Let's talk OceanNow food and beverage delivery

[relmondcrsise]

My first Medallion cruise is coming up and I'm looking forward to trying the OceanNow feature on the app.  My favorite cruise writer is onboard the Majestic and I've been following along with her experience doing this and wondering about others experiences.  I have Princess Plus and am hoping I can have beverages and maybe some snacks delivered to my cabin to enjoy on my balcony.  What should I expect?  Any tips or tricks you can pass along?  Any favorite items (food or beverages) I should try?  I also notice on the menus she posted that there are specialty restaurant meals available for delivery?  Has anyone tried that?  Did the food arrive hot? 

 

Thanks for any and all tips and experiences!  If anyone wants to see the full food and beverage menu currently available as of this week, it is posted here:

 

Princess Cruise Line's OceanNow Food and Beverage Delivery Menu.

[Cruise Raider]

We used to never order room service but since the new OceanNow feature, we order in quite often.  
pour favorite is the chicken tenders on the kids menu with a Caesar salad.  We make our own chicken Caesar to enjoy on the balcony.  I am also fond of the quesadillas with some tortilla chips and guacamole for a snack.  
Yes, now you can order any beverages from specialty coffees to a glass of wine, etc to your room and they are covered under the package.  
There is no longer a slip to sign and leave a tip so I just keep some singles and fives available for when a delivery is made.  We always bring a package of single wrapped Ghirardelli chocolates to accompany our tip for the delivery.  Most all have been surprised and love the dark chocolates the best.  

You aren’t restricted to ordering food and drinks to your room.  We’ve ordered it up at the sanctuary pool, as well.  
OceanNow might be the single best improvement made in cruising since the restart.  We just love it!  
 

[relmondcrsise]

18 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

We used to never order room service but since the new OceanNow feature, we order in quite often.  
pour favorite is the chicken tenders on the kids menu with a Caesar salad.  We make our own chicken Caesar to enjoy on the balcony.  I am also fond of the quesadillas with some tortilla chips and guacamole for a snack.  
Yes, now you can order any beverages from specialty coffees to a glass of wine, etc to your room and they are covered under the package.  
There is no longer a slip to sign and leave a tip so I just keep some singles and fives available for when a delivery is made.  We always bring a package of single wrapped Ghirardelli chocolates to accompany our tip for the delivery.  Most all have been surprised and love the dark chocolates the best.  

You aren’t restricted to ordering food and drinks to your room.  We’ve ordered it up at the sanctuary pool, as well.  
OceanNow might be the single best improvement made in cruising since the restart.  We just love it!  
 

Those are great tips!  Thank you!  I especially love the idea of giving a special chocolate with the tips.  And thanks for reminding me to bring lots of cash for tips.  I'm surprised there isn't a way to add them onto your account with the app.

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, relmondcrsise said:

If anyone wants to see the full food and beverage menu currently available as of this week, it is posted here:

 

Princess Cruise Line's OceanNow Food and Beverage Delivery Menu.

Thanks…I’ve taken screenshots when onboard but it’s great to have all them well organized on one webpage. 🙂 In a few weeks we board Discovery & will bookmark this site.

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by Astro Flyer

[EDDY0827]

5 minutes ago, relmondcrsise said:

And thanks for reminding me to bring lots of cash for tips.  I'm surprised there isn't a way to add them onto your account with the app.

Your tips are covered in your Princess Plus package.

[relmondcrsise]

38 minutes ago, EDDY0827 said:

Your tips are covered in your Princess Plus package.

 For the delivery person too?  Aren't the tips just for the bartender? 

[EDDY0827]

No, tips are for all service staff. Kitchen staff, bar staff, waitstaff, laundry staff, deck crew etc.

If you care to tip over and above, that is up to you.

Tips in the Princess Plus plan are referred to as "Crew Appreciation".

[Cruise Raider]

2 hours ago, relmondcrsise said:

Those are great tips!  Thank you!  I especially love the idea of giving a special chocolate with the tips.  And thanks for reminding me to bring lots of cash for tips.  I'm surprised there isn't a way to add them onto your account with the app.

 

They actually look surprised when I tip them now.  

I live in the San Francisco area so Ghirardelli is our local chocolate.  I buy big bags of the individually wrapped chocolates at our Costco store and take it on the cruise.  I started leaving them for our room stewards on the pillows at night ... pillow chocolates but the other way around.  I'm now known as the chocolate lady onboard.  I just hand them out when a crew member is nice to me and always with a tip when they deliver something to my room.  I knew they were not allowed off the ship at the times I was on my cruises so, would also bring bags of Doritos and such.  They never quite know what they are going to get.  I just love the look on their faces when I hand it to them, though.  

 

[flying fingers]

Cruise Raider,  you sound like a kind and caring person. I bet people really like you!

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We enjoyed this functionality too but we’re very disappointed with the breakfast sandwiches. They were barely toasted and cold. So skip that. Everything else was appropriately hot or cold and quite tasty. 
 

One thing that happened was we ordered a bottle of champagne to be delivered to our room for sail away.  There is the option to deliver it your location or your room. We had it sent to our room and went about our business of enjoying the ship.  A poor woman came running up to us with the bottle of champagne saying that she was following us all over the ship!  We felt bad as we clearly said our room and thought they would just go and leave it there. She was wonderful and took it down to our room for us. 

[Jadn13]

Always double check your location on the app. I often sat out on a deck but my location always pinpointed on the deck below.

**sometimes it’s quicker to just grab your own drinks, weigh those options each time as well.

[capriccio]

We tested room service delivery on our January 2 Caribbean Princess cruise by ordering some snacks to go with our mini-bar drinks one afternoon.  The order was delivered in 6 minutes!  We were impressed. The ship was less than 33% full so we'll see how fast it is with more passengers when we sail on the Enchanted Princess on Thursday and it is predicted to be around 60% full. 

[wannagonow123]

We ordered tuna sandwiches one day on the Caribbean Princess, and they were not available, so they brought chicken salad. They were good, but when you are craving tuna......

[coloradocruiselover88]

It was amazing on our Dec 29 Emerald Princess cruise.  We ordered quite a few times on our last two days on the ship.  I have feeling as capacity increases it could take longer to get your items.

[relmondcrsise]

4 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

Always double check your location on the app. I often sat out on a deck but my location always pinpointed on the deck below.

**sometimes it’s quicker to just grab your own drinks, weigh those options each time as well.

That's good to know, thanks!

[relmondcrsise]

3 hours ago, capriccio said:

We tested room service delivery on our January 2 Caribbean Princess cruise by ordering some snacks to go with our mini-bar drinks one afternoon.  The order was delivered in 6 minutes!  We were impressed. The ship was less than 33% full so we'll see how fast it is with more passengers when we sail on the Enchanted Princess on Thursday and it is predicted to be around 60% full. 

Wow, that's amazing!

[Ombud]

Outside of @Cruise Raider's suggestion to bring Ghirardelli chocolates (big asst bag & yes warm brownie sundae for me when I stop in) my only 3 comments are: (1) that plate of chips is huge!! Ordered 2 for game, had him take one back. (2) they don't know how to make grilled cheese. (3) love LOVE the Key Lime pot. Maybe those in South Florida don't think it tastes like 'real' key lime but I love it!! 

[relmondcrsise]

23 hours ago, Ombud said:

Outside of @Cruise Raider's suggestion to bring Ghirardelli chocolates (big asst bag & yes warm brownie sundae for me when I stop in) my only 3 comments are: (1) that plate of chips is huge!! Ordered 2 for game, had him take one back. (2) they don't know how to make grilled cheese. (3) love LOVE the Key Lime pot. Maybe those in South Florida don't think it tastes like 'real' key lime but I love it!! 

I love key lime pie, so I will definitely try that.  Thanks!

[Host CJSKIDS]

It was amazing to be sitting at Vines and have some snacks delivered!  

 

I loved the ease of it but for some reason I could never use it for my stateroom, it said delivery there wasn’t available.  It also had issues picking me up inside the Sanctuary. 

[cruzin4us]

I ordered my coffee latte while lying in bed.   It came in less than 5 minutes every time and it was always piping hot.   Oh so much better than a pitcher of lukewarm watery coffee.   

[Coffeeluvr05]

We just got off of the Majestic on Saturday and we fully tested out the in-room ordering of coffees (lattes), food, and some beverages.  The first day, I was disappointed in the temperature of the coffee.  The rest of the time, I ordered them extra hot and they were perfect.  I ate the breakfast sandwich every morning but two times and it was quite good.  I did not want to order food just to order food because I did not want to be wasteful.  The club sandwich was a favorite for sure.  I can tell you that I ordered multiple beverages at one time on my Princess Plus package and was never charged.  I utilized the beverage ordering anywhere on the ship that allowed ordering of drinks.  However, not all beverages are on the app.  For instance, I wanted an iced chai and it is not on the app.  I had to order it old school! 😁

Edited March 8, 2022 by Coffeeluvr05

[justafem]

On 3/6/2022 at 9:29 AM, Ombud said:

Outside of @Cruise Raider's suggestion to bring Ghirardelli chocolates (big asst bag & yes warm brownie sundae for me when I stop in) my only 3 comments are: (1) that plate of chips is huge!! Ordered 2 for game, had him take one back. (2) they don't know how to make grilled cheese. (3) love LOVE the Key Lime pot. Maybe those in South Florida don't think it tastes like 'real' key lime but I love it!! 

Our experience with the chips on the Ruby was the opposite.  The 'plate' of chips was less than what you'd get in the really really small made for a kids school lunch chips.  We started ordering 4 plates at a time.  The last room service we ordered had 4 plates of chips, each with (I kid you not) 5 chips on each plate. Gotta wonder if there was a shortage

[Cruise Raider]

5 hours ago, justafem said:

Our experience with the chips on the Ruby was the opposite.  The 'plate' of chips was less than what you'd get in the really really small made for a kids school lunch chips.  We started ordering 4 plates at a time.  The last room service we ordered had 4 plates of chips, each with (I kid you not) 5 chips on each plate. Gotta wonder if there was a shortage

I only got enough to put inside my sandwich, which was actually perfect for me.  if more were on the plate, I’d have felt forced to eat them all and I know I really don’t need that.  

[We_like_to_cruise]

On Sky.  We have ordered a few times to the room and service was prompt and accurate.  Nice.

 

Also discovered it was actually faster to sit by the pool and order via the Medallion app and have it delivered to our chairs then to go up to the bar.  The bartenders are mixing numerous drinks and people constantly come up to the bar, so it is hard for them to keep track of who is "next in line".

 

Much easier with the app, I must admit !

[relmondcrsise]

On 3/7/2022 at 3:02 PM, cruzin4us said:

I ordered my coffee latte while lying in bed.   It came in less than 5 minutes every time and it was always piping hot.   Oh so much better than a pitcher of lukewarm watery coffee.   

Wow, that's impressive!