Casual Dining - Fixed Price Menus and A La Carte Charges

[Torfamm]

It’s been reported that the prix fixe meals can’t be shared. You’ll have to check onboard for your sailing.

 

A workaround might be for one of you to order a la carte and just get soup, salad, or an appetizer 

[Hobie]

This will be the first time that I have "Princess Plus".

It includes 2 free casual dining meals.

I'm not sure what that means??

What are the casual dinning restaurants on Discovery Princess?

Thank you for your help.

[mtnesterz]

What does 2 free casual dining meals mean?  This means that you may dine twice at any one of the casual dining venues. It is important to note the offering is not à la carte, but prix fixe; a set meal. On a third visit, it is $14.99.

What are casual dining restaurants? A casual dining restaurant is one where it is either not a burger, hot dog or pizza on deck, nor the Main Dining Room where they hold formal nights. The MDR venue, as with the buffet is included in your fare.

If you meant which restaurants are offered as casual, then have a look at them with descriptions and pictures here: https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/xp-discovery-princess/

[beshears]

P-Pete, that sounds good as I have never eaten it, but have heard of it, and hopefully I can get some on our February 25th cruise. 🙂

[jwattle]

The final answer is that it has varied ship to ship.

[dides]

1 hour ago, Hobie said:

This will be the first time that I have "Princess Plus".

It includes 2 free casual dining meals.

I'm not sure what that means??

What are the casual dinning restaurants on Discovery Princess?

 

There is an existing thread which lists all the Casual Dining venues and menus for each ship. 

 

Discovery has Gigi's pizzeria, Ocean Terrace sushi and the Salty Dog Gastropub.

 

[PacnGoNow]

4 hours ago, rosevew said:

Maybe because the pizza there is pretty dreadful! We tried it 4 times on our recent cruise and each time it was almost raw in the centre.

What ship?

Ours is always well done.  Ask them to cook it well done next time, if you go there again. 🥴

 

 

 

[rosevew]

1 minute ago, PacnGoNow said:

What ship?

Ours is always well done.  Ask them to cook it well done next time, if you go there again. 🥴

 

 

 

On Sky. Really shouldn't need to tell them how to cook a pizza though! We didn't want it 'well done' just cooked.

[Hobie]

6 minutes ago, dides said:

 

There is an existing thread which lists all the Casual Dining venues and menus for each ship. 

 

Discovery has Gigi's pizzeria, Ocean Terrace sushi and the Salty Dog Gastropub.

 

Thank you 

[PacnGoNow]

7 hours ago, bonox55 said:

G,day All,

Just had a question re Alfredo's new charges. My wife and I are booked on a cruise in March. We have both paid for the Plus Package,so we each receive 2 complimentary vouchers for the $14.99 set menu. We are not big eaters and we have in the past ordered one starter and one pizza between the two of us. My question is, does anyone know if we would be able to just use one voucher between us?

Paul

It does vary on ships and even employees at Alfredos.

On the Sapphire… waiter said no sharing.  Manager said it is okay to only use 1 and share.

 

He said, when you first checkin at Alfredos, make it clear you are only using 1 of your free meals.

 

 

[satxdiver]

Great information as we are sailing in two weeks and do share Alfredo's pizza in the past.  We are older and don't eat as much as in the past.  Most meals in specialty restaurants is way too much. 

[chamima]

19 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

It does vary on ships and even employees at Alfredos.

On the Sapphire… waiter said no sharing.  Manager said it is okay to only use 1 and share.

 

He said, when you first checkin at Alfredos, make it clear you are only using 1 of your free meals.

 

 

 

Thank you SO much for checking this out!

(I hope Alfredos keeps the same manager next week!)

My husband is a vegan and neither one of us eats that much so he can get the vegan pizza (they have made the pizzas without cheese for him in the past) and I can have the wonderful dairy app and desserts.

 

Perfect for a port day when we return to the ship around 3 .

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 10/25/2023 at 9:47 AM, bonox55 said:

G,day All,

Just had a question re Alfredo's new charges. My wife and I are booked on a cruise in March. We have both paid for the Plus Package,so we each receive 2 complimentary vouchers for the $14.99 set menu. We are not big eaters and we have in the past ordered one starter and one pizza between the two of us. My question is, does anyone know if we would be able to just use one voucher between us?

Paul

Can't say I know for defo, but you could I suppose both sit together and just order one. I know drinks packages which Plus is part of you need to have obtained two, one each.

[Oilers rule]

Emerald seems to have limited casual dining options at lunch time. Am I correct in saying that Planks and Steamers are not open at lunch time? Thank you. 

[canadarocks]

25 minutes ago, Oilers rule said:

Emerald seems to have limited casual dining options at lunch time. Am I correct in saying that Planks and Steamers are not open at lunch time? Thank you. 

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think any of the “casual” dining venues are open for lunch. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by canadarocks

[Tedferg]

We had a long conversation about this on the Royal in Oct. The waiter at check in said, 'It's like a cover charge'. So we were charged two visits even though we explained to the waiter that we were having just one pizza. Initially qw explained in detail to the waiter and he said, 'Share a pizza, sure'. We ordered and he brought one salad and after the pizza he said we still had a tiramisu to share. We were charged two visits. Subsequently we just wanted a pizza a la carte, we explained this to the manager at check in and he made a note - we were charged $8.50 as expected. This saved our second visit which we used for Sushi later.

[reedprincess]

54 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think any of the “casual” dining venues are open for lunch. 

Alfredo's, Gigis are both open for lunch, 11-11 (10) on the ships they're on... 

[Cruise Raider]

2 hours ago, canadarocks said:

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think any of the “casual” dining venues are open for lunch. 

Alfredo’s or GiGi’s is open all day.  
If the ship has an Ocean Terrace, they also serve sushi earlier in the day.  We had it for lunch a few times.  
The Salty Dog GatsroPub was only open after 5 PM. 

[chamima]

We're currently on the Sapphire.

Vines has changed it's casual dining option to a Sushi Platter available from 12 - 1:30.

I had it last week. It was wonderful!!!

8 pieces of spicy tuna roll, 2 tuna sashimi, 2 salmon sashimi, small bowl of seaweed salad, small bowl of (really delicious!) edamame, small bowl of pickled vegetables and a shrimp sashimi.

It was a large lunch but I plan to have it again and wouldn't mind paying the $14.99 even after our included meals are used.

[memoak]

16 hours ago, Tedferg said:

We had a long conversation about this on the Royal in Oct. The waiter at check in said, 'It's like a cover charge'. So we were charged two visits even though we explained to the waiter that we were having just one pizza. Initially qw explained in detail to the waiter and he said, 'Share a pizza, sure'. We ordered and he brought one salad and after the pizza he said we still had a tiramisu to share. We were charged two visits. Subsequently we just wanted a pizza a la carte, we explained this to the manager at check in and he made a note - we were charged $8.50 as expected. This saved our second visit which we used for Sushi later.

It must vary ship to ship. On the Crown at Vines we were able to share one meal and it only counted against one of our 4 meals under the plus package 

[Cruise Raider]

31 minutes ago, chamima said:

We're currently on the Sapphire.

Vines has changed it's casual dining option to a Sushi Platter available from 12 - 1:30.

I had it last week. It was wonderful!!!

8 pieces of spicy tuna roll, 2 tuna sashimi, 2 salmon sashimi, small bowl of seaweed salad, small bowl of (really delicious!) edamame, small bowl of pickled vegetables and a shrimp sashimi.

It was a large lunch but I plan to have it again and wouldn't mind paying the $14.99 even after our included meals are used.

Thank you for that update.  

We upgraded to the premier package on our recent cruises and found great value in it on the Royal class ships.  I sure hope that the Grand/Crown class ships change Vines to offer a better casual dining option for lunch.  While we love the charcuterie board and crudités every so often, I just can’t see myself wanting that for lunch every day.  Sushi there would make a nice added value.  As far as I have seen, the GastroPub is only offered after 5 PM.  
It would also be so nice if the ships without Alfredo’s or GiGi’s allowed those with the premier and plus packages the ability to order a pizza (with a salad) over the app and have it covered under their package.  I know I can go up top to order it but, sometimes, we like the option available in our cabin through room service.  
Not so much a complaint but just a suggestion so there is more equal value in the packages across the fleet. 

 

[dides]

47 minutes ago, chamima said:

We're currently on the Sapphire.

Vines has changed it's casual dining option to a Sushi Platter available from 12 - 1:30.

I had it last week. It was wonderful!!!

8 pieces of spicy tuna roll, 2 tuna sashimi, 2 salmon sashimi, small bowl of seaweed salad, small bowl of (really delicious!) edamame, small bowl of pickled vegetables and a shrimp sashimi.

It was a large lunch but I plan to have it again and wouldn't mind paying the $14.99 even after our included meals are used.

Interesting! Would you be able to post some pics of the update Vines menu so we can share it on here?

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by dides

[chamima]

1 minute ago, dides said:

Interesting! Would you be able to share some pics of the update Vines menu so we can share it on here?

 

 

No menu that I've seen (even on the app it still says Charcuterie board).

I found out about it from the "Wake Show" announcement from the cruise director.

[rosevew]

42 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

No menu that I've seen (even on the app it still says Charcuterie board).

I found out about it from the "Wake Show" announcement from the cruise director.

This is the set sushi menu from Sky, maybe it's the same now in Vines on Sapphire? Hope so, as I was thinking we'd be missing out on our next cruise.

[Tedferg]

5 hours ago, memoak said:

It must vary ship to ship. On the Crown at Vines we were able to share one meal and it only counted against one of our 4 meals under the plus package 

Agree and it might change over time on all ships. We had a discussion at the Sushi place on Royal and they said the same thing. They also stressed that if we ordered a l carte instead of the fixed price menu, we would be charged regardless of Plus visit.