Opinion about Premium Beverage package and My Time Dining
My husband and I just returned yesterday from our 7 night cruise on the Freedom of the Seas. There are a few things I would like to mention that I certainly would have found helpful knowing before I cruised. I realize that RC just started their Premium Beverage Package on the first of January. My husband really wanted to use this service because he enjoys drinking beer and he felt it would be easier to just pay the daily rate and not have to worry about how much he was spending on his drinks. First catch (which I understand the reasoning behind) was that if he bought the package I also had to buy the package since we were rooming together. The down side to this was that I mostly drink just wine and they only offered one type of house wine which wasn't very good. The cost to both of us was approximately $90.00 per day in total ($45.00 each per day). I think my husband more then benefited from the program but for me I probably would have been better off just buying the wine I wanted outright. We spoke to the Bar Manager and he admitted they were still trying to work out some of the kinks...hopefully they will because all in all it is a pretty good idea. I personally thought the My Time Dining was extremely misleading. I had the impression that we would be able to eat at any time within the allocated time frame. Each day we called to make a reservation and we were told the same thing: they only had a few times available which were ironically very close in time to the regular dining room seating. We could eat at 5:30, 5:45 or 6:00. The next available time was 7:00 7:30 or 8:00. Each night we also asked for a window seat but we were instead placed at the exact same table with the exact same waiters ( they were wonderful). After a few nights of the "same old same old" we realized that it seemed as if RC was trying to offer a different dining option but it was really just a twist on the normal dining offered in the other dining rooms. We did have a beautiful balcony room that was in the aft of the ship and the staff was wonderful and extremely pleasant. All in all we once again had a great time on RC. Didn't do any excursions but instead just stayed on the ship most of the time and relaxed, which was exactly what we planned to do before we embarked on our trip. We are looking forward to taking the same trip next year on the same ship but probably going to the Eastern Caribbean.
