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.

Carnival Luminosa - Food - March 2023

One of the good reasons to cruise is the fact that there is all inclusive food, accommodation and transport. We always eat at the included restaurants, although there are a couple of paid restaurants we may eat at in the future. As I said in the previous blog, the food was ok. Once on board, we went straight up to the Lido Marketplace for lunch - no hand washing facilities or hand sanitizer. We ate there most days and always found something nice to eat, and there were always plenty of tables to eat at.

The Lido Market place is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were different areas set up with different cuisines on both sides for lunch and dinner. Most stations are served by staff. Breakfast has the same station each side. We had breakfast up here from day 3 onwards. I like Eggs Benedict and after no success in the main dining room we were pleasantly surprised with the breakfast up stairs. The eggs were perfectly cooked every time and I was even able to get extra hollandaise sauce. 

Eggs Benedict alternated between spinach one morning and ham the next. I took the ham off. I wasn't too impressed with the breakfast sides.

 Lunch time at Lido Market place has more variety. The Pizzeria is open all day into late night. Pizzas were ok, good for a snack.

 

The menus were slightly different each night.

 

 

Salads were self serve, as were sweets.

In the Adults Only area at the back of the Lido Market place there is a BBQ station open for lunch only.

Out closer to the pool is a hamburger station open most of the day on one side and a taco station on the other side - near the soft serve ice-cream.

In the evening there is a Bistro that has and a few nights there was also items from the main dining room menu.

And at extra charge seafood place.

There are 4 drink stations available 24hrs. Two of them have hot chocolate.

One uses the app to book brunch on sea days and breakfast on port days, as well as lunch and dinner (unless one books early or late dinner). We had brunch in the Vela Dining Room (main dining room) the first two mornings. Eggs Benedict comes with smoked salmon. The first morning both the eggs were hard boiled, and the main dining room doesn't have hash browns.

 The second morning I asked for extra hollandaise sauce and breakfast potatoes. They were not very nice and the egg was had again.

 Peter had fried eggs the first morning and said they were good.

Peter had an omelette the second morning and it was just ok.

The French toast was good, sweet but good.

 

We had late dining and arrived at 7.45pm each evening as the doors were opened. The menus were on the app. One couple we were dining with didn't have phones that would display the app so we needed to wait for paper menus. Here is the menu for one night.

 

The food was ok to good, servers were very good, but service was very slow at both brunch and dinner.

 

I have no idea why chicken parma is now served on spaghetti on cruise ships - and the spaghetti tastes like it is out of a can.

Desserts were pretty good, well at least the ones we tried. Unfortunately because the dinner service was so slow we didn't get to taste many desserts. Late dinner was 7.45pm. The shows were 7.30pm and 9.30pm. Shows ran 45-50 minutes. We couldn't go to the first show, and all but one night main meal was served  just before 9, so one of us had to leave before dessert to get good seats. Next time we will book the 'my time' dining for 7pm.

 

There are extra paid restaurants on the ship, but we didn't try any of them.

Follow PetalliTravellers or me Alli Hale on Instagram and Peter on YouTube

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.