World Dream Super Seacation Cruise To Nowhere

The Palace on board the World Dream has a wide range of dining options to choose from. While there is an exclusive restaurant for The Palace guests only, specialty restaurants around the ship are also part of The Palace’s inclusive dining options.

Yep, the S$108+ premium meal you can purchase if you are a regular cruiser is free of charge for The Palace guests, making my upgrade price really worth it, since I had already budgeted for 1 premium meal on board anyway.

Here’s what I had throughout my cruise, and some others that I didn’t get a chance to try since there were more restaurants than meal times on this 3-day Super Seacation cruise.

NEW: October 2021 Update

There has been some reductions of Palace dining options some time in October 2021, with each specialty restaurant allowed to be dined at only ONCE per cruise for lunch and dinner.

However, this has since been changed to unlimited dining at the Palace Restaurant at all meal times, while the other specialty restaurants remain restricted to once per cruise.

Here’s the Palace brochure on my cruise in November 2021. While Palace guests can only enjoy each specialty restaurant only once per cruise, the Palace Restaurant is open for repeat visits.

Most of the Palace Restaurant food is quite okay, and I would happily have all my meals at the Palace Restaurant, so this new restriction is still quite okay for me.

At other meal times like breakfast, morning tea, afternoon tea, afternoon High Tea, and supper, the Palace Restaurant remains open for unlimited dining.

Click here for Palace Restaurant unlimited dining details for Palace guests.

The details in this article are still applicable, except that you can only dine at each of the specialty restaurants once per cruise. Note that this does not mean you choose one specialty restaurant per cruise. This means that restaurants cannot be repeated in each cruise, and you can dine at each one 1 time per cruise.

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World Dream The Palace Premium Beverage Package (No Longer Available)

Before I start on the food, I’ll probably need to explain the drinks pairing with it in the pictures you will see shortly, so that you don’t get confused on your own Palace experience if you are going for your cruise after reading this article.

Up till docking at 9am on 3 March 2021, The Palace included the Premium Beverage Package as part of the Palace privileges. This Premium Beverage Package has since been removed, replaced by an evening Happy Hour instead with selected wines, beers, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages.

This removal of the Premium Beverage Package is very unfortunate, but there seems to be a new Palace sale going on, so I guess the cost might even out, for now.

To summarize it in other words, there is no more free flow alcohol for Palace guests from 3 March 2021, unless you buy the Premium Beverage Package in addition to The Palace fare. Free flow of coffee, tea, and juices are still available for The Palace guests throughout the cruise.

As a regular middle-class person not used to the full suite of luxury on demand, I’ll give credit to Dream Cruises for this unnecessarily extensive 6-page Premium Beverage Package menu for The Palace guests.

I was on a mission to drink every single cocktail on the menu because I can (excluding proper drinks pairing during meals), even with my friend helping, and I’m disappointed to report that I couldn’t even do half of the 24 cocktails available. I believe I might have succeeded if I was allowed to order drinks after 10.30pm, but hey, Singapore laws still apply on this cruise to nowhere.

I do wish that Dream Cruises would have at least considered to offer one glass of house wine for each premium lunch and dinner in the new severely-reduced Palace menu though.

World Dream The Palace All Day Beverage Menu

This is the new Palace drinks menu as of 3 March 2021. Note that even fresh juices are gone now, being replaced by boxed juices.

World Dream The Palace Happy Hour

Here’s the updated The Palace’s Daily with details of the new Palace drinks menu (quote “tea, coffee, chilled juice and chocolate drinks”) and Palace Happy Hour from 5pm to 7pm on high seas day at Palace Lounge, Palace Restaurant, Palace Pool Side Cafe, Genting Club Lounge, and Private Saloons.

With the cessation of the Palace Premium Beverage Menu which was absolutely amazing and the highlight of my previous Palace experience (I promise I’m not an alcoholic), the inclusive alcohol in The Palace is now reduced to just the Palace Happy Hour from 5pm to 7pm on high seas day.

Here’s the Palace Happy Hour menu:

All basic non-alcoholic drinks on board are pretty much provided. There are 5 types of bottled beer to choose from too, Heineken, Tiger, Guinness, Corona, and Asahi.

Non-alcoholic beer, White Wine, Red Wine, Sparkling Wine are also available, although they were out of Rawson’s Retreat wines for every single one of my cruise so far.

Spirits such as Rum, Tequila, Gin, Vodka, Whisky, and Cognac are available.

And the menu ends with coffee, tea, and chocolate drinks.

HEY, where’s my cocktails?????

So basically, the Palace Happy Hour menu is a mashup of the Classic Beverage Package and the Premium Beverage Package, with selected spirits, selected beers, house wines, coffees and teas, chilled juices, soft drinks, and bottled water provided, and with fresh juices, aperitifs, cordials, a lot of other whiskeys, cocktails, and mocktails now nerfed.

Not cool.

I was looking forward to an Espresso Martini, but this was not to be. Still, I tried mixing my own with an espresso shot, vodka, and some sugar syrup in place of Kahlúa coffee liqueur. It was still nice, but not as nice as an actual properly mixed Espresso Martini.

Palm Court

Now let’s talk about the wonderful things that can be done with the complimentary defunct Palace Premium Beverage Package. The Palm Court is a panoramic drinks area on Deck 19, all the way at the top of the World Dream. With the complimentary Palace Premium Beverage Package, drinks here in the Palm Court (and anywhere on board for that matter) were all free of charge.

There was live music at night too, which, I kid you not, belted out some sailing-related songs like this:

To drown my sorrows of potentially drowning if there are not enough lifeboats since I am neither women nor children, I had free drinks here at Palm Court with my golden Palace cabin access key card.

Bar 360

Bar 360 is located right smack in the middle of the Resorts World At Sea Casino on Deck 6. This is where gamblers in the public casino grab their drinks. With my golden Palace card, drinks are free for me too.

To further emphasize that you are truly in a casino, there are free touchscreen table games at Bar 360 for you to play with while waiting for and having your drink. This is where I freely placed a S$75,000 bet on Baccarat which I promptly lost in an instant while laughing.

I first had a Martini to kick off the afternoon.

The Martini was thankfully not so strong so I could try out more drinks.

The Espresso Martini was skillfully shaken and presented by the bartender.

Gently placing coffee beans to complete the garnish on the Espresso Martini.

Ordering cocktails without a care about cost truly elevated my Palace experience and made my upgrade well and truly worth it. Unfortunately, the Premium Beverage Package costs S$188 even for The Palace guests now, and such a carefree drinking experience without extra cost is not possible.

World Dream The Palace All-Inclusive Specialty Restaurants

Now let’s move on with all the great inclusive specialty meals available to The Palace guests.

Umi Uma Korean BBQ

I kickstarted my cruise with lunch at Umi Uma Korean BBQ just after upgrading and getting my new, shiny, golden Palace cabin access key card, even before heading up to my Palace Suite, since lunch time was almost over.

In Umi Uma, Palace guests can choose between Teppanyaki (reservations required), Bento sets, and Korean BBQ (reservations recommended).

For this first meal, I opted for Korean BBQ. 5 meats are available in a set, including Marinated Pork Belly, Sliced Agu Pork Belly, Sliced Chicken Thigh (Spicy), Marinated Chicken Thigh, and Thin Sliced Beef Striploin.

Kimchi and dipping sauces are arranged before the meats came.

A glass of Cruset Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine to kick start this 3-day luxury thanks to the Palace Premium Beverage Package. (See the confusion here if I didn’t explain it earlier and you were expecting to have it on your own cruise?)

Shortly, my platter of 5 meats arrived for the grilling.

Some oil to grease up the grill before I put my meats on.

The premium meats available here on the Palace BBQ menu at Umi Uma is definitely a different experience than the cheap buffets in mainland Singapore, and was great for a low carb lunch to start the feasting on board the World Dream for the next 2 nights.

Also, my dinner was in barely 2 hours at…

Umi Uma Teppanyaki

Back in Umi Uma for Teppanyaki dinner as this was the only available dining slot at the Teppanyaki table throughout the cruise.

There are only 5 Teppanyaki tables in Umi Uma which is causing the constraint.

The dining set placed at my seat before my arrival.

The Palace Teppanyaki set at Umi Uma comes with a salad, Teppanyaki Vegetables, Garlic Fried Rice, the main protein of either Chicken Thigh, Salmon Fillet, or Filet Mignon (no prizes for guessing which one I chose), and dessert of Green Tea Ice Cream with Matcha Cake or Banana Pancake with Coconut Ice Cream.

Just for reference, here is the Bento menu.

To start the meal, a salad was served, along with my Dream Mocktail.

To start the Teppanyaki dinner, the chef pulls out the order list from his hat and reconfirms them with all the diners at the table.

The first dish is Japanese Teppanyaki Vegetables, which the chef chopped up and fried skillfully.

The Japanese Teppanyaki Vegetables was fried pretty quickly for the guests to munch on while the rest of the Teppanyaki performance gets underway.

Next, the Teppanyaki chef draws a flower with the eggs for the Garlic Fried Rice.

The eggs then get scrambled and rolled up to be an anaconda, slithering around the Teppanyaki table.

The anaconda promptly got chopped up after that into the Garlic Fried Rice.

The bowl of Garlic Fried Rice followed just in time after I finished my Teppanyaki Vegetables.

After the Garlic Fried Rice was cleared, it’s time for everyone’s mains.

Next comes my Filet Mignon.

The Filet Mignon was chopped up into cubes and unlike my previous Wagyu Striploin, was more tough and less fatty. It was also quite thoroughly cooked even though it was meant to be a medium rare. The garlic fried together also masked a bit of the beef taste so it wasn’t as melt-in-your-mouth as my previous Teppanyaki experience.

My previous Wagyu Striploin from my previous cruise for reference.

Truly a first world problem.

Dessert was served after I finished my Filet Mignon. I opted to try the Banana Pancake with Coconut Ice Cream since I had the Matcha dessert the last time.

Disappointingly, the coconut ice cream was replaced with vanilla instead, but it was still delicious nonetheless.

Palace Restaurant Supper

While regular cruise guests go to The Lido for supper of finger foods, The Palace guests go to the Palace Restaurant for supper. The Palace Restaurant is located on Deck 17 inside The Palace exclusive area.

The food below was eaten across 2 suppers. I’m not that much of a glutton, yet.

The Palace Restaurant supper menu is very extensive. Unlimited dishes can be ordered so you can easily turn this into an 8-course meal if you really wanted to.

The supper items are mostly Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese hawker food, with a small selection of western and a Taiwanese option too.

The non-alcoholic drinks menu in The Palace. As it was past 10.30pm, no alcoholic drinks can be served.

I thought the supper portions would be small samplings but they were all individually freshly cooked and huge for a late night meal.

The Chicken Wings (Mid-Joint) were nicely spiced and served piping hot, freshly fried.

The Turkey Ham and Cheese in Rye Bread Sandwich was huge, about 4 times bigger than I had expected. This was a triple decker sandwich with packed fillings between each slice of bread, and comes with two halves and fries.

If I order this next time, I’ll ask for the middle slice to be removed so that I get a packed filling sandwich.

The Char Kway Teow was nicely done Malaysian style with fresh prawns, thanks to the abundance of Malaysian chefs on board the World Dream.

If there is a dish I have to agree that Malaysia does it better any time, it would be Char Kway Teow, since most of Singapore’s come with noodles, and some stalls don’t even add egg to it. The last time I read the words “Char Kway Teow”, I didn’t see the word “Mee” in it.

The Fish Burger was served as an open-faced sandwich, with the fish patty and cheese on the bottom side of the bun, and the vegetables on the top side. It was flavourful but huge as usual, so unfortunately I couldn’t finish the Fish Burger.

Dessert was a Herbal Jelly, or Guilinggao (龟苓膏), served with syrup on the side.

Palace Restaurant Breakfast

Breakfast for The Palace guests is served in the Palace Restaurant, Palace Lounge, and Prime Steakhouse by Mark Best. The breakfast menu across all 3 locations are the same – it’s more on adding seating area since safe management measures are in place to blank out tables in The Palace.

Due to space constraints, I was seated in the Palace Lounge.

The Palace Restaurant supper menu is reasonably extensive, with two western main selections and 4 Asian main selections. Unlimited dishes can be ordered.

The non-alcoholic drinks menu in The Palace. However, as it was past 7am, the Palace Premium Beverage Package can also be requested.

My Dim Sum Basket came first, consisting of a Siew Mai, Har Gao, and a Liu Sha Bao (Molten Custard Salted Egg Buns). It looked like it woke up on the wrong side of bed with everything tossed to its side.

I ordered a scrambled egg with my Eggs as you Wish plate, which looked like an omelette but it was scrambled once I cut it open. 10/10 freshly cooked and not a mass plate where they scoop scrambled eggs out of.

From the bakery, I chose to have a croissant, cinnamon Danish, and a muffin.

The Chef’s Special of the Day this morning was a Nasi Lemak with Sambal Prawns.

Thanks to the Palace Premium Beverage Package, I had a pseudo-Champagne Breakfast with Sparking Wine instead. I’ve never drank alcohol for breakfast before, but now I understand why this is appreciated in high-class places.

The Eggs Benedict came nicely poached here in The Palace Restaurant with the yolk runny, unlike in The Lido or Dream Dining Room Lower.

More sparking wine on the second and last day’s breakfast at The Palace Restaurant.

The Chef’s Special of the Day this morning was Silver Pin Noodles.

Personally I’ve never heard of Silver Pin Noodles, but when the dish came, I realized it was bee tai bak in an elevated English name.

The Dim Sum Basket this morning was a Siew Mai, Xiao Long Bao, and a “Meat” Bao. This was nicely presented and not tossed like my previous morning.

The Xiao Long Bao came without soup, and I couldn’t identify the meat in the “Meat” Bao. Do yourself a favour and stick with the western options.

I opted to have an omelette in my Eggs as you Wish plate. A variety of ingredients are on offer to put in your omelette, and I opted to have ham, mushrooms, cheese, and onions in them, not selecting any other vegetables on offer.

Seafood Grill by Mark Best

For the second day of the cruise, I had western cuisine throughout the day. Lunch reservation was at Seafood Grill by Mark Best.

There was a slight queue to enter Seafood Grill by Mark Best with both The Palace guests and regular paying customers.

Seafood Grill by Mark Best and Prime Steakhouse by Mark Best are located within the same premises but with segregated seating areas. The menu handed out also includes both restaurants’ menu in it. I’d assume this allows for flexibility if a group decides to order from different restaurants.

My booking was for a seafood lunch, so a Seafood Platter is what I shall have.

To start off, I opted to have sparking water because I could with the Palace Premium Beverage Package.

Cold cuts and warm bread are served for the filler while waiting for the food to come.

This is served with a side of whipped butter.

The first course is Farmer’s Vegetable Salad consisting of tomato, red peppers, cucumber, feta cheese, olives, and herb vinaigrette. This was nice, but I wasn’t a fan of peppers so I didn’t eat the main portion of the salad.

More sparkling wine to go along with the starters.

The next course is a Cream of Asparagus soup, served with crisp prosciutto.

I ordered a Chardonnay next to go well with the Seafood Platter.

And here comes the star of the show – the Seafood Platter consisting of half a Baked Lobster, Scallops, Baked Oyster Kilpatrick, and Shrimps.

The portion of the Seafood Platter was bigger than the first time I tried it on my previous cruise, which is very impressive now with more meat in them.

I was down to the claw of the lobster last, and asked the waitress if the kitchen could help me break the shell further to get the meat in it. She came back not only with a nicely cracked lobster claw, but also these additional utensils to further dissect the lobster.

Lots of juicy meat in the lobster claw, going very well with the lemon butter sauce.

Dessert is a Bitter Dark Chocolate Fondant served with Chocolate Fudge Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream. This was really good, and even though it’s the same dessert in both restaurants, I was ready to have it again at dinner too.

To end my lunch, I ordered an Espresso.

Palace Restaurant Afternoon Tea

Speaking about too much food, Afternoon Tea followed at The Palace Restaurant.

The afternoon tea set at The Palace comes with 9 items, a mix of sweet and savoury.

In no time, the afternoon tea was served on a three-tier curate stand.

On the top, there was English Scone with Clotted Cream and Strawberry Jam.

Next, a sweet tier of Lemon Tart, Mini Doughnut, Lychee Profiterole, and Sacher Almond Torte.

On the bottom, a savoury tier of Egg and Cucumber Salad Sandwich, Croissant Filled with Tuna Fish, Sausage Roll, and Chicken and Mushroom Pie.

Along with a pot of English Breakfast Tea, I went for another cocktail here, the Mai Tai.

Prime Steakhouse by Mark Best

I saved the best for last, in my opinion, and arranged to have Prime Steakhouse by Mark Best for the last dinner on board my cruise.

Temperature taking, hand sanitizers, and an automated hand washing station are available at the entrance to Prime Steakhouse by Mark Best and Seafood Grill by Mark Best.

The dining area of Prime Steakhouse by Mark Best.

As mentioned above in the Seafood Grill by Mark Best section, Seafood Grill by Mark Best and Prime Steakhouse by Mark Best are located within the same premises but with segregated seating areas. The menu handed out also includes both restaurants’ menu in it. I’d assume this allows for flexibility if a group decides to order from different restaurants.

It’s finally steak time, and I know what I’ll be having.

Cold cuts and warm bread are served for the filler while waiting for the food to come.

Seems like I got double the meat here than for lunch. Excellent.

More sparkling wine to start the meal. This is becoming a habit.

The first course is Escargot Bourguignonne, or Burgundy-style Snails in Garlic Herb Butter. The Escargots were nicely baked, springy and flavourful. I saved some bread which goes very well with the plentiful remaining Garlic Herb Butter.

The second course is Lobster Bisque, which was very smooth.

And the star of the show, my Grilled Beef Tenderloin Filet Mignon.

A glass of Merlot to compliment my steak.

The Grilled Beef Tenderloin Filet Mignon was nicely plated, served with a side of Bordelaise sauce, though if I knew that they were going to slather it right on my steak, I would have made an earlier request to have it on the side.

My Filet Mignon was nicely rare, compared with my previous grey medium rare Teppanyaki above, and was a nice melt in your mouth experience overall. I made the right choice saving steak for the last dinner.

For dessert, I was very happy to have the Bitter Dark Chocolate Fondant served with Chocolate Fudge Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream again.

To end the meal. I ordered an Espresso Martini since I enjoyed the one I had previously at Bar 360 above.

But wait, there’s more…

While this is a lengthy post about what food I stuffed myself with on this 3-day cruise, that’s not all that The Palace guests are entitled to dine at.

Silk Road Chinese Restaurant

Silk Road Chinese Restaurant offers a fine dining experience serving up Chinese food. As I prioritized the Japanese, Korean, and western options available to The Palace guests rather than Chinese food, I gave dining at Silk Road Chinese Restaurant a miss.

Also, the Palace Restaurant serves up Chinese food already anyway.

Hot Pot

Hot Pot is an outdoor steamboat restaurant. I had actually considered paying for a meal here if I didn’t upgrade to The Palace since the set for 2 persons was quite cheap, even cheaper than steamboat restaurants on land, but with Korean BBQ included in The Palace at Umi Uma, I went for that instead.

~~Hot Pot will just have to wait till I am a Balcony Stateroom passenger again.~~

I’ve done it. My suggestion is to not do it. Here’s my Hot Pot Meat Set Review on another cruise.

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon is a food court just beside Resorts World At Sea Casino on Deck 8. Just do yourself a favour and don’t do this unless you’re feeling very very rich and prefer to have bee hoon soup over a Filet Mignon or something.

Conclusion

I wouldn’t say that you are spoilt for choice on The Palace considering that meals are limited to one specialty restaurant per meal time, as compared to if you are a regular passenger and can eat at The Lido, Dream Dining Room Lower, and Dream Dining Room Upper without limit at all meals (ie. you can eat up to 9 menus per day if you are brave enough, 10 if including The Lido Outdoor Snacks Corner), but The Palace spoils you with quality food and excellent service at the inclusive specialty restaurants and the Palace Restaurant exclusively within The Palace area.

I did my Palace upgrade by factoring in prices for set menus at specialty restaurants only, and it seems that I was able to break even. Granted, I don’t get to pig out at The Lido, Dream Dining Room Lower, and Dream Dining Room Upper (you CAN if you wanted to, but why would you do that), but the dining experience throughout the cruise had been phenomenal with the attentive wait staff at every restaurant and the personalized service throughout with my Butler checking on me at meal times, keeping me updated at my own time throughout the cruise.

If you are in to quality over quantity, go for The Palace. The upgrade price is really worth it just for food alone, though unfortunately alcoholic drinks are no longer free flowing throughout the cruise.

Book your World Dream Super Seacation Cruise To Nowhere here!