How Princess Revolutionized Themed Dining

When most people think of themed dining, the likes of the Rainforest Cafe and Planet Hollywood spring to mind. They shouldn’t.

Although the decor in many themed restaurant chains hits the mark, the relevance of the food usually leaves a lot to be desired. Often, the most that diners can expect are dishes named after the theme and no matter how well-made they are, that can create a confusing experience.

There’s no connection between eating a burger and watching footage of film stars, or the props they used, on the walls around you. That surreal disconnection destroys any chance of diners feeling like they have actually been transported to a rainforest, a movie set or elsewhere.

The food isn’t the weak link, the theme is and a solution to this problem has come from an unexpected source.

Last month Princess Cruises held the European launch of an on-board themed restaurant unlike any other at sea. Instead of being themed to characters from cartoons or movies, the star of the show is the food itself. Called 360: An Extraordinary Experience, the restaurant immerses diners in the sights, scents and sounds of the regions where the food they are eating is grown. It is anything but Mickey Mouse.

It takes place in the intimate setting of a small dimly-lit circular room. Unlike most themed restaurants, which often feel like mess halls, the 360 only seats 20 people. Including the chefs, it takes a team of around 20 people to keep its wheels turning.

Before the 90-minute seven-course spectacular begins, diners stand in front of a chic black and gold backdrop for a photo opp and then head into the darkened room. A curved table sweeps around the edges leaving a circular space in the centre. The dark brown carpet looks like soil and it soon becomes clear that this is no coincidence.

As the lighting is so low it’s initially hard to tell whether the walls are lined with screens, paintings or projection surfaces. Once everyone is seated comes the big reveal.

It suddenly becomes clear to diners that they are encircled by a floor-to-ceiling LED screen when a photo of a leather-bound travel diary appears on it. With a clever sleight of hand, the smartly-suited host appears to pull the journal out of the screen and into his hands. It kicks off a journey around the Mediterranean as vibrant 4K footage fills the wraparound screen accompanied by rousing music.

It is far from a travel advert as a story ties the dinner together. The actress Brooke Shields plays a traveler who is sitting on the balcony of a cruise cabin writing a diary and reminiscing about her culinary adventures around the Mediterranean. The host supposedly reads from the pages of the diary and whisks diners off on a virtual voyage to the foodie capitals of Europe.

It starts in Greece where colorful houses with terracotta tiled roofs line lush green hills in the Peloponnese region of the country. A local olive farmer appears on the screen and explains the importance of olive oil in Greek culture. Then, as if by magic, a mezze plate consisting of those very same kalamata olives, tzatziki, olive oil and bite-size pita bread is served as the first course. It is followed by a course of grilled octopus and feta as the azure waters of Santorini sweep around the screen and the island’s iconic cliffs come into view. That’s just the start.

Unbeknownst to the diners, an array of motion sensing cameras, projectors and scent atomizers are hidden in the rafters and directed at each seat. During the first course, the projectors transform the table’s surface into a colorful animated mosaic and show intricate plates on it which appear to smash in true Greek tradition when diners bring their fists down on them. It creates a whole new world of immersive dining and this technical wizardry complements every sublime serving.

When diners are given a virtual tour of a lemon farm in Amalfi, Italy, the overhead atomizers release a sweet citrus scent before plates of burrata and spaghetti al limone arrives.

Even the drinks fit the theme as the Italian course comes with Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio, a white wine produced from grapes that have been grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. A local vintner from Pompeii Vineyards explains that the region’s agricultural tradition dates back to Roman times and shares his tasting notes on the sweeping screen. It gives diners a sense of satisfaction as they are subliminally learning whilst tucking into dinner.

At one point diners even get to handle the produce. It comes when the screen is flooded with footage of an underwater journey off the coast of Catalonia in north-eastern Spain. This showcases ElixSea, a red wine which isn’t aged in oak barrels but on the ocean floor some 26 feet below the sea surface.

ElixSea’s owners Mariona and Gergö explain this unique ageing process while the overhead projectors transform the table into decking on a boat. Cleverly, the projection doesn’t cover the plate so it looks like it is sitting on the decking. Completing the picture, waiters bring out barnacle-encrusted bottles so diners can see the fruits of the six-month odyssey endured by the Grenache-grape wine.

The scenes reveal how long the families have been in business and showcase the painstaking lengths they go to. They’re shown performing their crafts, managing their estate and enjoying the fruits of their work. Placing emphasis on the people who provide the products gives guests an intimate connection with the food they are eating. It is exactly what Princess wanted.

“We wanted to create an experience that is truly immersive and it could only do that if it includes all of your senses,” says John Padgett, Princess’ visionary president and former Disney executive. “Taste is one of your senses so there’s food but the 360 experience is not about the food. It’s about the story of the Mediterranean, its people and how they create things. Those things are all ingredients in an experience that is completely multisensory and that’s why we call it an extraordinary experience versus an immersive dining experience.”

During his 18-year tenure at Disney, Padgett developed the Mouse’s wearable wireless MagicBand tech which revolutionized the entry, ride access and payment process at its theme parks. Padgett’s vision of transforming the top tier of dining on-board Princess has made another big splash and again it is partly thanks to an unobtrusive use of technology.

This comes into its own when the virtual tour heads to Spain. That’s when diners meet the 65-year-old founder of a charcuterie shop in the town of Cantonigròs before sampling his produce in a course of chorizo and tomato on toast. Then comes the main event.

The overhead projectors transform the table into a forest floor with twigs strewn on it whilst the plates look like they are covered in grass. Thanks to the motion sensing cameras, the projection of grass tracks the plate even if you move it on the table. That’s not all.

A truffle hunter appears on the screen to tell diners where to forage for truffles and then they get a chance to do it themselves. Using their new-found knowledge, diners can rub the twigs in just the right places to make truffles appear.

After that they get to taste the fruits of their work in a dish of succulent beef tenderloin topped with truffle butter sauce. Princess has cut no corners with the food but it’s the marriage with AV which is particularly tasteful, especially as diners are oblivious to the tech behind the scenes.

There’s no hiding the 1.81 millimeter pitch LED wall from DetaiLED Solutions, a supplier that specializes in the design and installation of displays for theaters, arenas and retail stores. Content is driven by Disguise 4×4 PRO and VX 4 3D video effects servers programmed by production studio FragmentNine but there is much more than that behind the scenes. Panasonic overhead projectors point down on each seat along with Microsoft Azure Kinect interactive cameras for motion sensing. Two Superlogics servers run a custom TouchDesigner application which is used for tracking and interactive triggers during the show.

“The concept of 360 itself is the brainchild of Princess’ innovation team which wanted to create an experience that takes viewers on a journey through an unparalleled combination of technology and culinary artistry,” says Vicki Johnson, senior vice president of communications for Princess Cruises. The restaurant was developed by the in-house design team at Princess which was the production lead of a team spanning more than 100 people including subcontractors.

“We partnered with California based Super 78 Productions and Florida-based Tinmen media company to film and edit the footage in the different locations over the course of several weeks,” adds Johnson. Super 78 was the natural choice as it is famous for its flying theaters which give guests aerial tours around the world including Wings Over Washington at Miner’s Landing entertainment district in Seattle and Flying over America at the Window of the World park in Shenzhen, China.

“It was all filmed bespoke for this. A lot of this filming was done last summer,” says Johnson. However, she adds that development began long before then. “360: An Extraordinary Experience was actually conceptualized a few years ago but the rollout was impacted by the industry-wide pause in operations. Suffice to say it took a number of months to install the hardware and software with additional weeks for staff training and fine tuning.” It paid off.

The 360’s civilised and cultured air is a world away from the color and kitsch found in many theme parks. “To put it in perspective, Disney attractions are equivalent to a Lexus, providing a great experience at a tremendous scale. Princess 360 aims to be the Rolls Royce, ticking all the boxes and offering a world-class experience, outstanding food, and white-glove service on an intimate, more personal scale,” says Brent Young, president and creative director of Super 78.

Dessert is perhaps the finest example of how the 360 combines its refined atmosphere with cutting-edge technology. The scent of lavender heralds the start of the course as fields of the flower in Provence fill the screen. It’s the inspiration for a lavender honey mousse filled with a lemon cream and topped with a honeycomb wafer. The dish is accompanied by a white chocolate filled with honey and jelly in the shape of bees.

The buzzing insects appear to be crawling all over honeycomb projected onto the table and then comes the jaw-dropper. As diners cup their hands over their plates, a pool of honey is projected into them and as they move them apart it is beamed onto the dish below.

Johnson says she is most proud of this guest involvement which is the product of “seamless alignment of the projectors above the tabletops with the Kinect camera system feeding back to the SuperLogics servers tracking guest plates and allowing guests to trigger interactive moments during their experience. Utilizing the Kinect cameras with their depth sensors and RGB video cameras which align to the depth camera gives an amazing AI sensory and body tracking software development kit in a single device.

“The Kinect and TouchDesigner system rely on skeleton tracking to correctly interpret the location of each of the guests’ hands in relation to the triggers on the tabletop. This technology allows us to bring the guests into the experience by interacting with the media. A lot of work and effort went into executing each interactive moment – and while we could have gone mad with this, a few key moments allow the guests to know they are experiencing something special. While the entire experience is special, this functionality within the system was just the icing on the cake.”

Pulling it off in a static, spacious square room would be an impressive feat but doing it in a tightly-packed circular space which is always moving really is pushing the boat out.

“The cruise industry has some inherent challenges – space limitations and ship movement among others,” adds Johnson. “The true complexity lies with making sure every single piece of equipment fits in the allocated space to co-exist with the various ship operational plants – HVAC ducting, electrical cable ways, safety systems, sprinkler heads, water pipes – the list is endless.’

“I think everything installed in the space has some form of complexity in terms of installation. The space was defined in terms of square footage and the height of the space is determined by the height of the ship’s deck so sometimes it felt like trying to fit a square peg into the round hole as the saying goes.

“The LED walls were fairly complex due to the curved nature and the fact guests would be so close to the wall that it had to align and fit perfect and seamlessly. Not having the luxury of lots of free space in terms of height, equipment specifications were critical in making sure we had the correct hardware for the experience and that it would fit.” It all serves a purpose – even the photos of the guests that are taken at the start.

The finale takes diners to the Drappier vineyard in the Champagne region of north-east France and after that they toast the end of the tour with a glass of bubbly. As the service staff enter the room to the tune of the can-can, fireworks explode on the screen around them and they take a bow. Then comes one final surprise as the snaps of the diners taken at the start of the tour appear on the screen in a highly personalised photo opportunity.

“It’s not an attraction so that’s really why we call it an extraordinary experience. It is so multi-faceted. We don’t want to limit it to being just dining, food and beverage or an attraction,” says Johnson. It is no exaggeration.

For decades, dinner shows have been a mainstay of cruises but the format tends to be old-fashioned. The 360 brings it bang up to date and even describing it as ‘Gastrotheatre’ doesn’t do it justice. The theme park industry shouldn’t just take note because it breaks new ground but also because of the holistic and natural experience of being about food and themed to food as well as its ability to educate in an entertaining and subliminal way.

It is precisely this kind of innovation that the Themed Entertainment Association acknowledges and Princess has already sailed off with one of its awards. This came in 2018 when it won an Outstanding Achievement award for its on-board Fantastic Journey show which combines elaborate costumes, special effects, high-flying aerialists and the first use of drones in a show at sea.

Similarly, the 360 seems made for Instagram and Johnson says that it has made such big waves on social media that Princess is opening it up to a wider audience. “We didn’t want to put a price point on it because we really wanted it to be priceless,” she says explaining that “360: An Extraordinary Experience is currently only available on Discovery Princess and Enchanted Princess to guests sailing in suite accommodations along with select VIPs including top casino players. However, we are also looking at a way to offer this experience on a paid basis to select guests because we have so many people telling us that they are willing to pay even though they aren’t in a suite.”

Johnson adds that it has been so successful “there really isn’t a busiest time per se as every seating of 360 has been sold out.” Not only is the 360 unique to Princess but it is the only place that a number of the dishes and ingredients can be found onboard its ships. Princess has come up with an ingenious way of keeping the format fresh.

“We can absolutely repurpose the story,” says Johnson. “This is the first story that is out, the Med. It has such incredible appeal. It is such an aspirational destination for virtually everyone around the world.

“Longer term we will be able to switch things out. Can you imagine an Alaska experience and how amazing that would be for serving crab legs, halibut and baked Alaska? The great thing is it is interchangeable. It’s not static.” Far from it. In fact, like Princess itself, it seems to be going full steam ahead.