Discovery Princess Dining Guide
We were lucky enough to join the Discovery Princess on her third ever sailing in April 2022 and spent a week on board sailing along the Californian coast. This gave us just enough time to try out all of the dining venues on board, the firm favourites and the new additions. This dining guide will walk you through all of the options on board, show you some sample menus and whet your appetite with tempting pictures. This dining guide can also be used by guests sailing on Enchanted where all of the dining options are the same, except that the main dining rooms are named Capri, Amalfi and Santorini. Enjoy!
International Cafe:
The International cafe is located on deck five in the heart of the Piazza and is open 24 hours a day serving snacks, lights meals and hot drinks. The food changes throughout the day offering light breakfasts, lunches and sweet treats which are all included in your fare. There is an extra charge for the teas and coffees here unless you purchase a drinks or coffee package. International cafe is one of our favourite places to eat breakfast and lunch, being a lot less hectic than the World Fresh Marketplace buffet and offering something lighter and slightly different. For breakfast there is always a choice of delicious pastries and savoury options, like avocado on rye bread, filled croissants and muffins and at lunchtime there are a variety of delicious sandwiches on offer, as well as salads, mini quiches and pies and a range of delicious cakes, cookies and decadent desserts.
World Fresh Marketplace buffet:
The World Fresh Marketplace is the buffet restaurant located on deck 16 incorporating the usual buffet style serving stations, a pastry shop and a coffee bar. It opens very early in the morning serving breakfast, neatly segwaying into lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and late night snacks. The many serving stations feature the usual cruise ship buffet offerings with the serving areas cleverly designed in such a way as to minimise overcrowding and queuing. However, despite having sailed four times on this class of ship we still often get lost with the various serving stations set out across what seems like quite a large area. Outside of the serving stations there are plenty of seating options with smaller tables, cafe bar style seating and some larger tables to enable larger family groups to sit together with self service drinks stations at each end of the seating and bar crew available to take orders for drinks from the bar. In the evening the World Fresh Marketplace often hosts themed menus, including our firm favourite, an Indian buffet.
Gigi’s Pizzeria :
Gigi’s Pizzeria is the newly named pizza restaurant on board Discovery Princess open from late morning until late evening offering complimentary dining throughout the day. Although it has a new name the pizzeria itself is much the same as the dearly loved Alfredos. Located on deck seven of the Piazza with a small promenade deck for alfresco dining the menu is similar to that we remember on the other Princess ships and the quality of the freshly made and baked pizzas is as good as we remember them. This venue is usually our go to dining venue as soon as we board the ship for a delicious lunch away from the busy embarkation day buffet. We usually try to visit again at some point on our cruise to make sure we get to sample all of our favourites, including the delicious apple pie.
Salty dog grill, Slice and Swirls:
These are the included, informal al fresco food bars located at the front of the main pool on deck 16, perfect for grabbing a bite to eat whilst enjoying the fine weather on the open decks or a late night snack while watching one of the Movies Under the Stars. Salty Dog and Slice open at 11am and stay open throughout the day until late at night. The menu includes street food type options like tacos, burgers, loaded fries and hot dogs with Slice offering large slices of three different pizza options, including one daily special. At the other end of the pool is Swirls, the soft serve ice cream bar which is open at the same times as Salty Dog and Slice and is also included in your fare.
Gelato bar:
If the complimentary soft scoop ice cream of Swirls doesn’t meet your gelato needs the additional cost gelato bar on deck five (diagonally opposite the International Cafe) definitely will. The homemade gelato is good value at $1.50 a scoop and it is served up with such care and attention to the various toppings and sauces that can be added to the various flavours of gelato making the whole experience almost theatrical and decidedly delicious.
Main Dining Rooms:
There are three main dining rooms on Discovery Princess, each named after an Alaskan port - Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. Juneau is located just off of the main piazza on deck five with Skagway in the same location on deck six and Ketchikan located right at the aft of the ship on deck six, only accessible via the aft stairway. One of the restaurants is dedicated to those guests who chose the set dining option but most guests chose the Dine My Way option allowing them to dine where, when and with whomever they wish.
Breakfast - One of the main dining rooms is always open for breakfast, on our cruise this was Skagway dining room. We chose to have breakfast there on our second sea day, arriving about an hour into service. Although we joined short queue we were seated almost immediately and had a lovely table for two in the centre of this beautifully designed and decorated restaurant. The service was incredibly attentive ensuring we had a continuous supply of coffee and were served promptly with our food. The breakfast menu offers the usual lighter dishes such as fruit, cereal and yoghurt as well as the usual range of hot dishes and a daily special. We particularly loved the granola, pastries, omelettes and pancakes.
Afternoon tea - this was also served in the Skagway main dining room but unfortunately was a rather more disappointing experience than breakfast. This may have been because the afternoon tea was incredibly popular with a queue forming outside the dining room at least half an hour before the doors opened. And whilst this might account for the less than attentive service we were also disappointed with the food and drinks. Our tea was served with no milk, the sandwiches and cakes on offer were disappointing and the scones were almost inedible, being more than slightly burnt and very dry. Since we were on the third ever sailing on this new ship we hope this was just a bump in the road, especially given the high standard of food we experienced elsewhere on the ship (including the afternoon tea offering in the World Fresh Marketplace which was of a much higher standard) and our previous experience of afternoon tea on other Princess cruise ships.
Dinner - we ate in the main dining room on two of our evenings on board, both off them in Ketchikan restaurant which is also the location for the Chefs Table Luminiere which is located in the centre of the restaurant towards the rear, near to the galley (we didn’t do the Chefs Table on this voyage but we have experienced it on Sky Princess, so if you want to know more about this then please read our Sky Princess dining guide). Both times we ate there we used the Medallion App to book a table whilst we were having a pre-dinner drink in one of the ship’s bars. Both times we were able to secure a table for two at the time we wanted which was ready and waiting for us when we turned up without the need to queue at all. We really liked Ketchikan, especially when we were allocated a lovely little window table in a small annexe room off to the side of the restaurant. Our waiters were very attentive and it felt like we were dining in a much smaller restaurant than we actually were. The menu in the main dining rooms is the same in all of the restaurants, is quite extensive and has plenty of vegetarian options. We also chose to eat in Ketchikan on the Gala dinner evening, mainly for the delicious beef wellington and decadent chocolate journey chocolate pistachio dome.
Sabatini’s:
Sabatini’s is located on deck five opposite the Guest Services desk as on Sky Princess and Enchanted Princess. Open from 5.30 to 9.30 every evening serving delicious Italian cuisine, it is also the venue for suite guests breakfast. The restaurant itself has an intimate feel with the larger room divided into smaller sections with warm beige tones accented with blue and green. The menu offers authentic Italian dishes including homemade pasta which, along with the assiette of desserts are always the stars of the show for us. For our dinner on the Discovery Princess we started with the small amuse bouche plate of bread, parma ham and a tangy tomato sauce, accompanied by deliciously oily, parmesan topped warm bread rolls moving onto starters of lamb skewers and lamb tortellini. Since Rich had started with pasta he chose the chicken parmesan on a bed of creamy mash for his entree while Helen succumbed to the pasta choosing the delicious spaghetti carbonara. For desserts we chose the chocolate bomb, which is like an enormous Ferrero Roche, and one of our Sabantini favourites, the assiette of desserts, small portions of the chocolate bombe, zabaglione, tiramisu and vanilla panna cotta. Sabatini’s is one of Discovery Princess’ speciality restaurants a very reasonable cover charge of $25 each.
Crown Grill:
Crown Grill is one of Princess Cruises evergreen venues and popular with many of its regular guests. Open from 5.30 to 9.30 every evening Crown Grill is the signature steakhouse venue located on deck seven towards the aft of the ship. The venue on the Discovery Princess has the same feel and design accents as many of the other ships in the fleet - if it ain’t broke don’t fix it I guess. A meal in the Crown Grill is always best started with a pre-dinner cocktail in the lovely Crown Grill bar just outside the restaurant where there is often a pianist playing in the evenings. We started our meal with a glass of Prosecco to accompany our starters of Lobster cake served with grilled asparagus and scallops served in a delicious leek and cream sauce. Although we both love the renowned black and blue onion soup, from previous experience we know how filling it is so we both resisted the temptation, in the knowledge we would be able to enjoy the rest of the meal without feeling too full from the starter. Whenever we dine at Crown Grill Rich always choses the filet mignon and was pleased to confirm that the Discovery Princess matched other filet mignons he has had in other Crown Grills. His steak was cooked to perfection and accompanied by truffle fries and sautéed mushrooms. Helen decided to go for the Chilean sea bass which came on a bed of creamy mushrooms and leeks, which was absolutely delicious. Although she chose to have the loaded baked potato to accompany it really wasn’t needed as the piece of sea bass was huge. To finish the meal we chose the warm chocolate mousse trifle which came in a fish bowl type glass dish and one of our my firm favourites, the salted caramel creme brûlée cheesecake. All in all a delicious meal with exceptional service in a very romantic setting, and even as someone who is not a massive meat eater there was plenty of non-meat options to chose from and it turned out to be our favourite meal on the whole cruise. If you only go to one speciality restaurant this is the one we would recommend and with a cover charge of just $29 each we feel it offers very good value for money.
Bistro sur le mer:
Located in the atrium on deck seven and as such in the melee of the action, this speciality restaurant is open for dinner from 5.30 to 9.30pm every evening. Its situation in the main atrium makes it the perfect venue to enjoy the evenings entertainment in the piazza whilst enjoying the French bistro style menu designed by Michelin star chef, Emmanuel Renaut. Of all the restaurants we ate in during our week on the Discovery Princess, this was the least rushed with a good amount of time between each course, something we quite like. We started with the amuse bouche offered to all diners of polenta chips and goats cheese olives. For our starters we chose the tuna tartare and the salmon and devilled egg which was utterly which delicious. For main we had the filet mignon and the sea bass served on a bed of ratatouille with a cream sauce and parsley reduction which again was absolutely delicious. To finish we chose the ever popular chocolate bar and the beignet served with a grapefruit jelly granita type thing which definitely added some much needed flavour to the beignet. The service through the meal was excellent with our lovely waitress striking a lovely balance of attentiveness and leaving us to enjoy our evening. The cover charge for this menu is also $29 each, though of the three main speciality restaurants we would say this is our least favourite.
Salty dog gastro pub:
This gastro pub style venue is located on deck five in the heart of the atrium (taking up the space occupied by Vines on Sky Princess). Most of the dishes are small plates with each guest choosing two savoury and one sweet plate. We chose to share most of our plates, choosing the asparagus and halloumi cheese and the lobster Mac and cheese to start with, followed by the beef short rib poutine and the SDG burger served with truffle fries. For dessert we had the lemon posset and the strawberries and cream both of which were beautifully presented and very tasty. There is a $18 per person cover charge for this dining venue and in all honesty this venue was often nearly empty. We feel that the cover charge is a little steep for what’s on offer, with some of the plates being really quite small, but it does offer a nice alternative to the main dining rooms and has the advantage that it doesn’t need to be pre-booked.
Ocean terrace sushi bar:
Located on deck six overlooking the central area of the Piazza this is a casual sushi bar offering bar stool type seating at the bar as well as tables overlooking the atrium. We chose to sit at the bar so we could watch our sushi being freshly prepared. We choose three plates of California rolls and a plate of mixed sashimi. The food here is charged by the plate but it is very reasonable and the perfect place for a glass of cold white wine and a pre-dinner appetiser, a sea day lunch or even a full dinner.
The Sanctuary:
Though technically The Sanctuary isn’t a dining venue it warrants including in this guide because of the delicious food served up here if you opt to spend a day or a half day in this additional cost adult only top deck retreat. The cost for a half day in The Sanctuary is $20 with a full day being $40, unless you book it for your entire cruise when the cost comes down to $30 a day. Once there the food on offer is included. The amazingly attentive crew will bring you lunch from either the Sanctuary lunch menu which has a range of healthy bento box type salads made up of chicken, salmon, tuna or humous, or something from Salty Dog grill or Slice Lunch. At 3pm they come round again with the afternoon tea trolley full of delicious sandwiches, cakes ands scones, all served with a cup of tea or coffee and a perfect view over the bow of the ship to the ocean beyond. If you are there in the morning there is an all day menu of snacks and breakfast style options such as toasted almonds, parfaits and granola.
Room service:
Princess offers 24 hour room service with a wide range of food options available. These can be ordered on demand by calling room service from your suites telephone, through the television or on the Medallion App. Most of the dishes on offer are included in your fare though there are extra cost speciality dishes, with the medallion app even offering the option to order dishes from some of the speciality restaurants at an additional cost. As always there is the option to pre-order a basic breakfast the evening before you retire to bed, but for those guests that would like to indulge in something extra special or are celebrating a special occasion we would recommend the Ultimate Balcony breakfast. Though we didn’t have this on Discovery Princess we have experienced it on Sky Princess and at $45 for two people we found this exceptional value for money. Your breakfast is delivered at your chosen time, a white table cloth laid out on your balcony table (or inside if the weather is less inclement), a half bottle of fizz popped and an extensive stack of hot and cold breakfast plates left for you to enjoy at your leisure (in fact there was so much food we enjoyed if over the course of the day).
Thank you to Princess Cruises who hosted us on this week long cruise. They covered the cost of our cruise fare, a drinks package and our cover charges for Sabatinis, Bistro Sur Le Mar and Crown Grill. All other costs were paid by ourselves.
If you enjoyed this blog why not take a look at our other Princess Cruise content, including a Sky Princess Dining Guide, a Royal Princess Ship Visit and a Crown Princess Voyage blog.
If you are interested in booking a cruise with these or any other luxury cruise lines then we would recommend contacting a connoisseur at our trusted cruise partners Panache Cruises, either by following this link or calling 0161 513 8204 - please mention that you have been referred to them through Visit With Us.
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