DFDS Princess Seaways Restaurants, Café & Bars

DFDS Princess Seaways has a few food and beverage outlets open almost throughout the sailing. Here are the restaurants, café, and bars available on board DFDS Princess Seaways.

North Sea Bistro

North Sea Bistro is the premium sit-down restaurant only open for dinner. Prices here are quite high especially when compared with the fare of an Economy Cabin, but if you’d like a bit of premium and class for a sailing dinner, North Sea Bistro is for you.

A 2-course meal costs €38.95 and a 3-course meal costs €42.95. View the North Sea Bistro menu here.

Coffee Crew Café

Coffee Crew Café sells drinks and snacks for a light meal or quick breakfast.

Coffee Crew Café is located beside Kids’ Club so parents can watch over the kids while having a coffee.

Explorers Kitchen

Explorers Kitchen is the buffet restaurant on board. I made bookings here for dinner and breakfast, so here’s a review of the buffet offerings at Explorers Kitchen.

Explorers Kitchen Dinner Buffet

Dinner buffet reservations can be made online during booking. During my booking, I paid £22 per person for dinner.

With the British Pounds to Euros exchange rate estimated at 1 GBP = 1.17 EUR during my trip, booking online in advance in British Pounds was cheaper than paying on the spot, as the price on board is €29.95.

A staff will take note of reservations at the front counter first before showing you to your seat.

The Explorers Kitchen is quite big, probably meant to cater to most passengers on board as the main restaurant.

Tables are laid out in 2s of 4s, with flexibility to join or separate tables if necessary to accommodate groups of other sizes.

The table was set with a side plate, water glass, salt and pepper mills, and a drinks menu for additional drinks orders. The menu is similar to bars around the ship.

It was refreshing to be here at the buffet line that looks quite normal as this was my first self-service buffet after the COVID pandemic. It’s 2023 and it does indeed look normal, but my sailing was in April 2022 when Singapore had not opened up yet.

Plates and cutlery are at the start of the buffet line.

The dinner buffet line starts off with a selection of cold and hot appetisers.

Burgers and pizzas are also available.

A lot of carbs are available. This is the section to avoid piling up on if you want to get your money’s worth.

However, part of the carbs had Paella, so it was some carbs for me.

A DIY taco station follows.

Bruschetta and deviled eggs are also on the buffet line.

A long salad section follows.

A number of condiments are available.

There is also surprisingly an Asian section with fried rice, fried noodles, chicken tandoori, and teriyaki beef. Remember to avoid the carbs.

A wide variety of breads are also available, like a good cruise ship. Remember to avoid the carbs.

The ultimate buffet trap, white rice, is also available. Remember not to even attempt to take it.

There is a good selection of cheeses here towards the end of the buffet line.

Cakes and jellies are available at the dessert section.

Here’s a sampling of the first plate that I took from the buffet line. With the wide variety of food available, I went back for quite a few rounds in the hopes of trying almost everything.

Except the carbs sans paella.

Soft serve ice cream is available to finish off dinner on a sweet note, served by a staff behind the counter.

Dinner was not too busy, so it was also pleasantly quiet during my dinner. Perhaps most passengers brought their own picnic, or simply skipped dinner.

Explorers Kitchen Breakfast Buffet

The next morning, it was time to wake up for breakfast and arrival into IJmuiden (Amsterdam).

In the morning, the Explorers Kitchen buffet was a lot more crowded. There were also quite a few walk-ins without a prior booking. Perhaps breakfast is the most important meal of the day here.

A hot breakfast buffet is provided at Explorers Kitchen which was very pleasant. Most regular breakfast buffets in Europe are cold buffets with cold cuts, cheeses, milk etc., things that don’t require much cooking per se.

Soft boiled eggs and hard boiled eggs are available in-shell.

More scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausages.

Mushrooms are available which was a nice premium touch.

And perhaps some garnishes of cocktail sausages and tomatoes.

A simple gluten-free and vegan section is available which looks quite sad. If you require these diets, I suggest you just bring your own picnic from shore.

Ah yes, the European cold buffet is also here.

A selection of jams are available.

The cornflakes section has milk in individual bottles and some condiments.

Toasters are available for toast.

Yoghurt is also available here.

A wide variety of breads are available. Remember not to fill up on these and go for the hot food.

Some fruits to end off breakfast on a healthy note.

My first plate from the buffet line. Everything was pretty good, but I like breakfast food at any time of the day, so I may be biased here.

Sky Bar

The Sky Bar is located at the highest deck of the ship at Deck 11 near the funnel. This is accessed by external stairs from Deck 9 or 10.

Navigators Pub

The Navigators Pub is located on Deck 8.

Live music can be found here during the sailing by performers.

Columbus Club

The Columbus Club is also located on Deck 8, behind the Navigators Pub.

A dance floor is available which probably comes alive at night.

Plenty of seating is available here.

There was also a live band playing during my sailing.

Towards the evening, the Columbus Club comes alive with a Bingo game. It’s like a must-do to play Bingo on a cruise.

Compass Bar

The Compass Bar is located on Deck 7.

The drinks menu seems to be similar across all bars.

However, if you don’t need the atmosphere of sitting in a bar for a drink, the Sea Shop duty free alcohol is a lot cheaper than the bars.

Conclusion

There’s quite a few food options on board the DFDS Princess Seaways offering a good variety for a 1-night cruiseferry journey. Prices are a bit on the high side for restaurants if you are on a budget journey, but DFDS does not restrict passengers to bring your own picnic on board. Only alcohol is restricted, but with cheap wine at the Sea Shop, that shouldn’t be a problem.