Sun Princess offers three tiers of dining: free venues included in every fare, casual restaurants with a small cover charge, and specialty restaurants that cost extra per person. With more than 20 places to eat, the sun princess restaurants menu covers everything from the three-story Horizons dining complex to a 24-hour café near the Piazza. If you remember one thing from this guide, make it this: knowing which dining tier a restaurant falls into can help you avoid overpaying while still enjoying plenty of meals onboard.
From experience: The restaurant that surprises first-timers most isn’t a paid specialty venue, it’s Americana Diner. It’s free, it’s easy to miss in the Princess app’s dining tab, and the fried chicken plate holds up against meals guests pay $60 for elsewhere on the ship.
Sun Princess Dining at a Glance
| Restaurant | Deck | Type | Cost Per Person | Reservation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soleil Dining Room | 6 | Main dining room, traditional seating | Free | Not required |
| Eclipse Dining Room | 7 | Main dining room, flexible seating | Free | Recommended via app |
| Sanctuary Restaurant | 8 | Main dining room for suite guests | Free (Sanctuary Collection only) | Included |
| Americana Diner | 8 | Casual comfort food, dinner only | Free | Not required |
| World Fresh Marketplace (The Eatery) | 9 | Buffet, multiple stations | Free | Not required |
| International Café | 9 | Grab-and-go, 24 hours | Free (coffee drinks extra) | Not required |
| Alfredo’s Pizzeria | 9 | Casual, sit-down pizza | $14.99 prix fixe or à la carte | Walk-in |
| O’Malley’s Irish Pub | 7 | Casual pub fare | $14.99 prix fixe or à la carte | Walk-in |
| Crown Grill | 7 | Specialty steakhouse | $60 adult / $30 child | Required |
| Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria | 8 | Specialty Italian | $60 adult / $30 child | Required |
| The Catch by Rudi | Varies | Specialty seafood | $60 adult / $30 child | Required |
| Makoto Ocean | 8 | Specialty sushi and sashimi | $60 adult / $30 child (à la carte also available) | Required |
| Umai Teppanyaki | 8 | Specialty Japanese grill theater | $60 adult / $30 child | Required |
| Umai Hot Pot | 8 | Specialty shabu shabu | $45–$60 adult (confirm at booking) | Required |
| Butcher’s Block by Dario | Varies | Specialty family-style bistro | $60 adult / $30 child | Required |
| Chef’s Table | Varies | Exclusive multi-course wine dinner | Higher fixed rate, ask onboard | Request through Guest Services |
Prices reflect Sun Princess and Star Princess specifically, which run $5 higher per person than the rest of the Princess fleet. Menus and hours shift by sailing, so treat this table as a planning baseline and confirm specifics in the Princess app once you’re booked.
The Free Restaurants Most Guides Gloss Over
Every Sun Princess cruise fare, including the base Princess Standard rate, covers a surprising amount of ground:
- Soleil Dining Room (Deck 6): The largest traditional dining room, with assigned early or late seating and the same table and waitstaff for the whole cruise.
- Eclipse Dining Room (Deck 7): Flexible “anytime” dining, book a time through the app or walk in and wait.
- Sanctuary Restaurant (Deck 8): Formerly the Horizons Main Dining Room, this space was reconfigured and is now reserved exclusively for guests booked in Sanctuary Collection suites. If you’re weighing whether a higher suite category is worth it, our breakdown of the Sun Princess Cabana Mini Suite covers what those upgraded accommodations actually unlock beyond square footage.
- Americana Diner (Deck 8): Dinner-only comfort food: burgers, fried chicken, mac and cheese, milkshakes. Easy to overlook, worth seeking out.
- World Fresh Marketplace, also called The Eatery (Deck 9): The ship’s buffet, split into roughly nine themed stations rather than one long line, including Mongolian barbecue, tapas, Asian stir-fry, paninis, a carvery, and a dedicated bakery.
- International Café (Deck 9): Open 24 hours for pastries, sandwiches, and light bites. Food is free; specialty coffee drinks carry a small charge.
- Slice: The poolside pizza window on the Lido deck. Unlike Alfredo’s, this one stayed complimentary when Princess restructured its casual dining lineup.
Sun Princess Main Dining Room Menu: What Actually Changes Night to Night
Soleil and Eclipse share the same kitchen structure but not the same rhythm. Soleil runs traditional dining, so you’ll build a relationship with one waitstaff team over the week, which tends to mean faster service by night three or four as they learn your preferences. Eclipse trades that continuity for scheduling freedom.
Both rooms pair a nightly rotating menu with an “always available” list, so you’re never stuck if the featured dish isn’t your thing. Expect staples like Caesar salad, French onion soup, grilled salmon, a roasted chicken option, a pasta dish, and a rich chocolate dessert on standby every single night, alongside four or five rotating appetizers, mains, and desserts that change daily across the cruise length. Vegetarian and plant-based options are marked directly on the menu rather than requiring a separate ask, which is a small detail that makes a real difference if you’re traveling with a mixed group of eaters.
Breakfast and lunch in the main dining rooms run on set hours rather than all day, so check current times in the app. If you’d rather eat on your own clock, the buffet fills that gap.
Casual Dining: Alfredo’s Pizzeria and O’Malley’s Irish Pub
This middle tier gets confused with both the free venues and the specialty restaurants, and that confusion costs people money on both ends.
Alfredo’s Pizzeria sits in the Piazza and serves hand-tossed Neapolitan pizza cooked in an open-mouth oven that hits roughly 968 degrees, finishing pies in about 90 seconds. Guests choose a $14.99 three-course meal (appetizer, pizza or pasta, dessert) or order individual items à la carte. The Cal Italia pizza gets repeat mentions from returning cruisers for good reason.
O’Malley’s Irish Pub opens for lunch through late night, with a dinner menu running roughly 5:30 to 9 PM: fish and chips, bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, and the Bushmills Blue Burger made with a ribeye blend and whiskey glaze. A separate late-night bites menu covers the post-9 PM crowd alongside the live music. Same $14.99 prix fixe structure, same à la carte fallback.
Here’s the part competitors tend to skip: neither venue is free even though they feel casual enough to assume otherwise. Princess Plus guests get four casual dining meals per voyage across these two venues combined, not per restaurant. Princess Premier guests get unlimited visits at no extra charge. On Princess Standard fare, you’re paying $14.99 per person every time, per venue, unless you order light items à la carte.
Sun Princess Specialty Restaurants Menu and Prices for 2026
Sun Princess carries seven specialty dining venues, more than any other ship in the Princess fleet at launch. Pricing sits at $60 per adult and $30 per child for most of them, which runs $5 higher than the standard Princess fleet rate of $55/$27.50. A lot of older dining guides still quote the original $45 launch pricing from when the ship debuted; that rate has since increased, so budget using current numbers, not the ones you’ll find on posts written in 2024.
- Crown Grill: The fleet’s signature steakhouse, now positioned across from the Wheelhouse Bar in the ship’s former Reserve Collection Restaurant space. Filet mignon, lobster tail, and truffle fries are the dishes people talk about afterward. Vegetarian mains are available and well executed, not an afterthought.
- Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria: Family-style Italian built around handmade pasta and dishes like classic Ossobuco, designed for sharing across the table rather than individual plating.
- The Catch by Rudi: Seafood-forward menu from Chef Rudi Sodamin, built around a seafood tower centerpiece and a photographed “Face” dessert that shows up constantly on social feeds from this ship.
- Makoto Ocean: The rebrand of the original Kai Sushi concept, run by Chef Makoto Okuwa. Sushi and sashimi at the bar or table-side, with the Crispy Lobster Tempura and Wagyu Tataki as standouts.
- Umai Teppanyaki: Sun Princess’s first Japanese steakhouse concept fleet-wide, with tableside grill theater. Two nightly seatings, dishes like pork belly yakitori, black cod in soy reduction, and a filet mignon flambéed with champagne cognac tableside.
- Umai Hot Pot: Housed in the same venue as the teppanyaki. Guests build a shabu-shabu meal from three broth options and platters of seafood, meat, or vegetables, cooked communally at the table.
- Butcher’s Block by Dario: A family-style bistro concept developed with renowned butcher Dario Cecchini, focused on shared cuts of meat rather than individual entrées.
There’s also a Chef’s Table experience: a private multi-course dinner with wine pairing for 10 to 12 guests, hosted by the executive chef inside the main dining room after hours. This one isn’t bookable in advance online; you request it through Guest Services or the app once onboard, and seating is genuinely limited.
How Much Specialty Dining Actually Costs You Over a Cruise
This is the math most articles skip entirely. If you’re on Princess Standard fare and plan to try just two specialty restaurants during a seven-night cruise, that’s $120 per person before gratuity, since a 20% service charge applies automatically on top of specialty and casual dining charges. Add a third visit and you’re past $180.
Princess Premier bundles unlimited casual and specialty dining into one fare. Whether it’s worth the upgrade comes down to a simple threshold: if you and your travel companions are realistically eating at two or more specialty restaurants, plus using the casual venues a few times, Premier usually breaks even or comes out ahead compared to paying per visit, especially once you factor in the beverage package and gratuities also bundled into that fare. If you’re planning one splurge dinner for an anniversary and otherwise sticking to included venues, paying à la carte for that single visit is the cheaper route.
Room Service and OceanNow on Sun Princess
Room service on Princess Standard fare includes a genuinely free continental breakfast menu: juices, pastries, fruit, cereal, and yogurt, ordered the night before through the door hanger or app. Order anything outside that breakfast window by phone, and a $5 delivery fee applies per order, not per item.
OceanNow, the app-based delivery service that brings food or drinks to you anywhere on the ship, including the pool deck, requires a one-time $14.99 access fee per person per voyage on Standard fare. Both the OceanNow fee and the $5 room service delivery fee are waived automatically for Princess Plus and Princess Premier guests. Worth noting: specialty coffee drinks are no longer available through room service or OceanNow, only from café and bar locations directly.
Reservation Strategy That Actually Works
Book specialty dining through the Princess app before you board, the moment your dining reservation window opens for your sailing. Crown Grill and Umai Teppanyaki consistently book out first, especially for sea-day dinners and embarkation night. If you land on a fully booked night for your first choice, check back inside the app daily; cancellations open up regularly as other guests adjust plans once onboard.
A booking tip: Reserve your top specialty pick for a port day evening rather than a sea day if you have flexibility. Sea-day dinner slots fill first because everyone’s onboard and hungry at the same time; port days thin the crowd since some guests are still off the ship or worn out from excursions.
For casual dining, no reservation is needed at Alfredo’s or O’Malley’s, though peak dinner hours around 6:30 to 7:30 PM mean a short wait is common.
Dietary Needs and Kids’ Menus Across the Ship
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free requests are accommodated at every venue on Sun Princess, including specialty restaurants, though advance notice through your travel documents or early in the cruise gets you the smoothest experience at Crown Grill and Sabatini’s specifically, since their menus are more protein-heavy by default. The buffet marks allergen and dietary information at each station. Kids’ menus exist in the main dining rooms and are available on request at most casual and specialty venues, typically a simplified version of the adult offering rather than a separate kitchen output.
FAQ: Sun Princess Restaurants Menu
What are the free restaurants on Sun Princess?
Soleil Dining Room, Eclipse Dining Room, Sanctuary Restaurant (suite guests only), Americana Diner, World Fresh Marketplace, International Café, and Slice pizza are all included in every Sun Princess fare with no extra charge.
What are the menus for the Sun Princess in 2026?
Menus rotate by night in the main dining rooms and by season in specialty venues, but the venue lineup itself, from Crown Grill to Umai Teppanyaki, has stayed consistent since the ship’s relaunch of its dining program in late 2024.
What are the best specialty restaurants on the Sun Princess?
Crown Grill and Umai Teppanyaki get the most consistent praise from repeat cruisers, Crown Grill for its steak and service, Umai Teppanyaki for being the first of its kind on a Princess ship and delivering genuine entertainment value alongside the food.
How much are the specialty restaurants on Sun Princess?
Most run $60 per adult and $30 per child, plus an automatic 20% service charge. That’s $5 higher than specialty dining pricing on the rest of the Princess fleet, so don’t rely on older articles quoting $45 or $55.
Is there a Sun Princess restaurants menu PDF available?
Princess doesn’t publish a single downloadable PDF covering every venue, and individual restaurant menus change often enough that a static PDF goes out of date within a season. The most reliable source is the Princess MedallionClass app once you’re within your booking window, which shows current menus for reservation purposes.
What’s on the Sun Princess main dining room menu?
Both Soleil and Eclipse pair a small “always available” list, think Caesar salad, French onion soup, grilled salmon, roasted chicken, and chocolate dessert, with four or five rotating dishes that change nightly across the sailing.
What’s the difference between Soleil and Eclipse dining rooms?
‘Soleil runs traditional fixed-seating dining with the same table and waitstaff every night. Eclipse offers flexible, reservation-based dining if you’d rather choose your own time each evening.
Is Sun Princess buffet food included in the cruise fare?
Yes. All food at World Fresh Marketplace is complimentary. Only specialty beverages like premium coffee, bottled drinks, and alcohol carry an extra charge there.