10 days of Dining Delightfulness - Caribbean Princess (November 20 2017)

After many cruises on many different lines, my parents and I finally got around to cruising on Princess.

While I am not good at day-by-day reviews (we don't do much), and I don't buy internet minutes (so "live" is completely out of the question), we have gotten good at remembering to take pictures of our meals (usually we're sitting down, relaxing and have the camera out - not true of other times on the cruise).

For those that don't like pictures of food - please bypass this thread. Really, other than a few pictures with our travelling companion - Jerry the Minion (a gift to my mother from her grandsons) - all of the pictures contained herein will be of the food, and food related variety.

You have been warned.

The only accessible cabin for 3 people on the Caribbean Princess is an accessible Window suite so we got to enjoy Club Class dining (which I've already posted some pictures of those special items). We're not buffet-loving people and honestly, neither my mother nor I ate a single thing from the buffet this trip (My dad did have lunch there once or twice - he was not impressed).

One of the nicest things about the Window suites is the location. It was literally only a few steps (and a ramp) to the Club Class area of the dining room. This made it very convenient for us to enjoy most of our meals there.

We generally find embarkation a little chaotic and this time it was no different; my mother and I entered on Deck 5 (we got a wheelchair pusher for her after getting off the port elevator), and my dad who had parked the car and embarked separate from us, entered on Deck 6. It took us a while to find each other (and a little bit of panic in between). As I said we're not buffet people so once reunited, we headed directly to the MDR for lunch.

Lunch started with a basket of crusty bread rolls. It seemed throughout the 10 days to be about the same mix - sometimes there would be something of a different variety (like once there was a pumpernickel roll) but generally it was a variety of white rolls, some with seeds, some without.

And for those interested, we (3 people) received 3 pats of butter. Always. Every meal - always 3.

The menu had more variety than I was expecting (I had previously seen a menu with only 2 appetizer choices, 2 entrée choices and 1 dessert choice), this menu had several appetizers, a pasta dish, 3 entrees and then a few dessert choices.

I started with the Tuscan Style Chickpea soup. It was basically fancy vegetable soup with chickpeas in it. It was tasty, served warm (but not hot) and a bit bland. A little pepper, pepped it up.

Both of my parents went with the Avocado and Bay Shrimp appetizer. When reading out the menu (my mother doesn't see well and my father needs reading glasses which he put in the backpack), I specifically skipped over the avocado part. Neither of them like it, but I figured it was the only appetizer either would enjoy. When it arrived, they both just picked out the 1 piece of avocado and enjoyed the dish. I would call this a shrimp salad with a slice of avocado.

For entrees we ordered:

My Mother - Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

Myself - Cacciatore Style Chicken

My Father - Beef Tenderloin

All 3 dishes were good quality, tasty, hot and indicative of some very good cruise dining we would experience.

The Ravioli were larger than expected; the pasta was tender and easily cut with the side of the fork.

The cacciatore was full of pieces of white meat chicken. The vegetables were nicely cooked, still a little crisp but not hard. The pasta was forgettable. Since it wasn't tossed in the sauce, it was a little clumpy. For me, they could have left it off altogether or paired the chicken with some plain rice; that would have been a better side for this particular dish. Of course, the meal was large enough that even not eating the pasta, I will still very full after all that chicken and the vegetables.

My dad really enjoyed the beef tenderloin. He's a "medium" kind of guy when it comes to beef temperature and they were able to achieve that pretty much every time. The serving was also pretty hardy (which seems unusual - most lines I feel the portions are a bit on the smaller side to allow for people to have appetizer, soup/salad, entrée - or two - then dessert) and he struggled to finish the beef. His vegetables again were nicely cooked.

We skipped dessert today. At lunch, this would become a regular habit. Usually we'd end up at the International Café for an afternoon treat instead.

Later in the day my mother and I got coffees and my dad got a slice of cake from there. The desserts looked good and tasted "Okay". I don't think we really found much there that was "Wow - this is great!".

Love food porn...more please!!:D

Love food porn...more please!!:D

more coming up!

Crown Grill.

With the suite, we received complimentary specialty dining on the first night and we chose the Crown Grill.

This meal was wonderful. Service was a little.....odd. Our server struck me as a bit of a weird duck and we were his only table in our area. We didn't see him again (not even in Sabatini's for breakfast) but the other servers (like the salt lady) were there.

Anyways, it didn't really impact us too much as the food was the star. I'm just used to having exceptional service in specialty dining and this time it wasn't.

For appetizers, both of my parents ordered the black tiger prawn and papaya salpicon with a mustard seed aioli. There were 3 large, plump cooked shrimp plus a minced shrimp pate on the bottom. My mother adored the mustard sauce and the minced shrimp; my dad was a fan of the full shrimps.

I ordered the Bay scallop timbale with toasted corn, crispy okra and a grits beurre blanc. The toasted corn was awesome - crunchy and sweet with a touch of heat. My mother enjoyed the timbale, I felt it was too jelly like.

My mother ordered the shrimp bisque and my father ordered the black and blue onion soup. The shrimp bisque was their favourite with the cheese in the onion soup being too powerful compared to a weak tasting broth.

I had the marinated goat cheese and heirloom tomato salad. This was nice once I diced it all up. When it arrived, it looked more like a deconstructed salad than something I expected to be served (like when for a Caesar salad they give you the full stock of romaine leaves - it's like, do you not have a knife in the kitchen?)

For entrees -

My mother had the New Zealand double lamb chops with the garlic mashed potatoes. She really enjoyed the lamb - and this picture does not do it justice. The lamb was served medium as requested and was very tender. The potatoes were good - not too garlic-y but they were real (not so it other places on the ship).

I had the veal chop with madeira glaze. This was very tender and flavourful. I also had a baked potato and they brought that out on a separate plate. Another server came and offered additions to the potato (like sour cream and cheese).

My dad went whole hog (err, cow) and ordered the 22oz porterhouse. I didn't think I'd see a steak even he couldn't finish. He loved this and it ranks amongst his favourite meal of the trip.

He got the garlic and herb fries as his side and LOVED them. I found them greasy (I think they are tossed in truffle oil after cooking) but he was not deterred. We also got the 3 vegetables but frankly, they were generally forgettable.

For dessert, we all got the sampler. The desserts from left to right are molten chocolate cake, the milk chocolate peanut butter bar, the 7 layer s'mores, and the lemon meringue pie. If I went again, I'd order the full sized desserts and just share them. The molten chocolate cake was my favourite, my dad liked the lemon pie, and my mom liked a little of each.

I 'was' heavily leaning to the New Zealand double lamb chop on our next cruise in March. Looks kinda small, especially now that they charge an extra $10 for another entrée.

but with all the other food, that may be enough.

I 'was' heavily leaning to the New Zealand double lamb chop on our next cruise in March. Looks kinda small, especially now that they charge an extra $10 for another entrée.

 

but with all the other food, that may be enough.

It was (by far) the smallest of the entrees ordered. That being said, ordering an appetizer, soup/salad, entrée, potato side and vegetable plus dessert - we were all incredibly stuffed and didn't finish any of the courses (well, except maybe the appetizers because they were first and we were hungry :p). Perhaps you are going with someone who will order a larger entrée and give you a taste?

my wife will order the Lobster - always has, always will. I may get one bite, or not.

just kidding - we share most entrees, and anything else and yeah, gotta be careful not to get full even before the entrée comes out...

at least it will be an informed decision - thanks

How did you like Club Class dining? Did you ever have to wait for a table?

I miss the CG's dessert sampler.

Maybe the weird server will end his contract the following day.

Trisha

My DW and I were on that cruise with you and also in Club Class dining. I agree with you that the food was outstanding. We also enjoyed the wonderful service from the staff. We never had to wait for a table. We look forward to Club Class dining on our next cruise which will be on the Crown Princess.

Enjoying this, your beautiful photos are making me hungry!

Thank you. I'm loving looking at the pictures. Did you happen to take pictures of the menus too? Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Terrific report and loved the photos.

Keith

How did you like Club Class dining? Did you ever have to wait for a table?

Love it. The extra dishes were generally fabulous and the service was super attentive.

I miss the CG's dessert sampler.

Maybe the weird server will end his contract the following day.

I don't know but something was off about him. Maybe he worked somewhere else during the day and was a new server at Crown Grill.

Trisha

 

My DW and I were on that cruise with you and also in Club Class dining. I agree with you that the food was outstanding. We also enjoyed the wonderful service from the staff. We never had to wait for a table. We look forward to Club Class dining on our next cruise which will be on the Crown Princess.

The only time we had a wait was the second night of the cruise. We arrived around 7pm and received a beeper. After that, we always had the same table (and it was always set for us - with 1 chair removed so my mother could roll up to the table) and no wait at all. I loved Wilson, Dragon and most of all Mirielle. She was wonderful and made our cruise very special.

Thank you. I'm loving looking at the pictures. Did you happen to take pictures of the menus too? Thanks for taking the time to do this.

I'm sorry but I didn't. I have even brought my hand held scanner and had every intention of taking menu scans. I just kind of forgot the first few days and then....I really forgot the last few ;p.

I will say that our menus were very similar to those found here:

http://www.cruisetipstv.com/star-princess-menus-download/

just in a different order.

Sabatini's Breakfast (1 of 2)

Day 2 of our cruise was Princess Cays. As my mother is a full time wheelchair user, tendering is out of the question for her on Princess (this is the first cruise we've been on where they used the rescue boats as tenders - usually we've seen regular tender boats from shore used). Anyways, we decided on a hearty breakfast to make sure that my dad would be filled up before embarking on a day (or part day since we were only there from 10 - 3:30), of sun and fun.

I should note that my parents aren't drinkers and I stopped (temporarily) last February so no mimosa's for us. We also weren't offered specialty coffees (just regular coffee), and since we had traded the suite's mini bar for 2 coffee cards, I didn't feel the need to ask.

My mother started with the yogurt parfait. This one was quite full and had a lot of berries. I have started eating Greek yogurt at home so I tended to skip these (though I think I had one at some point). The yogurt was regular yogurt which I find kind of runny. The granola was tasty - despite being premade it was still crunchy.

I started off with the fruit plate. I'm not a huge fan of eggs so breakfast is not my favourite meal of the day - you'll see a few odd combos for me until I found the French Toast. Anyways - the fruit today was very good - super fresh and perfectly ripe. It was also a nice variety with not only the 3 types of melon and pineapple (which I find typical on cruise ships) but a sprinkling of berries as well.

My dad is generally a big breakfast kind of guy - pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, etc. On this cruise he surprised me by ordering a starter of frosted flakes every morning. No cartons of milk in Sabatini's - they bring you out a pitcher.

For her main, my mother ordered 2 poached eggs with hollandaise sauce - she doesn't like English muffins, or potatoes. While these were good, they did upset her stomach afterwards.

My dad went with an omelet, bacon, sausage and toast. It was good but the eggs were quite greasy.

I had a couple of croissants and then just some bacon. Remember my dad's nice rasher of bacon - meaty looking and cooked together. Yeah....that's not what I got.

I think they found a few leftover pieces from last cruise and put them on a plate for me. Anyways, like I said, I'm not a big breakfast eater so with the fruit, 2 croissants (which I love and only eat on vacation) and a taste of the bacon (which was a big nope after a bite), I was full enough to wait it out for better food at lunch.

For lunch my mother and I tried the international café. I selected a few things and brought them back to our table.

First was an orzo pasta salad with spinach and cranberries. I ended up picking all the cranberries out because they just completely overwhelmed the dish in both taste and number. The taste of the salad (minus the cranberries) was very good and would have benefited from some black olives instead of the tart cranberries.

Next was the shrimp and fennel salad. This was fantastic. It was perfectly seasoned, very cold shrimp cocktail. Basically we ate all of the shrimp individually and then ate the remainder of the salad. If you like shrimp, I highly recommend this.

I also got my mom and I each a tuna salad sandwich. These were.....okay. Not bad, not great. Too much bun but that was easily solved by opening up the sandwich and eating it open faced and discarding the top part of the bun.

A little later in the afternoon, my dad arrived back to the ship and he went up on deck to find something to eat; my mother went for a nap and I decided to order something from room service.

I settled on the club sandwich:

This was very good. Made fresh, still warm bacon, fresh tomato, the right ratio of bread to filling. And of course it came with a huge pile of hot crispy fries.

Tonight's dinner was the only time we had any kind of wait for Club Class dining. Once seated at what became "our table", thing progressed very smoothly.

My Father started with a shrimp cocktail - on cruises this is his mainstay. On Princess though, he discovered the fettuccini Alfredo and that became his new mainstay.

My mother started with the fettuccini tonight which became one of her favourites as well.

Having eaten that Club sandwich only a couple of hours ago, I skipped an appetizer but ordered two entrees.

First I ordered the chef's special which was shrimp in lobster sauce served with whipped potatoes and onion rings. The onion rings were soggy and the potatoes tasted like fake, instant - the shrimp however were excellent! There were 6 plump large shrimp with a hearty dose of the sauce.

I also ordered the Curtis Stone pork belly. This was very good - the apple sauce and spinach were great accompaniments to a tender piece of juicy pork. I didn't eat the potatoes.

My mother ordered the Spinach, mushroom and Emmentaler cheese quiche. She really enjoyed this dish - the cheese has a sharper flavour than she expected and it really helped turn this dish into something special.

My dad went with the braised beef short ribs with forked potatoes and root vegetables. He cleaned his plate on this one.

Beef - good

Gravy - good

Mashed potatoes - good

Vegetables - good.

No weird stuff - good.

Desserts were....mixed.

I had the soufflé (I am thinking it was Grand Marnier flavour). It was - fine. Not the best I've had (I get these on basically every cruise line because I am too lazy to make soufflés at home) but not the worst version - decidedly middle of the road.

My mother got some strawberry mousse thing - she really liked the berries on the side but the rest of it was again....okay.

My dad ordered the black forest cake which he really liked. Actual cake (not mousse, not fluff - but real cake) seems to be a rarity on most cruise lines so he was happy to see actual cake offered for dessert. Especially one with layers of cream in between his layers of real cake.

This was also my Dad's birthday so they brought out a little cake and sang to him. While this thing looked nice, it was terrible tasting. I think it's supposed to be like a flourless chocolate cake - it's made with cheap, waxy chocolate though (on the inside - not talking about the chocolate paper wrapper) and has an unsettled texture - not cake, not mousse, not solid but not liquid....it's just not - not good, not tasty, not worth eating. Get it for the candle and the song but not for dessert.

Day 3

Breakfast today was in the Club Class section of the MDR; we'd tried Sabatini's and thought we might as well try the MDR to see if there was a big difference for us (spoiler: since we don't get mimosa's and weren't offered specialty coffees, we actually ended up preferring the MDR).

My dad again got an omelet with sausage and hash browns - well, actually 1 big, honking hash brown. Although the omelet looks overdone he preferred this one to the one he got in Sabatini's - it wasn't greasy and had more filling in it.

He also ordered 2 pancakes (yes, actually 2 pancakes - not 2 orders, he orders 2 pancakes - not 3, not 4 - must be 2).

He was impressed because these came out hot! hot! hot! - hot enough to melt his butter.

Both my mother and I opted for the French Toast. It wasn't listed on the menu but when I asked if they had waffles, Wilson offered up French Toast instead.

This stuff was like crack. It's a little sweet (but not too sweet), a little savoury, a little eggy, but not too eggy, and just triangles of toasty goodness. And served with normal bacon.