I see a lot of questions from cruisers asking what it means when their new Plus or Premier package says they get casual dining and/or specialty dining included.
On the Sun Princess, this is the breakdown of what restaurants are considered Casual, Specialty, and Experiential. A casual dining venue offers a prix fixe menu for a smaller cover charge of $14.95 that includes an appetizer, main entree, and dessert. There is also an a la carte option if you want to just get one of the courses. Specialty restaurants have a larger cover charge but allow you to choose from whatever you like on the menu. The only exceptions are if you want an upcharge item (like a certain cut of steak) or a secondary main entree. They do not limit you to ordering only one appetizer or dessert. Experiential dining is the most expensive option and usually have more of a presentation element. For the Sun Princess, these venues include Spellbound and Love by Britto.
The casual dining options on the Sun Princess are Alfredo's Pizzeria and O'Malleys Irish Pub. Alfredo's Pizzeria recently added a list of pizza flavors to the menu due to a partnership with Tony Gemignani. Each of these pizzas cost an extra $12 even if you have casual dining included or pay the cover charge outright. Our shoreside concierge Thor told us that Tony's pizza flavors would be included if we chose them as our main and not a regular pizza. Unfortunately, the waiter at Alfredo's said that wasn't the case and that is the answer that seems to be consistently reported by other cruisers. Another drawback is that we used to be able to order our own pizza combination with any of the toppings on hand. Now, we were not allowed to order sausage because our waiter said the sausage was only for the Tony Gemignani pizza flavors.
The Pizza Pepperoni - mozzarella, pepperoni, crushed red pepper, and oregano.
This dining experience was one of the most disappointing dining experiences of the trip. We arrived around 2PM after being on a tour and was seated quickly. There was two other tables dining at this time and they both were nearly through with their meal. We both ordered sodas and welcomed the water. We also each opted to skip the appetizer course and both requested pepperoni pizzas. Not once did our drinks get refilled. Our pizzas were delivered by our waiter who then announced that he would be going on break and someone else would be taking over. In our past experience thus far onboard, when a crew member goes on their well deserved break, they introduce their replacement before leaving. This waiter would only keep repeating that we'd have to ask someone else for anything else we wanted and then walked away. I wonder if perhaps no one knew this waiter was headed off to his break because we never saw anyone else approach our table for the rest of our meal. We tried to get the attention of other servers but they looked over and kept on walking past. We next tried to get the attention of a manager who was milling around but he only talked to the last remaining table and then chatted with his colleagues at the check in desk. After finishing our pizzas and the last of our single drinks, we walked out without getting to order the dessert Dad wanted. I was surprised that not a single one of the crew standing around chatting bothered to acknowledge us or question why we were leaving before our meal was finished. We chose to not return but saw several other cruiser's using the space and reviewing it highly. I've heard of a lack of and delay in service when the place is busy but it was ridiculous to have that experience when you're literally the only diners left in the venue.
The other casual dining option on the Sun Princess is O'Malley's, their Irish Pub concept. Throughout the first week onboard, we routinely stopped by the pub in hopes of dining there. It was always packed with a line out the door. One of the tips past cruisers have given is to show up an hour before food service starts and just hold the table to get the chance to dine there.
This is the more limiting lunch menu compared to the dinner menu. It seems they use this same menu for offering limited options after 9PM.
On turnaround/embarkation day of the second week, we decided to try and beat the crowds altogether by heading to O'Malley's for lunch. We managed to get a booth by the window in an almost empty pub. We asked the bar waiter if they were open yet just before 11AM. He told us we could only order drinks for food service didn't start until noon. We ordered two sodas and they came relatively quickly. By the time noon rolled around, a couple other tables of people had found their way to the pub. It took quite a bit to get our server's attention again to let him know we wanted to order food.
The pub started to fill up while we waited for our food order. We ordered the O'Malley's O'nion Stack and the Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip from the Starters section to share. We ordered the Bushmills Blue Burger from the Mains section for each of us. To finish off we ordered both the Boozy Brownie and the Irish Apple Cake to try from the Afters section.
The O'Malley's O'nion Stack - flash fried for the ultimate crunch. Served with horseradish-ranch dipping sauce. It came with about six onion rings so if you have a bigger group you may want to order two.
The Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip - creamy, cheesy, and served with breadsticks for dipping. The breadsticks were more like giant croutons made with crusty bread. The serving size is pretty small so I'd order more if you have more than two people dining.
How did that Bushmills Blue Burger and desserts taste you ask? We wouldn't know because they never came! We asked our server for drink refills for both of us when the starters arrived and only Dad got his refill. We continued to wait as the pub filled up. Once we started seeing our server bringing food to tables that had arrived after us, we asked about our order. It took some real effort to even get his attention because he would walk by on his way back from a nearby table, react to show he'd heard our query, and then walk away again without a word in response. Other times he'd actually stop and insist our order was coming. After an hour and a half after getting the starters had passed with no other food, we finally went to him at the bar to ask. When we mentioned how long we'd been waiting, he finally changed his answer from "It's coming" to "I haven't put in the order yet." The first diners in the pub and you haven't even put in our order yet? Or was this another case of accidentally giving our order that had been ready an hour ago to someone else? We decided not to wait any longer and told the server we were leaving.
Later that day we did share this misstep with Ivan and he was so apologetic. He offered to arrange another dining experience to replace it suggesting Love by Britto but we didn't think the food and theme was something we'd enjoy. Ivan joked that we didn't have to be a romantic couple to dine there because after all he'd eaten there with a fellow crew member and friend. Looking back, I should have asked if we could get the burgers delivered to the suite bypassing the overwhelmed servers and chefs. Don't know if that would fall under the "isn't included if you eat it outside the restaurant" rule.
Flash forward to a few days later when we received a knock at our cabin door. At the door is a crew member who hands us a plate of chocolates and a note that says "Please accept this as a token of our sincere apologies for the inconvenience that you may have experienced. From Room Service Team." Now, forgive my naivete, but when I saw this note, I thought it was the Room Service Team apologizing for some issue. I was baffled because we'd had no issue with the Room Service Team. I stopped into the Suite Lounge to ask the Suite Concierge Gerardo (Ivan was not there at the time) if he knew what the note was referencing. He looked it up in the system and told me that it was due to a mistake in room service. Through the conversation, he suggested I'd had a problem with a burger ordered through room service. I told him that the one time we'd used room service it went great and that we didn't even order a burger then. Finally it clicked when Gerardo used the menu name of Bushmills Blue Burger. Apology chocolates for not getting 2/3rds of our meal at O'Malley's.
