Buffet, Coffee Cards, etc. on Golden question

[MESPal]

This is my first Princess cruise and I would like to know several things:

 

How is the Horizon Buffet? Is it stocked 24 hours?

I have read about coffee cards and the International Cafe, what are the charges for the coffee cards and is the International Cafe extra?

 

Does anyone have pictures of the Dining Room menus?

 

Thanks so much for any info.

[Pia1913]

This is my first Princess cruise and I would like to know several things:

 

How is the Horizon Buffet? Is it stocked 24 hours?

I have read about coffee cards and the International Cafe, what are the charges for the coffee cards and is the International Cafe extra?

 

Does anyone have pictures of the Dining Room menus?

 

Thanks so much for any info.

 

The Horizon Court will have food whenever you want it.

 

International cafe food is all free. There are several specialty items that have charges and those few items have the prices posted.

 

Coffee card is $27.60.

[Stevesan]

If you appreciate good, fresh brewed from grounds coffee, you'll want the coffee card. The coffee in the buffet is made from a vile syrup concoction. So too is the dining room coffee syrup based, but for some odd reason it tastes a tad better. Don't know why. Possibly the kitchen staff occasionally cleans their machine?:rolleyes:

 

Besides coffee, The Int'l Cafe has a selection of snacks, including excellent Gelato, 50c for a LARGE scoop.

 

Here are the rules for the card:

Brewed coffee is $1.00/cup, most specialty coffees are $3.00, espresso $2.50.

 

$25 (+ gratuity) buys you a coffee card with fifteen punch outs for specialty coffees, and unlimited brewed coffee at the Cafe and other lounges that have brewed coffee. You can also use it in the dining rooms for specialty coffees. The server is directed to take two punch outs for double shot orders, some do, some don't.

Since the coffee card is for a discrete quantity it's not time limited. If there are punchouts remaining at the end of the cruise the card can carry over to the next cruise.

BTW - I wouldn't condemn all syrup based coffees.

Syrup coffee is not faux coffee (like chicory).

The syrup is processed from honest to goodness real coffee beans.

The problem is in the processing and, same as with brewed, the quality of the bean.

 

Bill, a co-owner of my favorite coffee store

http://www.javacoffee.com/

told me that there are in fact different grades of syrup, some of which are actually drinkable.

Unfortunately, Princess's syrup based coffee must be the cheapest available product because the resulting drink is absolutely vile stuff

[MESPal]

Thanks, Pia and Stevesan for the great info. I do like a good cup of coffee so I'll more than likely get the coffee card.

I usually sail on CCL so I'm trying to familiarize myself with the Princess features, etc.

Thanks, again.

[rcacace]

Although the Horizon buffet has food 24/7 they do cut back on the selections at around 11 PM so you might have to settle for a sandwich with just limited hot items.