Specialty Dining

[travellgirl]

Good morning.

 

We are going on the Caribbean Princess in September. This will be our first Princess cruise. 

We tend to eat mostly in the  specialty restaurants while cruising and I ‘m having trouble finding some information on reservations.  It seems like the only restaurants that need reservations are Sbatinis and Crown Grill?  Looks like I make them on the app before sailing.  We would like to do the Chef’s Table also, but cannot seem to see how I can make a reservation for that.  In my experience, that is something that normally must be down in advance. 
can anyone help guide me through the process for all of this

Thank you so much. 

[Steelers36]

28 minutes ago, travellgirl said:

Good morning.

 

We are going on the Caribbean Princess in September. This will be our first Princess cruise. 

We tend to eat mostly in the  specialty restaurants while cruising and I ‘m having trouble finding some information on reservations.  It seems like the only restaurants that need reservations are Sbatinis and Crown Grill?  Looks like I make them on the app before sailing.  We would like to do the Chef’s Table also, but cannot seem to see how I can make a reservation for that.  In my experience, that is something that normally must be down in advance. 
can anyone help guide me through the process for all of this

Thank you so much. 

Chef's Table and Winemakers Dinner are not SD restaurants.  The only way to get in on these is to place your name on the list by either visiting Passenger Service Desk (PSD) on boarding, call in to the Dine Line using cabin phone and get on the list, speak to your Head Waiter or the DRO (Maitre D').  The latter might be done at the lunch in the DR on embarkation day if you are on board soon enough.  The first two work well, but I would follow up at dinner with HW or DRO and let them know you registered and are interested. 

 

It seems Princess has only loaded Sabi's and CG into DMW for self-serve booking.  On ships with other SD locations, I am not sure if those appear in DMW after boarding, but none are as popular, so just stop by and book a reservation sometime after boarding.  You can do the same for Sabi's and CG, but you should get to those promptly to make your bookings.

 

 

[skynight]

Caribbean Princess

Chef's Table - information in above posting. No Winemaker's Dinner on the Caribbean Princess.

You already made reservations at Sabatini's and The Crown Grill. Menus are the same every evening in these venues.

There are two other specialty dining areas on the Caribbean Princess, Planks and Steamers which operate in the evening in the aft sections of the buffet area.  It has been reported that these are not currently operating. If they do open you can call the dine line to make a reservation or in the past just walk in. If sitting at Planks you can order the Steamers menu items and visa versa.

It has been our experience that MDR selections are mostly good and it isn't necessary to dine at a specialty restaurant every evening to get a decent meal.

[lx200gps]

2 hours ago, travellgirl said:

Good morning.

 

We are going on the Caribbean Princess in September. This will be our first Princess cruise. 

We tend to eat mostly in the  specialty restaurants while cruising and I ‘m having trouble finding some information on reservations.  It seems like the only restaurants that need reservations are Sbatinis and Crown Grill?  Looks like I make them on the app before sailing.  We would like to do the Chef’s Table also, but cannot seem to see how I can make a reservation for that.  In my experience, that is something that normally must be down in advance. 
can anyone help guide me through the process for all of this

Thank you so much. 

Like you, we prefer to eat in SDs most of the time, even on Princess. The MDRs are very good, but the service is very frenetic, the waiters extremely busy and harried, and the general noise level much higher than in a Sabatini's or CG.  Pre-COVID, and on our one "mid-COVID" trip last November on the Sky, we never made SD reservations ahead of time. We are very early boarders anyway, and our second stop after boarding (after the Sanctuary) is to visit each SD restaurant and make our desired reservations for the week. We prefer to eat early to be able to make the first theater show, so we never have any problems getting our preferred times.  I've seen it said here on CC that Princess tend to keep (half?) of all SD slots "off-line", keeping them available for embarkation day booking, though I'm not sure what the very current situation is these days.

[franktown]

Chef table is very limited.  I do not remember if there are 10 or 12 seats and usually only offered on one or two days.  As said previously reservations can only be made on board and you do not know if you have been selected until the 2nd or 3rd day.  On ships with the wine dinner the same applies.  Both by the way are fantastic.  Good luck.

[bjkTX]

Since you said this is your first Princess cruise, and if you didn't already know, the "Dine" line a couple of people have mentioned is a button on your cabin phone that you can use to make reservations - it's normally best to do that as soon as you get access to your cabin before it gets jammed 🙂  Have fun!

 

[JF - retired RRT]

@travellgirl Also, keep in mind that with the new "Premier" package that has SD reservations included, it might be difficult or impossible to get a reservation (especially if you wait until after you board). This will be a big problem on short cruises (say 7 days) that have a lot of purchased Premier pkgs sold.

[nini]

Sadly, we asked about a Chef's Table and/ or Winemaker's Dinner on the Emerald this past May. These would not be happening. Sabatini's and Planks were closed then entire time (12 nights).

 

As has been stated, food and service in the main dining rooms is very good. We did eat in the Crown Grill twice and the food was excellent. The service was "timely", however not "warm and fuzzy"- rather on the cool side.

[travellgirl]

On 6/26/2022 at 11:32 AM, franktown said:

Chef table is very limited.  I do not remember if there are 10 or 12 seats and usually only offered on one or two days.  As said previously reservations can only be made on board and you do not know if you have been selected until the 2nd or 3rd day.  On ships with the wine dinner the same applies.  Both by the way are fantastic.  Good luck.

Thank you so much.  Yes, it seems that normally the Chefs Table is only offered one or two nights each cruise, no matter how long the cruise is. 
I won’t get my hopes up, since we have absolutely so status with Princess. 
 

 

 

 

[travellgirl]

On 6/26/2022 at 3:52 PM, JF - retired RRT said:

@travellgirl Also, keep in mind that with the new "Premier" package that has SD reservations included, it might be difficult or impossible to get a reservation (especially if you wait until after you board). This will be a big problem on short cruises (say 7 days) that have a lot of purchased Premier pkgs sold.

Thank you .  Guess we’ll just wait and see what we can get. 

[travellgirl]

On 6/26/2022 at 3:32 PM, bjkTX said:

Since you said this is your first Princess cruise, and if you didn't already know, the "Dine" line a couple of people have mentioned is a button on your cabin phone that you can use to make reservations - it's normally best to do that as soon as you get access to your cabin before it gets jammed 🙂  Have fun!

 

Thank you, tha very helpful. 

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, travellgirl said:

Thank you so much.  Yes, it seems that normally the Chefs Table is only offered one or two nights each cruise, no matter how long the cruise is. 
I won’t get my hopes up, since we have absolutely so status with Princess. 

Status doesn't count. According to staff, it's first on the list for 10 or 12 guests.