Princess Cruises Sapphire Princess

In-Room Dining Overview

The standard room service dining menu on Sapphire Princess is not extensive, but proved adequate for a nosh when we weren’t in the mood for going out. Breakfast is ordered with a door hanger the night before. Primarily continental, there was one hot option: an English muffin with egg, bacon and cheese. The standard menu is available 24 hours and features soups, salads and sandwiches, plus a few hot dishes and desserts. Our breakfast order was delivered within the requested 15-minute time block. When we ordered lunch we were asked to allow 25 to 30 minutes for delivery; our order arrived 33 minutes later.

There are additional room service options that carry a surcharge. Twelve-inch pizzas—pepperoni, cheese or the daily special—are offered for $3 per delivery. These are available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to midnight. A selection of hors d’oeuvres for a private party in your stateroom can be ordered with 6 hours’ notice: vegetable sticks with blue cheese dip for six, assorted canapés, chilled shrimp on ice with cocktail sauce, guacamole with chips, and chocolate dipped strawberries are available, at prices ranging $6-$14.

There is also Princess’s Ultimate Balcony Dining, “offered in select balcony staterooms.” The champagne breakfast ($32 per couple) includes a half-bottle of chilled French champagne, pastries, cold smoked salmon, fruit and a quiche. The lobster balcony dinner ($100 per couple) requires 24-hour notice and includes a cocktail, a half-bottle of champagne, canapés, flower bouquet, an 8×10 photo and a four-course dinner including surf and/or turf.

Presentation

In our Interior category cabin we were pressed for dining space. There was a small table to place the tray on, but this was too low for comfortable dining. The only other space was the desk, and there was only one chair in our cabin—a sit-down meal for two definitely required compromises.

At lunch, plates had their own plastic cover, and there was plastic wrap and a paper cap on the glass of water; a paper cap was also on the small terrine of salad dressing. There was a bottle opener for the beer, but no glass. The knife that came on the tray had leftover food on it; fortunately, we didn’t need it for our meal. However we could have used a spoon for the flan, and a packet of salt and pepper would have been nice.

Food

For lunch we ordered the assorted mixed garden greens offered with various dressings; the lettuces (romaine and radicchio) and cucumbers slices were crisp but the nice red wedges of tomato were flavorless. We also had the Moroccan vegetable crock-pot, a terrine of stewed vegetables in a sauce of tomatoes, yogurt, cinnamon and other spices; this was fine, but the pita bread that accompanied was chewy and undesirable.

Drinks

Beer, wine, liquors, soft drinks and juices were available. Full bottles of wine ranged from Round Hill Merlot ($22) to Simi Chardonnay ($32), with French champagnes available for $60-$179. Spirits included 375ml bottles of Jim Beam bourbon ($15), Johnny Walker Red Label scotch ($22), Absolut vodka ($18) and Bombay Sapphire gin ($22).