All About the Food - and Drinks: Coral Princess

What we like about cruising is that it includes ALL the food, ALL the accommodation, ALL the entertainment, and ALL the transport. One can do as much or as little as one likes and there are so many places on a ship to do just that. So this blog is all about the food.

When we first get on board we usually head for an eating venue. We have our favourites on each ship, and of course it depends on what time one boards. On Coral Princess we headed up to deck 14 - Lido deck to Horizons Cafe. We were surprised that it was a self service buffet and it was at the front of the ship. We thought in these times that all ships had made their buffets like P&O and had staff serving the passengers. There was a variety of different foods and the beef patties looked really good so I made myself a cheese burger. I don't usually eat meat but it was the best burger I have had for a long time. Sadly, the next day the patties were not as nice, so back to sandwiches.

Our first drink once on board is a mojito for me and a beer for Peter.

At both entrances to the Horizon Cafe there are three washbasins and everyone entering had to wash their hands. I really like this better than hand sanitizer. We had this system on Ovation of the Seas and it worked really well. All passengers and staff had to wear face masks unless sitting down eating.

Breakfast is my favourite meal on cruises and I really look forward to it. We ate each morning in the Horizon Cafe as except for the first morning (and we decided to try the buffet), the main dining rooms were only open for dinner. Jonnie had his Asian breakfast, and Peter had an omelette each day. I started with scrambled eggs and tried the the first three days - they were awful. Also tried the fried eggs - rubbery.

The pancakes were hit and miss - good some mornings, dry and tasteless other mornings. Hash browns were good, as were the fruit and vegetable cups. Both fruit cups and vegetables were available all day.

I ended up having an omelette for breakfast the other mornings, which was ok. Such a shame the main dining room wasn't open. 

Breakfast started with the cereal station having a mixture of packets and open self serve bowls. By the last day the station was all open big bowls.

The toast, muffins etc were at the end of the Horizon cafe at Amuleto Sweets.

We didn't like the way the jams, butter and Vegemite was served. I understand the reasoning behind it, but really not hygienic and certainly a lot more waste. I always travel with my own small jar of Vegemite.

The drink station is also at the sweets area. Tea, coffee, water, available all day and juice for breakfast only. 

There was a good selection of hot and cold food available for lunch and pre-made sandwiches.

The sandwiches were always good. I like the tuna sandwiches on cruises and discovered the International Cafe was the only place to get them. The buffet had a small container of tuna salad, which I took half of to make my own tuna roll one day.

I'm not a dessert eater but tried what was called chocolate mousse one day - it was not! The chocolate mousse in the main dining room was great.

 We didn't pack any formal wear, and being Princess, we decided to eat at the buffet on formal night. Surprisingly there were prawn cocktails - and we had a few.

 Peter always finds something.

Every other evening we ate in the Bordeaux Main Dining Room. It was amazing every night. We like to eat at the same time, at the same table, with the same staff. It doesn't matter if it is a shared table or not. We had pre-booked dinner for 7pm each night as that allowed us time to eat and go to the show after. However with many of the staff in isolation, it became a queue and wait for a table. Not ideal, but it is what it is. The longest we had to wait for dinner was 20mins - but we had drinks 😊.  The staff each evening were great and the food wonderful. The menus were varied.

 

Prosciutto and Melon

Iced Peach Bellini Soup - my kind of soup. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Prawn Cocktail

 

Prawns Vol-Au-Vent

Princess Love Boat Dream - so good, real chocolate mousse. My favourite dessert.

Traditional Fruit Pavlova

Pan Roasted Chicken Breast and Breaded Pork Schnitzel

Slow Roasted Prime Rib

 Food in the main dining room was really good.

 

The staff at all the tables we sat at were really good. As I said, we like the same table, same staff each night, but that didn't happen due to staff shortages. This is Nestor, we were lucky to be seated twice in his section. He made a rose from a paper napkin.

We had room service breakfast only once. We do like a cup of tea and pastries to get ready in the morning before going to breakfast. Sadly there was no kettle in the room. We were disappointed with the room service breakfast. The room service menu is very limited. The egg muffins were ok, although a little cool. We didn't get the fresh fruit were ordered. There was no sugar for the cereal or the tea. The pastries were cold, stale and hard. A lot of waste in the breakfast menu. Conserves were in little bowls, which we didn't use as there was no butter, so toast and croissants also were left. A lot of waste. 

We had breakfast in the International Cafe on the last morning. The egg muffins were hot and much better. They also had chocolate crossiants, which were not available up in the buffet area - although they were a little stale. Still it was a good breakfast before departing the ship/

We tried the pizza on the Lido deck and it was good. Only three choices - margarita, pepperoni, and the daily special which on that day was spicy pepperoni. This is a margarita.

Princess includes drinks with their advertised fares, and I love trying different cocktails. A mojito is always the first drink on board, followed by a pina colada for sail away. 

After sail away there were very few people on Lido deck, so it was easy to find a table with a view. This was my first cosmopolitan of the cruise, it was so good. I did have another one another day on Lido, but it came in a tumbler with ice - not so nice. 

I do like chocolate martini's and couldn't find any in any bar or on any drinks menu. One staff member suggested a mint chocolate martini, which sounded good. It was - for half the drink. Imagine the lovely mint taste of a Red Tulip After Dinner Mint, that was exactly what it tasted like. How many after dinner mints can one eat? I was all 'minted' out about half way through the drink.

After trying a few other different cocktails I found a 'Milky Way' Cocktail. That was 'my' chocolate martini, so from day 3 I had chocolate martini's in the late afternoon / evening.

Over all we had a wonderful cruise. Yes there were some disappointments - no afternoon teas in the main dining room, no set time, same table dining, no breakfast of lunch in the main dining room - all due to staff shortages due to Covid. 

We loved the medallion, much better than using a card, but the Medallion App didn't always work on Peter's phone. I couldn't order as I have a iPhone 6, that the app wouldn't work on - I needed Peter's phone (iPhone 11) or Jonnie's phone (iPhone X) to see menus, except for the dining room. I wasn't the only one on board who didn't have the newest iPhone. 

Would we sail on Princess again? YES, in a heart beat!