Food

Regarding your other question, we are oldsters, but right now we are on the Regal Princess in the middle of the Caribbean. Lots of singles your age. Not a booze cruise either, you would love it.

Since you will be on Princess, (Grand Princess), the top charge in the specialty restaurants is $25.00 per person, less for kids. That would be Sabatini's and the Crown Grill. If you are into shell fish they put on two "Crab Shacks" a week, they charge $20.00 pp, we never miss at least one a week. On the two new larger ships, Royal and Regal they have a high end Alfredo's Pizzeria, a sit down hand-tossed Neapolitan-style pizza, with linen table clothes etc. which is no extra charge (note this is not to be confused with the cheap pizzas they hand out 24 hours a day on the Lido deck at no extra charge). The "Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar" is very good, even has caviar and excellent oysters, sushi, extra charges depend upon the item. "Gelato" is a super high end ice cream style eatery, extra charges depend upon the treat, note---ice cream is available on the Lido deck free of charge on Princess. The Chef's Table is available on longer cruises but you have to get on a list, it is extremely a good multi course diner with wine selections included for each course and you get a lot of extras with it like the Princess cook book and special talks behind the scenes with the top chefs, if you get invited, expensive but worth the $230.00 for the two of us, if I remember the charge right. Yummy.

Yes my first one always wanted to at least try this website has been so helpfull one other princess question I didn't think about it till it was too late but did I choose the right cruise for a solo single passenger I'm 47 will there be singles on a princess Mexico cruise or is carnival the singles or will I have to face the fact that this is a grandparents cruise I have no idea I don't drink so I didn't go for the carnival booze cruise thing

Specialty dining is mostly for dinners, Most of them run around $ 30.00 to 50.00 each. For breakfast the MDR is sit down service, Buffet is self serve with lines or room service (you can fill out order the night before and have it delivered to your cabin). Lunch is mostly in the buffet or grill by the pool.

Hey thanks a lot very helpfull what kind of charges Will I be looking at if I eat in the specialty restaurants

You didn't mention whether or not you are talking main dining room cuisine and service or all restaurants on board.

We have sailed with Princess quite a bit over the years. Seen quite a few changes, some not so good but most for the positive. What really counts though is relatively recent experiences. Counting the cruise we currently are on we will have sailed with them 237 days. But over the last 15 months we have cruised six times for a total of 111 days, five on Princess for 79 days. One big area of change is the main dining room where service and food quality have greatly diminished over the years due reductions in both service and kitchen staffs. Unfortunately, that appears to be a trend among most cruise lines, emphasis has been on specialty restaurant venues where extra charges prevail most of the time.

Since it costs so much more to provide for a MDR than a buffet expect to see less and less of MDRs and more specialty type restaurant with expanded buffet areas. This all stems from the business model of getting passengers on board for a very low initial fee which includes a basic stateroom, three squares in the MDR plus all you can eat in the buffet restaurants. Most all other style cuisine, amenities and features such as shore excursions come as an add-on. Welcome to the nickel and dime show.

For us, we try to avoid the MDR as much as possible and are prepared to pay the extra charges for specialty restaurants, which in most cases are very good, both cuisine and service wise. Princess has also managed to maintain a fairly high quality in their Horizon Court buffet areas, relatively speaking.

For what its worth, Berlitz, in its annual "Cruising & Cruise Ship" edition provides a decent comprehensive ranking system for the MDRs and buffets of the top 11 global majors. Other restaurants are not evaluated in these ratings. In most guest reviews you get some mention of meal quality however, these are so subjective and prone to bias that they are questionable at best. Anyway:

#1 Cunard

#2 Celebrity

#3 MSC

#4 Princess

#5 P&O

#6 HAL

#7 NCL

#8 Star Cruises

#9 Carnival Cruise Line

#10 Costa

#11 Royal Caribbean

I've never sailed specifically on Grand Princess but done several other cruises on other Princess ships and never had a bad meal. You'll find it much higher quality than deep-fried frozen food covered in cheese. Is this your first cruise?

Ok thanks it's that I just spent 2700$ to go on grand princess and people are saying food sucks I'm an ex chef of 20 years I know food well I'm going to be so upset if food is the same as casinos it's all frozen food then topped with mounds of Cheese.Did it seem to be kinda home aid food

The dining room was just awesome. Yes, there were some good meals, I was happy with it.