Dining on the balcony

[back2tampa]

Anyone know how much the balcony dining cost on Regal? We just got upgraded to a balcony today!

[Astro Flyer]

Anyone know how much the balcony dining cost on Regal? We just got upgraded to a balcony today!

Congratulations...the UBD cost $100 for 2 people which is the same price on all Princess ships.

 

The Chef's Table Lumiere on the Regal & Royal costs $115 vs $95 on other ships; the Winemakers Dinner on the Regal & Royal is $40 and is a good dining experience.

Edited September 28, 2016 by Astro Flyer

[shortstop95]

We will aboard the Royal Princess celebrating my wife's birthday. This will be our first time on Princess. Looking to mark the occasion festively so need advice which speciality dining experience everyone recommends. We could only book a mini-suite which at this point is unassigned. The dinner on the balcony sounds fun- but our experience on other cruise lines makes me think that would be a bit cramped.

 

If anyone can recommend what they think would make for a special birthday, please share your thoughts.

 

Many thanks in advance!

Edited September 29, 2016 by shortstop95

[GRAYTech]

We will aboard the Royal Princess celebrating my wife's birthday. This will be our first time on Princess. Looking to mark the occasion festively so need advice which speciality dining experience everyone recommends... !

 

If you like steak it's Crown Grill, if not so much Sabatinis is the way to go. Either way you can't go wrong. Be sure to let them know ahead of time you are celebrating a birthday. I'm sure they will do something special for you.

 

The balcony is somewhat tight but I would think if it's just the two of you it would work once you get seated. I guess you can make that call once you are on board.

[love2cruisegal]

If you want dining on your balcony, the UBD which was mentioned is fantastic. We did a Med cruise this past May and had the UBD on the Royal, food was amazing and getting the personal attention from the waiter was great, made us feel special. If you decide to do UBD, make sure you call the dine line as soon as you can on embarkation day.

 

The Crown Grill is very good too; have eaten there many times and did again in May.

 

You can't go wrong with either, but UBD is worth the $100.

[Astro Flyer]

We will aboard the Royal Princess celebrating my wife's birthday. This will be our first time on Princess. Looking to mark the occasion festively so need advice which speciality dining experience everyone recommends. We could only book a mini-suite which at this point is unassigned. The dinner on the balcony sounds fun- but our experience on other cruise lines makes me think that would be a bit cramped.

 

If anyone can recommend what they think would make for a special birthday, please share your thoughts.

 

Many thanks in advance!

 

We enjoyed the UBD on a 9'x4' standard sized balcony on the Royal Princess during sailaway from Barcelona. The balcony is about 20% smaller than standard balconies on other Princess ships & the smaller size didn't affect our enjoyment of another UBD.

 

Here's some information that I previously posted about the Winemakers Dinner which costs $40 and like the Chef's Table is only available once or twice during a weeklong cruise. It's limited to 10 passengers & is held in the separate Wine Cellar area of the Symphony & Concerto dining rooms. While the food & wine are not as gourmet as at the CT, it cost about a third of the price and enjoyed it very much.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1939851

 

There are 3 menus however the headwaiter said that the Michael Mondavi menu is most popular with passengers & has been used on all 3 of our Winemakers Dinners.

 

http://www.beyondships2.com/uploads/8/2/4/5/8245255/wine_makers_menu_2-oct-13_without_price.pdf

Edited September 29, 2016 by Astro Flyer

[back2tampa]

Thanks for all the info. Very excited to have a balcony on princess. Hope this question doesn't sound stupid, does whoever is serving dinner to us on the balcony just let themselves in your room once you have started or do you have to keep answering the door. Hope that doesn't sound crazy. Thanks

[wowzz]

No, they let themselves in and out. You just sit, ear, drink and enjoy. In my opinion, (and my wife's) it was the highlight of our Panama Transit cruise.

 

Sent from my SM-T700 using Forums mobile app

[brianlojeck]

Ultimate Balcony Dining is incredibly romantic, the food is great, the service is incredible.

 

Worth. Every. Penny.

 

I've never been completely in love with most of the specialty dining on Princess (it's good, just not stunningly good), but the balcony dining was worth every single penny, and a wonderful experience.

[easyboy]

We will aboard the Royal Princess celebrating my wife's birthday. This will be our first time on Princess. Looking to mark the occasion festively so need advice which speciality dining experience everyone recommends. We could only book a mini-suite which at this point is unassigned. The dinner on the balcony sounds fun- but our experience on other cruise lines makes me think that would be a bit cramped.

 

If anyone can recommend what they think would make for a special birthday, please share your thoughts.

I think the Chef's Table Lumiere will be a good treat for your wife's birthday celebration.

[TracieABD]

I have done the UBD on the Royal. It was very special. One word of advice.. Don't eat- for about four days before the event. Holy cow! They bring a lot of really good food. Lots and lots of food. Make sure to pace yourself!

[XBGuy]

We've done the UBD twice. Our third is scheduled for October 23--our 40th anniversary.

 

Here is what I really love about the UBD: the level of service.

 

There are two servers--a primary and an assistant--and for the duration of the meal they are dedicated to us. So, I don't have to be concerned that the party of 10 at the table next to us is dominating our server's attention causing us to be slighted.

 

Prior to our first experience, I was concerned that I would feel conspicuous eating while the servers were hovering over us. No problem there. Once we were seated and started on our first course, the servers disappeared. Now, I'm sure that the were peeking in at the cabin entrance to monitor our progress, but they did so completely surreptitiously. After each course we would be given a nice period of time to sit back and take a deep breath before, magically, they reappeared, swept away our used plates and utensils, and presented the next course.

 

We prefer to dine slowly. We felt that the UBD was paced perfectly to match our preferences.

 

I'm sure that the servers that are selected for the UBD are the most experienced. I have found them to be professional and engaging. It is obvious to me that they know that they are in the hospitality business.

 

The dessert isn't bad, either. ;)

 

I'll add one more thing. We prefer to have the UBD on "Sea" days. (I was told by the Room Service Manager, last time, that most of the requests for UBDs were on "Port" days. So, he was very pleased to accommodate our request. My point is that if you are interested on booking a Port day, submit your request as soon as possible.) The weather for both our previous experiences was windy and cold. I see no reason to believe that our next experience will not be the same. So, we had both our UBDs in our cabin between the bed and the balcony slider. This is perfectly comfortable for us, and there is plenty of room for the servers. We leave the slider door open and we get to hear the sea and smell the fresh air.

[ano]

So sounds like you can't reserve this in advance. Breakfast I think you can but it doesn't seem like dinner.

 

Do they fill-up some days? In other-words, do we need to reserve right away?

[Eagle_and_hawk]

So sounds like you can't reserve this in advance. Breakfast I think you can but it doesn't seem like dinner.

 

Do they fill-up some days? In other-words, do we need to reserve right away?

 

You can call Princess direct to reserve & pay for the UBD as that is what we did last time as wanted it for four people. If you know what night you you want to have the dinner, ask them to put it in their comments and as soon as you get on board, call and get it set up.

 

They only do a few dinners each night and when we did it, they had two set times, one around 6:00pm and the other around 8:00pm. Others have noted they got to pick whatever time they wanted, as depends on the ship & probably how many they have scheduled. It was well worth the cost for us.

[XBGuy]

So sounds like you can't reserve this in advance. Breakfast I think you can but it doesn't seem like dinner.

 

Do they fill-up some days? In other-words, do we need to reserve right away?

 

You can call Princess direct to reserve & pay for the UBD as that is what we did last time as wanted it for four people. If you know what night you you want to have the dinner, ask them to put it in their comments and as soon as you get on board, call and get it set up.

 

They only do a few dinners each night and when we did it, they had two set times, one around 6:00pm and the other around 8:00pm. Others have noted they got to pick whatever time they wanted, as depends on the ship & probably how many they have scheduled. It was well worth the cost for us.

 

You can book it ahead. It used to be that you had to call Princess to book and, even then, my previous experience was that you could not specify the day you wanted. The Room Service Manager contacted me on embarcation day to finalize the details. E_and_h had a much better experience than I had. So, maybe they talked to a smarter telephone agent, and they had a sharper Room Service staff.

 

I was planning to do it this way for our upcoming cruise on the Ruby. However, last week I found that in the Cruise Personalizer I was not only able to book it, but I was also able to specify the day I wanted. I assume, again, that I will be contacted on the ship to finalize the time and the menu.

 

I have seen, here on Cruise Critic, that the UBDs are limited to four per evening. Clearly, there is a limit, and four sounds like a reasonable number. Also, however, I would not be surprised, if on some ships or some itineraries or some evenings, the limit is less than four.

 

:)