360 experience ?

[azbirdmom]

On 10/5/2022 at 9:48 AM, dides said:

We got off the Discovery last weekend and, during our last Suite breakfast, I quizzed the staff in Sabatini's about 360. It is an immersive food experience which will be held in the circular room behind the dark double doors in the pic below.  Apparently all the menus have now been confirmed and they are planning to hold trials later this month. There is still some tech that needs to be setup however!

 

 

We did it last night on the Discovery.  We were asked about 45 minutes before it started if we would like to try it and we said why not.  They chose people at random as far as we could tell and it was free as it was a trial.  There were a total of 20 diners - including Lauren Tewes aka Julie McCoy from the original Love Boat - well maybe not entirely random selection?  We all met near the Salty Dog bar where they took our pictures and gave us a special cocktail.  They told us our seat numbers and then two violinists appeared.  We followed them into Sabatinis through the kitchen and into the 360 dining area.  We were immediately told that we could not take pictures (darn).

 

It's a circular area with images projected - practically everywhere.  The seating areas are around a circle and the maitre d would come to the middle to explain each course.  I won't ruin it with too much detail but it's a culinary trip through the Mediterranean with sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the different areas we "visited".  We were served seven courses and managed to at least taste all but one.  We are fussy eaters with simple tastes so maybe not their target audience for this sort of thing.  We were also served cocktails and wine from the different regions.  Presentation was impeccable and there were 10 waiters who delivered each course to every diner at exactly the same time.

 

The whole experience lasted 2 hours and it was definitely fun.  Those who enjoy the Chef's Table will probably be wowed by this as will others looking for a different kind of dining experience.

 

From what we heard they will officially "open" on the Discovery November 5th and it's supposed to be $150 each if the info we heard was accurate.  Glad we got to do it for free!

Edited October 30, 2022 by azbirdmom

[Princessfan20]

On 8/17/2022 at 4:43 PM, Doug R. said:

I just love idle speculation, especially when the poster gets angry about it.

So true and also we tire of the fact that people disapprove of people being able to choose to pay for different experiences.  We are quite happy to be able to pay for Princess’ upgraded experiences.  Life is not always fair it seems even on a cruise ship.

[Guest ldtr]

On 8/17/2022 at 5:17 PM, Doug R. said:

They do, but it is not judgement when they go on an anti-Princess rant with no basis in fact. Fact is no one posting here has any idea exactly what 360 is other than some new dining venue with pasta. No information on price or exclusivity. No reason to condemn it before the information is fully known. I am not in favor if it turns out to be a very high-priced dining venue that cuts a portion of the ship away from the regular cruisers. I hope Princess is not going the way Norwegian has in creating an exclusive area for those who can afford higher fares. I look at things like Club Class Dining, Suite Breakfast and the Sanctuary as small steps in that direction. Hopefully we are not headed into the bygone days when there were different classes on ships and never the twain shall meet.

Unlike ship within a ship or true class structures, at least this is a dining venue that anybody that wants to pay the meal price can eat there, instead of a venue that is only available to suite passengers.  One can choose if they want to buy it or not, just as one can choose if they want a specialty restaurant or not.  When the specialty restaurants first came out you actually had similar complaints about them. Kind of funny for a complaint to be that they are reducing the space in one specialty for a more expensive specialty restaurant.  At least it is one that anybody can book.

 

Class systems will start showing up with the new Sun ship.

[Kay S]

On 8/18/2022 at 7:22 AM, cruise2relax said:

Trying to put the pieces together...my best guess is this is an immersive dining experience.  

"Immersive dining" sounds kind of...well, sticky.  😁  It sounds a little gimmicky, but that's just me.  Go for it, if that's your thing.

[dides]

2 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

 

We did it last night on the Discovery.  We were asked about 45 minutes before it started if we would like to try it and we said why not.  They chose people at random as far as we could tell and it was free as it was a trial.  There were a total of 20 diners - including Lauren Tewes aka Julie McCoy from the original Love Boat - well maybe not entirely random selection?  We all met near the Salty Dog bar where they took our pictures and gave us a special cocktail.  They told us our seat numbers and then two violinists appeared.  We followed them into Sabatinis through the kitchen and into the 360 dining area.  We were immediately told that we could not take pictures (darn).

 

It's a circular area with images projected - practically everywhere.  The seating areas are around a circle and the maitre d would come to the middle to explain each course.  I won't ruin it with too much detail but it's a culinary trip through the Mediterranean with sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the different areas we "visited".  We were served seven courses and managed to at least taste all but one.  We are fussy eaters with simple tastes so maybe not their target audience for this sort of thing.  We were also served cocktails and wine from the different regions.  Presentation was impeccable and there were 10 waiters who delivered each course to every diner at exactly the same time.

 

The whole experience lasted 2 hours and it was definitely fun.  Those who enjoy the Chef's Table will probably be wowed by this as will others looking for a different kind of dining experience.

 

From what we heard they will officially "open" on the Discovery November 5th and it's supposed to be $150 each if the info we heard was accurate.  Glad we got to do it for free!

Thank you for reporting back and what a treat to experience it first!  We are simple eaters too so probably won't be trying this especially at that price! 

[freecruiser2]

11 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

 

We did it last night on the Discovery.  We were asked about 45 minutes before it started if we would like to try it and we said why not.  They chose people at random as far as we could tell and it was free as it was a trial.  There were a total of 20 diners - including Lauren Tewes aka Julie McCoy from the original Love Boat - well maybe not entirely random selection?  We all met near the Salty Dog bar where they took our pictures and gave us a special cocktail.  They told us our seat numbers and then two violinists appeared.  We followed them into Sabatinis through the kitchen and into the 360 dining area.  We were immediately told that we could not take pictures (darn).

 

It's a circular area with images projected - practically everywhere.  The seating areas are around a circle and the maitre d would come to the middle to explain each course.  I won't ruin it with too much detail but it's a culinary trip through the Mediterranean with sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the different areas we "visited".  We were served seven courses and managed to at least taste all but one.  We are fussy eaters with simple tastes so maybe not their target audience for this sort of thing.  We were also served cocktails and wine from the different regions.  Presentation was impeccable and there were 10 waiters who delivered each course to every diner at exactly the same time.

 

The whole experience lasted 2 hours and it was definitely fun.  Those who enjoy the Chef's Table will probably be wowed by this as will others looking for a different kind of dining experience.

 

From what we heard they will officially "open" on the Discovery November 5th and it's supposed to be $150 each if the info we heard was accurate.  Glad we got to do it for free!

So jealous you got to try this!  I've been watching to see what this is, and when it will happen, since we're on Discovery and Enchanted in 2023.  I was also on the Discovery this past week and I walked by the photo backdrop thinking they were going to make some announcement. Now I know some lucky people, and with Cynthia!, got to try it.  Thank you for the info!

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, freecruiser2 said:

So jealous you got to try this!  I've been watching to see what this is, and when it will happen, since we're on Discovery and Enchanted in 2023.  I was also on the Discovery this past week and I walked by the photo backdrop thinking they were going to make some announcement. Now I know some lucky people, and with Cynthia!, got to try it.  Thank you for the info!

 

You're welcome!  It was a wonderful week and to have this experience to end our time onboard was fantastic.

[azbirdmom]

9 hours ago, dides said:

Thank you for reporting back and what a treat to experience it first!  We are simple eaters too so probably won't be trying this especially at that price! 

 

Oh I think you would find enough to eat like us and what we did have was delicious.  And the experience was very cool.  But yeah at that price we probably won't be back.  Everyone is different and it's sure nice that Princess is providing experiences that appeal to everyone - from foodies to us plain eaters!

[Rick&Jenny]

It’s the time that you have to wait (minutes) for Princess customer service to answer your phone call.😊

[azbirdmom]

By the way, even though we were participating in a trial, we weren't asked for our opinions.  At least not explicitly.  When we were leaving the venue at the end I did notice a large screen that had pictures of each of us at some point during the meal.  It appears that they videoed us and perhaps they had microphones around to hear what we were saying although it wasn't obvious.  And although they took our pictures we didn't get a copy of them at the end.  Maybe they will do that when they start this for real, I can't imagine they wouldn't give folks something at the end of this.  They did show our pictures during the experience though 🙂 . 

[azbirdmom]

One more thing I forgot!  I did get pictures of the drink they gave us before entering Sabatinis where we weren’t allowed to take a picture..

 

 

[Coffeeluvr05]

@azbirdmom We were dining in Sabatini's the evening that your group came through with the violinists playing the love boat theme.  We were not sure what the reason was but knew there must have been a special event of some sort.  Good to know about the 360 experience.  Based upon the social media hint posts I had a feeling it was something like this.  How cool that you were able to experience it. Right place, right time!

[gvre]

On 10/30/2022 at 9:49 AM, azbirdmom said:

By the way, even though we were participating in a trial, we weren't asked for our opinions.  At least not explicitly.  When we were leaving the venue at the end I did notice a large screen that had pictures of each of us at some point during the meal.  It appears that they videoed us and perhaps they had microphones around to hear what we were saying although it wasn't obvious.  And although they took our pictures we didn't get a copy of them at the end.  Maybe they will do that when they start this for real, I can't imagine they wouldn't give folks something at the end of this.  They did show our pictures during the experience though 🙂 . 

We did the 360 last night and really enjoyed it 😀 

We have done 6 chefs table completely different experience very relaxing food was 👍 

[azbirdmom]

4 hours ago, Coffeeluvr05 said:

@azbirdmom We were dining in Sabatini's the evening that your group came through with the violinists playing the love boat theme.  We were not sure what the reason was but knew there must have been a special event of some sort.  Good to know about the 360 experience.  Based upon the social media hint posts I had a feeling it was something like this.  How cool that you were able to experience it. Right place, right time!

 

Yes!  Right after 7:30 I have no doubt that diners in Sabatini's were rather startled by the violinists and the group marching through.  Right place right time for sure.  To be honest we had just decided that after finishing our wine in the suite concierge lounge that we would just head up to the buffet.  This was a significant upgrade from that LOL.

[gvre]

3 hours ago, gvre said:

We did the 360 last night and really enjoyed it 😀 

We have done 6 chefs table completely different experience very relaxing food was 👍 

We are off the ship now and have decent internet so more review:

It was great...we loved it. No photos allowed. We were seated at a circular table with a circular 360 degree movie screen behind us. Our tour was a visual, audio, aromatic and interactive tour of  each region of the Mediterranean that our 7 course meal originated from. Each course featured a different wine which was introduced by our host before it was served. It was very relaxing and surprising at times. We feel lucky to have been selected to experience it.”

[Buckeye10640]

On 10/29/2022 at 11:23 PM, Princessfan20 said:

So true and also we tire of the fact that people disapprove of people being able to choose to pay for different experiences.  We are quite happy to be able to pay for Princess’ upgraded experiences.  Life is not always fair it seems even on a cruise ship.

Not sure why this would bother anyone. You wont see me booking the $150 dinner but as long as it does not interfere with my ability to get my 'free' dinner (or my $29 dinner at Crown Grill) let those who want to pay for the experience go for it! 

[Roberto256]

On 7/29/2022 at 6:09 PM, CruisinFinsUp said:

 

Any ideas?

 

 

I think this is where staff and crew complete surveys on passengers.

 

 

[bulldog82]

On 10/29/2022 at 9:05 PM, azbirdmom said:

 

We did it last night on the Discovery.  We were asked about 45 minutes before it started if we would like to try it and we said why not.  They chose people at random as far as we could tell and it was free as it was a trial.  There were a total of 20 diners - including Lauren Tewes aka Julie McCoy from the original Love Boat - well maybe not entirely random selection?  We all met near the Salty Dog bar where they took our pictures and gave us a special cocktail.  They told us our seat numbers and then two violinists appeared.  We followed them into Sabatinis through the kitchen and into the 360 dining area.  We were immediately told that we could not take pictures (darn).

 

It's a circular area with images projected - practically everywhere.  The seating areas are around a circle and the maitre d would come to the middle to explain each course.  I won't ruin it with too much detail but it's a culinary trip through the Mediterranean with sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the different areas we "visited".  We were served seven courses and managed to at least taste all but one.  We are fussy eaters with simple tastes so maybe not their target audience for this sort of thing.  We were also served cocktails and wine from the different regions.  Presentation was impeccable and there were 10 waiters who delivered each course to every diner at exactly the same time.

 

The whole experience lasted 2 hours and it was definitely fun.  Those who enjoy the Chef's Table will probably be wowed by this as will others looking for a different kind of dining experience.

 

From what we heard they will officially "open" on the Discovery November 5th and it's supposed to be $150 each if the info we heard was accurate.  Glad we got to do it for free!

Follow up question:  how loud was the music that accompanied the experience?  We don’t care for loud experiences.  Thanks.

[nattie]

Is 360 something you have to book on board like Chef's table or can I pre-book on the app? Would love to do this on Enchanted!

[HBCcruiser]

Just now, nattie said:

Is 360 something you have to book on board like Chef's table or can I pre-book on the app? Would love to do this on Enchanted!

It is like the Chef's Table and must be requested after you board. 

[omynameistaken]

43 minutes ago, nattie said:

Is 360 something you have to book on board like Chef's table or can I pre-book on the app? Would love to do this on Enchanted!

I actually called and requested it ahead of time. I spoke to the medallion people on the phone about a problem I was having and while I had them on the phone I asked about it. They told me they would look into it and call me back. Princess called back the same day and and invited us. This was about 2 days prior to sailing.

It's a wonderful experience, I highly recommend it. 

 

🥂 Cheers

[azbirdmom]

5 hours ago, bulldog82 said:

Follow up question:  how loud was the music that accompanied the experience?  We don’t care for loud experiences.  Thanks.

 

It's loud but not ear-splitting.  We don't care for loud music either.