Food Aboard the Royal Princess – Alaska

Review of the Royal Princess Alaska food (my first cruise)

Everyone says that they gain weight on a cruise, but this was not my experience. My daughter (aged 9) and I went on a Royal Princess cruise this summer. I plan to write a series of blog posts about this trip, and here is the first one: a review of the Royal Princess Alaska food that we encountered.

Buffet on the Royal Princess

Hundreds of choices were available on the buffet, but about 90 percent of them, in my humble opinion, looked revolting. What made it even worse were all of the hands that I saw reaching into the food…It was like a school cafeteria. EW! The food on the Royal Princess Alaska cruise that we took was extremely unappetizing. Here are some of the lunch choices that we found on our first day:

For some reason, Princess felt the need to provide special breakfast choices for children. I shall quote my daughter: “That just nauseates me”. Here are two examples:

The desserts were equally unappealing as they did not appear to be fresh. Look at the donut…it looks like it came right out of a box!

The lunch buffet was completely off-putting as well. Is this real meat even?! UCH!

Happily, I did find a salad bar with fresh veggies. Finally! Some Royal Princess Alaska food that was good…in fact, this was the best meal that I had on the ship:

Alfredo’s Pizzeria – Royal Princess Alaska food

I read that the pizza was amazing at Alfredo’s, so I was eager to try it. Well, our pie was uncooked and nasty, and this eggplant dish was worse! Would you want to eat this?! We couldn’t. So, we went to the buffet and got our fave: bread roll with butter.

Specialty Dining

I must say that the Royal Princess Alaska food service at all of the specialty dining restaurants was impeccable. We ate at The Crown Grill three times because my daughter and friend enjoyed the steak there. I don’t eat red meat, so the highlight of these meals for me was the grilled asparagus (YUM!) and the goat cheese salad. I found the stuffed baked potato to be overcooked, and it was very strange that the “stuff” needed to be placed by staff, rather than the more popular do-it-yourself style.

The dinner Sabatini’s was hands down the best quality of food that we ate during the entire cruise: We rated it 3.5 out of 5 stars. The service was fantastic and the presentation was amazing. The food was pretty, except for the tiramisu which by no means resembled any tiramisu that I have ever seen ☹️.

Main Dining Room – Royal Princess Alaska food

We went to the MDR once for breakfast, but it was so painstakingly slow that we didn’t revisit for that meal. We did try for dinner and it was okay the first time, but the second time we went pretty late and the food was not good: I had dry, cold chicken and my daughter had overcooked pasta in a lumpy alfredo sauce.

Chocolate Journey

I couldn’t wait to take The Chocolate Journey! The desserts looked beautiful, but if you zoom in on the photos, you can see that the ice cream had freezer burn, and the texture of the desserts left a lot to be desired. Also, the chocolate itself was waxy and not of high quality.

Treats

I was also excited to find the soft serve ice cream on the pool deck, but sadly, it tasted of chemicals…(Nina contradicted me with “It was delicious” but what does she know?!). I don’t believe that there was any dairy product in the ice cream what-so-ever. The gelatto shop was just slightly better, but it definitely was not gelatto, and certainly not worth the calories for me. Once again, the Royal Princess Alaska food disappoints.

The International Cafe had mostly pre-made sandwiches and pastries similar to those found on the buffet. They also make specialty coffees here (not included in the price of your cruise). I had a latte on the first day, but it was too strong for me, so I just stuck with the buffet coffee (which was my kind of relatively weak drip).

Swimming Pool Deck Takeaway

Again and again, we ate at Prego Pizzeria. Almost every time, it was pretty good (although we frequently had to ask them to cook it for another few minutes when the dough was raw). My friend tried the fries at Trident Grill and said they were really greasy. What a shame.

On the plus side, I think I lost some weight during my vacation! WOOHOO!

Read more about my Alaska Trip:

If you are planning an Alaska trip and want to know more from my perspective, please read these posts:

• Anchorage Alaska With Kids
• Road Trips From Anchorage – Wasilla, Seward, Palmer and Denali
• First Day on Royal Princess Alaska – Recommendations for what to do when you first board a cruise ship
• Onboard Cruise Activities – What I found to do on the ship
• Ketchikan Alaska Excursions – including The Alaska Raptor Center
• Juneau Alaska Excursions – including dog sledding on Mendenhall Glacier and evening whale watch
• Skagway Alaska Excursions – including glass blowing and panning for gold