Best day for specialty restaurant

[Montana]

Any suggestions for best nights to dine at specialty restaurant on 7 day cruise. Trying to stay away from formal night. In a club class mini first time Ruby Princess.

Crown Grill or Share? I prefer seafood. Husband prefers steak.

[memoak]

I would go with the Crown Grill - personally I do not like the menu at Share nor the time it would take to eat a 6 course meal

[land lover]

Share all the way.."new" menu is inventive, and presentation/service much more interesting then GC.

 

Have only been disappointed by Share once(old Menu) but CG..several times( I understand the quality won't be close to what is available at home, I am really picky when it comes to red meat) but great service certainly makes all food taste better and that is what I find most disappointing when experiencing the CG on different ships recently.

 

The last several meals years we have had comp meals....otherwise, probably would not be visiting either restaurant.

 

 

However, On our May 2018 cruise to Alaska on the Ruby, the CG did had Alaska only Specials...oysters(app) and halibut are 2 that I remember. It was one of the better meals I have had at CG, but again service lacked....

 

Best night? depends upon the sailing..MD would say first night.....

Edited August 2, 2018 by land lover

[BigGuy25]

The "formal" dress request only applies to the main dining room ... not the buffet or specialty restaurants. Since my DW and I quit packing dresses, jackets, ties, etc, several years ago, we now book the specialty restaurants on formal nights.

[Colo Cruiser]

Oh gawd. ☹️ Crown Grill for sure. As far as best night every cruise is different. If you have a night in mind make the res asap.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[satxdiver]

We like to go to a specialty dining room on the first formal night since the "formal" requirement is not applicable. The CG has some seafood but mainly is a steak place. We have been to SHARE and found it to not be to our liking. We arrived about 7 PM and the room was vacant except for a large table of maybe 12 which turned out to be crew. We received great service however since we were the only pax in the room. Given the OP's choices I would go to the CG (I eat seafood and not red meat) on the first formal night.

 

I forgot to mention that they had lowered the price for SHARE to $29 as a special offering that lasted one month and still the room was empty.

[JF - retired RRT]

Read the menus for each and decide which one to go to.

Since your trying to avoid formal night...the answer is - go on formal night. :)

[JimmyVWine]

We like to go to the Specialty Dining Rooms on the first and last nights of the cruise. (Although, when Free Specialty Dining is a "thing", the first night can be tougher to book.) We like going on the first night to start our cruise off with a bang, and we like to go on the last night because the Landfall Menu has never excited us. Note: We do Anytime Dining. If we were doing Traditional, we would always go to our assigned table on the first night to meet our tablemates and to make sure that our assigned dining situation is satisfactory.

[dfields1814]

We try to schedule a speciality restaurant on a port day when the ship departs somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00. My wife suffers from motion sickness. leaving at that time reduces the odds of have dinner with rough seas.

[Roatanfans]

We like to go to the Specialty Dining Rooms on the first and last nights of the cruise. (Although, when Free Specialty Dining is a "thing", the first night can be tougher to book.) We like going on the first night to start our cruise off with a bang, and we like to go on the last night because the Landfall Menu has never excited us. Note: We do Anytime Dining. If we were doing Traditional, we would always go to our assigned table on the first night to meet our tablemates and to make sure that our assigned dining situation is satisfactory.

 

Totally agree with last night being our favorite night to go- the menu for the last night has always been our least favorite, plus it's nice to have a special dinner for the last night of the trip!

[geoherb]

If you want a truly special event, try the Ultimate Balcony Dinner. It's just a few dollars more than eating at a specialty restaurant and you get so much more--a couple of cocktails, flowers that you can keep for the rest of the cruise, a half bottle of champagne, a photo, and a memorable meal with excellent truly personalized service for just the two of you.

[voljeep]

we typically eat in a specialty restaurant at most once a cruise - usually on a Thursday as we found the weekends were way too busy and the service somewhat lacking, but still way beyond the mdr...

[Cruise2End]

You can go to Passengers Services when you board and ask to peruse the menus for your cruise, and then decide based on what night doesn’t look impressive to you. 😊

[MrMan]

For 7 days I would pay the extra $100 and just do specialty for all dinners. Eat when you want and with whom, and eat better. For the price of what you spend on an excursion trapped in a bus waiting for that one couple that won’t leave the mandatory gift shop stop, you can eat like a King every night

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[MCC retired]

If you booked with a TA during one of their Cruise Night Sales and receive that promised Coupon Book , it has a BoGo Coupon for a Speciality restaurant , Good for First Night only.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Colo Cruiser]

For 7 days I would pay the extra $100 and just do specialty for all dinners. Eat when you want and with whom, and eat better. For the price of what you spend on an excursion trapped in a bus waiting for that one couple that won’t leave the mandatory gift shop stop, you can eat like a King every night

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Extra $100?

7 days @$29pp?

What specialty dining are you talking about?

[OCruisers]

Any suggestions for best nights to dine at specialty restaurant on 7 day cruise. Trying to stay away from formal night. In a club class mini first time Ruby Princess.

Crown Grill or Share? I prefer seafood. Husband prefers steak.

 

Club Class Mini-Suites with Club Class Dining are great you'll enjoy. (y) (y)

If you decide to go to a specialty restaurant, Crown Grill would be our choice.

[KevintheIrishDJ]

There is a special TA promotion where you get a BOGO coupon for Embarkation night only.

[RetireNCruise]

There is a special TA promotion where you get a BOGO coupon for Embarkation night only.

is this any TA, or your specific TA?

[jennybenny]

I would go the first night or the last night to specialty dining as they are my Least favorite menus. However, given that you have club class dining you may want to skip specialty dining all together. I loved it on our last cruise! Arrive when we want, the servers know us, no wait. It was awesome.

 

I love SHARE. Have actually gone out of our way to travel on the Ruby because of our love of SHARE. The Crown Grill is good. When we take 15 day cruises we go at least twice.

[BritinSoCal]

Another vote for SHARE - dragging the Princess dining experience into the late 20th century

[JimmyVWine]

Another vote for SHARE - dragging the Princess dining experience into the late 20th century

At $39 per person, I'd say it is catapulting Princess more so than dragging! :o

[BritinSoCal]

At $39 per person, I'd say it is catapulting Princess more so than dragging! :o

 

Got OBC that needs to be used on something... besides and lets be honest, the menus and decor in the other speciality restaurants are just a little bit tired and dated.

[JimmyVWine]

... besides and lets be honest, the menus and decor in the other speciality restaurants are just a little bit tired and dated.

I am not a huge "steakhouse" fan. I find almost all of them, (Mortons, Ruths Chris, Smith & Wollensky, Caiptal Grill, etc.) to be formulaic, boring and yes, tired. As for "dated", it's kind of hard not to be dated when your specialty is filet mignon and ribeye steaks. Hard to "update" cooking a ribeye. So yes, Crown Grill suffers from all of the cliches of any steakhouse chain. But I very much enjoy Sabatini's. The menu there seems to change at least twice every decade, :cool: and the cuisine is not dissimilar from many contemporary Italian restaurants. I wouldn't put it in the "tired and dated" category...yet.

[voljeep]

wish they would let you 'share' in the crown grill...way too much food...we'd get a the lamb chops and add a lobster...

 

be plenty of food...:cool: