Can you avoid buffets all together?

[petlover]

I'm considering trying to talk my sister into going on our first Princess cruise with us on the Golden.

 

My sister and brother-in-law cruise often but HATE buffets. Is it possible to avoid them all together by having 3 sit down wait service meals a day in the dining room (not room service) ?

[Nan_Sea]

Absolutely

[Colo Cruiser]

I'm considering trying to talk my sister into going on our first Princess cruise with us on the Golden.

 

My sister and brother-in-law cruise often but HATE buffets. Is it possible to avoid them all together by having 3 sit down wait service meals a day in the dining room (not room service) ?

 

 

Yes! On our last Emerald cruise we never stepped foot in the Buffet.

Remember though the DR is not open for lunch when the ship is in port.

However you can visit the IC or order room service. ;)

[Loonbeam]

Plus the poolside venues should be open on port days for burgers and such.

[cruzsnooze]

I'm considering trying to talk my sister into going on our first Princess cruise with us on the Golden.

 

My sister and brother-in-law cruise often but HATE buffets. Is it possible to avoid them all together by having 3 sit down wait service meals a day in the dining room (not room service) ?

 

If they cruise often what do they do on other lines to avoid the buffet, that would work here too.

[Pam in CA]

Yes! On our last Emerald cruise we never stepped foot in the Buffet.

Remember though the DR is not open for lunch when the ship is in port.

However you can visit the IC or order room service. ;)

There should also the Pub Lunch on sea days.

[chrysalis]

Is it possible to avoid them all together by having 3 sit down wait service meals a day in the dining room (not room service) ?

 

No, sorry, but it is not possible.

[4x4bob]

Yes and No. It is hard to obtain the warm peanut butter cookies if you do not go to the Buffet. :D

 

Bob

[Pam in CA]

I'm considering trying to talk my sister into going on our first Princess cruise with us on the Golden.

 

My sister and brother-in-law cruise often but HATE buffets. Is it possible to avoid them all together by having 3 sit down wait service meals a day in the dining room (not room service) ?

Out of curiosity, do they hate Princess buffets? Buffets on other lines? Buffet restaurants? The thing I like about the Princess buffet over other cruise lines is that you get your food and can take whatever and how much you want, and then beverage service is tableside whether it's juice and coffee, a drink, a glass of wine or soda. I don't go during peak hours so I never have to wait for anything and because the Princess buffet is open from 5:30am-11pm, I can go at any time and have a leisurely meal -- with service. I dislike other cruise line buffets (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and HAL) because I have to juggle and carry everything. Not true on Princess.

[petlover]

We have never cruised together with them so I can't say for sure ( I know it's not Princess as they've never sailed on Princess before) but I know they never do buffets on land either, it may be more my Brother-in-law dislike.

She told me that when they cruise they always do breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room (or a specialty restaurant at night).

[Loonbeam]

They should still be ok, as long as they don't insist on it always being the MDR (as noted, no lunch on port days).

 

We have never cruised together with them so I can't say for sure ( I know it's not Princess as they've never sailed on Princess before) but I know they never do buffets on land either, it may be more my Brother-in-law dislike.

She told me that when they cruise they always do breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room (or a specialty restaurant at night).

[Pam in CA]

We have never cruised together with them so I can't say for sure ( I know it's not Princess as they've never sailed on Princess before) but I know they never do buffets on land either, it may be more my Brother-in-law dislike.

She told me that when they cruise they always do breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room (or a specialty restaurant at night).

As long as they're planning to do something in port every day and have lunch on land, then there's no problem. Princess cut back on the dining room being open for lunch on port days a year or so ago because hardly anyone went, they had waitstaff standing around doing nothing and food that went wasted. Edited January 3, 2014 by Pam in CA

[Crzn-Life]

We're on the Emerald right now. We don't care for buffets and the one on this ship seems worse than on other Princess ships. They serve only prepared sandwiches & don't put out lunch meats but at least the salad fixin's are pretty good. The best thing they serve is dessert! On port days we usually have a pizza or burger on 15 and go to the buffet only to pick up dessert:D. Sadly the pizzas aren't nearly as good as those we had on the Ruby a couple of weeks ago and the Crown in Oct & Nov. Sadly the IC isn't all that good anymore since they've made several changes so that isn't really a consideration anymore.

Today we're in Grenada. We weren't scheduled to arrive until noon, so the MDR was open for lunch. Yeah! What a nice surprise.

[OCruisers]

Except for lunch on port days, it's possible to totally avoid buffets.

No problem, just go to a restaurant in port for lunch. :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

[skynight]

I'm considering trying to talk my sister into going on our first Princess cruise with us on the Golden.

 

My sister and brother-in-law cruise often but HATE buffets. Is it possible to avoid them all together by having 3 sit down wait service meals a day in the dining room (not room service) ?

 

Here are the free dining options on the Golden

3 main dining rooms, one for tradition dinner fixed seating, two for anytime dining. One of the anytime dining rooms may be used for early fixed seating. One DR open each day for breakfast and for lunch on sea days. DR is closed for lunch on port days. DR open from noon to 1:30 on embarkation day.

 

International Cafe, not really a buffet, but you carry your plate to your table. Waiters are there to assist if required. Panini sandwiches, desserts, salads, soups, soft cookies for lunch and dinner, doughnuts, pastries, egg sandwich for breakfast. Open 24 hours.

 

Vines, sushi plates if you purchase a drink. Open all day and into the evening. Served.

 

Prego Pizza, pizza by the slice (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Trident Grill, burgers, fries, chicken, dogs, veggie burgers, brats (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Soft Ice Cream bar (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Pub lunch on some sea days in either the Wheelhouse Bar or Crown Grill, sit down served.

 

Of course, there is the Horizon Ct. Buffet which is open from 6am until around 11pm or midnight. It serves all kinds of foods, some prepared as you wait. Grab what you wish, sit down and the waiter will serve you drinks. Free coffee and tea always available. Fruits, cheeses, desserts available all the time for snacks.

 

Surcharge restaurants include The Crown Grill, steak and seafood, and Sabatini's, Italian. $25/pp

 

Other surcharge meals may have been introduced such as the crab shack and fondue. Not sure if the Golden has these,

[petlover]

Perfect, Thanks so much.

I don't think port days or any other day will be an issue at all.

[geoherb]

We did not eat more than a quick snack in the Horizon Court buffet on our eight days on the Ruby last month. The only buffet lunch we ate was at Princess Cays. The other days we ate in the dining room (four days at sea) and the International Cafe (when the ship was in Grand Cayman). We also ate at the International Cafe for our last breakfast in order to get off the ship fairly early.

[1025cruise]

I regularly try to avoid the buffets. By sitting down, I have better control of how much I eat. If I go to a buffet, I tend to take more because it looks good, and then eat it.

 

I generally try to eat breakfast in the MDR when possible, so I only eat what I am served (which isn't much, which also shocks the wait staff). My wife however, generally likes the larger selection available in the buffet.

 

For lunch, we generally do the MDR, when available. Otherwise we might eat from the grill or pizza.

 

Dinner, mostly will be the MDR. We might do the buffet, but prefer the MDR.

[5:00_Somewhere]

Here are the free dining options on the Golden

3 main dining rooms, one for tradition dinner fixed seating, two for anytime dining. One of the anytime dining rooms may be used for early fixed seating. One DR open each day for breakfast and for lunch on sea days. DR is closed for lunch on port days. DR open from noon to 1:30 on embarkation day.

 

International Cafe, not really a buffet, but you carry your plate to your table. Waiters are there to assist if required. Panini sandwiches, desserts, salads, soups, soft cookies for lunch and dinner, doughnuts, pastries, egg sandwich for breakfast. Open 24 hours.

 

Vines, sushi plates if you purchase a drink. Open all day and into the evening. Served.

 

Prego Pizza, pizza by the slice (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Trident Grill, burgers, fries, chicken, dogs, veggie burgers, brats (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Soft Ice Cream bar (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Pub lunch on some sea days in either the Wheelhouse Bar or Crown Grill, sit down served.

 

Of course, there is the Horizon Ct. Buffet which is open from 6am until around 11pm or midnight. It serves all kinds of foods, some prepared as you wait. Grab what you wish, sit down and the waiter will serve you drinks. Free coffee and tea always available. Fruits, cheeses, desserts available all the time for snacks.

 

Surcharge restaurants include The Crown Grill, steak and seafood, and Sabatini's, Italian. $25/pp

 

Other surcharge meals may have been introduced such as the crab shack and fondue. Not sure if the Golden has these,

 

Sknight beat me to it. ;)

 

I also hate buffets; not Princess' buffets in particular, but buffets in general (as does my mother-in-law). I don't think I've eaten one thing at the Horizon Court buffet in at least our last 10 Princess cruises, and I don't think my MIL has eaten there on any of the 3 cruises she's done with us. With all the other options on the ship, you can very easily avoid the buffet. Hope you and your relatives have a great cruise! :)

 

*edit* - correction: I was reminded that I did try the buffet on the new Royal Princess one time last November because the new design and layout of the buffet itself was really spectacular in appearance (plus, due to the design of the ship and our cabin location on the stern, we pretty much had to walk through the buffet multiple times a day to get anywhere.) The food was fine, but it was still buffet food and buffet experience, so that one sample was quite enough for me.

Edited January 3, 2014 by 5:00_Somewhere

[fishywood]

Here are the free dining options on the Golden

3 main dining rooms, one for tradition dinner fixed seating, two for anytime dining. One of the anytime dining rooms may be used for early fixed seating. One DR open each day for breakfast and for lunch on sea days. DR is closed for lunch on port days. DR open from noon to 1:30 on embarkation day.

 

International Cafe, not really a buffet, but you carry your plate to your table. Waiters are there to assist if required. Panini sandwiches, desserts, salads, soups, soft cookies for lunch and dinner, doughnuts, pastries, egg sandwich for breakfast. Open 24 hours. Last December on Grand Princess the servers at IC always told us to grab a table after we ordered at the counter and brought our food and drinks out to us. Prior to that on other ships, not so much.

 

Vines, sushi plates if you purchase a drink. Open all day and into the evening. Served. Vines does not open until 4:30 PM on port days. Complimentary seafood and tapas now "only on select ships" but still on Golden AFAIK

 

Prego Pizza, pizza by the slice (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Trident Grill, burgers, fries, chicken, dogs, veggie burgers, brats (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

 

Per latest update on Princess website, Prego open until Midnight, Trident Grill "11AM-onward" so you should check once onboard if there is a posted closing time.

 

Soft Ice Cream bar (outdoors) Open all day and into the evening

My observation is that Ice Cream Bar usually closes shortly after the start of the last feature on MUTS.

 

Pub lunch on some sea days in either the Wheelhouse Bar or Crown Grill, sit down served. Should be in Crown Grill on Golden, watch the Patter for the days it is offered. A definite do, just expect to buy a drink--no comp ice tea available.

 

Of course, there is the Horizon Ct. Buffet which is open from 6am until around 11pm or midnight. It serves all kinds of foods, some prepared as you wait. Grab what you wish, sit down and the waiter will serve you drinks. Free coffee and tea always available. Fruits, cheeses, desserts available all the time for snacks.

 

Surcharge restaurants include The Crown Grill, steak and seafood, and Sabatini's, Italian. $25/pp

 

Other surcharge meals may have been introduced such as the crab shack and fondue. Not sure if the Golden has these, Princess just posted on their Facebook page that Crab Shack is open on Golden. $20/pp for dinner, table service in a section of Horizon Court. The Fondue and other upcharge desserts on the new Royal have yet to migrate to other ships.

 

My updates on the above, courtesy of http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/food_dining/Dining_Options.pdf

There used to be ship-specific dining information pages on the Princess website; if it is still there I didn't see it.

Edited January 3, 2014 by fishywood

[donaldsc]

I'm considering trying to talk my sister into going on our first Princess cruise with us on the Golden.

 

My sister and brother-in-law cruise often but HATE buffets. Is it possible to avoid them all together by having 3 sit down wait service meals a day in the dining room (not room service) ?

 

As far as I am concerned, there are 3 rules of cruising -

 

1) Never try to talk anyone into cruising if they do not want it

2)NEVER try to talk anyone into crusing if they do not want it

3) NEVER EVER try to talk anyone into cruising if they do not want it.

 

If they do not want to do a cruise, why are you trying to convince them to do something that they do not want to do.

 

If they were into skydiving or mud wrestling, would you like it if they tried to convince you to jump out of a perfectly good airplane or roll around in the mud.

 

Leave them alone.

 

DON

[JimmyVWine]

As far as I am concerned, there are 3 rules of cruising -

 

1) Never try to talk anyone into cruising if they do not want it

2)NEVER try to talk anyone into crusing if they do not want it

3) NEVER EVER try to talk anyone into cruising if they do not want it.

 

If they do not want to do a cruise, why are you trying to convince them to do something that they do not want to do.

 

I think you overlooked one important fact:

My sister and brother-in-law cruise often

 

The OP isn't trying to talk them into cruising. Just cruising for the first time with Princess. Big difference.

[critterchick]

Out of curiosity, do they hate Princess buffets? Buffets on other lines? Buffet restaurants? The thing I like about the Princess buffet over other cruise lines is that you get your food and can take whatever and how much you want, and then beverage service is tableside whether it's juice and coffee, a drink, a glass of wine or soda. I don't go during peak hours so I never have to wait for anything and because the Princess buffet is open from 5:30am-11pm, I can go at any time and have a leisurely meal -- with service. I dislike other cruise line buffets (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and HAL) because I have to juggle and carry everything. Not true on Princess.

 

I find the tableside beverage service to be hit or miss on Princess, but I usually put my plate down, get my drink at the station and then I'm fine, no need to juggle. I don't mind buffets generally, but I find the layout on Golden to be horrible. For dinner it's not bad, but at peak times it's a massive scrum trying to get food. So I've learned to eat off-peak as well.

[Coral]

Sknight beat me to it. ;)

 

I also hate buffets; not Princess' buffets in particular, but buffets in general (as does my mother-in-law). I don't think I've eaten one thing at the Horizon Court buffet in at least our last 10 Princess cruises, and I don't think my MIL has eaten there on any of the 3 cruises she's done with us. With all the other options on the ship, you can very easily avoid the buffet. Hope you and your relatives have a great cruise! :)

 

I feel the same way.....

[arpster]

Not for nothing but why would anyone want 3 sit down wait service meals a day while on a cruise?....