Let's face it; food is one of the big draws of any cruise. When people who have never even taken a cruise before (there are a few) think of cruises, they think of food. There's always something to eat, more on some ships than on others, but more than plenty for everyone. On smaller ships most all the food is served on the Lido deck, buffet style or in the dining rooms at various times. Some have sushi bars on the promenade and most all have a Coffee/Dessert bar that features special stuff you'll need to (gladly) pay extra for. Larger ships may sport barbecues, delis, Chinese food places and even sit down restaurants. Most all of this is included in your cruise fare, some you'll have to pay a nominal fee for.
If all that is not enough or you just don't feel like leaving your stateroom, room service is available 24 hours a day with a limited but good menu. We use room service most frequently for two things. Breakfast on our balcony or in bed is a special treat. Bagels and cream cheese, fruit and fresh coffee are promptly delivered to you within minutes of calling. Our kids like to fill out a breakfast menu door hanger to leave out at night which tells them what time to bring it to you.
I'm usually up early and take the insulated coffee mugs we bring along up to the Lido deck for coffee then bring it back to the sleeping Queen. On many ships a continental breakfast bar is set up for the early slot machine players in the casino at 9AM but there's usually an early risers continental served on deck starting at 6:30 AM. But that's for people like me that like to walk around and get it, then watch the breathtaking sunrises on deck. There are not too many of us but we are addicted.
This might be a good time to put in a plug for our "eat what you want and don't gain weight on your cruise" plan. Forget there are elevators on the ship. Walk everywhere. You'd be surprised just how much more you'll walk, how much better you'll feel, and how much more you can eat!
| Royal Caribbean's Portofinos |
Princess Defines DiningOn Princess they have Traditional and Anytime Dining. Here is an explanation of all the choices and how they work direct from Princess themselves
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The Lido Deck- Always Casual
The Lido deck is always open with something to eat. Coffee, Tea, Lemonade, Hot Chocolate, and Fruit Punch are served around the clock. In addition the ships pizzeria is open 24 hours a day serving a variety of pizza, Cal zones and Caesar Salad, with or without Sliced Breast of Chicken.
In that same area the wide variety of food offerings starts early with a sunrise continental breakfast served until the full breakfast buffet opens and is served from about 7AM till almost Noon (for late risers). Exact times vary by ship and where you happen to be. On a day when the ship is in port early, breakfast will be offered a little earlier.
At Breakfast the buffet menu includes
- Scrambled eggs
- Sausage links, Grilled Ham, Bacon,
- Hash brown
- Assorted cereals and Bagels with Cream Cheese and Danish
- Grapefruit Half, Banana, Melon in Season, Baked Apple, Orange and Grapefruit Sections and Stewed Prunes
- Chilled Juices: Orange, Grapefruit, Pineapple, Apple, Tomato and Prune
- Cereals including Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Special K, Sugar Pops, Raisin Bran, Rice Krispies, All Bran, 40% Bran Flakes, Hot Oatmeal, Hot Cream of Wheat
All this is included along with a made to order omelet station. They?ll make you a fresh omelet right there with your choice of ingredients. They can also make cooked to order eggs there too.
Lunch and Dinner are also served here, buffet style and feature a wide variety of selections. Theme days are popular featuring Chinese, Mexican, Italian and American food on some ships.
| Princess Personal Choice Dining |
| Carnival's Alternative Dining Restaurant |
The Golden Fleece on the Carnival LegendOn our recent Carnival Legend cruise we enjoyed the speicalty restaurant. This is another dining option in addition to the dining room, lido deck places and room service. This one costs extra but is well worth every penny. Check out the menu:
I wanted traditional dining but got Personal Choice dining instead, what does that mean?
Here's the deal:
There's still traditional dining on Princess just like any other cruise line. There's two scheduled seatings, early and late, similar to other cruise lines. You did not get this.
Personal choice dining, also called Anytime Dining, is another way to feed you. It allows you to eat when you want and with who you want any time during the dining room hours of operation.
On the Golden, for example, there were two other dining rooms to serve those who had selected or had been given Personal Choice dining. We chose one, liked it a lot, and asked to be seated at the same table, at the same time, with the same waiter for the rest of the cruise. This was no problem. So for all practical purposes we did have traditional dining. The same menu was being served the only difference was that the people around us were not always the same...although many were.
We could have simply walked into one of the PC dining rooms during serving hours when we were hungry and been seated, probably after a wait. We could have phoned in reservations for various places to eat at various times during the week in advance, say on the first day aboard. Not a bad idea if you like early dining but not when the ship is in port and you'll be ashore, for example.
It's really all about flexibility and goes beyond just dining to encompass a style of vacationing termed Personal Choice Cruising. The Anytime Dining part, for example, makes it possible to meet new friends on a shore excursion or at pool side and have dinner with them that night.
Before, when meeting a new friend one of the questions asked would be "Which (traditional assigned dining) seating are you? From there plans for the evening could be made and a time set up to meet after dinner. Now you can include dinner in your plans for the evening and at a time tht is convenient for you.
In addition to the traditional and Personal Choice dining rooms are other specialty restaurants like Sabatinis or the Sterling Steak House that offer sit down dining for a small additional fee and are reservation only. These offer even more flexibility but require thinking ahead.
Providing yet another choice besides these sitdown table service restaurants is the Horizon Court a 24/7 buffet. On some ships it's buffet by day that transforms itself into more of a service oriented venue at night. There's also a Pizza and Grill open a good chunk of the day and 24 hour room service that has extensive offerings.
That's it in a nutshell.
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A Typical Dining Room Experience
Your ship will have one or two dining rooms. Dinner is served in the dining room every night giving you a choice. You can dine at the self-service buffet area of the lido deck or have a sit-down table service dinner in the dining room.
Breakfast and Lunch may or may not be served in the dining room depending on the day. You can find this out by checking the ship's daily newspaper. Menus for the day's selections are posted outside the dining room. We usually stop by early in the day and check out the menu to be sure we don't miss any of our favorite entrée's and make our dining plans for the day.
When you make your booking your travel professional should ask you if you prefer early or late seating. The early dinner seating starts sometime between 5:45 and 615 PM and the late seating starts sometime between 7:00 and 8:30 PM. There are advantages of both.
Guests with young children already know that the early seating may be just right for them. But it's also good for guests who want to get dining out of the way, leaving the whole night ahead open for other activities or just relaxing on deck. Teens prefer this seating because they won't miss out on any of the action on the Promenade decks where they all meet. Guests who want to be sure to get a good seat at the early show will also like this seating.
The late seating appeals to guests who are sun worshipers and just don?t want to give up one minute of sun. Those who have gone ashore and don?t plan on getting back until later may also like to eat at this later time. There is no best time and the menu is the same for both seatings.
One of the first things you need to do after boarding is to check your table and dining time assignment in the dining room. You'll find this information on your sign and sail card. Dining assignments are on a first-come, first-served basis. Someone who had booked their cruise earlier than you may have requested early seating and got it while you requested it too but booked later and did not.
If you find that your table or time is not what you want it to be all hope is not lost. There will be a Maitre d' available probably about 1:00 PM on your day of embarkation to field any questions and requests you may have about your dining assignments. If you don't like what you've been given, get there right away. They try really hard to make everyone happy, its one of the big responsibilities of the Maitre d? and his staff, but there are only so many moves that can be made.
You may find that your request is made right then and there. You may also find that they will notify you later of your requested change by leaving a card in your cabin to tell you about it. This is fairly common and gives them time to match your request with what's available or likely to become available.
Service in the dining room is performed by your dining room team which consists of a waiter and his assistant. Often it is difficult to tell which is which and that really doesn?t matter all that much. If you have special requests (I like Iced Tea with lots of lemon for example) tell them on the first day at the first dinner. They?ll do all they can to make you happy. If they don't, go see the Maitre d' and let him know as soon as possible. He will fix it, that's his job.
The dining room is a great place to try things you might not otherwise get a chance to in "real life". The menu is set up in 4 courses; Appetizers/Starters, Salads, Entrees, and Desserts. The entire menu is presented at the beginning of the meal and you make your selections all at once. If, by chance, you don't find anything you like on the menu a steak or grilled chicken breast along with a baked potato are always available.
Gratuities to the dining room team you'll have for the duration of your cruise are included in the automatic gratuities you were charged on your shipboard account. You may tip in addition to that amount for exceptional service if you so choose but no other tips are expected. It is also customary to tip the Maitre d' at the end of the cruise for his service, mainly behind the scenes, on the cruise and this is not included in your automatic tips. An envelope will be left in your stateroom at the end of the cruise for you to present to the Maitre d' on the last dinner of the cruise. Don't miss this one either; it's one of the best.
Fun Food Events You Won't Want To Miss
Tea time
Customarily served on days at sea in the middle of the afternoon, Tea Time makes a great break in the day. You'll find the exact time listed in the ship's daily newspaper but look for it around 3 or 3:30 PM. You?ll find a little finger sandwiches and pastries served with an assortment of hot teas at tableside while classical music is being played in the background by one or more of the ship's musicians.
Sundae time
Also in the afternoon and a welcome respite from a hot Caribbean day is what I call Sundae Time. Usually on the Lido deck, an ice cream sundae bar is setup with all the toppings for you to make your own masterpiece. This is especially fun for kids but I see a lot of us older folks there too
Midnight buffets
Sometimes known as a Gala Midnight Buffet these can be one of the real highlights of any cruise simply for the way the food is presented alone. Ice Carvings will form the centerpiece of the room surrounded by an abundant display of culinary masterpieces that really showcase the abilities of the chef?s onboard. You'll want to go a little early and take your camera as there is usually a period of time when you'll be allowed to photograph whatever you like before the crowd is unleashed to devour it all.
Not all cruise lines have a Midnight Buffet these days. Some have none at all but have 24 hour buffets open, others have a Chocolate Buffet!
| Princess' Personal Choice Dining Options on the Caribbean Princess |
While dining options vary from ship to ship and cruise line to cruise line, here's what we found on the fabulous Caribbean Princess
A Guide To The Many Dining Options Of The Caribbean Princess- Part One
We had selected (not settled for) Personal Choice dining because of our experience with it earlier in the year on the Golden Princess. We liked it then and were looking forward to the same options, plus a few more, on this sailing.
We were not disappointed.
Personal Choice is really nothing complicated or difficult to understand, although I sure managed to before our first experience with it.
The notion that you can dine "where, when and with whoever you like" is for the most part true...even moreso on this ship.
Traditional dining will offer your choice of two seatings for dinner, one early and one later. You pick which one you want and hope to get it. This is still a very popular option and reflects decades of seagoing dining tradition. In other words, if you're looking for a lot of boring old people, that's the place you'll find a bunch of them. You'll also find scaredy cats who hate change with a passion or are first-time cruisers who are following the advice of well-meaning travel (buffoon) agents. The group that's also there is a bunch that's having a fabulous vacation and happen to be in traditional dining because that's what they prefer.
The fact of the matter is that unless you've got some regularity problems, small children that must eat at a specific time, or some other logical (probably not) reason, you're missing the ..ahem..."boat" by not trying Personal Choice. With few exceptions not even worth talking about, the menu and style of service is the same if not better when following the Personal Choice plan...wait a minute, that sounds like a Weight Watchers diet I was on once...make that: Personal Choice offers a rich dining experience that, if skipped, is a lot like missing formal night.
Pause for gasping
Well it's true.
Personal Choice offers dining as cruising is offered in its contemporary form:
Do what you want, when you want to.
That probably really makes the Princess SourPusses mad...but again: it's their loss.
The dining options are pretty simple with the exception of the Caribe Cafe which was thought up by someone on an acid trip at the time. Let's go there first.
The Caribe Cafe, more accurately called the Caribe Cafe Buffet, adjoins the Horizon Court Buffet, both aft.
Side note:
In previous versions of this ship the space it occupies provided room for tables and chairs by the Outrigger Bar, what was a great place for a Cruise Critic meeting in the past but is too crowded now. For future meetings I'm going to push for the Sterling Steakhouse, empty during the day, which hosted the Friends of Dorothy get together. They set up a nice buffet of snacks but no one attended. I if we get in their faces about it they'll do it for Cruise Critic which would indeed attend since we all go anywhere there is food to fill our gaping maws.
What they've done with the design of the Caribe Cafe is to allow the option of having four, not two, buffet lines open at the same time which is exactly what they did on, for example, Embarkation Day. The menu was exactly the same and no body cared because we were ravenous cruise passengers at the first feeding.
Pretty clever of them huh?
The Caribe Cafe designers went out of their way to disguise this though.
During the day it appears to be similar to the Horizon court but with some different food choices. What is dang odd is that nobody still seems to be able to figure out the scramble system of serving yourself from different stations in the Horizon court.
But the Caribe Cafe, more of a straight line cafeteria, for some reason brings out the station hopping skills guests should have used in the Horizon Court which causes some bottlenecks around the good stuff and of course nasty glances by Princess Sourpusses who may have lost their way and wandered into this area while looking for someone to complain about the coffee to.
They are ALWAYS complaining about the coffee.
I make a point of taking my first sip right in front of them and saying (ala Folgers picture of calm benevolence; Mrs Olson, ) "Now Dat's Goood coffee...good to the last drop!"...or something like that.
What is really wierd and takes some getting used to in the Caribe Cafe is dining there at night. Whoever thought this idea up must have majored in Ambiguity. The place closes early in the afternoon so they can set up the tables with table cloths, wine glasses and silverware in a manner that is not coincidentally like the main dining rooms. The food is still buffet style, you still serve yourself, but they put Creole seasoning on the tables and feature food with Caribbean names...most of which is quite good and unique. One night I had (I kid you not) skewers that had huge shrimp and hunks of lobster. Pretty good for buffet fare.
Funny though, I always thought of Creole style as like New Orleans and Caribbean style as like Jamaican. Is this one of those things that everyone but me knows?
The odd part is deciding what to do.
You'll see passengers circling the place trying to decide if they can get in there with shorts or casual wear on like they can in the other (Horizon court) buffet. It's a real dilemma. I finally gave up trying to figure it out when I saw a bunch of kids I'd met earlier in the day by the pool having dinner and a good time.
I'm pretty sure that the same dude who designed Club Confusion is in cahoots with the dude who designed this place.
The cool part is that it all works. The Caribe Cafe is a great dining venue offering some really unique cuisine. Indeed, they could have simply added a couple more lines to the Horizon Court to open during peak times. But they chose to add yet another dimension to Personal Choice dining.
Tip: If both are open, go to the Horizon Court first but keep going and go through the line at the Caribe Cafe too. Just pick the good stuff, there's plenty of choices.
In addition to these two buffet style dining venues there are other offerings as well
A Guide To The Many Dining Options Of The Caribbean Princess- Part Two
Other dining options include:
The Pizza Place/Grill
Open from lunchtime through early evening, this is a good place for a good slice of pizza or a burger, chicken sandwich or hot dog. A bar separates the pizza place from the grill and spans the width of the aft of the ship. This is a great place to grab a quick bite to eat and maybe take a dip in the pool to wash the sand off after a day at the beach
Ordering off the menu in your cabin
I'd heard that it was possible to have room service send down a menu from the dining room from which you could order and have it delivered to your stateroom. If you're in a mini or full suite this is no problem. On this sailing we were told that the service was normally reserved for suites but that they would send us a menu anyway. We were indeed able to order everything we wanted off the regular dining room menu. For comparison purposes we ordered the Fettuccini Alfredo which is a favorite of mine in the dining room to see how that translated to being served in-cabin.
It was good. Not as good as in the dining room but one heck of a lot better than a sandwich.
Room Service
Not that the regular room service fare is not good, it is quite good. I guess that's a matter of opinion but my day would not be complete without an order of Caramel Flan from room service. Other favorites included French Fries served with Ranch Dressing (hey try it) and burgers. There was no problem with a special request of a BLT along with Honey Roasted Peanuts and an awesome snack/pretzel mix.
Just dropping in at peak times at a PC dining room
As yet another experiment and test of the system, we tried dropping into the Coral PC dining room without reservations at 8:00, a peak time when lots of people were standing around with pagers waiting for a table. We were told it would be about 10 to 15 minutes for our party of 2 sitting by ourselves. It was 12 minutes so I think they did pretty good there. Our service that night, by the way, was the best ever in the dining room. I'm sure that has a lot to do with the individual service teams but this one was tops.
Scoops
The Haagen Daz was being scooped up but not with any big lines as we had experienced on the Golden earlier this year. I think many passengers had gotten the news that iced cream was served in the Horizon Court from 3 to 3:30 and went there. I think others simply passed the place without noticing it as the Ceramics classes were being held right beside it, kind of overshadowing the whole thing. I was looking for Cruise Critic Members/Haagen Daz owners to get a free shake or malt but none could be found.
The Martini Bar/Coffee Place
I don't even know if this place has a name but its on the lowest floor in the atrium. It's a quaint little place kind of tucked away by itself used mostly as a service bar for waiters to get drinks for the guests enjoying the atruim music or just relaxing with a book. But there's always a little something to eat here! That's unique because there is really no other place within 50 feet of it that food is served. To me, more than 50 feet away from a food venue is too far and I get nervous. I wonder if all the other passengers are at the food places I can't see gobbling up all the food and leaving nothing for me. In the morining there's a continental breakfast served, in the afternoon they have cool little cookies. A Princess Sourpuss would probably take one or two to linger over a cup of coffee with. I load up a plate and ask the string quartet if they know any good fiddle music that we can dance to.
The Bars and snack mix
They don't brag about it but hidden behind all the bars is a really good pretzel/snack mix and peanuts that are there for the asking.
Tea Time
I have yet to make it to tea time. I just know I am missing a big event that would add yet more dimension to our cruise experience but I always seem to be doing something else!
Oh well, there's always the next time!
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Before you buy anywhere, let me take a look at what you are considering and from who. I want you to have a fabulous cruise. Send me an email with what you're being offered and let me take a look. I'll let you know if everything is in order and/or give you some questions to ask before you buy. I might even have a better value for you!
Chris@YourCruiseDream.com
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