Dinner buffet on the Tahitian Princess

[whale-watcher]

We are considering booking an Alaska cruise on the Tahitian Princess this summer, but wanted to confirm that there is a dinner buffet option now available on this ship (we would not want to be restriced to fixed seating dinner with a port intensive cruise)...we had been planning to cruise theMediterranean on the Pacific, and recent cruisers have confirmed the buffet option for dinner on this ship and the Royal, so we are hoping this is the case for the TP as well.

 

THANKS!

 

I tried to use the search function, but it kept on timing out:confused:

[Toto2Kansas]

I can tell you that on the Tahitian Itinerary, there was only a dinner buffet the first and last night when she sailed in Tahiti. (that was for disembarking and embarking passengers comfort because of the double passenger load onboard waiting for flights). The rest of the nights all that was available was the pizza restaurant (sit down, not buffet style).

We were pretty stuck with fixed seating on the TP for most of the cruise. One of the main reasons we decided not to go on the TP in Tahiti again, there were just too many nights where making it to the diningroom was too much of a hassle.

Now, whether they will change this when it heads to Alaska, I have no idea. This might be one of those things that we need to wait and see what happens.

[laurieb]

we have friends that ate dinner in the buffet every night last month.

[Toto2Kansas]

we have friends that ate dinner in the buffet every night last month.

 

While the TP sailed in TAHITI?

[laurieb]

that is correct.

[Toto2Kansas]

Hummmmmmm, now that is weird, I wonder if they finally have gotten the message? The buffet was not offered for most of the sailings, I kept up with the reviews after we returned home for quite sometime and it seemed to be one of the complaints. Guess it's time to start reading recent reviews again, as I know it was not offered when we sailed on her except the first and last nights onboard, as said, because of the double passesnger load.

It is what has kept us from returning to Tahiti this last couple of years. :(

[laurieb]

it was great for our friends as they didn't have anything dressy with them clothing-wise.

[Toto2Kansas]

it was great for our friends as they didn't have anything dressy with them clothing-wise.

 

Exactly. Plus, there were a few nights we just weren't up to the diningroom experience and that left our choices very limited. One night, we even ended up with sandwiches from room service. After a very long day of swimming and snorkeling, we just wanted to relax and didn't want to spend two hours in the diningroom. I am just hoping that your friends weren't calling it the buffet as that is the area where the sit down pizza restaurant was located on our sailing. One half of the buffet was closed, the other sit down service only, but it was casual and you were not able to take anything from there back to your stateroom.

I hope they have made this change permanent. And I hope others that have sailed recently will reply to this to make sure it wasn't just a trial thing that was temporary

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

We were on the TP in September just after it had come out of a six-day wet docking. The buffet was open for dinner every night and the signage showing the buffet hours had been changed to show the buffet open for dinner beginning at 6:00 pm. You could also still choose to sit at a table and order pizza or calzones from the menu.

[Toto2Kansas]

Well shucks. We were sent a great offer from princess not long ago which included airfare and I didn't even look into it. We didn't want to go on this ship again having to be in the diningroom everynite. Now I wish I would have looked into it further. We absolutely love Tahiti, and we know our chances are going to be very limited in the future with Princess pulling out of that area. I would have loved to visit Tahiti one more time before this change comes about. Figured if they had changed the buffet problem I would have heard about it long before now. :(

[caribill]

From the Quick Reference for Dining Hours card on the Tahitian Princess in December:

 

Panorama Buffet - Deck 9 Aft

Dinner Buffet...........6:00pm-9:00pm

 

Also:

Pizzeria - Deck 9 Aft, Port Side

Table Service 7:00pm-10:00pm

 

Bistro - Deck 9 Aft, Port Side

Table Service 9:00pm-Midnight

[whale-watcher]

That's good news...we would hate to be restricted to fixed seating dining for Alaska, and no other ship offers anything quite like the TP 14 day roundtrip Vancouver itinerary.

[Spikesgirl]

Toto - I was a little dubious as well, but had it confirmed over on the Pacific Island Ports of Call board - the PP also ran the 'bistro' at night and we were a little disappointed by the selection, but too late back from an excursion to head down to the dining room. I'm happy to hear that the buffet will be up and running for our jaunt down there.

 

Charlie

[mii]

Well what is weird about the Pacific and Tahitian Princess is that the Princess web site still shows the buffet open from 4am to 6p.m. Then the Bistro starts at 11p.m. Obviously Princess has not changed their web site. No wonder people get confused.;) I went right in to the Onboard Experience, then dining per ship and put in both of the ships and that is what found. At least we now know that there is an evening buffet.

 

marilyn

[Toto2Kansas]

Well what is weird about the Pacific and Tahitian Princess is that the Princess web site still shows the buffet open from 4am to 6p.m. Then the Bistro starts at 11p.m. Obviously Princess has not changed their web site. No wonder people get confused.;) I went right in to the Onboard Experience, then dining per ship and put in both of the ships and that is what found. At least we now know that there is an evening buffet.

 

marilyn

Marilyn, That is what we ran into onboard the TP. No buffet at all in the evening, just sit down style pizza.

I swore I have read reviews where some had said there was a buffet each evening and others said there was none (except first and last night onboard) since we sailed on this ship.

 

This is just one of those itinearys where you spend 12 hours on water tours and for us, the last thing we wanted to do was rush around to get ready to go to the diningroom.

Plus, the TP was the last time we ever had assigned dining. Our tablemates made the experience unbearable with their 'special orders' to the point the waiter didn't even want to come near us after a few nights. I never blamed the waiter, heck, I didn't even want to be at that table with all the loud complaining from our tablemates going on. :eek: :eek: Each food item was to be cooked only a certain way for them, salads were to be made up special including the salad dressings, each evening they would order what they were going to have the following night and would give instruction on how it was to be cooked to the chef who had to come to our table every night to listen to the complaining. Not sure why they didn't sail on Crystal or one of the other upscale cruise lines with all their special needs. 'Self imposed' diets was the cause of this, and they were unbelievably rude to the staff if they did not receive exactly what they wanted. I might have even understood if there would have been a health issue involved, but they let everyone know this was self imposed. :eek:

I would have run to the nearest buffet, no matter what the choices were, if only given half the chance to do so. It really soured us for assigned dining ever since.