave me alone!
I get the UDP for every cruise, not only because I enjoy the food, but because it also helps me plan before I even get on the ship. I know exactly whdn and where each meal will be, and I can schedule activities around those times.
The biggest drawback of specialty dining is that on top of the flat fee, there are extra charges for some restaurants. I know I don't have to choose them, but I enjoy Izumi Hibachi. My issue is that on top of paying for my cruise (which includes dinner in the MDR), I have to pay for the UDP "AND" a supplemental charge of almost $20. Since I do this willingly, I can't complain, but I think Royal forgets that we already paid once for dinner.
I really enjoy specialty restaurants and will continue to eat there on every cruise. I think it is a great experience even if you only go once or twice on your cruise.
Depends on your disposable income! Some of us can’t afford the extra hundreds of dollars for a week of specialty dining.
The more we accept that good food on a cruise comes at a cost, the more that will become reality. 😮
Never skip MDR when there is onion soup 😁
You might want eat?
First cruise coming up. I know in the MDR you can order more than one entree, app, desert etc In the specialty restaurants on Freedom, can you order more than one entree etc? I know some dishes in the specialty cost extra, but for the included dishes can you order more than one? Thanks
No, it is as crazy as it sounds. Cruises, particularly Royal, love to nickel and dime us to death (and it ain't costing nickels and dimes!). The biggest selling point for cruises used to be that they were an all inclusive vacation… They no longer even pretend to be. 😎🍹🌴
Why would I pay extra for a meal I have already paid for?
I don't like this trend. You get the same food at the dining room.
Once we did unlimited specialty dining and we really missed the staff in the mdr. On all of our other cruises we did the mdr the staff got to know what we wanted and didn’t have to ask.
Depends on the ship. On Ovation, I booked lunches cause there aren’t as many specialties as say Oasis
200$ for the supper club ‘Hollywood’ on legend. I thought with food and cocktails, not too bad. But it doesn’t include the cocktails 😮
Does portion size really matter when u can order as just as much as u want from specialty in the main dining room too?
We like speciality dining a lot. However, we’ve found the best option is enjoying lunches at the speciality restaurants. Typically, almost half off and then it frees us for lighter dinner so we can get to entertainment.
I love the MDR and some other included dining options.
We have done a few specialty restaurants but honestly I've not been overly impressed. Example, Giovanni's on Wonder was a major disappointment. We have far better Italian restaurants here at home. The spaghetti bolognese in the MDR is excellent. I believe my bolognese that I make at home is better, but is still good nonetheless.
By far the best specialty restaurant we have tried is Izumi Hibachi. Its been good on every ship we've sailed.
I see very little reason the spend hundreds of more dollars after spending thousands to cruise.
Go to the main dining room. If the food is good just get seconds or even thirds. If the food isn’t good take a bite or two and order some drinks and chat and tell them “I’m feeling a huge craving for plain cheese pizza”. Main dining food is usually pretty decent. 80% of the time it’s a B or better. If you want A food then you’ll get it at least one or two nights on the cruise. We went on thanksgiving and boy the actual thanksgiving meal was great. I would say it was 90% of my mom’s thanksgiving and she makes a meal that brings all the boys to the yard.
We do unlimited dining package. Like you said we are on vacation. We don’t spend our money gambling, shopping, play bingo, buy photo packages, etc. The specialty dining is our one splurge. We purchase the package in advance usually at a reduced price.
The food in the main dining room on Icon was fine. While on the ship, we were approached by staff several times for half-price specialty dining, which we did for Hooked, about $36/ person. The food was very good, but it only made sense at a discounted price.
I do enjoy Izumi at the lunch rate, but to avoid all of the included dining options for an upcharged dining package is indeed Complete Heresy!
For myself – there are only 2 reasons why I would go specialty over MDR
1) There is something on the menu that I really want to try or in the case of Wonderland – I want to experience
2) I have extra money to spare
If it's not for those two reasons – I choose MDR.
We love MDR. It's nice to get away from Buffet some times.
Absolutely not! For the premium you're paying for specialty ~$50pp (plus gratuity), the MDR and even buffet food is just fine. If there's a discount or part of a package, may be, but another expense on an expensive cruise, no thanks!
We always skip MDR. 😅 We have had too many mediocre or meh experiences with the MDR food (no problems with the service/staff) that we just rather do the buffet or specialty restaurants/coastal kitchen.