Dining Questions on the CP

[KellyJ]

Hello Fellow Cruisers,

 

I was hoping that one of you could answer a couple of questions for me about Dining on the Caribbean Princess. We booked October 03 for our first cruise on 11/27/04 and picked Second Seating Traditional Dining. My question is which dining room on the CP is used for Traditional. Is it the Island? By reading these boards, I have heard PC diners saying they dined in the Palm or Coral. Did anyone eat in the Island Dining Room and if so, does it have windows? The brochure shows something at the walls, but not like the windows in the Palm and Coral.

 

My reason is this. Hubby and I asked to be seated at a table by the window. Hubby thought it would be romantic to be able to see the moon shining on the water. (It's great that he still thinks that way after 10 years of marriage.) It is difficult to sit by the window if there isn't one.

 

In addition, we are planning to dine at Sterling one night and have the Balcony dinner another. If we don't have a good table at dining, and we are going to be gone for 2 nights atleast, maybe it would be better to switch to PC? Any thoughts. I know that we wouldn't be able to have the same wait staff and wouldn't get to eat with the same people.

 

Also, I have other questions for the newbie. The dining rooms are open seating for breakfast and lunch, which to me means, we can eat anytime they are open at any table. Is this correct? And another matter of packing. Hubby usually wears a T-shirt during the day at the beach. I know that he needs to wear a collared shirt for dinner, but is a T-shirt okay for dining during the day-or should I pack collared shirts for the day as well in case we choose to eat in the Dining room? Forgive the silly question, but as a first timer, we want to make sure we are dressed appropriately at all times.

 

Thanks in advance for your kind suggestions.

 

Kelly J

[sue d. miller]

Hi Kelly, welcome to princess and cruising!! :D I can't help you with the traditional windows, I haven't sailed on her. If you switch to PC, you can reserve a table every night with the same waitstaff, when you find one you like. It becomes traditional, without the tethers. On the nights you would like alternative dining, or the balcony, or Caribe Cafe, Don't reserve. A t-shirt will be fine for breakfast and lunch in the dining room. Have a wonderful cruise, and expect to be hooked. :D

[tom-n-jules]

If you're planning on missing a couple of nights anyhow, you should consider going with Anytime instead of traditional. There's usually a waiting list for people trying to get traditional, and they'd probably appreciate the chance to get it!

 

If you're stuck with duds as dinner companions, you can cancel traditional for the rest of the week and do Anytime. Of course, if you get great tablemates at traditional, you may find you'd rather stick with it instead of Sterling/balcony dinners!

 

Come to think of it, not a very helpful response... :confused:

[bdjam]

The Island Dining Room is an Anytime Dining Room. The Palm is the Traditional Dining Room and does have windows along the sides and back of the room.

[sue d. miller]

Kool!!! Thanks, BD. Now that it may be possible to have a window, if you choose traditional, on the nights you want to eat elsewhere, please let you wait staff know you will not be eating there the following night. just a courtesy to your waiters and your table mates!!! :)

[monk888]

KellyJ,

 

Just click on this link and you'll see all the available dining options and everything you could possibly want to know about cruisingthecaribbeanprincess. Dot com, of course!

 

The Monk

 

http://www.cruisingthecaribbeanprincess.com/dining.html

[clandt]

I believe they switched the Anytime Dining Rooms around. Last week we sailed on the Caribbean Princess the Anytime Dining Rooms were the Coral and the Palm and the Traditional Dining Room was the Island. We ate in the Palm, never had reservations and 2 of the 3 nights we ate we were sat by a window.

 

Christy

[bdjam]

I believe they switched the Anytime Dining Rooms around. Last week we sailed on the Caribbean Princess the Anytime Dining Rooms were the Coral and the Palm and the Traditional Dining Room was the Island.

Ah - Anytime Dining demand must have overtaken Traditional...traditionally :rolleyes: the aft dining room on the Grand Class ships is reserved for Traditional Dining. In that case, there are windows along the sides of this room.

One thing about the dining rooms - often times at night the shades are drawn over the windows...check with your waiter and ask for them to be open.

[sue d. miller]

He is absolutely right. On our last cruise we got a window table for the first time ever. The first night at dinner, I opened the drapes. Each night after that, they were open for us when we arrived!!! :D

[TexEm]

We were on the Caribbean Princess last week with clandt (sorry we didn't get to meet you!--saw your surfboard on your cabin door). The Island was the traditional dining room. The first night we ate at Sabatini's (comped by my sister-in-law's TA)--it was fantastic, all 3 hours and what seemed like hundreds of courses!! We ate once in Palm, 3 or 4 other times in Coral--due to our large group size, we made reservations, usually the only time available for our large group was 6 p.m. Had the same waiters each time in Coral (Arlindo and Sergio, table 353 for the 8 of us adults--best waitstaff we've had, next to Sabatini's). DH and I tried Coral by ourselves one night (sans our large group) and ate with some interesting people. Sue's right about t-shirts being fine for breakfast and lunch, also for afternoon tea (3:30-4:30 p.m in Coral daily). I'd definitely not miss Cafe Caribe at night--the nice thing if you eat dinner early in the dining rooms, you can go to Cafe Caribe for your second dinner--11 p.m. to 4 a.m.--linen table cloths, china, silverware, glassware, waitstaff, menus-the best steak (some of our party said better than Sterling's!) Cafe Caribe seemed to be a well-kept secret while we were aboard, our group seemed to be the only consistent group there late at night--except for Island night, when the party was at the aft pool right outside of Cafe Caribe. Anyway---does it seem like we ate a lot? We did, and it was all good. You'll enjoy it all. We've done traditional and PC on Princess, traditional and "freestyle" on other lines--Princess does it all best.