Grand Princess Dinner Menu & Drink Pricing

[Luv2Cruise32]

We are new to Princess and just have been wondering if things are similar from CCL. Do any of you have a menu sample from the main dining room? Also husband is wondering if the drink pricing is comparable to CCL. Such as beer being $5.75 a bottle?

 

Thanks for your help. We are excited to try something new.

[BILL1313]

The food in the dining rooms was not good! We've been on four princess cruises and this was the worst food in the dining rooms

 

I don't drink beer but i remember saying beer price wasn't bad.

 

This was the worst ship we were ever on!

Edited May 5, 2014 by BILL1313

[Luv2Cruise32]

Ah, Bill, I hope things have changed since then. I am going with an open mind, so I guess I hope to have a better opinion of it when I get off the ship. Thanks for your reply tho.

[ggprincess2004]

Wish I had a sample dinner menu to post for you. Of all the Princess cruises we have taken, we have found the food to be less than good on only one cruise. I no longer remember which ship that was, as it doesn't matter. The chef matters, and it all depends upon who is or isn't on vacation. On all our other cruises, the food has generally been very good. I absolutely do not give the main dining rooms an excellent the vast majority of the time, as I am a serious foodie, and it is nearly impossible to produce an outstanding dining experience en masse. We have had outstanding items at the Chef's Table on a number of occasions, and also at Sabatini's and Crown Grille. (of course, we also had the worst creamed spinach ever at a Crown Grille one evening - can't remember which ship - maybe creamed spinach is unusually subjective) Many times we have been delighted by the offerings in the dining rooms and have some favorites we try not to miss.

Also, there are some delightful items that show up on the buffet, believe it or not, and both the International Café and the pizza are worth a few tries.

Drink pricing is reasonable, we haven't sailed Carnival so I cannot compare it to their prices, but it isn't any more than you would pay in most bars in our home town.

 

There was a thread going about people's favorite foods on Princess, it is fairly recent. A search should be able to track it down. Hope that helps.

 

Enjoy your cruise!:)

[AKman2495]

Here is a link to some sample menus. A few weeks before any cruise Princess sends out an e-mail with the maitre'd. They also have a link to the menus at here: http://www.princess.com/learn/onboard/dining/menus/dining_room/Sample%20Dinner%20Menus.pdf

 

BTW, food is subjective, but I have never had a bad meal on a Princess ship. FWIW

Edited May 5, 2014 by AKman2495

[gcvt]

Here are the beer prices on Grand (which is awesome) as of last month, for your husband...

 

I have pics of the entire drink menu, and Martini menu, if you're interested.

 

Edited May 5, 2014 by gcvt

[Working 2 Cruise]

Please don't let people like Bill1313 influence you... I haven't had a bad meal on Princess yet! There's always plenty of choices!

 

Don't forget to visit the International Cafe... All the food is free and always freshly made. It's great!

 

As for beer, you'll find it similar to Carnival. There is an all inclusive alcohol package you can purchase as well.

 

I'm sure you'll enjoy your cruise. Just go with an open mind and should you see a spot of rust... don't let it ruin your cruise. Remember, nothing is perfect although Princess comes close!

[Pam in CA]

We are new to Princess and just have been wondering if things are similar from CCL. Do any of you have a menu sample from the main dining room? Also husband is wondering if the drink pricing is comparable to CCL. Such as beer being $5.75 a bottle?

Food is very subjective. One person's "Yuck!" is another person's "Yummy!" Plus, on Princess (don't know about CCL), you can ask for plated food to be modified or pre-order anything within reason. There's really no reason to say the food is awful if you haven't made at least a little effort to just ask for what you want. Want a loaded baked potato? Want steamed vegetables? Want no sauce (or extra sauce) or perhaps Bearnaise sauce? Want Fettuccini Alfredo as an appetizer or side dish? A chef's salad as an entree? All you have to do is ask. There are plenty of menus posted on Cruise Critic. They are pretty much the same no matter which ship. Cruises longer than 7 days don't repeat although they do sometimes repeat an appetizer or entree.

 

As for drinks, I don't know how much they are on CCL but here is a drink menu on the Sapphire in March:

 

 

 

 

[Pam in CA]

 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree, food is very subjective, and FWIW we have not had a bad meal on any cruise. :)

[BrandiGreg]

22 Princess cruises with all dinners in the main dining room, do not recall a bad dinner ever. We are easy to please however and I do know that if it did not taste good they wait staff would quickly replace it with another choice. They work hard to try to please. I always order the seafood choices, and all are great. As far as alcohol, a few things to keep in mind in comparing prices with what you pay at your local restaurant 1. Bottles of Bud on land are normally 12 oz but the Buds on board are 16 oz. Also, if you buy a "bucket of 5 beers", they only charge you for four of them. So, it is about $4.50 per 16 oz Bud when bought that way. You can take the bucket back to your cabin if you want and store unused bottles in the fridge. 2. The mixed drinks are stronger than I have experienced at local restaurants (in my estimation) and 3. For a cocktail costing $7.95, most people like me would round it up to $10 to include the tip. With the 15% autotip, the drink on board comes to about $9.14. Thus you are most likely tipping less than at a restaurant or bar. In certain cities, this is a bargain. Try Manhattan or Las Vegas. You will pay at least twice this in many places. If you drink wine frequently at dinner, you are better off buying a bottle and having them keep the wine for you for the next night. Also remember that any alcohol you buy anywhere can be taken anywhere on the ship. (bar to room, bar to show, dinner to room, dinner to show, dinner to nightclub or casino, lunch to pool, etc. Try walking out of most bars or restaurants with your unfinished bottle or glass back home.....probably a law against that.

Edited May 5, 2014 by BrandiGreg

[BILL1313]

Don't worry about the food. In general it wasn't great but you can always find something that's good on the bufett if you don't like the main dining rooms . Do try the fetticini alfredo

It is excellent

Also the chateau briande was excellent too.

Lobster was good one night and bad the next.

Try Princess Escargot too. It is as good as it gets.

See , You can always find something.

The food just wasn't as good as on other Princess cruises.

We were on Grand in April

[rpcv77]

We were on the Grand in early April and liked the food. Did we like everything? No, of course not but having sailed Carnival 2x, we thought that overall, it was better. As several have posted, they are very accommodating in the MDR and aim to please. This was our second Princess cruise. We were on the Diamond several months ago and although the menu choices were similar, we liked the food better on the Grand. So, as has been said, taste is subjective and the chef makes a difference. We loved the IC!

[Luv2Cruise32]

Wow, thank you all for the replies. The alcohol appears cheaper than CCL, my purse will like that, HA. We are pretty easy to please, we are going with an open mind as we usually do. For us, this is a different Company, different ship, different itin (we have been carribean 7 times). So we have a lot of fun to look forward to. Again, thank you for the menus and input.

[Widebay]

We don't worry about the price of alcohol on cruises, as we only have the following -

 

One beer & one cocktail - afternoon at the Bar overlooking the pool. Then at the dinner table, we sometimes buy 1 bottle of wine, either Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand of course) or a nice Rose. We share the wine, only consuming around half the bottle, then we get wait staff, to put the remaining wine away until the next night.