Day 12 - At Sea Crossing The Atlantic
Ship: Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess
Itinerary: 16-Night Transatlantic - Southampton to Fort Lauderdale
This morning I decide it would be a good idea to check out the breakfast service at Horizon’s Dining Room, the main dining room on Sun Princess. Horizon’s actually spans three decks, and breakfast and lunch are only offered on Deck 6.
When I arrived at 9:10 (they serve until 9:30 am) the dining room was about half full. I was seated at a table for two. The breakfast menu is extensive and I was quickly offered a cup of coffee.
MDR Breakfast Menu
I wanted to try a few different items, so I ordered the Eggs Benedict, an English Banger sausage and a side of English Back Bacon. While I did not order the hash brown patty, it came with one anyway.
The eggs were poached to “easy”, I would have preferred “medium”, but that is my fault for not telling the waiter. The yolks were still runny, but some of the egg white was uncooked. The Hollandaise was good, as was the Canadian Bacon underneath and the eggs were served hot. Everything else was good, even the hash brown, which I normally do not eat, but took a bite anyway.
Breakfast in Horizon’s is definitely a better experience that trying to fight the crowds at The Eatery (the ship’s buffet).
Eggs Benedict
This morning, we tried to get a seat at Princess Live! to play trivia and we even showed up half an hour early. The room was packed with people attending a shopping talk. It appears that The Dome and The Princess Arena are not the only venues where you need to show up an hour early to find a seat.
Princess LIVE! Is Packed
We ended up in The Piazza where we watched a Jenga game. Not the most exciting activity we have attended.
Jenga in Piazza
Since we have dinner reservations tonight at Crown Grill, we do not want to have a big lunch. I thought this would be a good opportunity to try the burger at The Promenade Grill (Deck 7 port). Rickee ordered some French Fries and specified that she wanted them made fresh.
The Promenad Grill
The burger comes dressed with tomato, lettuce, “chef’s sauce”, and melted cheese. It only took a couple of bites for me to tell that this burger was not nearly as good as the one offered at O’Malley’s Pub for $10.
Burger from Promenade Grill
Rickee’s fries, on the other hand, were very good. Sure, they are frozen fries, but when you get them fresh and hot, they are quite good.
French Fries at Promenade Grill
We avoid the crowds and lines most days in the peaceful quiet of our Cabana mini suite, either relaxing on the small settee in the cabana or on the balcony reading. So, much of the rest of our blog posts may start to look more like a series of food reviews!
This evening, we have reservations at Crown Grill, Princess’ steakhouse. The cost to dine here is $45 per person and is covered by our Premier Package. The first observation first was that there is really no place to have a nice quiet drink before dinner at Crown Grill. On the other Princess Ships (Royal Class) the Crown Grill has its own bar. Not so on Sun Princess. The only choice is Good Spirits, which holds fewer than 40 people, or, Bellini’s Bar at The Piazza, but it is very crowded and noisy. We ended up at Bellini’s but struggled to find a table.
Rickee started off with the Blue Iceberg Wedge Salad and I started with a Caesar Salad.
Blue Iceberg Salad
Both salads were very good.
Caesar Salad
My second course was the Colossal Lump Crab Cake, which was delicious, although a little more of the mustard cream sauce would have been nice.
Crab Cake
Rickee’s second course was the Black and Blue Onion Soup which she loved. It was full of cooked onions with a slight blue cheese flavor and was very good.
Black and Blue Onion Soup
For her main course, Rickee said she only wanted a shrimp cocktail, normally a Starter course. The waitress said she would bring a double order.
Shrimp Cocktail (Double order)
Being more of a meat eater, I ordered the 14 oz Rib Eye steak. I ordered the steak to be cooked Medium, and it was cooked perfectly. The steak was delicious and one of the best steaks I have ever had at Crown Grill.
14 oz Boneless Rib Eye
We both decided to skip dessert because we were too full. One interesting thing to note, there is a discrepancy between the menu at Crown Grill and the menu they show in the Princess app. Some of the “upcharge” items on the app do not appear on the menu in the restaurant and vice-versa.
Tomorrow is yet another day at sea as we sail toward Ft. Lauderdale.
