Holy Pu’er cakes! Princess Cruises‘ Afternoon Tea is amazing! On my last cruise, I had just 3 days to have afternoon tea. My most recent cruise to Hawaii I was on a 15 day cruise. I only missed 2 afternoon teas. Intern Tea Owl, Aloha Owl (he was called Sunset Owl, but after Hawaii he wants to be called Aloha Owl), Tea hating Husband and I ate so many mini sandwiches and cakes. We also had lots of fun and ate way too much food!
We went to afternoon tea so much they had my hot water for my loose leaf tea and Tea-hating Husband’s milk ready. As soon as we sat down, our drinks were served while everyone was waiting for the pot of Liptons to make its way around.
If you are new to Afternoon Tea on a cruise ship, what happens is you’ll be served by servers in white gloves. Never ending pots of… Liptons.. (sigh).
They have little sandwiches, usually various vegetarian ones, tuna, salmon, scallop, shrimp, ham, prosciutto, egg salad, chicken salad and roast beef, are served in trays.
They also come around with trays of little cakes and cookies. They also serve hot scones with jam and clotted cream or whipped cream.
The sandwich, cakes and cookies selection changes everyday. Princess Cruises‘ Afternoon Tea also has people playing live music, alternating between piano, strings and guitar.
Oolong Owl’s Hawaiian Cruise Afternoon Tea Journal
Day 1 – The day before was technically the first day, but was mostly finding your cabin, eating lunch, unpacking and dinner – no afternoon tea on that loading day. For the first day at sea, it’s time for Afternoon Tea! First in line! Pictured, Lupicia’s Melon White. 1 cake? Oh no, I had more. I was too getting more food and eating it to take more pictures.
Day 2 – YES HOT SCONES! Eclair! With 52 Tea’s Pancake Breakfast.
Day 3 – UNLEASH THE CREAM PUFF SWANS! In reality, the presentation of those swans were amazing, but just tasted like a regular cream puff.
Day 4 – Den’s Tea Tropical Mango. Very delicious tea! Very delicious pistachio eclair. Ooooh my waistline!
Day 5 – Aloha Owl discovers that he likes using cutlery to eat tuna sandwiches.
Day 6 – Missed afternoon tea. I was in Hilo looking for tea and taking pictures of waterfalls.
Day 7 – Missed afternoon tea. I spent the entire day in Honolulu at jiujitsu, shopping, raiding Lupicia and eating.
Day 8 – After missing two days of afternoon tea I was dying for that shrimp sandwich and fruit tart. Fruit tarts seem a regular option on the dessert tray. This was very tasty especially after a morning of snorkeling (aka, me failing at floating)
Day 9 – A fruity afternoon tea! My Tea-Hating Husband got into trouble here, as he asked for one of each on the dessert tray! Pictured, Banana Cake, fruit cake, blueberry tart and raspberry sauced… custard thing. Not sure what I was drinking for tea here.
Day 10 – I think Princess was feeling very green today. Green pistachio cookies and cakes. Luckly for me, I brought a green – DAVIDsTea’ Silk Dragon Jasmine.
Day 11 – We are starting to realize that there are a few waiters at Afternoon Tea that really like feeding people. Like, they slip in an extra dessert on your plate and have powers of conversation to destroy your willpower. I was feeling full, but the waiter convinced me to try 1 more cake, and Intern Owl somehow acquired a scone.
Day 12 – The Food-Happy Waiter strikes again! I have 2 scones on my plate!
Aloha Owl also got his own plate with scone and coconut shortbread cookie. The food-happy Waiter said the Tea Owl wanted it.
Day 13 – The last sea day of this cruise and Afternoon Tea was extra special – at one of the dance clubs! There was a full swing band playing so you can go dance (or slosh about the dance floor full of tea) while the Afternoon Tea staff pile your plants with sweets. They were also giving away bottles of champagne!
Day 14 – Last day of the cruise. I was eating everything at Afternoon Tea instead of leaving the ship to explode Ensenada. Delicious DAVIDsTea’ Tropicalia – a great fruity tea (though seasonal)!
For this last day, I took a quick video of Afternoon Tea. I apologize, I don’t have much experience in recording videos on my camera.
Similar to my last cruise, this cruise had Liptons, Twinnings and Bigelow teas. However, for this ship one of their cafes had Mighty Leaf teas! Since it was in their cafe, you had to pay $1.25ish for a cup of tea, or get an unlimited coffee/teas drink deal per day. An improvement!
