Club Class - Additional Dishes (Caribbean Princess Nov 2017)

We sailed on the Caribbean Princess November 20-30th in a Window Suite and enjoyed Club Class dining almost every day. For breakfast there was generally 1 additional offering (either a parfait or crepes), lunch usually had 1 additional dish, and for dinner there was generally 1 additional "table side" prepared dish plus a chef's special.

We found the food and service in Club Class to be exceptional. Mirelle, Winston and Dragon were wonderful.

The extra offerings were heavy on seafood and by the about 3/4s the way through the cruise I was seafood-ed out. But it was so good.....

I have a bunch of pictures of the additional items that we ordered.

Breakfast - although we could go to Sabatini's (and we did twice) most days we went to the MDR since it was so close to our cabin. The special offerings seemed to rotate between the yogurt parfait with berries and the crepes with nutella, or fruit (or both) with liberally applied whipped cream.

We ate lunch in the MDR almost everyday that it was offered. There was usually 1 table side dish (which we could see Mirelle preparing).

Twice it was nachos - these had chili, pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream along with large round nacho chips. I had it both time it was offered; the first time the chips were stuck in the bowl, the second time they were served on the side.

Another lunch special was a hand tossed Caesar Salad (which was nice because you could have anchovies/capers or not and I chose not).

On both formal nights we were served an amuse bouche.

The first was a whipped goat cheese with nuts on a crostini with a balsamic reduction (This was like eating a creamy, tangy cloud).

And the second formal night it was prosciutto with bruschetta (both of my parents loved the bruschetta part).

Most nights we were also offered a cheese plate as soon as we sat down. Many nights we declined it; twice we got the whole cheese plate, one day at lunch they had a large cheese platter to select what you wanted.

Non Seafood Offerings

So for the non-seafood offerings at dinner, there were a few.

One night, I got a Greek Salad with lots of fluffy Goat cheese and plump olives

There was also a Mushroom Ravioli which my mother still considers the best thing she ate on vacation.

And on the final night, it was Steak Diane (actually I think they offered this twice but we only got it on the last night).

The second night of the cruise I ordered the Chef's special of shrimp in lobster sauce (wow).

And then there was the seafood platter which was 2 pieces of salmon, 2 prawns and 2 of the most perfectly seasoned and cooked pieces of sea bass. This was my favourite dish of the trip (even more than lobster).

And Surf and Turf (both my dad and I ordered this - he doesn't eat lobster so he scooped that stuff onto my plate which was phenomenal - I don't think I've ever had lobster claw meat on a cruise ship).

And a starter on a different night was a wonderful seafood pasta.

The last night they also served 2 special desserts.

The first was bananas foster.

And the second was ice cream, rolled in coconut, covered with a shot of some kind of liquor. (we ordered this and hated it because we didn't listen closely enough to the description about the shot of liquor).

I'm sure I missed a couple of dishes and there were a few we didn't order.

Next time, I think I will always default to ordering the special dishes - they were the highlights of the cruise food for the most part. Freshly prepared, small batch, served piping hot and just a little better than many of the regular offerings.

While it may not be "worth" spending extra to get a cc mini suite or suite just because of club class dining, I did find it a nice addition to our experience.

 

And Surf and Turf (both my dad and I ordered this - he doesn't eat lobster so he scooped that stuff onto my plate which was phenomenal - I don't think I've ever had lobster claw meat on a cruise ship).

 

 

This will be hard to believe in this day and age but back in 2011 we boarded the Caribbean Princess for a Canada/New England cruise. On embarkation day we went to the Horizon Court for lunch. The buffet had a big pan of lobster claws which I was delighted to see. The was the only time I have ever seen anything like that out of 30+ cruises with Princess.

Thanks so much for your great report back. (y)

We are very much looking forward to Club Class Dining on our upcoming Caribbean Princess cruise. :D

OP, thanks for giving us an insight on what to expect from CC dining.

As nukesubsailor said, there used to be lobster claws. On embarkation dinner at Horizon Court, there was always a big pan of lobster claw, and beside was a big pan of pre-cut crab legs.

Club Class options will vary by ship and head waiter. On a recent four day cruise on the Ruby there were no special options at breakfast or embarkation day lunch. At dinner on the first night there were grilled shrimp added to the prime rib. BTW the prime rib was some of the best I ever had. At dinner the second night there was spaghetti aglio olio with shrimp, at dinner the third night there was linguine with a pesto sauce, and at lunch on our one sea day was a heavenly dish of gnocchi with a Gorgonzola sauce. We ate a SHARE the last night but the special dish was penne arrabbiata. Riccardo, our head waiter, loved pasta and that is basically what he made almost every day.

We will be in Club Class again on the Emerald in May and can compare the options on the two ships/cruises.

We're just finishing up our cruise on the Royal. I tried to mention the extra dishes available to us in Club Class dining on my live thread here. We enjoyed the attentive service provided by the staff. One of the things we liked a lot was the tray of sweets they offered to us with our desserts. I had several chocolate covered strawberries during the past 10 nights. Unfortunately, most of the sweets offered were ones that DH could not eat due to his avoiding things with seeds and nuts.

Wow, now I'm hungry and I've just eaten breakfast. Thanks for the great food photos.

This will be hard to believe in this day and age but back in 2011 we boarded the Caribbean Princess for a Canada/New England cruise. On embarkation day we went to the Horizon Court for lunch. The buffet had a big pan of lobster claws which I was delighted to see. The was the only time I have ever seen anything like that out of 30+ cruises with Princess.

Interesting. My guess is there was a surplus of lobster in the area and Princess took advantage of the availability.

OP, thanks for giving us an insight on what to expect from CC dining.

As nukesubsailor said, there used to be lobster claws. On embarkation dinner at Horizon Court, there was always a big pan of lobster claw, and beside was a big pan of pre-cut crab legs.

Interesting.

Thanks so much for your great report back. (y)

We are very much looking forward to Club Class Dining on our upcoming Caribbean Princess cruise. :D

I hope that Mirelle is still there - she was excellent. She really cared about the guests and would do practically anything for us.

Club Class options will vary by ship and head waiter. On a recent four day cruise on the Ruby there were no special options at breakfast or embarkation day lunch. At dinner on the first night there were grilled shrimp added to the prime rib. BTW the prime rib was some of the best I ever had. At dinner the second night there was spaghetti aglio olio with shrimp, at dinner the third night there was linguine with a pesto sauce, and at lunch on our one sea day was a heavenly dish of gnocchi with a Gorgonzola sauce. We ate a SHARE the last night but the special dish was penne arrabbiata. Riccardo, our head waiter, loved pasta and that is basically what he made almost every day.

 

We will be in Club Class again on the Emerald in May and can compare the options on the two ships/cruises.

We're just finishing up our cruise on the Royal. I tried to mention the extra dishes available to us in Club Class dining on my live thread here. We enjoyed the attentive service provided by the staff. One of the things we liked a lot was the tray of sweets they offered to us with our desserts. I had several chocolate covered strawberries during the past 10 nights. Unfortunately, most of the sweets offered were ones that DH could not eat due to his avoiding things with seeds and nuts.

Interesting how individual ships or head waiters are able to change things up. Mirelle was a big fan of seafood and it was served very often (which worked in my favour!).

Wow, now I'm hungry and I've just eaten breakfast. Thanks for the great food photos.

I will be posting all of our food photos from the trip in another post shortly.