Specialty Dining--Is it Worth the Splurge?

[@CruiseLife22]

We did a Virgin Cruise and found the speciality dining superb although I did miss the MDR!

[@AllThingsWagner]

Good info! The specialty AND mdr were both excellent on NCL... although that's the best thing we could say about the cruise. ☹️

[@rmespe]

I purchased 2 additional specialty dining on top of my 2 free at sea promo.

[@AllThingsWagner]

You’ll be eating good!!👍🏼

[@Retiredtraveler1961]

No Cruise dining package is worth it! The whole point of cruising was to enjoy an all inclusive relaxed experienced. Unfortunately, with Royal Caribbean leading the way, cruise lines have opted instead to begin to nickel and dime passengers. Why would you pay extra to eat it a steakhouse, a Chinese restaurant, or an Italian restaurant when you have the main dining room??? I have been on 17 cruises on four different cruise lines and never once found the main dining room insufficient. If there’s something that was terrible, I simply changed my option and it was brought to me within minutes. Also two key things about drink packages on cruise lines that everyone needs to know. Number one, the package must be bought by both parties in the state room, whether or not you like it. If your partner or roommate or wife or husband doesn’t drink or minimally drinks, you still have to buy the package. Yes the package includes coffee drinks and soft drinks but the amount they charge is $60 per person per day! This brings me to my next point in order to break even, you’d have to drink six or seven drinks every day! Including the day before you get off. So unless you’re lush, a drunk, or a fool, buying the drink package makes no sense financially.

[@AllThingsWagner]

Wise words, Foster!! You should come around more often! 😉 The one good thing, at least that Royal Caribbean does regarding the drink package, is they will allow the other adult in the cabin to buy a less expensive beverage package as opposed to forcing them to buy the alcohol package. That will help a little with the funds. 🤑🤑 Thanks for watching!

[@jamesh1641]

FWIW there’s so much of this content and many of your prior ones on more established channels I just don’t think you’ll get traction building your channel with it. When I look at your videos that do really well they aren’t this.

[@AllThingsWagner]

Thanks for your feedback. Lots of factors to consider regarding competing with large channels while working full time. These subject matter vids seem to do better than our on-board vlogs over time. What’s your advice? We have several videos planned for our next cruise on Harmony. 👍🏼 Thanks for watching!

[@fletcherprince]

I think it's a great video for new cruisers. It was well produced and fun to watch even though I have gone on a few cruises. I will watch anything you guys produce because of your warm and engaging style and the funny bits. Your videos are accessible and appealing. So don't fix what ain't broke!

[@jamesh1641]

@@fletcherprinceplease don’t confuse my comment. These are nice people who do a good job at this. You and I and a few hundred others may be diehards. Oddly, you and I make the same point we just type it out differently.

[@jamesh1641]

@@AllThingsWagneryou may be solving for an old problem. I think during Covid many people sought out this content. If they do still today, they are going to be sent to the larger channels by the KZbin algorithm. The same waning of demand is seen across Vanlife, Fulltime Rv, etc. Quite a few creators who used to cruise now just do “news” or people overboard blah blah blah. I’ve unfollowed several big ones. I asked one lady if she ever cruised anymore or just posts “Tips” that were relevant before 2020. There’s only going to be so much demand to see a cabin tour on an older ship or Windjammer walkthrough unless it’s Icon. If people search for speciality dining I guarantee you we all know the top 3 or 4 creators they will be shown in the search results.