pork dinner
Like all of the ships from major cruiselines, Royal Princess has some pay-extra restaurants and others that are included in the cruise fare with dining rooms and a buffet as the main included eateries. Unlike most ships, this one won an award for its cuisine. It was named the World’s Best Culinary Cruise Ship for 2025 by the World Culinary Awards. This award was voted on by industry experts, the culinary community, and consumers with the ship’s pay-extra eateries as the main focus of the award.
dining room
There are 3 dining rooms on Royal Princess. The Allegro Dining Room at the back of deck 6 has set time dining where passengers have the same time, table, and waitstaff each night. Concerto dining room at the center of deck 6 offers flexible dining where guests can make reservations for different times on different days and some anytime dining for walk-in guests. Symphony dining room at the back of deck 5 offers walk-in anytime dining in one door and dining with reservations in the other.
baked Alaska in the dining room
We were assigned to the Symphony dining room on this ship and had no problem getting a table as walk-ins. Sometimes it was quicker to get a table if requesting a shared table, but service was faster if we had one with just the two of us. At least at dinner anyway. We tried one breakfast in the dining room and the service was pretty slow and the food not any better than what was available at the buffet with less options.
every day chicken dinner
The dining room food was generally good at dinner with some items offered daily and others changing each night. Speed of service varied, generally significantly slower at shared tables even if nobody ordered extra items. If anyone ordered more than one thing in any of the three courses that really slowed things down for the entire table.
Valentine’s Day donuts at the buffet
Royal Princess has a very extensive buffet near the back of deck 16. It has two sections with hot food lines with a room in between that has pastries in the morning and desserts at lunch and dinner. They also sell specialty coffees in that room, and make waffles there at breakfast.
gluten free dessert from the buffet
In addition to regular pastries and desserts people could also find gluten free, sugar free, and vegan items there. One of the hot food lines had gluten free pancakes, waffles, French toast and other things in the morning. The gluten free donut holes found outside of the pastry room were one of their best gluten free baked goods.
salad from the buffet salad bar
The forward part of the buffet is called Horizon Bistro while the part closer to the back is called Horizon Court, though it all seems like parts of the same place. Some of the hot food lines will have the same items as each other while others have different ones. At dinner the buffet has theme nights with different cuisines each night.
cake day at the buffet
At the last day’s lunch the buffet served both sushi and fancy cakes so it was very crowded. There was quite a variety of different cake options to choose from. There was a very long line for both.
Trident Grill
The buffet opens out into the pool area, which has ice cream on the starboard side near the doorway into the buffet. Past the pools on the forward end of the pool deck there is a pizza stand called Prego Pizzeria on the port side and a grill with hamburgers and hot dogs at the Trident Grill on the other. Both of these are free eateries. The pizza was very good for cruise ship pizza, one of the best we’ve had on a cruise ship.
bar/coffee bar at Princess Live
The International Cafe sits at one side of deck 5 at the lowest level of the central piazza. It has a coffee bar that serves specialty coffee, tea, and hot chocolate which costs extra as well as pastries and sandwiches that are free. Specialty hot drinks are also sold at Princess Live Cafe on deck 7, and in the morning at the gelato shop across the piazza from the International Cafe. Those places don’t get a long line like the International Cafe does, but also don’t serve food. Well at least not breakfast food. Later in the day the gelato shop sells gelato.
steakhouse & bar
Royal Princess has several pay-extra restaurants. We found the free food both good and plentiful and did not try any of the restaurants with an extra charge. Their steakhouse is called Crown Grill. It is located toward the back of deck 7. Alfredos on the starboard side of the central piazza on deck 6 is a sit-down pizza restaurant. It also cost extra so it doesn’t get a lot of business since people can go up to the pizza stand on the Lido deck and get pizza for free. Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar sits at the forward end of the piazza on deck 7. It is a very small pay-extra eatery serving sushi, sashimi, and ceviche. The other pay-extra restaurant is Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria, an upscale eatery across from guest services on deck 5. Room services or ordering anywhere onboard through the Princess app are additional ways to obtain food for a fee. There is a limited free room service breakfast menu on a door hanger that people can put out the night before. Once per cruise there’s a special (and expensive) chef’s table dinner.
Crooner’s Bar
Royal Princess has many bars. Several of them sit around the 3 levels of the piazza on decks 5, 6, and 7 – Vines Wine Bar, Bellinis, and Crooners. Deck 5 also has Good Spirits at Sea next to the International Cafe, deck 6 has the Double Down bar at the casino, and deck 7 has a bar at Princess Live, the Wheelhouse Bar by the Crown Grill, and a bar in the Vista Lounge at the back of the ship. There’s also some bars on upper decks. The Lido deck (deck 16) has the Seaview Bar and the Mermaid’s Tail bar in the central pool area, and the Outrigger Bar at the back of the ship. Deck 17 has the Retreat Bar in the adults only Retreat area near the front of the ship. That area also has hot tubs, a pool, and deck chairs.
dessert from the dining room
