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-.
