Sapphire Themed Restaurants Rumours

[aclay]

Hi

does anyone know the facts about the themed restaurants in the Sapphire Princess? I've read a few postings stating that the themed menus have been replaced by traditional dining- whatever that means. Would be great to get clarification.

Thanks in advance

[cherylandtk]

On both the Sapphire and the Diamond, the four "themed" dining rooms originally used for the Anytime Dining have been converted to non-themed decor, china and menu as in the traditional dining room, although these are still Anytime dining rooms. There may or may not be a different daily special dish or theme item on the menu in these restaurants.

 

It turned out that some of the themes were more popular than others, and there was a problem getting all the passengers fed without long lines and complaints. So essentially, these two ships are back to the same format as their predecessors, the Grand, Golden and Star.

[Pam in CA]

The themed restaurants haven't been turned into "traditional" dining (traditional means two seatings per night, one early between 6 and 6:30PM and one late between 8 and 8:30PM, depending on the ship and itinerary). The themed restaurants have been "Anytime" dining, i.e., you can make a reservation for any time you want to dine. The menus are now the same in all of the dining rooms except for the buffet with one item per menu "themed" for the restaurant.

[redrobin]

I was on the Sapphire last month. You are assigned pre-cruise to either Traditional Dining (Fixed Seating) or Anytime Dining. Traditional Dining has two seatings, on our cruise: 5:45 in the International Dining Room or the Vivaldi Dining Room and 8:00 in the International Dining Room only. You are given a particular table number for the duration of the cruise.

 

With Anytime Dining you have the option of eating in four dining rooms: Pacific Moon, Santa Fe, Vivaldi (after 8:00), and Savoy. In the past, each dining room featured a different cuisine, for example, Pacifc Moon/Asian, Santa Fe/Southwestern, Vivaldi/Italian, and Sterling (now named Savoy) offered steak/prime rib. They no longer have those menus, but serve the exact same food that is being served in the traditional dining room with the exception that each Anytime Dining room may offer one additional specialty dish. If the waiter doesn't mention it, ask if one is available. With Anytime Dining you have the choice of where and what time you would like to eat. You can also choose what size table you want to eat at, for instance, with a large group or at a table for 2. Reservations for Anytime Dining can be made once onboard or you can walk up and see what is available, although there may be a wait.

 

The Sapphire also has two specialty restaurants where you pay an extra fee. The Sterling Steakhouse fee is $15/person and Sabatini's has a $20/person cover charge.

[aclay]

Thanks for your clarifications.

So it does indeed look as if the dining is similar to the rest of the Grand class, with slight modifications.

We have enjoyed Personal Choice/Anytime Dining on the Ocean, Star and Golden previously but have switched our preference to 2nd seating traditional since being twice on the Royal- where we found the rapport with waiter and fellow tablemates to be unbeatable. However with all of these extra Sapphire PC dining options we are having second thoughts again - will we miss out?;-((

I guess however that we can still eat in the PC Dining on the odd occasion that we tell our Trad. table waiter that we are are having a night off from Trad.Dining? Does this make sense or can others advise on our best option ;-))

On the Sea Princess last month we found ourselves in the best possible dining predicament: we were waitlisted for traditional, didn't make it so went to see the Tad. Dining Maitre'D on embarkation day. He gave us a Trad. Table shared with six others without problems, but on our cruise cards it still said Personal Choice- we were therefore able to go anywhere to dine- Trad or PC ;-))

Thanks again for any advice?

[cynbar]

All recent reports say that traditional diners can"t go to the anytime DRs without giving up their spot in tradiional. You're right, you were probaly able to do that if your cruise cards still said Anytime Dining, but other passengers generally won't have that option. I think the reason makes sense to all of us -- it just makes the lines in anytime dining much longer for those who selected this option.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I will dearly miss those themed restaurants on our upcoming Diamond cruise. They really made dining during our 30 night cruise last year a lot more fun and interesting.