Casual Italian food versus specialty Italian food

One thing that seems to confuse a lot of cruisers, especially those new to Princess, is the wording in the Plus and Premier rate packages describing casual dining meals and specialty dining meals. What constitutes a casual dining venue is a venue that isn't quite as upscale and most notably a cheaper price per visit to dine there. While some specialty restaurants can cost upwards of $50 per person, these casual dining venues cost only $14.99 per adult or $7.99 for a child aged 3-12. Cruisers often save these venues for lunches or when they want something lighter. The newest version of Princess Plus gives you four casual dining meals per voyage while it is unlimited in Princess Premier. Casual dining restaurants do not take or require reservations so like Anytime Dining, you may have to wait with a pager until a table becomes available.

The caveat however, is that to use your included credit, you have to order from a prix fixe menu. A prix fixe menu, also a confusing wording for cruisers, means that you are limited to ordering from a certain list of dishes or one dish per course to be included. In the case of Ocean Terrace, a sushi restaurant also included in casual dining, it's a pre-set menu of choices you receive. At Alfredo's, the pizza/Italian restaurant, it's based on courses. You can order one appetizer (soup/salad), one entree, and one dessert. You're welcome to order anything beyond that at either restaurant but those will be charged to your onboard account at a la carte prices. Check out a menu for Alfredo's at Princess' official website here. Alfredo's offers options for vegans, vegetarians, dairy-free, and gluten-free. 

We dined at Alfredo's twice during this cruise. It was routinely a popular venue, especially as it got later in the cruise with everyone thinking they'd better use or lose their included meals. We dined once for dinner and were seated as the only table around the corner so it took a while to get a waiter to realize we were there. For our later lunch visit near the end of the cruise, we got in just before they had to start handing out pagers because no tables were available. 

I thought it was quirky when our cans of Diet Coke arrived, one with the emphasis on "my" and the other one with no emphasis. 

Insalata Mista appetizer - mixed lettuces, cherry tomato, red and yellow bell peppers, radish, basil leaves, with the chef's balsamic-herb and extra virgin olive oil vinaigrette.

I chose to do the Create Your Own Pizza option. This and any of the themed Tony Gemignani pizza choices cost an extra $12 each. Both the Sun Princess and the Sky Princess waiters told us that ordering one of these was still $12 each even if you have a casual dining credit to use. We were okay with paying the charge but none showed up on our account. I did have quite a few bar charges show up on my account during the cruise that weren't ours but a quick note to Josue had that cleared each time. Make sure to routinely check your accounts on the medallion app so you're not in that long guest services line on the last night.

Pepperoni and Italian Pork Sausage with Tony's Pizza Sauce (aka marinara or red sauce)

Dad ordered the calzone and didn't like it. I shared a few slices of my pizza with him and he liked that better. The pizzas are basically plate sized equaling around 4-6 pieces so they can be shared or enjoyed by one if you're really hungry. We did have a cruiser dining alone next to us who was given a room service style covered lid to be able to take her leftovers back to the cabin. There is no way to reheat the food later but if you like that cold pizza late night snack, the option is there. Many have asked whether you can only use one of your casual dining credits if you choose to split every course. The answer seems to vary between cruiser experiences so best to ask onboard before you dine.

On our second visit, we both chose the included Pizza Pepperoni - tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy pepperoni, crushed red pepper, and oregano. We both felt like there was such a difference between the taste and quality of the included pizza and the one from Create Your Own/Tony Gemignani. Surprisingly, it was the included pizza that we both liked better!

The specialty Italian restaurant on board Sky Princess is called Sabatini's Italian Trattoria. This venue does require making reservations. The cost is currently $55 per adult and $27.50 per child (3-12). I've heard that the menu may be changing again but click here to view the closest iteration to what we chose from on this sailing. If there is more than one picture for a dish shown below, it's because it was ordered on more than one visit.

This arancini used to feature at least two pieces when it was one of the appetizer choices. Now they serve a single one to each diner and automatically bring it to you instead of the old variety platter. Still just as delicious as when it was an appetizer choice and you can always ask for another.

Fritto Misto alla Veneziana Appetizer - light and crispy Venetian style fried shrimp and calamari, paired with grilled polenta and served with spicy marinara. I liked that the calamari was more lightly breaded as many tend to be too breaded and crispy. 

Burrata Caprese - fresh creamy stracciatella-filled cheese complemented by red and yellow tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, balsamic glaze, and basil oil. Creaminess meets saltness meats pepperiness meets delicious. Caprese salad meets an Italian sub. 

Fettuccine al Tartufo e Parmigiano - truffle-infused velvety parmigiano-reggiano sauce, topped with grated black truffle, a crispy parmesan tuile, and a drizzle of herbed oil.  

Spaghetti Polpette - rich meatballs of beef and pork, slowly braised in a mariana of san marzano tomatoes, garlic, onion, and herbs. Apparently all of the meatballs got together to form one big monopoly meatball since this description was added to the menu.  

Linguine Alla Carbonara - a luxurious creamy sauce of eggs, pancetta, and aged parmesan. I was definitely going to be trying the carbonara on at least one of our visits. Princess is pretty consistent when it comes to offering a good carbonara and this one lands in my top five of dishes I've tried across the cruises.

Lasagna Bolognese al Forno - fresh pasta sheets layered with bechamel and a long-simmered tomato and meat ragu, baked with aged parmesan.

Scaloppine di Pollo al Limone e Rosmarino - boneless chicken breast sauteed in fragrant lemon and rosemary, served with asparagus and creamy mashed potatoes.

Chicken Parmigiana - fresh buffalo mozzarella and tomato, served with basil roasted potato

Continuing our tradition of being too full for dessert - the manager begged us to stay on our second visit so that they could bring out the free celebration chocolate cake (just big enough for two) and sing Happy Birthday to me. We laughed it off when the crew brought the cake to Dad at first and the manager tried to keep smiling and hide the fact that he was desperately motioning to correct them. I was pleased to see that they acknowledged the day I'd chosen for celebrating (unlike on the Sun Princess where they insisted that fleetwide they don't do that anymore) but was again disappointed to see that they completely forgot about the date I'd chosen for Dad's birthday celebration. In the end he's the one that ate most of the cake from this night that we had sent back to the cabin. 

Back during the initial launch of the medallion, the interactive TV screens in the elevator lobbies were sensing your personal medallion when you walked by and changing to display a Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary message if it was the day you selected to celebrate. It added to the special feeling because anyone else passing by would see the message and give their best wishes as well. On our voyage, I had to scan my medallion to log in and then a very dimly lit message wishing me a Happy Birthday appeared. We tried scanning to log in on Dad's scheduled day and still no message or acknowledgement.