A New Feature?

[nreeder]

Ok, Princess fans. I have something new to describe, but don't have all of the details and I haven't seen any Princess announcement about this feature yet.

 

We are currently on Golden Princess traveling from San Francisco across the Pacific to Sydney, Australia. Golden will stay in Australia until sometime in the Spring of next year and operate like an Australian ship with Australian wine list and ships charges in Australian dollars (Sun, Sea, and Dawn Princess are already down there doing this). After Australia, the ship will re-position to China and operate as a Chinese ship serving the Chinese market.

 

We usually take our lunch from the Lido buffet and eat it on the terrace at the back of the ship overlooking the Terrace Pool. There is a large covered area back there with a bar. This week workmen have been installing new square granite topped tables with a cut out rectangle in the center that looks somewhat like a "teppan" grill. The waiters don't seem to now much about them, but I did hear the installation guys say they are currently just bolting them into place (there are 16 of them), and electricity will need to be run to them.

 

Two possible background things here. Princess has announced that Curtis Stone the Australian chef will be consulting for Princess and will have items on the menu (we haven't seen any yet), and it could be related to this. The other thing is that this could be related to the ship going to China, but we will have to wait and see what Princess says. I haven't noticed these on any other Princess ship.

 

Norm

[cr8tiv1]

Please find out when they are going to announce the China runs. I am so waiting for the Golden to do that! I understand that it will be a season trip to Northern China. Where, where, etc. I want to be the first to book. Me and 50,000 others.

 

Thanks for checking in while on your wonderful cruise.

[fishywood]

The Curtis Stone restaurant will replace Sabatini's as it is rolled out. Has also been announced his influence will be found on the Chef's Table and MDR menus, but don't know if his name will grace any HC selections.

 

And if there will be some refits to Golden for the Asia specific market then it does not bode well for any future eastbound Transpacific sailings which Princess promised to those who had booked Golden's cancelled 2016 one. The news that the onboard currency will change to $AU is also significant as this is the first I have heard of a ship that splits the year between Australia and elsewhere doing so.

 

So as transpacific cruises become increasingly rare outside of world cruise segments, continue to enjoy yours!

[VibeGuy]

Open-Air Korean BBQ at sea? *sign me up*

[nreeder]

Mystery Solved!

 

This morning we met with the Maitre'D in preparation for the Chef's Table dinner two nights from now. He told us what is happening back on the Horizon Terrace. These new tables will be Korean BBQ tables, but will not be fully implemented for a while.

 

Golden Princess will be in the Australian market for most of 2016 he indicated and in 2017 it will go into dry dock in Singapore and be prepared for the Chinese market. The BBQ stations will be made operational then.

 

So it looks like it's a feature for China, maybe not the rest of the fleet.

 

Norm

[GUT2407]

Interesting thanks.

 

Princess obviously see enormous potential in the Asiam market.

 

This could be great for us Aussies too as they are more likely to send them here in the Asian off season than back to the USA so we might get more newer ships.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Golden repositions from Melbourne/Sydney up to Hong Kong on 4th/6th April 2016, and comes back from Beijing 17th October 2016. For some reason I can't see any cruises between those two on the Princess website.

[caribill]

Golden repositions from Melbourne/Sydney up to Hong Kong on 4th/6th April 2016, and comes back from Beijing 17th October 2016. For some reason I can't see any cruises between those two on the Princess website.

 

Many of the cruises in China are charter cruises which are then sold by the Chinese travel agency that chartered the ship and not by Princess.

 

Thus, they will not be listed on the Princess web site.