Princess Cruise Line’s newest ship for the season, Ruby Princess, rings in $2 million dollars for Sydney and its local farmers and producers.

“A typical visit like today into Sydney from Ruby Princess brings two million dollars of economic value to the state of New South Wales. So over the course of the year, Princess Cruises ships bring a hundred million dollars in economic value to Sydney,” said Senior Vice President Asia Pacific Stuart Allison.

And Michelin starred chef Curtis Stone, with two of his three SHARE restaurants on ships in Australia this season, also emphasised that 90 per cent of what is plated up on Princess ships comes from local produce.

SHARE is on Ruby and Sun Princess in Australia and the new six-course fine dining experience features ‘quality Aussie ingredients’ and offers ‘crazy value’, says Chef Stone.

“We do a six-course menu and it is 39 bucks, so it’s pretty ridiculous value! One thing that we’re really focused on is great quality ingredients, quality Aussie ingredients,” says Chef Stone.

“I’m really proud, 90 per cent of everything that we source on the ships comes from local producers which is great. It is great for Australia and it is great for our diners cause it means that they are getting the freshest ingredients possible.”

That $39 price point is indeed good value when you look at Chef Stone’s Gwen restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles. A five course meal there costs $125 – so three times as much and one less course. And you’ll have to wait months for a table!

Chef Stone also explain how cruises have made leaps and bounds in terms of their culinary offering and how Princess Cruises lead in that.

“When I joined Princess five years ago they were telling me that they bake all of their own bread, they make all of their own soups, stocks and sauces, which I was surprised to hear back then,” says Chef Stone.

“And then they have a very sophisticated way of holding their ingredients. So we have a tomato room downstairs where we hold nothing but tomatoes, we have a banana holding area. So really controlling the temperature, the humidity of the environment to get the most out of those vegetables.”

“When you’re feeding thousands of people each day, you’ve got to take the freshness really seriously. When it comes to our restaurant SHARE, we get the very best ingredients and we try to bring fine dining, world-class cuisines onto high seas.”

Cruise Passenger had a taste of Stone’s six-course lunch at Share on board Ruby and it was simply delicious with two outstanding dishes – his lobster bisque and 100 per cent pure wagyu beef steak.