Food, Glorious Food….

Back to my recent trip, and one of my favourite highlights of any cruise has to be the Food, Glorious Food… as many of you will have seen from my Facebook pictures whilst I was on the Majestic Princess I did get the opportunity to try pretty much every dining option available and I have to say that other than a couple of initial teething problems with the Harmony restaurant – The Michelin starred Cantonese restaurant on board… everything I ate was totally amazing – hence my huge weight gain of over half a stone in 4 days… well you have to try it !!..

Our website has an excellent section that lets you look at sample menus from many different ships & cruise lines to whet your appetite ahead of your cruise – take a look Cruise Ship Menus & Dining

Also many of the Cruise lines do allow advance reservations in their speciality restaurants – something Princess has just introduced for the Crown Grill.

As travelling with a group of Agents escorted by Princess representatives we were allocated group tables for the Anytime dining option in the Allegro restaurant for Dinner each evening, other than 1 night where the group were split up and shared around the speciality restaurants on board.  The main dining room was beautiful in decor and served a daily changing menu along with a few dishes that were available every day in case there was something you didn’t like.  It operated different theme nights with one night offering an Italian menu and the first night featuring an amazing Prime Rib.  I would be more than happy to dine here every night of my cruise.

The Majestic Princess also has 3 Speciality Restaurants:

La Mer – Michelin French Bistro Restaurant – serving Lunch & Dinner, for the preview sailing that we were on lunch was complimentary however I believe it now carries a small cover charge.  Evening Dinner in this restaurant carried a $ 35 per person cover charge.  Myself, and a couple of colleagues, took the opportunity to dine in here of the lunchtime on the last sea day and it was a beautiful meal.  I thought that I would go for the lighter option of the Sandwich & Fries for main but was actually huge in relation to my friends Chicken Casserole.. Had lovely 2 course lunch and was too full for dessert – plus was heading off to the spa.   The agents who had this restaurant for their evening dinner allocation all rated it very highly.

Harmony – Michelin Cantonese Restaurant – serving Dinner – cover charge $ 29 per person.  Owing to dining here on only the 2nd night that it was operating there were a couple of teething issues with the menu that I am sure will have now be ironed out.  The food generally was very nice, although sadly was not my favourite meal on board.

Crown Grill – Steak & Seafood Restaurant – Serving Dinner – Cover charge $ 29 per person.. does also offer different lunch options on some days.  Having Cruised myself with Princess and experienced the Crown Grill previously I already knew how amazing this restaurant was, and as we were given some on board credit to utilise the facilities of the ship myself and a couple of others decided to use some of this towards the cover charge for this restaurant and were fortunate enough to get a table on our last night.  Being the only one of the 3 of us to have eaten here before, I was hoping that it did still live up to my memories from 5 years ago.. and I am happy to say it was every bit as good.. from the Black & Blue Soup – a lovely version of French Onion soup with Jack Daniels and topped with a Blue Cheese Crouton to my most amazing Steak served with a Lobster tail and a selection of delightful sides – garlic fries, spinach, mushrooms.. all topped off with an amazing chocolate dessert – one of my friends was torn between all the puddings and they actually served a taster selection of them all.  The Crown Grill is featured throughout the Princess fleet and I really can’t recommend it highly enough for a real special treat.

Top this with an extensive Buffet Restaurant offering different counter sections from around the world, as well as an amazing bakery area… Beside the Pool area there were Chopsticks – an al fresco dining noodle bar with daily changing dishes & Lobster and Dim Sum Bar (small additional supplements) which also served hot dog, burger & fries…. Downstairs in the Piazza was the International cafe offering a complimentary selection of salads, sandwiches, pies & Pastries and the most amazing dessert selection and open 24 hours…. Also Alfredo’s Italian Pizzeria – again complimentary – beautiful selection of authentic pizzas, pastas in which I had a lovely lunch…. also there is daily Afternoon Tea served.. as well as 24 hour room service !!!

So if like me you are a bit of a foodie, make sure you pack lots of elasticated options for the end of your cruise and believe me you will certainly not go hungry..  Now back to the diet before my next cruise !!. Bon Appetit. xx