New cruise line dining experiences make you forget you’re on a cruise

The cruise dining experience often takes advantage of the ship being at sea, with vast windows or al fresco seating overlooking the ocean beyond.

A recent trend, though, has seen cruise lines investing in designs meant to transport the diner away from the vessel.

One of the newest ventures is sticking them on a train. Royal Railway – Utopia Station is a featured restaurant coming on board Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas when it debuts this summer in Port Canaveral.

Cruisers will climb aboard a simulated train to experience what traveling on a dining car is like, complete with passing different countryside scenes projected on digital screens.

The first sailings will be limited to an adventure themed to the America’s Wild West for a 90-minute trip that mimics the sights, sounds and feel of a moving train car. Other themes in the works are based on the Silk Route trains that traveled through Asia and 30-minute offerings.

Diners start with pre-dinner drinks on a station platform, and when the train whistle sounds, board the dining car where a cast of performers play out an interactive storyline involving outlaws attempting a train robbery. Royal Caribbean put on a sample version of the experience at its Miami headquarters on Thursday.

The menu leans into ingredients from New Mexico and California. Hard drinks are thematic to the Old West (think pisco sour) as is the soft drink of sarsaparilla served in a flask. Entrees include river trout, braised short ribs and quail-esque roasted poussin. Appetizers include corn chowder, an empanada trio and “Fart & Dart Baked Beans.”

A little juvenile humor does make its way into the performance, as do some dad jokes and over-the-kids-heads jokes.

“It’s like a caricature. It’s good old-fashioned fun,” said Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley, but he said the performances and approach may depend on when cruisers are seated.

“In the afternoon into the early evening, it will be more kid-immersive. As you move later on into the evening, it will be more sophisticated,” he said.

The main draw to the experience are the continuous digital screen projections that include frontier towns and desert and mountain landscapes that could be right out of an Albert Bierstadt painting.

The final product resolution will be in 4K, but even the test run’s digital renderings were impressive, minus the few hiccups like a horse floating over the cliff.

Royal Caribbean’s chief product innovation officer Jay Schneider said relying on computer-generated video proved to be the better choice over real landscape videos,  although teams did visit actual railways in the West for inspiration.

“Now we can flip a switch and make this winter and make this nighttime,” he said. “That definitely kind of unlocked a lot of possibilities.”

There’s also the $200, three-hour-plus dining experience at the 38-seat venue Empire Supper Club that debuted on the world’s largest cruise ship Icon of the Seas that began sailing from Miami in January.

It transports diners to the roaring ’20s of New York City amid an eight-course meal with each course paired with a unique cocktail.

Diners enjoy music from the American Standards Trio with a vocalist, piano and stand-up bass.

The details such as the rotary phones in the lobby and the uniformed waiters and hostess wearing a sultry dinner gown add to the ambience. The menu delves into some not-so-common options such as oysters Rockefeller and a leg and loin duo of rabbit. More traditional fare is offered, too, including steak, seabass and Caesar salad.

The cocktail pairing approach means no wine, and that’s OK for the venue, said Linken D’Souza, vice president of food and beverage for Royal Caribbean International.

“We went through many iterations of the cocktails to make sure that they’re well balanced. … They paired exceptionally well with the food,” he said. “So that’s not E for everyone. And that’s OK. It’s just a unique niche experience that we want people to really be adventurous.”

Royal isn’t the first to venture down the thematic dining road, which has in some ways been dabbled with over the years, including dinner theater in-the-round venues on some Norwegian Cruise Line ships such as the short-lived magic-themed Illusionarium on Norwegian Getaway and the celebration of 1980s teen films from John Hughes on Norwegian Escape.

And Disney Cruise Line’s rotational dining has always served up a variety of thematic overlays. Its newest ships, though, have taken it to the next level.

That includes the Worlds of Marvel dining venue on both its latest ship Disney Wish, and its upcoming Disney Treasure debuting this December, both sailing out of Port Canaveral. Disney Wish also debuted Arendelle: A Frozen Dining Adventure, a vast food hall that expanded on similar approaches to dining themed to “Tangled” and “Princess & the Frog” on older ships Disney Magic and Wonder.

For Disney Treasure, the line is shelving “Frozen” in favor of the Disney-Pixar film “Coco.” The new overlay will feature a five-course meal with a modern take on traditional Mexican fare.

It will feature live performers telling the story of Miguel and his familia being offered up with different-themed seatings per voyage, as it’s tied to a seven-night sailing. The first night takes diners to Mariachi Plaza with Miguel’s parents Enrique and Luisa as well as Abuelita Elena. The second night takes diners to the town square in Santa Cecilia through where Miguel and his ancestors including great-great grandparents Hector and Mama Imelda celebrate Día de los Muertos.

“The adventure takes you through [those] heartstrings, and pulls you back into family, right?” said Carlos Jimenez, a managing producer with Disney Cruise Line Entertainment. “Doesn’t matter if you’re coming from the Mexican culture or any other culture. Family’s at the center – la familia es todo. So family is everything and we want to make sure we’re telling that beautiful story.”

Princess Cruises also debuted a suite-level guest offering called “360: An Extraordinary Experience” on board Enchanted Princess and Discovery Princess.

The line carved out a small rotunda venue with two half-circle long tables facing one another for 20 diners to serve up a seven-course meal that hits all the senses over an hour and a half.

Diners begin seated within a dark room surrounded by digital screen snapshots of Mediterranean destinations about the circular enclosed walls, What follows is a combination of storytelling of a culinary adventure from Greece to Italy to Spain and into France with an assist from actress Brooke Shields leading the way.

It’s a narrative device to get the real stories told, the source of the various culinary delights presented with white-glove service from course to course, whether it’s the Spanish divers who take the red varietal Grenache and age it underwater or the French lavender farmer who explains where the distinct honey flavor comes from.

Along the way, and intense and detailed projection about the room and onto the dinner service plates invites diners to interact with their meal settings before the actual food is presented, such as virtually smashing some Greek plateware or digging up their own Spanish truffle.

The scents of the food while dining could suffice, but an effusive olfactory accompaniment hits here and there such as the lemon aroma ahead of the tasty Italian dish pasta al limone while its recipe is projected upon the screen.

“What happens here in 360 is you can be anywhere in the world and we’re going to transport you into the Mediterranean,” said Princess Cruises President John Padgett during the experience’s debut event. “We have immersive video, storytelling, food and wine that intersects with the story.”