island princess food

(Reef Fish) wrote in
om:

jcoulter wrote in message
.204.17...

A client just back from the Island Princess was totally unimpressed
by the food inth e main dining room of the Island Princess, though he
noted that the premium restaurants were excellent. Is this a trend,
spotty food in the regular and good food in the pay for restaurants.

I just came back from a week on the ISLAND Princess (presumably the
same one your client was on, since it is a brand new ship).

The question was specifically about the ISLAND Princess.

So far, I've read all the follow-ups up to now, and I noted NO ONE
made any specific comment about the ISLAND Princess. The tone of the
respondents appeared to be Princess bashing, and Carnival bashing,
regarding other Princesses.


Are we nickel and dining again at Princess???

Possibly so. I was on the Tahiti Princess in June, 2003. The "extra"
for dining at the "select" restaurants was $15 pp. On the Island
Princess this month, it was $20 extra pp.

I found the food in the main dining rooms in these two ships so good
that I didn't see any reason to waste the extra for what merely look
like a slightly better selection to some.

I like seafood and steaks. On the ISLAND Princess, there was Alakan
King Crab on the main dining room menu one night; followed by broiled
lobster the following night. I asked for a double serving of the
Alaskan King Crab because it's so expensive and rare on restaurant
menus these days that the waiter brought me a double serving of
lobsters without me asking. :-) There were other excellent dishes
of scallops, prawns, and other seafood; as well as filet mignon and
other choice steaks, cooked very well, from rare (my wife's choice) to
mediam (mine).

In short, I don't see anything shabby about the dinners served in the
LATEST (I mean literally the latest, because I was off the ship only
three days ago) Island Princess, from Anchorage to Vancouver.


While I wouldn't call myself a gourme by any stretch of the
imagination, U am far from a cheapskate with indiscriminant tastes
either. :-) I have dined in enough good restaurants that charge $$$$$
for a filet mignon; or like amount for various other seafoods that I
feel your particular client in question must have either a very
pecculiar tastes in food or had a particularly bad week on the Island
Princess.


As for cruiseship bashing ... I DID find the main dining (and
especially the Open Deck Dining) on both the Tahiti and Island
Princesses heads and shoulders above those on the Carnival (Paradise)
I took in July.

Perhaps in time the food in the Princess cruiseships (to be owned by
Carnival) will decline to the level of that on the Carnival ships.
But from I have seen in the last three months, it hasn't happened yet,
at least not in any obvious way.

The OTHER Princesses may differ. I can't comment because I haven't
been on them, yet.

As far as the ISLAND Princess is concerned, I would highly recommemnd
it to anyone, expecially on a deeply discounted fare of about $1000 pp
for a cabin with a private balcony on the C-Deck, that was listed at a
price (on the ticket) of $2689 USD pp.

I'll be back to a third Princess cruise next month, a 10-day one! :-)

Just my $2 Polynesian Franc's worth.

-- Bob.

Well, your response certainly does prove that one man's pudding is
another's poison. You and he were on the same ship.