Diamond Princess Dining

[Cosmic Rays]

Which restaurant is recommended on board for anytime dining and why? This will be the first time in seven Princess cruises that we have done other than Traditional............

[Pia1913]

Which restaurant is recommended on board for anytime dining and why? This will be the first time in seven Princess cruises that we have done other than Traditional............

 

Diamond has 4 different restaurants that they use for anytime dining, though one of them sometimes is used for late traditional. All restaurants serve the same menu except each one has a specialty. Try them all. The specialty item stays the same, so it doesn't depend on which night to choose.

[laur1005]

There are the Sante Fe, Savoy, Pacific Moon, and Vivaldi. My husband and I just returned from 7 days on the Diamond and found the service to be the most efficient in Sante Fe, and the slowest in Pacific Moon (though I loved their specialty dish - shrimp & scallops w/ noodles & veggies). If you go to one of them and find they have a wait to get in, just go along to another of the four until you find one that doesn't. We never once had to wait to get in for dinner by doing this on the busier nights. But we ended up having the best luck and service at Sante Fe.

[Pia1913]

There are the Sante Fe, Savoy, Pacific Moon, and Vivaldi. My husband and I just returned from 7 days on the Diamond and found the service to be the most efficient in Sante Fe, and the slowest in Pacific Moon (though I loved their specialty dish - shrimp & scallops w/ noodles & veggies). If you go to one of them and find they have a wait to get in, just go along to another of the four until you find one that doesn't. We never once had to wait to get in for dinner by doing this on the busier nights. But we ended up having the best luck and service at Sante Fe.

 

Probably because most folks don't want the Fajita special. I could eat that every night. :D

[designsbyjuju]

There are the Sante Fe, Savoy, Pacific Moon, and Vivaldi. My husband and I just returned from 7 days on the Diamond and found the service to be the most efficient in Sante Fe, and the slowest in Pacific Moon (though I loved their specialty dish - shrimp & scallops w/ noodles & veggies). If you go to one of them and find they have a wait to get in, just go along to another of the four until you find one that doesn't. We never once had to wait to get in for dinner by doing this on the busier nights. But we ended up having the best luck and service at Sante Fe.

 

We were on the Diamond 2 weeks ago and found the Sante Fe dining room to be the worst. I really think it was our waiter..same waiter both times. He was HORRIBLE...he really was. We have a lot of patience..but I'm talking no napkins, no butter, 15 minutes till he greeted us or until we even got water..long waits for the food. We were treated like royalty in the Savoy dining room...our favorite. 2nd favorite was Pacific Moon. Vivaldi is later night dining.

 

I really believe they are all the same. It just depends who you get. We got such great service in Savoy but when we went there, we dined with people who had already been on the ship 3 weeks and they knew who to ask for.

 

Julie

[CA Dave]

All restaurants serve the same menu except each one has a specialty.

 

I thought you could order any 'specialty' dish from any of the various dining rooms, even in Traditional Dining. I tried on the Diamond 2 years ago (Traditional) and our waiter played 'dumb' so I didn't press it.

 

Has anyone done that?

 

Z

[designsbyjuju]

I thought you could order any 'specialty' dish from any of the various dining rooms, even in Traditional Dining. I tried on the Diamond 2 years ago (Traditional) and our waiter played 'dumb' so I didn't press it.

 

Has anyone done that?

 

Z

 

I tried, although I was mistaken..I asked for the scallops and prawns when I was in savoy , and they were only avail. in Pacific Moon. Waiter said I couldn't get it because it was only avail. in Pacific Moon.

 

Julie

[Pia1913]

I thought you could order any 'specialty' dish from any of the various dining rooms, even in Traditional Dining. I tried on the Diamond 2 years ago (Traditional) and our waiter played 'dumb' so I didn't press it.

 

Has anyone done that?

 

Z

 

Didn't try it. It was more fun playing musical diningrooms.

[SLO Dancers]

We were able to get fajitas in the traditional dining room. Just ask.

[Putterdude]

We have enjoyed the Pacific Moon over the others only because we felt it was a little more formal and the service was better...however that can change from trip to trip.

[kruisey]

I am traditional but on one cruise couldnot make the cut.

One hint usually more like to dine early so take your pick and book in advance

for your time slot preference..:)

[Miss Jolly]

We were able to get fajitas in the traditional dining room. Just ask.

 

Hello to some dear cruising friends.

 

...and I could get the scallop special in Sante Fe when I requested it. BTW - it IS as good as everyone says:D We had excellent service in this restaurant and ate there regularly. Pacific moon offered us the best and the worst of waiters. We also had no complaints at the other restaurants. I sure wish I was back on board now.:rolleyes:

[Robkat]

We also just got off the Diamond P a couple of weeks ago. We found that the 3 dining rooms that we used were all great ... I think your experience is much more based on your waiter and asst. waiter, and of course they all do switch around from dining room to dining room.

 

On the first formal night, arriving at one of the dining rooms at around 7:10pm, we were told that that dining room had no tables for 2 available, but the hostess phoned the 2 other dining rooms and told us to scoot down to the Savoy, and they were able to take us right in. This was our first time with the "4 dining rooms" system and we think it worked really great!

[Steph27]

We were on the Diamond from 5/16 - 5/23. We ate in Santa Fe, Pacific Moon and Sterling Steak house one time. We ate the majority of our meals in Savoy. Cristina who waited on us in Savoy is fabulous. The dining room is also the nicest of the 4. We also sat in Adrian's section in Savoy for 2 nights and he is excellent as well. In Santa Fe we had Nestor as our waiter and he was horrible. He decided he wanted to wait on 3 separate tables at once even though we had already been waiting for 15 minutes without water or anything. We tried to get his attention but were ignored. We complained and they gave us new waiter. Pacific Moon was ok. The meal in the Sterling was our favorite and well worth the surcharge. I highly recommend Savoy and you can request the same table and waiter by making reservation for the following night. Worked out well for us. As this was our first Princess cruise we found it odd that each dining room (except Sterling and Sabatini) serves the same food + one other special dish. Wish the diining venues served different menus. Obviously it is a cost consideration to keep the food the same.

[gizmodog]

We are just off the Diamond May 23-30, and we enjoyed the Santa Fe had waiter named Wood and he was great.

I must say that Anytime Dining to me does not work...it really is not "anytime" it is reservation dining. The Anytime Dining was so filled up with reservations that when you do show up "Anytime" you do have to wait. Unless you show up after 8:30 p.m or before 6:30 p.m. which is not always convenient. We never got seated immediately and our shortest wait was 20 minutes, we waited up to 40 minutes once.

I must say I don't understand the concept of anytime if it is mainly reservation dining.

It was not possible for us to make reservations due to the fact that we never knew exactly when we were going to eat dinner due to shore excursions and doing stuff on the ship.

I did not find the food really great in any dining room, the specialty steakhouse was great and well worth the fee, Sabitinis was a big disappointment and this was the second cruise out of 3 times we ate there that the food was not good. We will not eat there again.

They did serve crab legs in the dining room one night and they were very good.

 

It was a great itinerary, good cruise, although I found that the service was not what it was on our last few princess cruises, and the food was probably the worst of any Princess cruise I have taken, although I did not go hungry. The buffet set up is just ridiculous, for a ship that large what were they thinking? The pizza and hamburgers were very good.

 

No lemonade readily available you have to ask, the milk is in pitchers which to me is another silly thing, why not a milk dispenser for the number of people on the ship all trying to get milk from pitchers.....seems impractical. We purchased the coffee card for the first time and liked that, although we drank the regular coffee too and found it to be o.k. not horrible.

 

The cruise was not as formal as most cruises and I found that to be a pleasant surprise as Alaska is really not for formal as much as other cruises. Many people wore jeans to the dining room. Formal night seemed to be half and half, not nearly as much formalwear as other cruises I have taken. We did not do formal for the first time in 15 cruises and must say did enjoy not having to pack formalwear and dress formal for dinner. We dressed semi-formal....dress or skirt for me, shirt and tie for husband. We ate both formal nights in the specialty restaurants.

 

Anyway, saw lots of wildlife, great calving of the glacier in Glacier Bay, it was incredible, and the scenery is worth the cost of the trip. I just love Alaska!!!

[Miss Jolly]

We were on board just before you - Bangkok to Whittier and also had dear Wood. Did you have Eliza with him? Our cruise was very formal on formal nights and I never saw jeans in the dining room. I wonder if the Alaskan itinerary is generally a less formal cruise?

[Woobstr112G]

We were on the Diamond back in January and noted the food was the best we've evr had. Our waitstaff, including the head waiter was also the best as well.

 

Bob

[johnmik1]

Diamond has 4 different restaurants that they use for anytime dining, though one of them sometimes is used for late traditional. All restaurants serve the same menu except each one has a specialty. Try them all. The specialty item stays the same, so it doesn't depend on which night to choose.

 

When we were on Sapphire,Vivaldi was used as Traditional First seating and was available after that for anytime dining.We could also order any of the other restaurants special items regardless of where we were seated.The only exception was that Osso Bucco could only be ordered after the Traditional First seating had been completed.

[Miss Jolly]

When we were on Sapphire,Vivaldi was used as Traditional First seating and was available after that for anytime dining.We could also order any of the other restaurants special items regardless of where we were seated.The only exception was that Osso Bucco could only be ordered after the Traditional First seating had been completed.

 

This was the same situation for us on Diamond