Why We Eat at the Buffet - Sometimes.

P&O Pacific Encounter - Dragon Lady main dining.

Food is one of the good things about cruising - it's usually good and you don't have to cook or wash up. We always book late dining in the main dining room, and enjoy the 3-4 course meals. Of all the cruise lines we have been on the food in the main dining room has been great and varied except for P&O Australia - the food was good but very little variety from night to night, despite there being three different main dining rooms.

P&O Pacific Encounter - Pantry buffet lunch.

It is the same with the buffet dining on some ships. Some people like the buffet on P&O Australia, but I have never liked it - from our first sailing way back in 2009. The salads are usually good as are the chips, but everything else is hit and miss. Every other cruise line we have been on have had great buffets.

OK, so lets look at each meal. Breakfast, P&O Australia use to have the best main dining breakfast, but no more - too many up-charges for what use to be free. Main dining rooms for breakfast usually start early and run for about 2 hrs - sometimes too early for us, so it is the buffet. Buffet breakfast is not as good as the main dining room but we are on holiday and sometimes don't want to get up early for breakfast. Buffet breakfast is usually the same each day on P&O, with limited choices - fried eggs or scrambled.

P&O Pacific Encounter buffet breakfast - same each day.

Royal do some dishes alternating each day which is lovely, including crepes and Eggs Benedict.

Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas - buffet breakfast, many choices.

Carnival do Eggs Benedict - my favourite, and all buffets do scrambled and fried eggs.

Carnival Luminosa - buffet breakfast 

Lunch, we often don't eat in the main dining room for lunch, although Carnival do a good Sea Day Brunch in the main dining room. Most cruises we go to the buffet for a late lunch/snack. Royal do a lovely afternoon tea of savory and sweet finger food. Buffet lunch is usually when we pick up a few snacks for the cabin for the afternoon or late night snack or early morning before while getting ready for breakfast. Typically cookies on Celebrity, Royal and Carnival (no cookies on P&O); bread rolls, cheese and crackers on P&O; I really don't recall needing to have anything for the cabin when we sailed on Princess - we just got what we wanted when we wanted it.

P&O Pacific Encounter buffet lunch - the rare day they had prawns and donuts.

Dinner, we prefer the main dining room, but if sailing on longer cruises or back to back the buffet is can be good for a change. We never tried the buffet for dinner on Princess. We did a 19 night cruise on Celebrity and had the buffet a couple of nights when we were not that hungry to sit down for a 3 course meal. We often do back to back cruises on Royal, and we have found the first week in the main dining room good, but the second week the occasional buffet was better. Surprisingly we found the French night in the buffet had more choices than the main dining room menu. It always pays to check. Carnival we had buffet dinner when the show times were changed and conflicted with our dining time. We found some of the exact same dishes in the buffet as on the main dining room menu on both Royal and Carnival. P&O, well there are only two menus for each restaurant and they are suppose to rotate every three days as the passengers rotate the restaurants. That doesn't always happen. As the menus are not very varied, maybe 3-4 different dishes across the 3 courses. The buffet is not much better, but they do have salad and chips.

Carnival Luminosa buffet lunch - many different choices and longer open hours.

So there are advantages and disadvantages, depending on ship. 

Generally buffet is more casual and main dining is more formal, as it should be. 

Buffet is often quicker service, choose what and how much you want to eat. Main dining is a la carte and usually takes longer, although you can get as much as you want. In the buffet you can eat as much as you want and go back many times. In the main dining you can order two or more dishes of food for each course.

In the buffet you can be as quick or a leisurely as you want. Main dining is regulated by your dining staff. 

In the buffet you need to find a seat, at busy times it can be difficult. In main dining you have a  set table and staff each night which we like.

Carnival Luminosa buffet lunch.

The dress code in the buffet is very casual, most passengers dress better for main dining room, although sadly, the staff no longer enforce the smart casual dress.

In the buffet you know what you are putting on your plate and have more control over what you eat. The main dining room you don't know what size serving you will have until you get it. I hate leaving food in the main dining room and often don't order a main because I know I wont eat it all. I'll order two or three first courses instead.

Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas lunch buffet.

The views are often better in buffet, with the large usually floor to ceiling windows both sides. You can't be sure of a window seat in the main dining room.

You can arrive when it suits you in the buffet - no need to book like in the main dining room.

Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas buffet lunch.

So we eat in the buffet when:

   1. the times are more convenient than the main dining room for entertainment or shore excursions.

    2. main dining overlaps the shows.

   3. there is nothing new to try in the main dining menus, or we want more variety.

   4. we are tired after a port day and don't want to shower and dress for main dining.

Just our opinions, and what we do.

Yes, We Were on 'That' Cruise.

Sorry there was no blog last week - we went on a last minute cruise!!

After 7 booked cruises being cancelled, cruising finally came back to Australia on April 17 2022 - in Sydney!!! P&O Pacific Explorer left from Sydney on a cruise to Cairns. We are not getting on a plane yet, so .........

We had to wait until 16th June 2022 for a cruise from Brisbane. Coral Princess left Brisbane on a 3 day cruise to nowhere.

We decided to book a last minute cruise to Eden and Sydney for my birthday on Coral Princess. This was the 6th cruise from Brisbane for Coral Princess, and the first Princess Cruise for us. Our last cruise was November 2019 - a long 2 years, 8 months wait.

We had to do a RAT test 24 hours before boarding and we needed to be fully vaccinated. We had an email the morning of the cruise advising that some positive cases were identified among crew and that they and close contacts were now in isolation. We were offered a refund or Future Cruise Credit if we preferred not to sail that day. We have been on 19 cruises and know the routines that were in place for norovirus and expected nothing less with this new virus - so we decided to go, as we were so looking forward to cruising again.

Everyone, passengers and crew, wore masks and most passengers sanitised going into and out of bars, cafes and entertainment venues.

Anyone getting off in Eden, Sydney or Brisbane (many passengers were on a 12 day cruise, we were doing only 5 days of the 12 days) had to have a negative RAT test each time to disembark. This cruise ship had better health procedures than anything on the mainland of Australia. Over 50,000 spectators, in close proximity, were at the last State of Origin football game in Brisbane, and not one RAT test was needed. I wonder how many had the virus and how many contracted it on the night. No one will ever know BECAUSE no tests were done so nothing to report.

We felt very safe on board, and everyone was doing the right thing health wise.

The Eastern Seaboard Cruise Protocols agreed to by the State Governments and Cruise Industry are clearly laid out.

We know personally of 6 passengers from 3 different flights (two international and one domestic) who contracted the virus (they say) from flying - yet domestic passengers no longer need to test prior to flying, don't have to show proof of vaccination, and no longer need to wear masks at the airport terminal, only need to wear masks when on the plane - unless eating or drinking. No social distancing on planes!!! Airports and airlines have had to cancel flights due to lack of staff - due to the virus - same as the cruising industry. Why is the cruising industry being targeted by the media?

While in the Port of Sydney, TV 'news' crews were set up outside the terminal and were interviewing any passengers that would talk to them. They were there for hours and hours trying to get someone to say something negative about the cruise. Didn't happen. We were more concerned of contracting the virus while walking around Sydney than we ever were on board the ship. 

Cruise ships have better health procedures in place than the rest of Australia and because they require testing the cruise lines can report cases. That doesn't happen with airlines, major events, cinemas, shopping centres etc. etc. etc.

The media highlight cruise ships and don't tell the whole story. The ship we were on had 114 cases. Only 4 were passengers, who were confined to their cabins. ll0 were crew and close contacts, who were all in isolation. No threat to other passengers or other crew.

NOT TRUE!!!!

We had a wonderful time and even tried to book the next cruise and stay on board, but it was too expensive. Next booked cruise is September, unless we get another last minute booking.

End of rant!!! The next few blogs will cover the cabin, the ship, the food, and the entertainment. There were good and not so good aspects, but we enjoyed every minute.

2016 Pacific Tahitian Treasures Cruise Diary - Part one

We have just come back from a wonderful three and a half weeks away, including a 19 day cruise. We love cruising.

We were fortunate enough to go on a 11 day South Pacific cruise on P&O Pacific Sun some years ago, and this started our love of cruising. It is wonderful anticipating the time away in a luxurious stateroom with beds made each day and no cooking or cleaning - just relaxing or choosing to do what ever we want. And then there are the places one can visit .... This started our love for cruising.

Of course, there are lemon cruises. We did a short three night Christmas Markets cruise on the Rhine River in Germany, with a company that no longer exists. The cabin was clean, but very uninviting; the beds - single were so uncomfortable.

 The food was ok; the staff ok; everything cost extra, even water and tea at times other than meals. 

 The only plus was the spectacular scenery and the historic, pretty little villages we were able to visit.

Last year we did a 7 day Alaska Cruise on Celebrity Solstice - WOW!!! What a wonderful ship. We had a drinks package included, which was a bonus and we had booked a verandah cabin, which is a must for Alaska.

This adventure lead us to our recent cruise.

So..... how did this happen?

Back in June we were looking for a cruise and in doing so signed up for many cruise line emails. I mentioned to my sister that we were looking at a New Zealand Cruise, and she mentioned a cruise she had just booked - we looked, we liked, and we booked. In the meantime, emails started coming through - so many specials on so many lines - when one caught our eye - a relocating cross Pacific Tahitian Treasures Cruise. I spent days looking at all the different cruise ship lines and the specials available and chose Celebrity Solstice. We booked when the special prices starting going up again, supposedly as cabins became less. This was all 14 days before the cruise left. We had American Express Frequent Flyer points and these paid for most of the trip. We had to go to 'helloworld' to use the points and Sally at Albany Creek was a great help in organising the extra accommodation and flights.

So begins our most recent adventure.