Is Sabatini's Back and Share is Out?

[wdrl]

 

 

I have gotten a few emails from Princess talking about improving Sabatini's. Does this mean they have given up on Share?

[floridalover5623]

They'll have to wait till the contract with Curtis Stone runs out which is probably another 3 + years to get rid of SHARE.

Not that I dislike a new restaurant but just losing Sabatini's wasn't a good move.

Now if they could offer both restaurants on the same ship.......;)

[wdrl]

That would be interesting having both, but then wouldn't that give Princess a bigger excuse to have a less than stellar main dining room? Once they opened Sabatinis all of the fabulous pastas became pretty ordinary in the MDR. I still miss the pasta prepared at your table by the head waiter.

[Colo Cruiser]

A quick search found many threads,

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2480751

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2481435&highlight=sabatinis

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2461855&highlight=sabatinis

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2436616&highlight=share

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2473906

[floridalover5623]

That would be interesting having both, but then wouldn't that give Princess a bigger excuse to have a less than stellar main dining room? Once they opened Sabatinis all of the fabulous pastas became pretty ordinary in the MDR. I still miss the pasta prepared at your table by the head waiter.

That would occur no matter what Specialty restaurants they offered. They have to create that extra special place where people can spend extra to get was once a standard option.

[fishywood]

"SHARE is out"? Don't think so. Even if there is an unofficial moratorium on adding SHARE to additional ships--something which Princess would never admit to on the record--there is no way SHARE will be taken "out" of the three ships it was installed on without massive legal wrangling and payment of copious damages to Mr. Stone (or the legal entity that owns his name). In a quite similar case it took Cunard Line nearly 10 years to undo their agreement with Todd English after the appending of his name to their specialty restaurants resulted in a similarly meh reception.

 

The updating of Sabatini's is likely focused on the four original Grand-class ships to bring their smaller, nearly 20 year old facilities into this decade. And as for Sabatini's resulting in inferior pastas in the MDR: the first Sabatini's opened in 1998 on Grand Princess, yet the preparation and variety of pasta remained steady in the MDR for at least another dozen years--it wasn't until around 2012 that I noticed changes such as the Veal Ravioli now stuffed with some type of nebulous meat paste. And with most themed nights in the MDR gone, there is still an approximation of an Italian Night menu on each cruise--dumbed down or not, it is still popular.

[Thrak]

I believe this is the video that was supposed to be linked in the first post:

 

Edited April 9, 2017 by Thrak

[floridalover5623]

And with most themed nights in the MDR gone, there is still an approximation of an Italian Night menu on each cruise--dumbed down or not, it is still popular.

Since you happen to mention it.....we gave up on Italian night in the DR altogether, it got so bad. We now just go to the buffet & get all the same options + more & have never looked back.

It's a shame since the DR used to be one of our favorites.

[Fat Albert]

"SHARE is out"? Don't think so. Even if there is an unofficial moratorium on adding SHARE to additional ships--something which Princess would never admit to on the record--there is no way SHARE will be taken "out" of the three ships it was installed on without massive legal wrangling and payment of copious damages to Mr. Stone (or the legal entity that owns his name). In a quite similar case it took Cunard Line nearly 10 years to undo their agreement with Todd English after the appending of his name to their specialty restaurants resulted in a similarly meh reception.

 

The updating of Sabatini's is likely focused on the four original Grand-class ships to bring their smaller, nearly 20 year old facilities into this decade. And as for Sabatini's resulting in inferior pastas in the MDR: the first Sabatini's opened in 1998 on Grand Princess, yet the preparation and variety of pasta remained steady in the MDR for at least another dozen years--it wasn't until around 2012 that I noticed changes such as the Veal Ravioli now stuffed with some type of nebulous meat paste. And with most themed nights in the MDR gone, there is still an approximation of an Italian Night menu on each cruise--dumbed down or not, it is still popular.

 

You write very well and your reporting is very precise and accurate.

[OCruisers]

They'll have to wait till the contract with Curtis Stone runs out which is probably another 3 + years to get rid of SHARE.

..........................;)

 

Hopefully, SHARE will be gone when the contract with Curtis Stone is over. (yn)

[fishywood]

You write very well and your reporting is very precise and accurate.

 

Thanks but I have no intentions to be a reporter. Just hoping to keep things in a reasonable context. Usually I try to accompany my thoughts with qualifiers such as "even if" or "likely" (or "usually" :rolleyes:) to avoid the appearance of presenting exclusive facts without attribution--something I am no less guilty of than anyone else.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Since you happen to mention it.....we gave up on Italian night in the DR altogether, it got so bad. We now just go to the buffet & get all the same options + more & have never looked back.

 

It's a shame since the DR used to be one of our favorites.

 

 

Our group ate in the buffet on the Regal on Italian Night and we were all very, very pleased! The eggplant parm, the various pastas freshly made! Yum, love that buffet!

 

 

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[floridalover5623]

Our group ate in the buffet on the Regal on Italian Night and we were all very, very pleased! The eggplant parm, the various pastas freshly made! Yum, love that buffet!

 

 

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The first time we skipped Italian night in the DR was on the Royal and what we saw at the buffet was so impressive & well prepared we'll never go back to the limited choice of the DR. (on Italian night at least)

Until people experience it for themselves they'll never believe it. ;)

On the CB it was maybe OK but nothing compared to the Royal class ships.:)