Diamond Princess Alaska Cruise Day 1 Dinner Menu (Embarkation)

Alaska Cruise . 2012 . Sep 15

Dinner Menu for Day 1 (Embarkation)

You can read our reviews of the dishes we ate here!

(V) indicates vegetarian dish

Appetizers

Red Snapper Mojito
cerviche with mint, mango, avocado, and a splash of Bacardi superior rum
winning dish of the 6th annual Bacardi bartender & chef cruise competition awarded to Princesss Cruises

Trio of Cantaloupe, Honeydew and Watermelon (V)
doused with vintage port wine and lime zest

Crispy Hand-rolled Vegetable Spring Rolls (V)
with hoisin-peanut dip, lemongrass and cilantro

Shrimp Cocktail
an American classic with horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce

Soups and Salads

Fortified Chicken Broth with Tortellini and Spinach
sprinked with grated parmesan cheese

Cream of Porcini Mushroom Soup
velvety cream soup, flavor-heightened with tarragon

Frozen Rum-Infused Pina Colada Soup (V)
refreshingly cool coconut-pineapple smoothie

Watercress, Red Radish and Iceberg Lettuce (V)
choice of homemade and low-fat dressings

Classic Caesar Salad (V)
crisp romaine lettice, caesar dressing, parmesan cheese and herb croutons; anchovies upon request

Signature Pastas

Available as an appetizer or main course and served with freshly grated parmesan cheese

Conchiglie alla Camoagnola (V)
pasta shells in marinara sauce with broccoli, capers and olives
optional: add wok-fried chicken strips

Fettuccine Alfredo in Crisp Parmesan Basket (V)
An All-Time Princess Favorite
rich, comforting and entirely satisfying

Main Courses

To enhance the flavors the chef has paired each dish with the freshest sides

Seared Bassa Filet with Pineapple-Papaya Salsa
pea pods, bamboo shoots, daikon sprouts and potato cake

Mac 'n' Cheese with Bay Shrimp and Baby Scallops
elbow maccaroni baked with lobster bisque and cheese sauce topped with crisp bacon bits

Hawaiian Luau Pork with Apricot Drippings
served with a white bean and smoked bacon ragout, roast potatoes

Cumin-Spiced Texas Beef Chilli
with a choice of sour cream, monterey jack cheese and spring onions

Slow-Roasted Corn-Fed Prime Rib with Natural Rosemary Jus and Horseradish Cream
carved to order with corn-on-the-cob, char-grilled tomato and baked Idaho potato

Leek and Ricotta Cheese Tart (V)
with vegetable ratatouille, tomato sauce and basil oil

Grilled Salmon with Herb & Lemon Compound Butter
vegetables of the day and parsley potatoes

Pan-Seared Corn-Fed Chicken with Thyme Jus
lightly seasoned boneless breast, vegetables of the day and roast potatoes

Princess Half Pound Sirloin Burger
ground fresh daily, cooked to order, served with gourmet fries and our signature secret sauce

Grilled Spice-Rubbed Tri Tip Roast
marinated choice American beef, slow roasted and grilled, served medium-well wuth chimichurri or  BBQ sauce, broiled tomato & zucchini and steak fries

After Dinner Drinks, Digestifs, Dessert Wine

Coffee

Cafe Latte                   $2.50
Mocha                         $2.50
Cappuccino                 $2.50
Espresso                     $1.70
Double Espresso        $2.50

Dessert Wine

Errazuriz Late Harvest, Sauvignon Blanc by the glass    $3.95
notes of honey and golden raisins add depth and richness to the fruity citric Sauvignon Blanc characters

Port Wine and Sherry

Sandeman's Port (20 years)        $7.25
Harvey's Bristol Cream              $4.95
Tio Pepe                                       $4.95
Dry Sack                                      $4.95

Liqueurs and Cordials

Amaretto di Saronno                   $5.75
Drambuie                                     $5.75
Grand Marnier                            $5.75
Kahlua                                         $5.75
Frangelico                                    $5.75
Brogan's Irish Cream                 $5.75
B&B D.O.M                               $5.75
Sambuca                                     $5.75
Tia Maria                                   $5.75
Galliano                                      $5.75
Southern Comfort                      $5.75

Cognac       

Courvoisier V.S.O.P                  $7.25
Courvoisier Napoleon               $9.50
Remy Martin V.S.O.P              $7.25
Remy Martin X.O                    $10.75

Desserts

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Double Cream
steeped berries

Warm Passion Fruit Souffle
vanilla custard

Sugar-Free Mango Cheesecake
mango salsa

Princess Love Boat Dream
rich chocolate mousse on brownie

Traditional New York Cheesecake
macerated strawberries

French Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee
with sugar cane crust, lemon madeleines

Ice Cream
hazelnut, raspberry, honeydew sorbet

Create Your Own Sundae
vanilla or chocolate ice cream, strawberry, chocolate, butterscotch caramel or pineapple toppings, whipped cream

Sweet & Nutritious Fruits
lemon twist, mint leaf

Like this menu? Check out our Alaska Cruise Menu series here!

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Day 1 Diamond Princess Alaska Cruise – It's Dinner and Showtime!

Alaska Cruise . 2012 . Sep 15

We indicated to Princess Cruises at the time of booking on our preference for Anytime Dining. This means that we can call and reserve a table for two at any of its Anytime Dining Rooms. Simply dial 3463 between 8pm and 5pm to make reservations of your choice at one of the Anytime Dining Room. For more information on the dining rooms and options, check out our article on cruise dining.

Pacific Moon Dining Room

We had our first dinner on Diamond Princess at the Pacific Moon Dining Room.

One of those small things that we didn't like was that the two-sitters at the dining rooms are all not located beside the window.  Only big tables for large parties are placed beside the window and so this makes it impossible to have a bit of nice romantic dining.

The distance between tables is quite small, but still bearable.  Just talk softly if you do not want your neighbor to overhear. 

Bread Basket

The breads and baked stuff at Princess Cruises are simply spectacular.  They start you off with a bread basket at every meal – breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It's so good, we usually finish the whole basket of it at every meal.  One of the best food available on Princess Cruises.

Here's a typical Diamond Princess Dinner Menu.

For those who are interested to see the full Dinner Menu, we have typed up the menu for your reading pleasure! :) Click here for the full menu!.

Appetizer

Trio of Cantaloupe, Honeydew and Watermelon (V)
doused with vintage port wine and lime zest

Verdict: You must try this dish, the fruits used are fresh, succulent and sweet!  A very nice opening dish to perk you up.

Shrimp Cocktail
an American classic with horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce

Verdict: This one is not to our liking.  The shrimps still feel a bit raw and not too fresh. The sauce didn't blend or complement the shrimps either.

Soups and Salads

Cream of Porcini Mushroom Soup  

velvety cream soup, flavor-heightened with tarragon 

Verdict: Not the best mushroom soup we've had, but it'll pass. 

Classic Caesar Salad (V)
crisp romaine lettice, caesar dressing, parmesan cheese and herb croutons; anchovies upon request

Verdict: Caesar salad is not bad. Just a bit too oily for our liking. Make sure to ask the waiter to add in some anchovies for better taste. 

Main Course

Mac 'n' Cheese with Bay Shrimp and Baby Scallop
elbow maccaroni baked with lobster bisque and cheese sauce topped with crisp bacon bits

Verdict: Too much marrcaroni spoils the dish. So-so in our opionion.

Slow-Roasted Corn-Fed Prime Rib with Natural Rosemary Jus and Horseradish Cream
carved to order with corn-on-the-cob, char-grilled tomato and baked Idaho potato

Verdict: Not the best steak that we had. In fact, we find it quite lacking in taste and texture. Corn on the cob was overdone and burnt.

Dessert

The Dessert Menu is separate from the main menu, and is given to you after you finish your main course.  

Princess Cruises (and most other cruise lines) does not limit you on the amount of food you want, so we ordered 2 sorbets and a platter of fruits to share!

Honeydew Sorbet
icecream

My perennial favorite ice-cream – sorbets. According to the waiter, their sorbets are made by the chefs on board the Diamond Princess. Unfortunately, this one's ice content is too high, giving it a too-dilute feeling.

Sweet & Nutritious Fruits
lemon twist, mint leaf

If anything, the fruits on board are all worth having – they are especially fresh, succulent and sweet! 

First Sunset onboard the Diamond Princess!

Showtime – Welcome Aboard Show 

Princess Cruises goes to great lengths to plan their entertainment schedule on board. The most major are the shows every evening at the Princess Theatre. The same show is performed twice every evening to cater to passengers with different dining schedules. 

Kevin Joy, our Cruise Director welcoming passengers on board, and explaining the activities available.

It's lights and actions as the singers and dancers take on the stage.

Overall, we felt that the shows were catered more towards the older crowd with late eighthies music and dance moves.

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Top 10 Travel Planning Websites

Dear Visitors,

We are pleased to introduce our new section - Travel Resources.

As a launch, we would like to share with you in this post our list of Top 10 Travel Planning Websites that we have found them useful in the course of our pre travel planning and reseach.

This list will grow as we discover new websites. You are welcome to drop us a comment if you like to recommend some travel sites to be added to the list! :) You can bookmark the updated list here.

Hotel Research / Booking Sites

Agoda – Smarter Hotel Booking
Agoda (www.agoda.com) is good for hotel bookings in the Asia-Pacific region wih instant availability at more than 40,000 hotels. Partnering with Priceline.com enables them to extend their offerings to 180,000 hotels worldwide.

With the Agoda Rewards program, members can eran points, starting from their first reservation, getting 4-7% rewards cash back on every booking you make!




Hotelscombined – World's leading hotel price comparison experience

HotelsCombined.com is basically a hotel comparison site that allows you to instantly search and compare room availability and prices from all major travel websites, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Agoda (and many more) all in one set of search results.

We usually use it as a starting point to search for a hotel in the city we are visiting. By providing the price of the hotel from various booking sites thus allow us to have a good feel of the cost of the hotel.

Try the Search Engine below now!

Oyster.com - The Hotel Tell-All

Oyster.com differs from typical hotel booking sites as it offers unbiased reviews and real hotel photos from their own hotel investigators (staff). Hundreds of undoctored photos are taken for each listed hotel with even the smallest detail.

This site is interesting as it also compares actual photos versus the marketing photos provided by the hotel and some really have marked differences! ;)



 Tripadvisor – The World’s Largest Travel Site

Tripadvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) is a traveller community with mainly hotel rankings based from reviews from their members. 

Local experts provide travel advices ranging from transportation, attractions and dining choices in the tripadvisor forum.

We usually use it as a starting point to research on the places that we would like to visit when we plan our trips.


 
General Travel Booking Sites

Zuji - Your Online Travel Agency
ZUJI (www.zuji.com) is an online travel agent dedicated to bringing great value travel choices to travellers in Asia Pacific. Its choices include more than 400 airlines, 60,000 hotels, and thousands of car hire, activities, attractions and travel insurance. ZUJI has a network of online travel sites in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India and Singapore.

We typically used ZUJI to compare travel packages (i.e. hotels + flights) to see if there are some good deals.


Travel Itineraries / Plans

Tripit – Organize Your Travel
Tripit (www.tripit.com) is a travel itinerary tool that consolidates and organises your bookings of airlines, hotels, rental cars and even restaurants.

You can just forward your travel bookings to an assigned tripit email address and Tripit will automatically take care of it.


We used the IOS app version in our travels and it certainly beats carrying pieces of paper itineraries which might get lost easily.


Airlines

Skyscanner

Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.net) is a leading flight comparison site with flexible search options mean you can browse prices across a whole month, or even a year, allowing you to get the best deals.

We use the IOS app to monitor airfares especially for US domestic carriers as they sometimes will drop prices for a day or two to atract bargain hunters like us.






Seatguru - The ultimate source for airplane seating, in-flight amenities, and airline information

 

Seatguru (www.seatguru.com) is a travel site that aims to help travellers select their aircraft seats. With more than 700 airplane seatmaps from nearly 100 different airlines, it will certainly help you make a better choice the next time you buy an airline ticket.







Train Travel

Seat61 - The Man in Seat Sixty-One...
Seat61 (www.seat61.com) is a wonderful website with detailed train travel tips and advices all around the world. From how to buy tickets to carriage cabin photos, it is certainly a great resource site for travellers who would prefer train to air travel for city pairs.

We had used it for our train trip planning in Switzerland and England and would recommend it to everyone.




Cruise

Cruise Critic – Cruise Reviews & News

Cruise Critic (www.cruisecritic.com) is a interactive community for both avid and first-time cruisers who enjoy the fun of planning, researching and sharing their passion for cruising.  There are also editorial contents which include cruise ship reviews, port of calls write-ups and destination articles.

It is our no 1 visited site we used for our Alaska Cruise Trip Planning.

Cruise Dining 101 - Types of Cruise Meals

Alaska Cruise . 2012 . Sep 15 - 22

There are so many dining options and dining rooms available on board a cruise ship that it can somewhat confuse passengers who are cruising for the first time.  We came up with what we hope is an easy guide to dining on a cruise ship. The dining terms mentioned below are applicable for Princess Cruises. Other cruise lines might call them differently but essentially the idea is similar.

Traditional Dining 

This refers to the system of a fixed/allocated seating for dinner for the entire cruise. The meal will usually take place at the main (and biggest) dining room of the cruise ship.  Your party may have to share a table with other parties to make up the numbers for the table.  For e.g.  one couple will most likely have to share a table with a few other couples to make up a table of say, 8. The cruise ship do have limited tables for two, but you do have to book your cruise early to secure them. 

There are usually only 2 dinner sittings/timings offered and passengers will have to indicate to the Cruise Line at the time of booking on the timing they prefer.  The Cruise Line will then allocate a fixed table which you will occupy for the rest of the dinners on the cruise.  This scheme is ideal for passengers who would like to socialize with other passengers during their cruise.  Dress code is observed here, and the minimum is usually a smart casual.  Passengers on the longer cruise will also be informed of the formal nights – meaning that men would have to dress with a jacket and tie, and the ladies, in their evening gowns. All passengers can order as many items as they like from the menu at no extra charge. 

Passengers who had indicated Traditional Dining can still switch to Anytime Dining once onboard but this is subject to availability.

Traditional Dining and its allocated seating is only applicable for dinner.  Breakfast and lunch are served on an anytime-basis within the times allocated for breakfast/lunch. 

At the Diamond Princess, Traditional Dining is held at the International Dining Room and Vivaldi Dining Room (early sitting only).  The early sitting is at 6pm and late sitting at 8:15pm.

Anytime Dining

Same menu and service as Traditional Dining, with the one and only difference that you will not be allocated a specific table or seating.  This means that you can either walk-in to any restaurants offering Anytime Dining or call and make reservations if you want to secure a seat at a specific Anytime Dining room. Tip: Reservation of the tables usually starts at 8am in the morning for the day's dinner. So do call early if you want to secure a table at a specific time for your group.  Most people who opt for anytime dining prefers to keep within their group during meal times. 

As with Traditional Dining, the minimum dress code is smart casual and passengers would have to dress in their formal clothes for the formal nights.  Again, passengers can order anything on the menu multiple times at no extra charge.

Those who had indicated Anytime Dining may attempt to change to Traditional Dining, but this will of course be subject to availability.

At the Diamond Princess, Anytime Dining is held at the following dining rooms:

- Savoy Dining Room
- Sante Fe Dining Room
- Pacific Moon Dining Room
- Vivaldi Dining Room (available only after the first sitting of Traditional Dining)

Tip: You might be interested to know that each anytime dining room does offer a specialty dish that is not on the standard menus as follows:

Savoy - Pork Chops
Santa Fe- Chicken Fajitas and Guacamole/Chips
Pacific Moone - Sizzling Shrimp and Scallop Noodles
Vivaldi - Osso Bucco

Thus, you might want to have a little fun to try the specialty dish when you visit each of the dining rooms. Though you might want to know that you can order any of the specialty dishes at any restaurant, and even in the main dining room if you know the name of the dish.


Buffet-Style Dining

Usually serves exactly the same food as offered at Traditional and Anytime Dining.  However, as the name suggests, there are no waiters to take your order, and your food will not be served/presented to you in an aesthetic manner.  Instead, you join the buffet line to get the food you want, and you can go back multiple times to get more.  There will still be waiters around, but their main job is to ensure that the tables are cleared and cleaned for the next passenger and to take your beverage order.

Buffet-style dining is popular with passengers who do not like to be constrained by the formality of the Traditional/Anytime Dining, or who have missed the fixed timings for their dinner, or are pressed for time and would like to have a quick meal.  You can even finish your fixed meal at the Traditional/Anytime dining and go to the buffet style dining room for more food – there is no restriction here.  There are times when we even take food from the buffet line and have our meal at the balcony of our cabin.

Most of the time, the buffet style dining room is located at the higher levels of the ship, near the pool.  Due to the more relaxed atmosphere of this dining room, there are no formal dress codes here and passengers can usually choose to sit at the indoor or outdoor area. 

On board the Diamond Princess, buffet-style dining is held at the Horizon Court, on Deck 14 aft.


Specialty Dining

Commercial restaurants on board the ship.  There is a cover charge of USD $20 for the dinner. The cost of the meal will be charged to your cruise card, and the accounts settled at the end of the cruise.

On board the Diamond Princess, there are two specialty restaurants on board – Sabatini serving authentic Italian fare featuring pasta and seafood specialties in a setting reminiscent of a Tuscan villa and Sterling Steakhouse serving the highest quality cuts of beef, plus a prime-rib carving station. We did not want to pay extra for meals on board the cruise ship and thus did not venture to either of the two restaurants. However, it might be good for passengers who wants a more exclusive dining environment from the crowd in the other dining rooms or the Horizon Court.


Beers, Wine and Beverages

For most cruise lines, only water and normal black coffee/tea will be served free of charge during meal times.  This is applicable throughout Traditional Dining, Anytime Dining and buffet style dining.  Wines, beer, soda and any other beverages will be charged at the menu price.  Most cruise liners will do their best to sell you a wine or beverage package on the day of embarkation.  If you have purchased a beer/beverage package during the cruise, you can let the waiter know and he will count it under your package.

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Day 1 Diamond Princess Alaska Cruise – Vancouver Sailaway

Alaska Cruise . 2012 . Sep 15

After our long awaited embarkation and exploring our balcony cabin on board the Diamond Princess, it was time for our first lunch on board the Diamond Princess.

First Meal on Board the Diamond Princess

Most of the cruise lines that we had experience with do not serve the first meal at their dining rooms (with restaurant-style service) on the day of embarkation.  We were therefore a little surprised when we saw on the Princess Patter (a daily newletter published by the cruise line) that lunch was served at the International Dining Room.   It must have been a bad publication error on Princess’ part because when we arrived, we were told that the only place with lunch was the Horizon Court (buffet-style).  It didn’t matter much to us, but apparently, it did to another women who kicked up a great fuss much to the chagrin of her partner.

Horizon Court which is operational for most of the day is located at Deck 14 aft (aft=end of the ship, as opposed to forward=front of the ship).  We had a quick late lunch at this buffet-style restaurant

General Emergency Exercise

It is required by law that all passengers must attend an emergency evacuation exercise. At the start of the exercise, there will be alarms and broadcast requesting passengers to report to their designated Muster Stations for the emergency exercise with the life jackets (life jackets are located in the walk-in wardrobe of each cabin).  All passenger’s cruise cards are scanned upon entry as a form of attendance checking!   Fortunately, our station is at the Princess Theatre which is conveniently located.  The whole exercise took about 20 mins, but I had absolutely no idea of what happened during those 20 mins, because I had a nice after-lunch nap on the very comfortable seat at the Princess Theatre!!

Vancouver Sailaway

Diamond Princess sails away from Vancouver at 4pm Canadian time!  Join the cruise staff and fellow passengers for song and dance at Deck 14 during the sailaway!  There is a life band on deck to jazz up the atmosphere.  We opted for the privacy and sanctuary of our private balcony instead.

Photos taken on board Diamond Princess at its dock at Canada Place.

From our dock at Canada Place, the Diamond Princess heads out to the waters of the Burrard Inlet.  On the port side (=left hand side of the ship), you can spot Stanley Park.  On the starboard side (= right hand side of the ship) where our balcony is, the Coast Mountain Ranges can be seen.

Get ready to wave goodbye to people on the Lion’s Gate Bridge.  The Lion’s Gate Bridge spans the Burrard Inlet and signifies the gateway between Vancouver City and the open waters that lies ahead.

Coming up next:

Day 1 of Diamond Princess Alaska Cruise – Dinner and Showtime

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