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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