Just got an email outlining the "NEW" offerings

[SCX22]

3 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

We don't do buffets at dinner time.  And what I mentioned was st lunch time on X which is an upgrade on what Princess offers on their Royal Class at lunchtime, but some think it's unhealthy.

 

Can't fault Princess for offering something at an undesirable time for you.

[CruizinSusan70]

9 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Bacon, bread and hollandaise sauce - YES 

 

Ahhh, I can assure you, we dine very well.  

You can get it with spinach and only a dollop of hollandaise.  It's made to order.  But like I said, Princess has zero grilled to order items at lunch, unlike X.  And you'll have to admit that the 3 items I mentioned, a filet, a lamb chop and grilled chicken breast are very healthy and certainly a better option than what is normally available on Princess

[CruizinSusan70]

13 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

But saying "True, but we share the 3 course meal and visit 4 times at lunch" implies you have done this. Not that's what you plan to do in a year. 

Excuse me for not being specific. We WILL share the 3 course meal and visit 4 times at lunch.

If this is not allowed a year from now we will adjust accordingly, but if there is any kind of loophole, it will be plugged.

[memoak]

1 minute ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Excuse me for not being specific. We WILL share the 3 course meal and visit 4 times at lunch.

If this is not allowed a year from now we will adjust accordingly, but if there is any kind of loophole, it will be plugged.

Counting on things staying the same anywhere land or sea is expecting a lot

[CruizinSusan70]

8 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

 

Can't fault Princess for offering something at an undesirable time for you.

True, but if they wish to keep up with the Joneses they should know what X and HAL are serving.  But maybe they expect their loyal customers to keep blinders on and not know what their competitors are serving.  

The Alfredogate snafu could cause many to jump ship as many have stated on the boards.

[CruizinSusan70]

5 minutes ago, memoak said:

Counting on things staying the same anywhere land or sea is expecting a lot

If it's true that sharing is not allowed and you're in fact forced to both use your meal or both choose a la carte, then hopefully enough cruisers will revolt.  If it stays this way a year from now, like I said in a previous post, we'll adjust accordingly.

[startedwithamouse]

28 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

If it's indeed true and someone is on board, then it's not too difficult to take a picture and post it.

Crew tells you something, do you immediately ask them to provide printed proof? 

[Guest ldtr]

51 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

 

These exist on Princess, but only at dinner time and end early, usually at 21:00.  It might also depend on the ship; didn't see them as much on the Royal Princess.  On the Majestic, Sky, and Enchanted, the customized creme bruleee was on formal night in the buffet.  The Italian "stir fry" was on Italian night.  Sky still had the best buffets to date that I've experienced post restart.

 

 

There is one section of the buffet that is kind of a snack area (first Alley) that is open during lunch and stays open after lunch shuts down, until dinner opens at 5:30)  

 

At the lunch buffet as with dinner Princess usually focuses on carving stations usually some combination of Pork, Lamb, beef, chicken or turkey.

 

Princess usually does not do meat grill to order (they do on some special nights have steak that is grilled to order) , but they do have other items chicken beef, steak medallions that are often available to pre cooked.

 

For lunch they also tend to have 3 carving stations. 

 

With a different selection of dishes between lunch and dinner, but usually a good variety at both.

 

The royal class tend to have a good salad bar for both lunch and dinner.  

 

At night there tends to be one section of the buffet for the regional food of the night (British, Mexican, American, Mongolian BBQ, Indian).  The Mongolian BBQ is prepared to order.

 

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by ldtr

[startedwithamouse]

17 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

If it's true that sharing is not allowed and you're in fact forced to both use your meal or both choose a la carte, then hopefully enough cruisers will revolt.  If it stays this way a year from now, like I said in a previous post, we'll adjust accordingly.

Why would people revolt over dining together at a restaurant?

[Guest ldtr]

31 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

True, but if they wish to keep up with the Joneses they should know what X and HAL are serving.  But maybe they expect their loyal customers to keep blinders on and not know what their competitors are serving.  

The Alfredogate snafu could cause many to jump ship as many have stated on the boards.

Maybe many of us do know, sail on all of the competition and consider the Princess buffet to be good.  I consider it on par with Celebrity, better than RCCL, quality wise about the same as HAL, though with a better selection than HAL.  Certainly not as good as Oceania.

 

How many different Princess ships have you been on so far  upon which you are basing your judgement, much of which seems to be that they do not do gill to order meats at the buffet on most nights.

 

The Majestic buffet was probably about average or maybe a little below average on a royal class ship.  Not as good as the Discovery last fall  or the Regal in the Spring TA and BI cruise.  Both of those had a better selection of sea food.

Edited August 22, 2023 by ldtr

[Guest ldtr]

To put it another way.  If one wants grilled to order chops or steak then the Princess buffet will not be your thing.  If on the other hand you are happy with carving stations, a fairly wide selection of ethnic dishes with good day to day variety then it might be yours.

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

Crew tells you something, do you immediately ask them to provide printed proof? 

I don't communicate much with crew, only our server in the MDR and the bartenders at Good Spirits.  Like I previously said, if it's indeed true, it's not too difficult to take a picture and post it on the thread.

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

Why would people revolt over dining together at a restaurant?

There have been multiple threads over people being upset over all of the changes going on at Princess including the new charges for room service, for ocean now and for Alfredo's no longer being free.  Package holders are upset over the 2 visit limit no matter the length of their cruise.  

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

Maybe many of us do know, sail on all of the competition and consider the Princess buffet to be good.  I consider it on par with Celebrity, better than RCCL, quality wise about the same as HAL, though with a better selection than HAL.  Certainly not as good as Oceania.

 

How many different Princess ships have you been on so far  upon which you are basing your judgement, much of which seems to be that they do not do gill to order meats at the buffet on most nights.

 

The Majestic buffet was probably about average or maybe a little below average on a royal class ship.  Not as good as the Discovery last fall  or the Regal in the Spring TA and BI cruise.  Both of those had a better selection of sea food.

Been on two of their newer ships.  Spent 14 nights on the Discovery and another 14 on the Majestic.  I didn't mention grilled meats at night since we never eat in the buffet for dinner. I did mention that X had it available for lunch, while this is a short coming of Princess.  I did compare my 28 days on the Royal Class with 19 days on the Edge Class of X, and when it comes to lunch buffet choices, it's my opinion that X blows the doors off of Princess.

I was only talking about lunch time options on Princess versus their competition.  According to some it could be blasphemous to say, but Carnival has the most varied lunch time options versus all of the main stream cruise lines.

[Guest ldtr]

23 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Been on two of their newer ships.  Spent 14 nights on the Discovery and another 14 on the Majestic.  I didn't mention grilled meats at night since we never eat in the buffet for dinner. I did mention that X had it available for lunch, while this is a short coming of Princess.  I did compare my 28 days on the Royal Class with 19 days on the Edge Class of X, and when it comes to lunch buffet choices, it's my opinion that X blows the doors off of Princess.

I was only talking about lunch time options on Princess versus their competition.  According to some it could be blasphemous to say, but Carnival has the most varied lunch time options versus all of the main stream cruise lines.

No but you did mention the lack of grilled itemsduring the 2 times that you apparently tried the lunch buffet.  So from your own posts on the 14 days on Majestic your tried the lunch buffet twice, at elsewhere the rest of the time.  Never tried it at night.  

 

Princess does not grill in the buffet, it does carving stations.

 

Did you actually eat in the buffet more often on the Discovery?  

 

As you put it - in your opinion.  From 2 ships and it appears very few actual times eating there.  Others opinions may and for many do differ.

 

Kind of funny that you were criticizing some Princess cruisers based upon their lack of experience with other lines.  Yet your expertise on Princess is based upon 2 cruises on 2 Royal class ships.

 

It kind of reminds me of a recent RCCL cruise during which I gave the dining room a relatively low rating after a couple of days.  The lead waiter contacted me about the rating. In that discussion that after thinking about it the primary reason for the rating was that it was different from what I was expecting and that impacted the rating (I had just completed a Oceania Cruise, Princess Cruise, and a HAL cruise).  That the preparations and choices were a bit different from what I was used to.

Edited August 23, 2023 by ldtr

[caribill]

2 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

Well, if there's one thing consistent about Princess, it's inconsistency.  On some ships, people with a package can substitute the premium dessert for a slice of "premium" cake; on others, it's not permitted.  Don't expect to be able to bend the rules, but it's nice when the crew can accommodate. 

I thought Princess had said the premium dessert choice included the premium cake. But I do not remember where I read that.

[startedwithamouse]

3 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

I don't communicate much with crew, only our server in the MDR and the bartenders at Good Spirits.  Like I previously said, if it's indeed true, it's not too difficult to take a picture and post it on the thread.

It can be both true and not printed. 

 

You're eating in the MDR, and it's four courses for each person,  so why would you be sharing a three course meal in Alfredos or casual venue? That just sounds silly.

 

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, ldtr said:

No but you did mention the lack of grilled itemsduring the 2 times that you apparently tried the lunch buffet.  So from your own posts on the 14 days on Majestic your tried the lunch buffet twice, at elsewhere the rest of the time.  Never tried it at night.  

 

Princess does not grill in the buffet, it does carving stations.

 

Did you actually eat in the buffet more often on the Discovery?  

 

As you put it - in your opinion.  From 2 ships and it appears very few actual times eating there.  Others opinions may and for many do differ.

 

Kind of funny that you were criticizing some Princess cruisers based upon their lack of experience with other lines.  Yet your expertise on Princess is based upon 2 cruises on 2 Royal class ships.

 

It kind of reminds me of a recent RCCL cruise during which I gave the dining room a relatively low rating after a couple of days.  The lead waiter contacted me about the rating. In that discussion that after thinking about it the primary reason for the rating was that it was different from what I was expecting and that impacted the rating (I had just completed a Oceania Cruise, Princess Cruise, and a HAL cruise).  That the preparations and choices were a bit different from what I was used to.

My expertise was based upon my personal experience on the newest (Discovery) as well as one of the newer (Majestic ) ships in the fleet.  I did not see a grill adjacent to the buffet area where it would even be possible to grill meats, yet it was right there on my pre covid cruise on the Edge for 7 nights and post cruise on the Apex for 12 nights each day for lunch.  I will assume that the older ships in the fleet do not grill to order for lunch because if they did, then the newest ships obviously would as well.  And this is comparing things for lunch.  I couldn't care if they were grilling lobster tails in the buffet at dinner.  Because I can count on a couple of fingers the number of times I've gone to the buffet for dinner in 55 cruises.

 

We only go to a buffet if there are no other choices and if there is anything made to order at the buffet such as an omelette, that's what we would get.  Our top choice is to dine in the MDR or a sit down establishment.  Our second choice would have something made to order, unfortunately this is where Princess drops the ball at lunch time in comparison to Celebrity and Carnival.

[Guest ldtr]

4 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

My expertise was based upon my personal experience on the newest (Discovery) as well as one of the newer (Majestic ) ships in the fleet.  I did not see a grill adjacent to the buffet area where it would even be possible to grill meats, yet it was right there on my pre covid cruise on the Edge for 7 nights and post cruise on the Apex for 12 nights each day for lunch.  I will assume that the older ships in the fleet do not grill to order for lunch because if they did, then the newest ships obviously would as well.  And this is comparing things for lunch.  I couldn't care if they were grilling lobster tails in the buffet at dinner.  Because I can count on a couple of fingers the number of times I've gone to the buffet for dinner in 55 cruises.

 

We only go to a buffet if there are no other choices and if there is anything made to order at the buffet such as an omelette, that's what we would get.  Our top choice is to dine in the MDR or a sit down establishment.  Our second choice would have something made to order, unfortunately this is where Princess drops the ball at lunch time in comparison to Celebrity and Carnival.

Too funny.  

[CruizinSusan70]

29 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

It can be both true and not printed. 

 

You're eating in the MDR, and it's four courses for each person,  so why would you be sharing a three course meal in Alfredos or casual venue? That just sounds silly.

 

Alfredo's is now an a la carte establishment.  I could sit down with my DH and order one thing for myself and he could have as many things as he'd like.   If it specifically states on the menu that the prix fix 3 item choice can't be shared, then we'll go with the flow and adjust accordingly.  If it's not in writing when we sail next August then the option is there for us to order 1 app, 1 pizza and 1 dessert and share them.  Many people have said on the boards that they would share a pizza for lunch.  With so much bad PR as it is at this point over the changes at Alfredo's/Gigi's, do you think that Princess would take it one step further and not allow people to split a pizza and use up 1 of their 4 allotments for the week?

[CruizinSusan70]

4 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Too funny.  

You laid the gauntlet down.  Explain yourself please.  There wasn't a humorous line in my post.  I was just speaking my truth, just like all of the cruisers upset over not receiving an email regarding the changes.

[startedwithamouse]

Princess seems to living rent free in lots of cruisers heads lately. 

[Steelers36]

Having caught up on this thread, I am going back a page or two about the back and forth on sharing at Alfredo's - or any other for-fee Casual Dining location.

 

I can see Princess having a policy where a prix fixe meal option is not for sharing.  I am not sure how that will be enforced unless waiters are assigned to watch tables like a hawk that order that way.

 

Otherwise, if guest 1 orders a prix fixe option and guest 2 orders a single item like an appetizer, I just don't see them doing any kind of enforcing on food sharing.  Couples do this all the time (before).

 

In the end, a couple could order and pay a la carte and share food just like any other previous situation.  But I realize this option foregoes using a benefit.

 

Besides serving guests, taking orders, back and forth to the kitchen area, fetching drinks, IDK if waiters would be keeping straight who had a la carte and who had prix fixe. 

 

IMO, PCL's only option would be to implement a policy that if one guest at a table orders prix fixe, the rest of the table must do the same.  And that doesn't seem practical to me.  Sounds autocratic.  Not every guest at a table of friends may be on Plus or Premier.

 

And that is another point.  There is no reason to stop a Premier guest from sharing since they get unlimited.  So, it comes down to the Plus - another thing for waiter to know about as to who can share and who cannot.

 

What if guest one orders prix fixe and the other just a beer?  They can sit there.  Are they going to stop that guest from snagging a piece of pizza? 

 

I am not looking to game a system, but I do think to suggest zero sharing at all doesn't seem logical.

[Guest ldtr]

11 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

You laid the gauntlet down.  Explain yourself please.  There wasn't a humorous line in my post.  I was just speaking my truth, just like all of the cruisers upset over not receiving an email regarding the changes.

The humorous aspect is that you are telling people about a feature on cruise ships that you admit in your posts you seldom use.  Yet you basically told people on one post that people on Princess did not understand how much better buffets on other ships are, quoting your experience on two ships on Princess. Then you stated that you did not use it in the evenings. Went to  at lunch twice. Then in another post point out that you have only gone to a buffet for dinner a handful of times of out of all of your cruise.

 

That is what is too funny.

 

I guess I will tell people what cabins they should book based upon what I can see walking past an open door.

Edited August 23, 2023 by ldtr

[Steelers36]

16 minutes ago, ldtr said:

I guess I will tell people what cabins they should book based upon what I can see walking past an open door.

I can one-up that one.  I had an actual peek inside a Suite on a turnover day 3-4 years ago.