Traditional cruise lines feature a choice of early or late seating for dinner in the main dining room. The casual buffet is available for those who want more flexibility on any given night. While most cruise aficionados love getting to know their wait staff and dining companions over the course of the cruise, others find it too constricting, preferring the more open choices of a land resort.
Norwegian Cruise Lines introduced the concept of Freestyle Dining to mainstream cruises, with no specifically fixed dining time for dinner, but Princess has found a way to improve upon it. Because some people want to have that traditional dining room experience, Princess offers both early and late dining times for many guests. This relieves pressure from the Personal Choice diners, who arrive when they please.
We never had any trouble being seated for a meal aboard Caribbean Princess. In fairness, I should say that we never had any trouble being seated for a meal on Norwegian, as long as we arrived for dinner at approximately the standard times of fixed seatings on most cruise lines, namely around 6:00 PM or 8:30 PM. At 7:00 PM, which is a time not generally offered as an option by traditional cruises, there seemed to be a lot of passengers on Norwegian who wanted to be seated immediately, "like on other cruises." On Princess, the dining room never seemed to be full for Personal Choice diners at any time during our Eastern Caribbean cruise.
The alternative restaurants were also handled more efficiently on Princess than we have experienced on NCL thus far. We had no trouble making reservations for Sterling Steak House, whereas on NCL we have found it necessary to make reservations for specialty restaurants immediately upon boarding. The food at Sterling was excellent, with an enormous cut of fillet mignon following huge and delicious appetizers like clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and shrimp cocktail made with jumbo shrimp. We were embarrassed by how much steak we left uneaten. I should add that when we did eat at Cagney's Steakhouse on NCL's Pride of Hawaii, we also enjoyed wonderful meals. Both steakhouses charge $15 per person as a reservation fee.
Whereas on NCL ships the excellent Italian restaurant is a free alternative, on Princess, Sabatini's Italian Restaurant is more expensive than the steak house, charging $20 per person reservation fee. We didn't dine at Sabatini's. There is also an a la carte ice cream parlor on Caribbean Princess, and I have to admit that I personally find this trend to more and more extra-cost alternatives to the free food a bit disconcerting. Then again, no one is being forced to snub the delicious free dinners and desserts in favor of additional cost items, and if anyone goes hungry on a ship, they obviously have lost use of all of their senses (including common sense), because there is always something tasty nearby. On Caribbean Princess, we found delicious meals and excellent service in the casual buffet as well as in the dining rooms.
Would you like to forget about doing the dishes for a week or so? Would you like to enjoy great food while on vacation? You need to take a cruise.
P.S. Holland America has recently introduced Personal Choice Dining, too.
Norwegian Cruise Lines introduced the concept of Freestyle Dining to mainstream cruises, with no specifically fixed dining time for dinner, but Princess has found a way to improve upon it. Because some people want to have that traditional dining room experience, Princess offers both early and late dining times for many guests. This relieves pressure from the Personal Choice diners, who arrive when they please.
We never had any trouble being seated for a meal aboard Caribbean Princess. In fairness, I should say that we never had any trouble being seated for a meal on Norwegian, as long as we arrived for dinner at approximately the standard times of fixed seatings on most cruise lines, namely around 6:00 PM or 8:30 PM. At 7:00 PM, which is a time not generally offered as an option by traditional cruises, there seemed to be a lot of passengers on Norwegian who wanted to be seated immediately, "like on other cruises." On Princess, the dining room never seemed to be full for Personal Choice diners at any time during our Eastern Caribbean cruise.The alternative restaurants were also handled more efficiently on Princess than we have experienced on NCL thus far. We had no trouble making reservations for Sterling Steak House, whereas on NCL we have found it necessary to make reservations for specialty restaurants immediately upon boarding. The food at Sterling was excellent, with an enormous cut of fillet mignon following huge and delicious appetizers like clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and shrimp cocktail made with jumbo shrimp. We were embarrassed by how much steak we left uneaten. I should add that when we did eat at Cagney's Steakhouse on NCL's Pride of Hawaii, we also enjoyed wonderful meals. Both steakhouses charge $15 per person as a reservation fee.
Whereas on NCL ships the excellent Italian restaurant is a free alternative, on Princess, Sabatini's Italian Restaurant is more expensive than the steak house, charging $20 per person reservation fee. We didn't dine at Sabatini's. There is also an a la carte ice cream parlor on Caribbean Princess, and I have to admit that I personally find this trend to more and more extra-cost alternatives to the free food a bit disconcerting. Then again, no one is being forced to snub the delicious free dinners and desserts in favor of additional cost items, and if anyone goes hungry on a ship, they obviously have lost use of all of their senses (including common sense), because there is always something tasty nearby. On Caribbean Princess, we found delicious meals and excellent service in the casual buffet as well as in the dining rooms.
Would you like to forget about doing the dishes for a week or so? Would you like to enjoy great food while on vacation? You need to take a cruise.P.S. Holland America has recently introduced Personal Choice Dining, too.
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