Best Princess Cruises dining experiences
Princess Cruises is serving up a theatrical twist on dinner and a show.
‘Are you curious? Are you hungry? Are you ready?” asks Madeline, our svelte Polish maitre d’ aboard Princess Cruises’ Enchanted Princess. We are all of those things. And so, led by two violinists riffing on the theme tune of The Love Boat, our group of 20 defies an Emergency Exit Only sign as we make for the rear of a busy ship’s restaurant and into a magical circular room. This is the set of 360: An Extraordinary Experience, a theatrical twist on dinner and a show.
Diners will mine the Mediterranean for this adventure, which is part documentary, part seven-course degustation. The walls of our Narnia-for-a-night turn out to be a floor-to-ceiling LED screen. Hidden motion sensors, cameras, projectors, and music drive the action. Twenty-odd staff provide the food and the flourishes. In sharp focus are the sights and sounds of the regions which produce the bounty served. Both the horseshoe-shaped table and the plates served are animated and interactive. As the night proceeds, projections appear in front of us of swarms of bees, prancing bulls, sunflowers, buried truffles and luscious lemons. Hidden atomisers match ingredients with their scents.
The 360: An Extraordinary Experience is a treat for passengers who’ve booked suites aboard two Princess Cruises ships, Discovery Princess and Enchanted Princess. I’ve joined the latter for a one-week sailing that starts in Barcelona and docks in Gibraltar, Marseille, Genoa, Florence and Pisa (Livorno) and Rome. Greece features, too. Brooke Shields joins us for dinner. Well, sort of. The Hollywood actor is the on-screen narrator, playing the role of Bethany, a traveller who writes a journal from her cruise ship balcony, recording her agrarian impressions. Tassos, a Koroneiki olive farmer, talks to camera, explaining the importance of olive oil in Greek culture. A mezze plate of kalamata olives, tzatziki, extra virgin olive oil and tiny pita bread cushions arrives. On the wall are tasting notes for Kalamata, Amfissa, Tsakistes and Halkidiki olives.
Over the course of 90 minutes, we “meet” beekeepers, fishermen, a truffle hunter (who is a cute dog), a veteran producer of charcuterie, lavender farmers, and winemakers whose barnacle-encrusted bottles of Grenache are stored at the bottom of the sea. If the menu weren’t so charismatic, guests would surely be distracted. Grilled octopus with a Tahitian pearl-coloured hue sits on flicks of feta, Spanish onions and micro herbs. Burrata and heirloom tomatoes prove that simple can shine brightest, an idea reinforced by a sublime spaghetti with lemon sauce. A nuggety truffle turns out to be a big ball of butter with a crushed truffle crust that melts all over the tenderloin. Dessert is a bliss ball of lavender honey mousse with a honeycomb lattice tiara and jellied bees sitting on white chocolate ottomans.
These days it is this level of culinary one-upmanship that sets the cruise lines apart. Just ask the regulars. For example, foodies swap notes about the Chef’s Garden Kitchen on MSC World Europa. They weigh up La Reserve Dom Perignon Experience against the Privee dining experiences on Oceania Cruises. They compare the elegant Pinnacle Grill on Holland America Line with its sibling, Rudi’s Sel de Mer. They get misty-eyed about Princess Cruises’ Ultimate Balcony Breakfast, so bountiful is barely fits through the door. But 360: An Extraordinary Experience is not the only gourmet temptation on Enchanted Princess. Awarded chef and cookbook author Rudi Sodamin, master chef on Holland America Line, added Princess Cruises to his executive portfolio in January last year when he was named Head of Culinary Arts. His mission has been to liven up the “table culture” and elevate the food offerings. He confesses to being a “presentation freak”.
Sodamin’s own restaurant on board Enchanted Princess, The Catch by Rudi, is a seafood party you’d walk over hot coals for. A generous display of oysters, prawns, lobster, and crab “for the table” gets the ball rolling. Glistening seabass, red snapper and dorado (mahi mahi) are the catches of the day. A deep ceramic pot holds Provencal-style mussels in a broth of white wine, cream, scallions, tomatoes and garlic. Crusty bread? Ovviamente! But you’d go back for the butter alone at The Catch, and the oysters’ shallot vinaigrette. It’s all about the detail. And Sodamin is quite the performer. A cooking demonstration on board Enchanted Princess is a kind of Marx Brothers meets Play School. Instructing three passengers in the dark arts of souffle, one pupil tips in too many egg yolks. “It is now no longer a souffle,” Sodamin quips, “it is a pancake.”
Collaborations take gastronomy to another level. A three-hour, five-course degustation for groups of up to 12 passengers in a private room is paired with wines from Chuck Wagner’s Caymus Vineyards in California. Dishes include marinated mushrooms (oyster and wood ear) with green pea granita and roasted hearts of romaine lettuce, and a black truffle risotto that incorporates Parmigiana Reggiano aged for 36 months. There’s a wine list being assembled for the ship’s Crown Grill, where guests can access Caymus’s 17 iconic labels from Napa, Sonoma and Suisun valleys. The family’s two cabernet sauvignons – Caymus Napa Valley and Caymus Special Selection – are among the region’s most ordered wines.
There’s a nice synchronicity with shore excursions, too. The lemon spaghetti at the 360 dinner party leaves us wanting more of such perfection. At Alfredo restaurant in the Genoese pitstop of Recco, we learn how to make little twists of trofie pasta and Ligurian pesto, plus the local specialty of thin, crisp focaccia oozing prescinseua cheese.
Later, in Livorno, we pay a visit to Fattoria Vialto, a Tuscan farm that produces olives, honey, sunflowers, eggs, and truffles. It’s run by Davide Gastaldini and Francesca Mascagni and their children. We are given insights into a working farm and a repast made from the fruits of their labours. Lunch under the trees by the restored 16th-century farmhouse includes bread drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, pecorino and prosciutto, and pasta with ragu. It’s impossible not to be tempted by purchases of Vialto dried fusilli pasta and jars of truffled artichokes. Whether spread on focaccia or tossed through risotto once home, it’s a safe bet you’ll be transported straight back to the Mediterranean.
IN THE KNOW
Princess Cruises, one of Carnival Corporation’s nine brands, has been sailing the Mediterranean since 1985. Enchanted Princess, a Royal Class ship, features 1830 staterooms. There are 15 ships in the Princess fleet, with two new vessels, Sun Princess and Star Princess, due to launch in 2024 and 2025 respectively to mark the company’s 40th anniversary. Princess Cruises’ seven-day Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona to Rome starts at $2217 a person, twin-share, in a balcony cabin.
Susan Skelly was a guest of Princess Cruises.
