Editorial note: TPG's Gene Sloan accepted a free trip from Princess Cruises to get an early look at Sun Princess. The opinions expressed below are entirely his and weren’t subject to review by the line.
Apparently, I'm not the only cruiser who doesn't always have the stamina for the drawn-out ship dinners in main dining rooms.
That, or Princess Cruises has just made a colossal mistake with its newest vessel.
As I'm seeing this week during an early look at the still-not-quite-finished Sun Princess, the line has reserved the top level of the ship's elegant three-deck-high main dining room for passengers looking for a quicker sit-down meal than is typical in a main dining room.
It's also changed up the menu for just this one level, offering a set and simple lineup of the sort of comfort food items you find in a diner: a bacon cheeseburger, fish and chips, chicken wings and fried chicken, to name a few.
Renamed Americana by the line, this top floor of the main dining room also offers a solid array of dinerlike breakfast dishes, including made-to-order omelets, a breakfast burrito and a "diner's hash" made with salt beef or halloumi served with home-style potatoes, fried eggs, roasted bell peppers and griddled onions.
All of the dishes, including the breakfast items, are available all day.
So, yeah, on Princess, you now can have breakfast for dinner — and in an elegant venue, to boot.
To which I say: Fabulous. Bravo, Princess. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? And who doesn't sometimes want a quicker dinner on a cruise ship that isn't just a trip to the ship's buffet?
As I am learning this week, dining at Americana is a much more relaxing alternative to dining at the buffet on Sun Princess — whether it's at breakfast time, lunchtime or dinnertime.
Related: My strange night out at Princess' new magic-infused nightspot
It's early days still for Sun Princess, but the ship's buffet, called The Eatery, has been a madhouse with crowded corridors, slow served-by-staff buffet lines and too few seats — a recipe for frustration. Hopefully, it'll improve as the currently Mediterranean-based ship sails in warmer climates and more passengers move to outside venues and seating areas for meals.
Note that if you want a traditional main dining room dinner, you'll find that on the two lower levels of the main dining room. The middle level (called Horizons) offers come-anytime-you-want dining with the normal drawn-out service. The lower level (also called Horizons) offers the more traditional fixed-seating dinner format that once was de rigueur at Princess.
Both of those levels offer a classic main dining room menu with such dishes as Norwegian salmon with creamy mashed potatoes, carrots and lemon-caper butter, and grilled New York strip steak with garlic-herb butter and vegetables.
Related: First look: Sun Princess, the giant new ship from Princess Cruises
A quick take on the quicker menu
In my one visit to Americana so far, I found the dishes hit or miss. (Again, I'm hoping this will all be worked out in the coming weeks as the ship comes into its own.)
It's hard to mess up a breakfast burrito too badly, for instance, but the chefs at Americana managed to do just that with the one I ordered for a late lunch — breakfast for lunch, after all, is almost as good as breakfast for dinner.
The burrito came out filled with the same uninspired vat-cooked eggs that are in the buffet line at The Eatery, plus a smattering of tofu and black beans. It was billed as "spicy," but there was no spice to it at all. The relatively tasteless salsa that came on the side wasn't much help. Plus, the whole thing was oddly tiny.
Memo to Princess: Call up the chefs at your lower-priced sister brand Carnival Cruise Line, which has the always reliable Mexican-serving fast food outlet BlueIguana Cantina on ships, to find out how shipboard burritos should be done.
Lest you think I revel in being critical, I'll say that I was delighted with the loaded French fries that I ordered as a side. They came smothered in buffalo sauce and huge chunks of blue cheese.
The burgers and sticky pork ribs that the family at the table next to me were noshing on looked great, too, as did the made-to-order banana splits. Possibly, I just ordered the wrong thing.
The good news: I have a couple more days left on this trip to give it all a try.
Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:
- The 5 most desirable cabin locations on any cruise ship
- A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
- The 8 worst cabin locations on any cruise ship
- The ultimate guide to what to pack for a cruise
- A quick guide to the most popular cruise lines
- 21 tips and tricks that will make your cruise go smoothly
- Top ways cruisers waste money
- The ultimate guide to choosing a cruise ship cabin
