Dining question

So excited to finally book a Princess cruise on the Caribbean Princess this December. I am reading as much as i can from this wonderful forum and all the thoughtful cruisers.

As for the dining question, is this past post still valid?

"When you are in the MDR you can order almost anything from a previous days menu..ex...you had delicious French Onion Soup on Monday...now its Thursday and its not on the current menu..."

Not unless it's an "always available" item.

So excited to finally book a Princess cruise on the Caribbean Princess this December. I am reading as much as i can from this wonderful forum and all the thoughtful cruisers.

As for the dining question, is this past post still valid?

"When you are in the MDR you can order almost anything from a previous days menu..ex...you had delicious French Onion Soup on Monday...now its Thursday and its not on the current menu..."

I think it more likely that you can order a dish for the following evening rather than for the current evening. That would give the galley staff more time to ready your special request.

Yes and no. You can pre-order a dish the night before. Just let your wait staff know you'd like to order something made for the next evening. The Table Captain will stop by and take your order.

Some dishes can be modified when ordering after bring seated. For instance, you can ask for steamed vegetables, a baked potato or French fries instead of the side dishes that come with the entree. You can ask for an appetizer as an entree or an entree as an appetizer. I often get the "always available" tenderloin and ask for Bearnaise sauce.

Yes and no. You can pre-order a dish the night before. Just let your wait staff know you'd like to order something made for the next evening. The Table Captain will stop by and take your order.

 

Some dishes can be modified when ordering after bring seated. For instance, you can ask for steamed vegetables, a baked potato or French fries instead of the side dishes that come with the entree. You can ask for an appetizer as an entree or an entree as an appetizer. I often get the "always available" tenderloin and ask for Bearnaise sauce.

It sounds like there are more changes in the always available menu items. Is there a link to the new menu?

I hope that the seafood night at the buffet i read about is still there.

The seafood buffet has been gone for years.

There aren't any absolutes to special requests. The inventory of ingredients is largely static. The ship sails with what the ship sails with (at least on shorter cruises). So if a dish was served on Monday, on Tuesday they are still going to have all of the ingredients to make the same dish on except in the very rare instance where they ran out of it the night before. So when you look backwards, it is certainly possible to repeat a dish. The same isn't true looking forward because you might be asking for something that isn't in the pantry and the chef can't send a runner out to the market to get the ingredients. So if you ask for sweetbreads on a cruise where they haven't yet been served, you have no way of knowing if the ingredient is on board. So you can ask for a prior dish, but having that request honored will depend on how accommodating the staff wants to be; how busy the kitchen is; whether preparation of that special request will disrupt the current service; and whether the ingredients involved are readily available. As noted above, asking for something the night before instead of during your current meal increases your chances but guarantees nothing. Getting Onion Soup on an off night might be easy. Asking for Prime Rib and Lobster Tails every night might result in an eye roll.

Pam, the beef medallions are no longer on the always available menu. Have you been able to special order them "off menu" on recent cruises?

Thats the problem reading all the 2014, 2015 secrets I learned a lot, but reading about all the old menu offerings no longer available was tough. Oh well

We also were not impressed with the MDR menu on our last cruise. We did a lot of specialty dinning and UBD . Only ate in the mdr twice in 15 days. We also don't care for the buffets and didn't eat there either.

DH was really disappointed with the always available menu on our May Caribbean Princess cruise. There was no beef ---- no steak or beef medallions or anything else. I think there was salmon and a basic chicken breast, not sure what else, but not too tempting. Of course, he certainly didn't go hungry and he is not a very picky eater, but still, it was a letdown for him.

I have two thoughts here:

1. It's unlikely most people will look at the MDR menu and find absolutely nothing appealing. It might happen once or twice during a cruise, but you can always ask for a kids' menu and get spaghetti or something.

2. If you look at the menu (posted outside at least one dining room in the morning) and just don't like anything, there are a lot of options to explore: grab stuff from the International Cafe, try the pizza, burger area, pay for a specialty restaurant or go to the Horizon Court buffet.

Jim

I have two thoughts here:

 

1. It's unlikely most people will look at the MDR menu and find absolutely nothing appealing. It might happen once or twice during a cruise, but you can always ask for a kids' menu and get spaghetti or something.

 

I guess I am not most people.

I do not eat seafood or pork, or lamb so immediately most entrées are not appealing to me. The old "always available" list had at least two items I could go to (the beef medallions and the plain chicken breast).

DW is a vegetarian which limits her options even more.

So excited to finally book a Princess cruise on the Caribbean Princess this December. I am reading as much as i can from this wonderful forum and all the thoughtful cruisers.

As for the dining question, is this past post still valid?

"When you are in the MDR you can order almost anything from a previous days menu..ex...you had delicious French Onion Soup on Monday...now its Thursday and its not on the current menu..."

All you can do is ask.

They will try to help.

But sometimes the answer simply has to be no.

Slightly off topic. We have been on several 7 night cruises on Princess and are very familiar with all the changes over the past couple of years. As far as we are concerned the Curtis Stone items are a total fail and no substitute for the always familiar beef medallions that were on the always available for many years.

Now we are headed for a 14 night Cape Horn cruise and were wondering do they just repeat the 7 night menu?

Thanks,

Henry

Slightly off topic. We have been on several 7 night cruises on Princess and are very familiar with all the changes over the past couple of years. As far as we are concerned the Curtis Stone items are a total fail and no substitute for the always familiar beef medallions that were on the always available for many years.

 

Now we are headed for a 14 night Cape Horn cruise and were wondering do they just repeat the 7 night menu?

 

Thanks,

 

Henry

Note that some longer cruises are a combination of one or more shorter cruises. In the Med the Royal and also next year the Majestic have cruises of 14, 21 and 28 days that are a combination of 7 day cruises. The menus will repeat 2, 3 or 4 times on those cruises because the menus are based on the shortest cruise.

We were on Golden for 21 days and every menu was different.

The 14 day Cape Horn cruise will have 14 different menus. Individual items may be on more than once, but prepared differently. I believe Princess has about 30 menus. We have never been on a cruise longer than 14 days but we had a different menu each night on those cruises

 

Note that some longer cruises are a combination of one or more shorter cruises. In the Med the Royal and also next year the Majestic have cruises of 14, 21 and 28 days that are a combination of 7 day cruises. The menus will repeat 2, 3 or 4 times on those cruises because the menus are based on the shortest cruise.

On our 34 day cruise I don't think any menu repeated, but a number of dishes repeated, some menus were made up of dishes that had all been offered previously but not in the same combination.

So each app had been around before (not all together) each main had been around before (again not together in that combination) and each desert had seen time on the menu before.

But then I wouldn't normally have something different every day for five weeks at home as a general rule.

DH was really disappointed with the always available menu on our May Caribbean Princess cruise. There was no beef ---- no steak or beef medallions or anything else. I think there was salmon and a basic chicken breast, not sure what else, but not too tempting. Of course, he certainly didn't go hungry and he is not a very picky eater, but still, it was a letdown for him.

Last month on the CB, a hamburger was offered on the always available menu.

Last month on the CB, a hamburger was offered on the always available menu.

Hamburger for medallions!! What a joke Princess. Talk about cost cutting.

We prefer late dining and just booked a cruise that is more than 6 months out. The only dining time they could confirm is "Anytime" and wait listing us for late. We are #99 on the waitlist. Anyone have any experience with this? What are the chances we get confirmed for Late? Does our Elite status have any affect on our position on the list?

We have never done Anytime dining and do not think we would like.

Thanks,

Henry

We prefer late dining and just booked a cruise that is more than 6 months out. The only dining time they could confirm is "Anytime" and wait listing us for late. We are #99 on the waitlist. Anyone have any experience with this? What are the chances we get confirmed for Late? Does our Elite status have any affect on our position on the list?

 

We have never done Anytime dining and do not think we would like.

 

Thanks,

 

Henry

Elite status has no bearing on dining times.

If you don't clear the wait list just see the Maitre'd on embarkation day at the time and place listed in the Patter.

Its usually held in one of the DR's between 2p-3:30p. He has the power to make it happen for you.

Elite status has no bearing on dining times.

 

If you don't clear the wait list just see the Maitre'd on embarkation day at the time and place listed in the Patter.

Its usually held in one of the DR's between 2p-3:30p. He has the power to make it happen for you.

Thanks.

Henry

Hamburger for medallions!! What a joke Princess. Talk about cost cutting.

Not just a hamburger.

It is a Princess Gourmet Beef Burger.

With Stilton cheese, sautéed mushroom AND French fries.

WOW!!!!!!!