FX Excursions

FX Excursions offers the chance for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in destinations around the world.

Cruise Ship Specialty Restaurants

by fxgallagher

May 27, 2014
2014 / June 2014

Foremost among the concerns of cruise passengers is food — the quality and variety of the cuisine served on board — to the point some guests book a vessel based as much on its restaurants as on its destinations. To meet the tastes of an increasingly discerning audience, cruise lines not only upgraded their offerings in the main dining rooms and buffet lines but launched a flotilla of alternative restaurants that are a cut above the standard fare. These specialty dining venues offer gourmet menus (often developed by celebrity chefs), 5-star service, exclusive à la minute dishes, high-end wine lists and first-class décor, all subject to limited seating and bookings in advance — and extra charges that change often and vary by ship and menu. As luxury alternatives, a vessel’s specialty restaurants meet the demands for a variety of dining options while providing a culinary experience of sufficient magnitude to underline a special week at sea.

Specialty restaurants first came aboard on the Queen Mary in 1936, a tradition revived by The Verandah restaurants on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria liners, where Michelin star winner Jean-Marie Zimmermann presides over French regional cuisine. Items on The Verandah’s menu are individually priced ($6–18). Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 expanded its gourmet culinary options, too, by opening a Todd English Restaurant. The Mediterranean cuisine of Boston-based celebrity chef Todd English, including his celebrated chocolate fallen cake, can be enjoyed for a surcharge (lunch $20/dinner $30) that’s far below his land-based charges.

Specialty dining leaped back into vogue recently on nearly every major cruise line, spearheaded by Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Freestyle Dining program which allows passengers to challenge their palates outside the main dining rooms with a meal in a steakhouse (Moderno Churrascaria), a French bistro, an Italian café or an Asian fusion restaurant, subject to a charge of $10–30 per person. The multiple-option dining experience is also particularly pronounced on Princess Cruises. At Sabatini’s, passengers enjoy a full Italian menu, including a personal pizza, in a Tuscan villa setting with a $29 cover charge. The Crown Grill specialty restaurant is renowned for its live lobster, and for gourmands, Princess also offers the Chef’s Table Lumiere, served at a private glass table in the Allegro Dining Room (cover charge $115). Another special treat, limited to 19 passengers a night, is the Chef’s Table dining experience, which unfolds in the galley and finishes at a private table where the chef joins diners for dessert. Princess also conducts Wine Maker’s Dinners in its wine cellars, pairing wines and carved meats for groups of 12 ($40 cover charge).

Specialty dining has also enabled chefs at sea to create some leading-edge venues, such as Qsine on Celebrity Cruises, an experimental restaurant in which Chef John Suley eschews a course-by-course menu altogether and challenges diners with new inventions, from grilled beef sliders to sushi lollipops ($45 cover charge).

Perhaps the most popular specialty dining restaurant at present is the steakhouse grill. Carnival Splendor’s Pinnacle Steakhouse is actually a supper club with live music, a glass dance floor and 5-star service, including a sommelier ($35 cover charge). Princess Cruises offers a New Orleans-style specialty restaurant, the Bayou Café Steakhouse, with Cajun and Creole cuisine and a live jazz band ($20 cover charge).

James Beard award-winning chef Michael Schwartz oversees the specialty dining restaurant 150 Central Park on Royal Caribbean’s mega cruise ships Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. Here, the six-course meals come with a $40 cover charge, and glasses of premium wine are extra. Holland America’s specialty dining restaurant is the Pinnacle Grill, an elegant setting for innovative beef and seafood dishes ($10 lunch/$25 dinner cover charge). Once a week, the Pinnacle Grill hosts An Evening at Le Cirque, bringing to sea the dishes and wines of Sirio Maccioni’s Le Cirque restaurant in New York for $39 per guest.

The expansion of alternative dining is nowhere more intense than on Celebrity Cruises’ Solstice, where there are now nine separate eating choices, including four ranked as gourmet specialty dining venues. Murano is the most elegant of these options and the most expensive, with a five-course French and Italian meal, paired with wines, running an extra $140 per person. Also on the pricier end of the specialty dining spectrum is Disney Cruise Line’s Remy restaurant, where top French chef Arnaud Lallement has designed two à la carte tasting menus starting with a Taittinger Champagne cocktail and including such tantalizers as smoked bison with fennel and leeks ($75 cover charge). Currently the most expensive specialty dining experience is offered on Silversea, where a multicourse dinner with wine is $200 extra per person.

Whether these special menus and venues are worth the surcharge is open to debate. A number of passengers have harped that this is nickel-and-diming at its brashest. Cruise lines report they are not making a profit with these extra charges, although additional wine sales at special restaurants seem to help. The additional fees are justified as being considerably less than the price of a comparable gourmet meal in a fine restaurant on land.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Prime 7 restaurant © Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Prime 7 restaurant © Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Bucking the tide of surcharges, dining at Seabourn’s specialty restaurant, Restaurant 2, confers no cover charge, but passengers are limited to one free booking per week. Restaurant 2’s Mediterranean menu changes nightly, with duck, quail and lobster frequent centerpieces. Oceania Cruises’ Asian fusion specialty restaurant, Red Ginger, is also free of charge. The chef at the helm is Jacques Pepin, and the menu is rife with new interpretations of Far East standards, such as sea bass glazed with miso. Crystal Cruises also offers each passenger one free dinner at each of its specialty restaurants Prego and Silk Road, with return visits subject to a $30 cover charge. (Penthouse passengers can order room service from either restaurant free as often as they wish.) Regent Seven Seas, too, makes sure every passenger has one free evening at the 70-seat Prime 7 alternative restaurant, where Maine lobsters, Alaskan king crab legs and a 14-layer chocolate cake beckon. Even where surcharges prevail, frequent cruisers have found that specialty restaurants often offer at-sea discounts and early-bird savings, and several lines offer packages that cover specialty restaurants for the entire voyage.

While premium dining alternatives frequently cost extra, the price may be worth paying for passengers seeking gourmet repasts, varied menus or a special evening to be celebrated in an intimate, world-class restaurant at sea.

Introducing

FX Excursions

FX Excursions offers the chance for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in destinations around the world.

Explore Excursions

#globility

Insta Feed
Daily
Jun 19, 2025

The Spa at Terranea Debuts $4.5 Million Renovation

Located at Terranea Resort, a 102-acre oceanfront resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, The Spa at Terranea recently completed a $4.5 million renovation of its facilities, led by RVD Associates, a Los Angeles-based, full-service interior design firm. The 50,000-square-foot spa boasts new décor throughout, a new entry and lobby, modernized lockers and bathrooms, refreshed treatment rooms and lounge areas, and a revitalization of the outdoor areas.

Explore Europe with the Best River Cruise Line this November

Experience Europe from a fresh perspective with AmaWaterways, just awarded Best River Cruise Line by Global Traveler for the third consecutive year. Step aboard, unpack once and embark on a cruise through iconic capital cities and awe-inspiring landscapes. AmaWaterways' ships, which accommodate an average of just 156 guests, offer a spacious yet intimate setting. Throughout your journey, you'll enjoy exquisite farm-to-table dining; unparalleled service; and a variety of included excursions, from city tours for gentle walkers to thrilling bike rides along the rivers.

Daily
Jun 18, 2025

Don’t Miss These 5 Exceptional Museums in Budapest

There’s a magic to Budapest that’s hard to define. It may be the light or scents or even sounds — regardless, a great way to get a feel for this beautiful location is through its outstanding collection of museums. Here are a few to consider:

Daily
Jun 18, 2025

A New Coastal Community Rises in the Dominican Republic

Real estate development firm BECCA and strategic architecture and planning partner GRITT teamed up for a new project, The Don Dom. This new gated residential complex is set to open in 2027 in the heart of Dominicus-Bayahibe, and aims to blend the ease of resort-style living with comfort and privacy.

Three New Routes from TAP Air Portugal as Airline Celebrates 80 Years

TAP Air Portugal offers three new routes to Portugal:  from Boston (BOS) to Porto (OPO), Los Angeles (LAX) to Lisbon (LIS) and San Francisco (SFO) to Terceira (TER) in the Azores.

eFlyer Reviews
Jun 18, 2025

W Costa Rica – Reserva Conchal Review

On Costa Rica’s north Pacific Coast, the tranquil, 150-room W Reserva Conchal is located in a 2,300-acre, government-protected wildlife preserve encapsulating much of the country’s incredible eco-diversity. Habitats include mangroves, estuaries and a tropical dry forest; these places are home to howler monkeys, coatis, iguanas, magpie-jays, and perhaps a jaguar... if you can tear yourself from your room, that is. My Spectacular Ocean Escape was exactly that, decked out in vibrant hues to mirror the expansive views of lush foliage and tropical flowers (and ocean beyond), while incorporating indigenous patterns of tico culture. Design details included a green leather headboard and free-form leather sofa, a blue and orange mural, and tropical hardwood furnishings and paneling. A surfboard was reimagined into a shelf for the coffee station in a clever nod to the region’s surfing culture. The massive bathroom’s oversized shower looks out onto the vegetation, and my balcony was the perfect nook to sip wine with a side of sunset.

June 2025
Jun 18, 2025

Immerse in a Blissful Haven of Wellness at AVA Resort Cancun and Its New Spa

It’s hard to imagine a mother’s trip with her adult daughter could get any better. We’d lounged by what’s likely the largest pool in Cancún — perhaps even on the Riviera Maya — sharing secrets and consummate laughter. We chose gluttonously from an array of 17 compelling bars and restaurants, each with its own theme, from Mexican to Italian to Japanese; practiced yoga atop a promontory hovering over the sea; and toasted sunsets with margaritas. But now, when pampering wellness calls, we spend the day in Mexico’s buzziest new spa: The SPA at AVA. Amazingly, while at the spa, things get yet more mother-daughter, bond-making sweet ... our trip’s absolute pièce de résistance.

Royal Air Maroc Introduces Groundbreaking Safety Video: A Captivating Invitation to Discover Moroccan Heritage

Royal Air Maroc continues to elevate the passenger experience with the launch of its new in-flight safety video — a cinematic journey that seamlessly blends essential safety instructions with a celebration of Moroccan cultural heritage.

eFlyer Lead
Jun 18, 2025

Anti-Tourism Protests Ramp Up in Europe

From firing water guns to forcing the Louvre to shut down, protests have escalated across Southern Europe in response to overtourism. Overtourism is a growing problem in popular destinations around the world, affecting the environment, cost of living, housing availability and the overall happiness of locals.