Pacific Encounter - Food and Drink

We enjoy most of the food on P&O. However have never been a fan of the Pantry (buffet), preferring the Main Dining room for meals, and Pantry for a sweet snack or sandwich.

The 'new' Pantry is not a lot different from the old Pantry. It is open for breakfast from 6.30am - 10am, lunch 11.30am - 2pm, and dinner from 5.30pm - 9pm. Breakfast is not bad in the Pantry although we prefer the Waterfront. I was pleased to see pre-made sandwiches at the Kettle and Bun, which is now self serve, and the only self serve in the Pantry. There was only a choice of two or three different sandwiches and they were good. We did try the Hook's Fish and Chips one day and the fish was still mushy but the chips were good. One thing I have always liked with the Pantry was the fact that one is served. One thing I never liked at the Pantry was the long lines. It is better to get there early or late, and that's what we did if we wanted a snack. Breakfast is ok. Eggs, pancakes, hash browns all good.

Other stations in the Pantry are: Curry House, Mexicana, Stix - Asian stir frys and noodles, Fat Cow - meats and carvery, McGregors Garden - salads, Nic & Toni's - Italian, and the Sugar Bar - lovely cakes and desserts. The only food available after 9pm has to be purchased, so we take a couple of containers to put a slice of cake in to eat later in the evening.

We like the main dining room and usually book the late dining. Previously one had to book the two other included dining options one self and there was always a big rush the first day to make booking, now one either chooses early or late dining and the bookings alternate between the three main restaurants, The Waterfront, Angelos, and Dragon Lady. We were on a 3 night cruise so all three restaurants were on menu A.

The Waterfront main dining was where we headed the first day for lunch. Lunch was the same each day, as was breakfast. We were however able to eat something different each day if we wanted to. We were on a three day cruise to nowhere, so the Waterfront was open every lunchtime. Usually it is open for lunch on the first day and sea days only.

There were 6 starters, 4 entrees, 8 mains, and 3 desserts - although I asked for fruit one lunch and they happily provided a lovely plate, that closely resembled the breakfast fruit bowl.

All the food we had in the Waterfront was great. I prefer the Waterfront for breakfast as P&O make the best Eggs Benedict. I ask for one egg, but it usually comes with two. This was the smashed avo breakfast - I asked for one egg, added hash browns and hollandaise sauce on the side - best breakfast I've had for a while (then I had eggs benny the next day).

 

P&O make the best breakfast!

The Waterfront is open for breakfast 7.30am - 9.30am. Lunch 11.30am - 1.30pm. I think, except on departure day, the Waterfront may not be open on port days. Dinner 5pm - 9pm. We had dinner there on the third night, Menu A. 

Starters : Crab cake.

Mains

Desserts

 

...and the best dessert ...

Our first night dining was Angelo's. We love Angelo's, an Italian inspired restaurant.

There was lots of space between diners, maybe because passengers prefer early dining.

Enjoyed every course.

Second night was Dragon Lady, again not a lot of dinners.

We have tried the Dragon Lady before, not my favourite. I went to the Pantry at lunch time and picked up a couple of sandwiches - just in case, and I'm glad I did. Although Dragon Lady was better than previous visits, it was still not the best. Just my opinion.

 Maybe menu B will be better.

The Chinese Five Spice Pudding was surprisingly good.

 

The cocktails and drinks were good. Not full strength alcohol, but good never the less.  After using the 'medallion' on Princess Cruise I was concerned about handing over the cruise card when ordering drinks. However, P&O had a good system where if ordering from the bar you scanned your card itself and if ordering elsewhere, the staff asked your name and room number - no handling of cards. Great idea.

I love mojitos, and that is usually one the first drinks I have when boarding. This one in the Blue Room - our favourite venue.

I pre-purchased a refreshment package. It included mocktails, and although there were a lot of mocktails listed, most bars said there was only melon mocktails. I got use to that, and they were very sweet.

The package also included bottled water, tea and coffee. I love that P&O have T2T. This is Melbourne Breakfast tea. The only down is that P&O don't have sugar packets now, so each time I had a cup of tea I had to go to the cafe and a waiter had to bring a sugar dispenser and dispense the sugar into my tea! Weird. Next time I will bring my own container and fill it with ship sugar to use when I need it.

Although I had a refreshment package I did enjoy an alcoholic cocktail or three - and so does Peter. Here we are back in the Blue Room with a Toblerone and a Pina Colada.

Cocktails are a reasonable price, but not as full strength as they should be. It it is what it is.

 

There are many lovely venues to sit and enjoy the music, the ocean, the company and the drinks.

Our favourite was the Blue Room, although we often sat around the lobby area to enjoy the music.

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!