What is the International Cafe

[Colo Cruiser]

custard-filled doughnuts. Heaven on a plate.

 

 

+20

[JF - retired RRT]

Love the international cafe and coffee bar. If you're a coffee drinker (like me), i would recommend to purchase the coffee card. Unlimited regular coffee and 15 specialty coffees. It's a much better quality coffee than what you get for free in the Horizon court. I think it's $39 for the card. Open 24 hours and has a great selection of goodies to choose from. Can't wait, we'll be on the Royal in 3 week's [emoji568] [emoji41]

I think it is $33 if you buy it on the ship or $31 if you pre-purchase.

[gnatz007]

The best thing about the International Cafe, is that it is on the way to everything. Room > IC > Pool. Pool > IC > Room. Bow > IC > Stern. Regardless of where you are, the International Cafe always seems to be along the way :confused:

[shepp]

IC is always packed and you'll find it hard to get a seat. Often one needs to enjoy your selection in the cabin :rolleyes:. Talk about seat hoggers...they're down here as well.

 

The worst are those rude jerks who claim tables near the service counter, then sit there playing cards or reading for hours. If any of you is reading this thread: get a clue!

 

And just for accuracy...if the OP will be on the Coral, the IC isn't in the Piazza, but has been squeezed in next to the casino. Bad thing: you have a lovely view of the slots. Good thing: it almost never seemed to be crowded.

 

Oh, and I really don't get the cronut thing.

[Gimer]

gnatz--You got that right, since my stateroom is right around the corner from the IC, for the past 2 cruises. I'm doing a B2B in April and stateroom is P322, thats right around the corner from the IC again. Good as it gets. :D:D:D

[JimmyVWine]

Custard-filled doughnuts. Heaven on a plate.

I cannot recall the last time when my day did not begin with one (or two) of these on my balcony. Dead serious.

[Mom33]

You can also have a quickie breakfast in the IC. They make egg mcmuffins:D

[chefjrp]

I think it is $33 if you buy it on the ship or $31 if you pre-purchase.

 

Thanks JF, I did not know that we can pre-purchase one.

[searoses]

Coffee is good....card well worth it....loved the pistachio pudding and the black and white chocolate parfaits....my sister had a cronut and said it was weird and very dry...

[Potstech]

Didn't know there was a time limt or usage restrictions on the table and chairs around the IC. Wonder where they are posted.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Potstech

[Cruisin' Chick]

Didn't know there was a time limt or usage restrictions on the table and chairs around the IC. Wonder where they are posted.

 

There isn't. The seating can also be used by those enjoying the entertainment during the day or evening. So you can sit there without getting anything from the IC or Vines. As I said above, it's not an enclosed eatery.

[Potstech]

There isn't. The seating can also be used by those enjoying the entertainment during the day or evening. So you can sit there without getting anything from the IC or Vines. As I said above' date=' it's not an enclosed eatery.[/quote']

 

Earlier postings seem to think some are hogging the chairs are spending too much time in them. So if there are no rules limiting a persons usage then why would they make such comments?

[Water Log]

The donuts are ready in the IC 4:15 am. I am been woken out of a sound sleep in the smell of fresh bakery ! They are probably the best I have ever had. The apple donut, which is not produced every day is especially wonderful. The cronut has to be eaten when it is fresh as it goes from heavenly to huh in a few hours.

what is not to like with these goodies? How can you not like the perfect combination of fat and sugar?

[shredie]

There isn't. The seating can also be used by those enjoying the entertainment during the day or evening. So you can sit there without getting anything from the IC or Vines. As I said above' date=' it's not an enclosed eatery.[/quote']

 

It's possible to take your food to any of the tables or bars in the piazza area. I have more than once eaten some IC thing in Vines or at the Lobby Bar. I think they could provide more seating in the piazza as a whole, though.

[szubieta]

The donuts are ready in the IC 4:15 am. I am been woken out of a sound sleep in the smell of fresh bakery ! They are probably the best I have ever had. The apple donut, which is not produced every day is especially wonderful. The cronut has to be eaten when it is fresh as it goes from heavenly to huh in a few hours.

what is not to like with these goodies? How can you not like the perfect combination of fat and sugar?

 

Oh no, this isn't so good. I thought staying down the hall from the IC wouldn't be so bad up till now. Now I'm worried I will wake up every morning sick and with a migraine. :( Now praying for the upgrade fairy. Thanks for the heads up.

[Wehwalt]

The donuts are ready in the IC 4:15 am. I am been woken out of a sound sleep in the smell of fresh bakery ! They are probably the best I have ever had. The apple donut, which is not produced every day is especially wonderful. The cronut has to be eaten when it is fresh as it goes from heavenly to huh in a few hours.

what is not to like with these goodies? How can you not like the perfect combination of fat and sugar?

 

I'm not sure the time is true for all Princess ships. On the Royal, nothing was ready until 5:30 and you could not even order food at the IC while they were setting up, there was a plate of fairly bad-looking pastries you could select from instead. The CB was 5:30, but if you came down while they were setting up the food, they would still serve you. (both December 2014). Coffee was always available. I didn't like on the Island the only way to get coffee in the wee hours was room service.

 

But as an early riser I like being able to go to the IC and get a coffee and perhaps a croissant doughnut (my weakness). When the pastries are warm, they are excellent. The breads on Princess are never stale, but they're (in my experience) almost never warm. There's something about fresh from the oven ...

 

Then I pay for them by walking miles on the top decks ...

Edited January 24, 2015 by Wehwalt

[Water Log]

We just got off the Royal on 1/18.The international cafe is in fact open 24 hours.A very neat server from the Ukraine brings out the yummy just out of the oven baked goods at about 4am. Perhaps you are thinking of the horizon court which does not serve breakfast goodies until 5:30 and does not offer the decadent donuts

[Wehwalt]

We just got off the Royal on 1/18.The international cafe is in fact open 24 hours.A very neat server from the Ukraine brings out the yummy just out of the oven baked goods at about 4am. Perhaps you are thinking of the horizon court which does not serve breakfast goodies until 5:30 and does not offer the decadent donuts

 

I don't say you're wrong but that was not the way they were running it when I was on her Dec 19-29. Perhaps they were short staffed. The coffee bar was always open, but when they switched to breakfast-style food, the food side closed for about an hour, I think, and had a tray out with pastries.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Wehwalt

[Cruisin' Chick]

Earlier postings seem to think some are hogging the chairs are spending too much time in them. So if there are no rules limiting a persons usage then why would they make such comments?

 

It's probably more that some would like to sit down with their plates, feeling they should have more priority for those tables than those who aren't eating. But the tables aren't exclusively for IC diners.

 

It's possible to take your food to any of the tables or bars in the piazza area. I have more than once eaten some IC thing in Vines or at the Lobby Bar. I think they could provide more seating in the piazza as a whole, though.

 

I would often take a plate with an afternoon treat with me to the Explorers Lounge to enjoy while playing the 4:30 trivia. There was one day that we returned from the port and my daughter was insisting we watch a movie in the cabin. So I quickly went down and got a plate of goodies for us to enjoy.

 

Probably on the ships where the Piazza and IC were added during a dry dock retrofit there isn't as much room as on the newer ships. There's only so many places to stick tables on the Golden in that area unless they take out a lounge or the Vines shop and turn one of those into a seating area. Hopefully the Internet Cafe and library would be left alone.

[jagsfan]

Is the croissant doughnut (or cronut

if it hasn't been trademarked) just a deep fried croissant? Or do they take raw croissant dough and fold it into a square and fry it?

I've wondered since I first heard about New Yorkers standing in long lines to buy them.

 

 

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[Wehwalt]

Is the croissant doughnut (or cronut

if it hasn't been trademarked) just a deep fried croissant? Or do they take raw croissant dough and fold it into a square and fry it?

I've wondered since I first heard about New Yorkers standing in long lines to buy them.

 

They are square, have a hole in the middle and sugar on top, and are flaky. I have seen Dunkin Donuts has them but I've never tasted them there. The ones in the IC are very good unless they're damp and soggy in the middle and underneath, which is now and then the case depending on ship. They seem popular, I've seen them "sell out".

Edited January 24, 2015 by Wehwalt

[hawkeyetlse]

Is the croissant doughnut (or cronut

if it hasn't been trademarked) just a deep fried croissant? Or do they take raw croissant dough and fold it into a square and fry it?

Here is a photo (posted in an earlier thread):

[RRFPresident]

You can also have a quickie breakfast in the IC. They make egg mcmuffins:D

 

Finally got the chance to try the egg mcmuffin sandwich one morning which I took to enjoy in a quiet lounge waiting for the first trivia session of the day to start.

 

My go to breakfast at home usually includes one of the Jimmy Dean egg sandwiches and these were very close and yummy.

[ronl]

what ships does not have international cafe

[Cruisin' Chick]

what ships does not have international cafe

 

This will tell you all about dining on Princess ships, but as far as I know, the ships currently without the IC are the Island, Diamond, Dawn, and the small girls (Pacific and Ocean).