Discovery Princess Dining - Plan YOUR cruise with our Ultimate Dining Guide of Princess Newest Ship!

We've only recently returned from a brilliant seven-night California coast cruise and I'm telling you now, fitting in all that nosh the enormous Discovery Princess has to offer in such a short time was a challenge, but one we accepted with no expense spared as we opened our wallets and loosened our belts and ate our way through the choices that are part of your fare and all the premium dining too. The big question is, what would we recommend you spend your dollar on We would always recommend you use this guide to plan ahead and pre-book as many of the premium dining evenings as you can online prior to boarding as they can get booked up very quickly and you don't want to be disappointed. All prices stated here are also correct at the time of filming. So come with us now as we trough our way through several thousand calories all in the name of research. Well, we did it on Sky Princess, shameless plug link in the corner, so why not do it here. To make all this ridiculous and self-imposed gluttony worthwhile, please subscribe to our channel so we may afford to buy many more pairs of elasticated trousers and oversized shirts. Thank you. First off, what do you get that is included in your fare and doesn't cost you any extra? Answer, lots, that's what. You don't have to book any premium restaurants on any cruise and the food really is good enough without running up a large bill. There are three main dining rooms on board Discovery Princess, each named after ports in Alaska. Ketchikan, Skagway and Juneau all offer the same menu, so it's just a case of where they allocate you at the start of your cruise. One of the restaurants is dedicated to guests who chose the set dining option, but most guests these days choose the dine my way option, allowing them to dine where, when and with whomever they wish. One of the main dining rooms is always open for breakfast and on our cruise this was Skagway. The breakfast menu offers the usual light dishes such as fruit, cereals and yogurts, as well as the usual range of hot dishes and a daily special. We particularly loved the granola, pastries, omelettes and pancakes. Afternoon tea is included in your fare, but unfortunately it was a very disappointing experience. Afternoon tea is incredibly popular with a queue forming outside the dining room at Whilst the ridiculous popularity might account for the rather grumpy and rushed service we experienced from the white-gloved waiters, there were also issues with the food and beverages on offer. Our tea was served with no milk and there was no option to have coffee, not that we saw anyway, and the sandwiches and cakes the waiting staff brought round were disappointing. In fact, the scones were almost inedible, being overcooked, as dense as a diamond, very dry and we could swear there was no sugar in them at all. Bland, tasteless and slightly bitter, sorry. Since we were on the third of a sailing in this new ship, we hope this was just a bump in the road, especially given the high standard of afternoon tea we've experienced elsewhere on the ship, and in our previous experience of afternoon tea on other Princess cruise ships. In our opinion on this occasion though, regrettably it's one to avoid. We ate in the main dining room on two of our evenings on We really liked Ketchikan, especially when we were allocated the lovely little window table in a small annex room off to the side of the restaurant. As previously mentioned, the menus in the main dining rooms are the same in all three, are quite extensive and have plenty of vegetarian options. We chose to eat in Ketchikan on the gala dinner evening, mainly for the delicious beef wellington and decadent chocolate journeys chocolate pistachio dome. If you eat just once a main dining room, make sure it's on the gala evening. It's definitely a culinary highlight of the cruise. Speaking of culinary highlights, Ketchikan also is the location for this chef's table Lumiere, which is located in the centre of the restaurant towards the rear, near to the galley. Due to the continuing Covid restrictions, the chef's table Lumiere wasn't fully available, but you can see our full experience of this fabulous evening on our Sky Princess dining guide. We can only assume it was the same or very similar on Discovery Princess. 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 beloved Alfredo's, enjoyed on many a princess ship. Located on deck seven of the Piazza, with a small promenade deck for al fresco dining, the menu is similar to what we remember on the other princess ships, and the quality of the freshly made and baked pizzas is as good as we remember them. The World Fresh Market place 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, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and late night snacks. The food on offer features the usual cruise ship buffet offerings, with the serving areas cleverly designed in such a way as to minimise overcrowding and queuing, even though we still sometimes get lost with the various serving stations set out across what seems to be quite a large labyrinth of food aisles and sections. There is 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 drink stations at each end of the seating areas and bar crew available to take orders for drinks from the bar. In the evening the World Fresh Market place will often feature themed menus, including our firm favourite on any cruise, an Indian buffet. As always, we have a couple of enduring problems with the World Fresh Market place. Finding a free table when it's really busy, and I'd avoid the hour before excursions are due to leave if I was you, and something we might all suffer from when on a cruise, overeating. Just remember, when enjoying that fourth pastry, just because you can, the next meal is only a couple of hours away. There are three included informal food outlets, all al fresco, located at the front of the main pool on deck 16, Salty Dog Grill, Slice and Swirls. All are 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. Lunch at Salty Dog Grill includes street food type options like tacos, burgers, loaded fries and hot dogs. Slice offers 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 time as Salty Dog Grill and Slice, and is also included in your fare. Who doesn't love free unlimited ice cream, hey? We absolutely love the International Café, the 24-7 eatery, which is located on deck 5 in the heart of the piazza, serving snacks, light meals and hot drinks. The food changes throughout the day, offering light breakfasts, small plate lunches and evening sweet treats, which are all included in your fare. There is however an extra charge for the teas and coffees here, and the most convenient way of administering this is to purchase a drinks or coffee package. International Café 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 from the norm. 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. 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 suite's telephone, through the television or on the Medallion app. Most of the dishes on offer are included in your fare, although 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. 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. Although we didn't have this on Discovery Princess, we have experienced it on Sky Princess, and at $45 for two people, it's good value for money. Your breakfast is delivered at your chosen time, a white tablecloth laid out on your balcony table, or inside if the weather is less compliant, a half a bottle of fizz 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 it over the course of the day. Now, we've shown you what options to have without running up that room account, but if you fancy something a bit more indulgent, Princess offer a variety of venues that will satisfy most tastes and preferences for an additional charge, so let's take a look at those now. If the complimentary soft scoop ice cream of swirls doesn't meet your gelato needs, the additional cost gelato bar on Deck 5, 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 flavors of gelato, making the whole experience almost theatrical and decidedly delicious. How delicious? Well, the gelato shops on Discovery, Enchanted and Sky Princess have been designated as Hospitalita Italiana by the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and are the first and only locations to offer an authentic Italian gelato experience outside of Italy, and therefore are the first of all the cruise lines to receive this prestigious designation. Just don't call it ice cream. Let's stay in Italy because it's not just gelato that's authentically Italian on board Discovery Princess. Sabatini's is a speciality restaurant and is located on Deck 5 opposite the guest services desk, similar to Sky and Enchanted Princess. It has a reasonably priced cover charge of $25 per person. Open from 5.30 to 9.30 every evening serving delicious Italian cuisine, it is also the breakfast venue for sweet and elite Captain Circle guests. The menu offers authentic Italian dishes including homemade pasta, which along with the Asiatic desserts, are always the stars of the show for us. For our dinner on Discovery Princess, we started with the small amuse-bouche plate of bread, parma ham and a tangy tomato sauce. Moving on to starters of lamb skewers and lamb tortellini. Since I had started with the pasta, I chose the chicken parmesan on a bed of creamy mash for my entree, while Helen succumbed to the pasta choosing the delicious spaghetti carbonara. For desserts, I, being a hopeless chocoholic, chose the chocolate bomb which is like an enormous Ferrero Rocher, while Helen went for the ever-popular Asiatic desserts with small and probably a lot more sensible portions of the chocolate bomb, Zabaglione tiramisu and vanilla panna cotta. For $25, we'd totally recommend this for lovers of Italian food or simply as a good upscale evening out. Let's leave Italy now and cross the border to its neighbour France. Bistro Sillimare's situation in the main atrium makes it the perfect venue to enjoy the evening's entertainment in the piazza, whilst enjoying the French bistro style menu designed by Michelin star chef Emmanuel Renaud. Of all the restaurants we ate in during our week on Discovery Princess, this was the least rushed with a good amount of time between each course, which is something we appreciate. We started with the amuse-bouche, offered to all diners of polenta chips and goat's cheese olives. I then chose the tuna tartare and Helen had the pate en croute, which was more like a pork pie than a pate, served with a delicious fig compote. Our delightful waitress insisted that we should also try her favourite starter, the salmon and deviled egg, so she bought us one to share, and I have to say it was utterly delicious, devilishly so. For main I had the filet mignon and Helen had the delicious sea bass served on a bed of ratatouille with a cream sauce and parsley reduction. To finish, I chose the ever popular chocolate bar, remember my chocolate addiction? And Helen had the beignet, served with a grapefruit jelly granita type thing which definitely added some much needed flavour to the beignet. It was one of the best evenings we had. We travel now from France to Japan and rather than sit for hours in a plane, we just had to go down one deck and stay in the piazza. Located on deck 6, overlooking the central area of the piazza, is the casual sushi bar, offering bar stall 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 chose 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 pre-dinner appetiser, a sea day lunch or even a full dinner. We'll stay in the piazza and nip down to deck 5, to where the wine bar Vines is normally situated on Royal Class ships like Sky Princess and to the reintroduction of the Salty Dog gastropub. I've had many people say how much they miss Vines so putting Salty Dog here is a brave move by Princess but is it as good as the ones on the Crown Class ships like inside the wheelhouse pubs? The cover charge is a reasonable $18 per person and it doesn't need to be booked so that's a big advantage. Most of the dishes are small plates and each guest gets to choose two savoury and one dessert plate. We chose to share most of our plates choosing the asparagus and halloumi cheese and the lobster mac and cheese, the beef short rib poutine served with fries and the SDG burger served with truffle fries. For dessert I had the lemon posset, be gone chocolate demons, and Helen had the strawberries and cream both of which were beautifully presented and very tasty. The big question is, Salty Dog gastropub or Vines? Which do you prefer to see here? Leave us a comment because we're very interested. Me, I prefer Salty Dog but Helen likes Vines. Oh well, marriage is not all harmony you know. There's only one place you can eat that isn't really a venue at all but comes with its very own exclusive menu which is only available to an exclusive few guests who don't have to pay for it because they've already paid for something else. Confused? Riddle me not I hear you cry, okay then before you stop watching it's 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. Once there the food on offer is included. The Sanctuary has an all-day menu of snacks and a range of bento box type salads made up of chicken, salmon, tuna or hummus and if you've noticed leans towards the healthier side of the cuisine spectrum. Want something a bit naughtier? The crew will also bring you something from Salty Dog Grill or Slice. If like us you aren't impressed with the afternoon tea offered in the main dining room you're in for a treat. From 3pm every day the beautiful people of the Sanctuary come round again with an afternoon tea trolley full of delicious sandwiches, cakes and scones all served with a cup of tea or coffee and a perfect view over the bow of the ship to the ocean beyond. And just look at those scones, delicious, fluffy and sweet. That's more like it. I could have eaten the whole tray. Seriously I could have. The Crown Grill is one of Princess Cruises evergreen venues and popular with many of its regular guests. If you only go to one speciality restaurant this is the one we would recommend as our top choice and with a cover charge of just $29 each we feel it offers very good value for money. 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's often a pianist or guitarist 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 starters. Whenever we dine at Crown Grill I always choose the filet mignon. My steak was soft enough for a baby to eat and was accompanied by truffle fries and sautéed mushrooms. Helen decided to go for the chili and sea bass which came on a bed of creamy mushrooms and leeks and by all reports it was absolutely delicious. To round off I shamefully fell back off the wagon and had the warm chocolate mousse trifle and Helen had a firm favourite from this evergreen menu the salted caramel creme brulee cheesecake. All in all a delicious meal with impeccable service in a very romantic setting. We would like to thank you for making it this far and please consider subscribing, giving this little guide a thumbs up and please leave us a comment. 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