In addition to the perks that all suite passengers get, there are a couple experiences that are specific to Sky Suites. Or at least they were as told to us by our Shoreside Concierge pre-cruise. Those peek behind the curtain moments will be in my next post.
The first experience is the inclusion of one Deluxe Balcony Breakfast and one Ultimate Balcony Dinner during the voyage. Both of these experiences can be purchased by any passenger but only the Sky Suite passengers get it included. The breakfast costs $27.50 per person. I have seen people not in the Sky Suite who have ordered it and they simply get delivered the multiple dishes like a regular room service order. We've only done the breakfast once and that was on the Enchanted Princess' Sky Suite so it was a full table display and course by course waiter service in our cabin. Check out that post here.
The Ultimate Balcony Dinner costs $57.50 per person. From all the reviews I have seen, this will be a full table setup and waiter service for everyone regardless of cabin category. Some have reported that a table was set up inside their cabin when they didn't have a balcony or above room. Others have mentioned going to an area set up elsewhere on the ship. We did not do either the breakfast or dinner on the Sun Princess (always held inside due to the balcony not having a dining table) because we didn't want to devote several hours to it during such a busy themed sailing. Check out our Ultimate Balcony Dinner experience on Enchanted Princess here.
To see a sample of the menu for both meals, visit Princess' official page here. You can reserve this pre-cruise and then decide which day you want to schedule it once onboard. Prior to that scheduled day, you will be contacted to go over the menu. This is your opportunity to discuss any allergies or dietary restrictions so Princess can offer substitutions to make sure everyone can participate and enjoy.
On the Sky Princess, we scheduled the Ultimate Balcony Dinner to happen a day or two before the breakfast. When we chose the date, Josue did caution us that it was a date that the chef would be busy preparing food for a special event but we didn't have any other day that fit our plans. We met with Josue to go over the menu and make our changes. All changes were within reason such as having a Caesar salad instead of one with walnuts. Dad ordered the entree option that was solely beef while I ordered the surf and turf. Josue made all the arrangements and we agreed to stay out of the cabin until the scheduled dinnertime so they could set up everything. Around 30 minutes before we were to return to the cabin, Josue messages me with his concerns that the weather is too cold and windy and suggests we switch to dining inside the cabin. We had the same issue on Enchanted Princess and told Josue to use his best judgement.
We arrived back at the cabin right on time to find that the setup had been moved inside. Our inside meal on Enchanted Princess was still just as lovely so we were not bothered by this change. Part of the experience is getting your picture taken at the dinner by a ship photographer. On the EP, we had time to change into nicer clothes, fix our hair etc before the photographer took our posed photos inside the cabin. On this sailing, we were immediately ushered to sit down at the table only to then have the photographer insist on doing pictures first and doing them outside in the high winds.
I was told by the photographer to put my hands in my pockets for this next shot. While my hair whips up behind me like it's attached to puppet strings.
Last shots were while seated again at the table.
The first bites that our waiter offered was from a tray of canapes. On EP, the tray was left on the table so we could have more later if we wanted. On SP, we were made to choose (we only chose a couple expecting lots more food to come) and the tray was whisked away.
The first course is a Pacific Blue Crab Cake Baked in a Puff Pastry Crown with thyme infused tomato chutney and whole grain mustard cream. Dad asked to have the mustard left off his dish. The picture below is of my dish with the included mustard cream.
For Dad's dish, they brought ranch dressing (at his request) to pour overtop.
Next course would have been Marinated Chevre and Mesclun Field Greens - pear, walnuts, and aged balsamic vinaigrette. We swapped that out for Caesar salads. To our amazement, instead of the small salad plates we were expecting, we were served a huge portion that filled a large dinner plate. We only ate about a third of the salad each. Our waiter was concerned that we didn't like it but we assured him that we were pacing ourselves to be able to enjoy a little of everything to come.
For our main dish, Dad ordered Grilled Filet of Beef Tenderloin Diane with chateau potatoes, vegetable bouquet, and mushroom demi-glace. He ordered his beef cooked medium well. I ordered the Surf and Turf option - Broiled Tail of cold water lobster and Grilled Filet of Beef Tenderloin - served with rissole potatoes, vegetable bouquet, and a duo of sauces. I requested my beef cooked to medium.
Here is what arrived for both of us - the Surf and Turf option and both cuts of beef were cooked only medium rare. The lemon slice was bigger than both the surf and turf pieces.
Dad was a bit disappointed that only getting beef didn't mean he ended up with two pieces of tenderloin since I had both lobster meat and beef. Despite that, he was willing to try the lobster rather than make our waiter have to take it all the way back to the galley. That changed however when we both cut into our meat and saw how undercooked it was compared to what we requested. Our waiter seemed surprised that it wasn't what we ordered but then questioned us about whether we wanted to eat it anyway. Unfortunately, this is not simply a case of getting the wrong sauce or side dish and we did ask to get a replacement cooked to our preferences.
After about 40 minutes of sitting at the table waiting for our replacement dishes, the waiter came back in to inform us that he did deliver it back to the galley but doesn't know why it is taking so long. Another 10-15 minutes pass and the waiter then claims that he's having his manager look into why it is still taking so long. After the hour mark passes since our entrees were whisked away with still no sign of our corrected entrees, we decide that this is going on way too long and are now at the risk of missing the evening activities we had previously told them we wished to be done with dinner by in order to attend. The waiter now changes his claim insisting that his previous report was not that it still wasn't ready but that the fixed dish was ready and on its way up to the cabin. If that were even the case, it wouldn't have taken another 15 minutes to get to us. We asked him "So then you have it out there on the cart ready to serve?" and he had to admit "Well, no but it's coming!" As my mother used to say, "Yeah it's coming? Well so is Christmas!" but instead I replied with the explanation that we no longer had any time left to wait. We asked that all of the dinner setup be cleared away.
After the evening activity was over, I tried to find something to eat since we didn't get to enjoy 80% of our meal. By that time, the MDR was closed, the buffet was closing up, the poolside stands were closed and the International Cafe had cleaned out their cases. We had tried nearly everything on the limited room service/OceanNow list on the previous days. Despite the fact that I can get sick if I don't eat enough often enough, I just couldn't bring myself to order another sandwich and salad.
When we shared our frustrations the next day with Josue, his immediate response was "Well, there's always room service." He did understand when we mentioned being tired of having to choose from the limited options. He did offer his apologies and escalated our feedback which led to a meeting with the restaurant manager and food and beverage director. This Ultimate Balcony Dinner experience, especially knowing how great it should have been, was really the boiling point of issues we'd been having throughout the voyage in various restaurants. We would like to thank the officers for meeting with us and hearing us out as we shared both the good and bad we'd been seeing while dining in all the restaurants. They did offer to have us try another UBD but we declined and chose to cancel the breakfast plans as well. We told them about our last already scheduled specialty dining plans in the Crown Grill when they asked and they promised to make sure we had the best experience. I will cover that evening's visit along with reports of our other visits to to the Crown Grill on another post.
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