Has anyone been on the newly refurbished Caribbean Princess?

Just looked at a few interesting itineraries on the Caribbean Princess, and I see from the deck plans that the ship went through quite the makeover recently. The buffet completely redone. New Planks Seafood and a BBQ joint ($12 each), both aft of the buffet. New decor for the Ice cream, Pizza and Grill on the Lido; etc... I am curious to hear impressions from anyone that has sailed on her since the changes. Thx!

Just looked at a few interesting itineraries on the Caribbean Princess, and I see from the deck plans that the ship went through quite the makeover recently. The buffet completely redone. New Planks Seafood and a BBQ joint ($12 each), both aft of the buffet. New decor for the Ice cream, Pizza and Grill on the Lido; etc... I am curious to hear impressions from anyone that has sailed on her since the changes. Thx!

Interesting CC name. Our trivia team name is O2b@C

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Just looked at a few interesting itineraries on the Caribbean Princess, and I see from the deck plans that the ship went through quite the makeover recently. The buffet completely redone. New Planks Seafood and a BBQ joint ($12 each), both aft of the buffet. New decor for the Ice cream, Pizza and Grill on the Lido; etc... I am curious to hear impressions from anyone that has sailed on her since the changes. Thx!

I believe you'll find a couple of threads on this subject if you go back a couple of pages. One specifically about the changes...and the other from someone who did a wonderful review of the British Isles cruise...she incorporated thoughts on the changes to the ship in her review.

Princess has also posted a video about the changes:

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Someone reported that the two new restaurants at the back of the buffet are no charge for lunch, with a limited menu. Dinner is indeed $12, so they say.

DW and I booked on CP Feb.2018. According to Princess website both Steamers seafood and Planks BBQ serve breakfast and lunch at "no charge" but is a limited menu. Looking forward to our first cruise with Princess!

We're booked on Caribbean Princess for March 18, 2018. It's the first cruise where CB has the Medallion. We're looking forward to trying the new venues - especially when they are no extra cost. :)

Well I have to say that I am delighted that they didn't change Sabatini's to the Curtis Stone Share restaurant. I guess that idea bombed. I booked the Caribbean Princess for the 6th time during the $1 deposit promotion. I really wanted to book a different ship since 4 of my 5 sailings with Princess have been on CB. However, the Caribbean Princess is sailing the itinerary that I wanted, which always seems to be the case. This will also be the second time that I will be sailing after a renovation. It looks like they made a lot of changes so it may feel like a different ship to me.

We're booked on Caribbean Princess for March 18, 2018. It's the first cruise where CB has the Medallion. We're looking forward to trying the new venues - especially when they are no extra cost. :)

We'll be on the one before you, so we'll miss the rollout of the medallions. Regardless, we'll be on the CB for 29 days late September and then on that Panama Canal New Locks in March for 10 and we are looking forward to the changes made during her last drydock.

Feel sure there'll be more reports before long.

We were on the Caribbean Princess in April in Europe and although it was our first Princess cruise, we really enjoyed the ship. The thing I liked most was how it never felt crowded. I don't know if that is common or if our ship just wasn't full, but it was really nice to be able to find quiet places on the ship if you didn't want to be around a lot of people and noise.

We had club class dining and really really enjoyed the food. Although, the menu is the same as the MDR menu, but club class has special entrees each day. We liked both the Crown Grill and Sabatini's. We ate breakfast in Sabatini's most mornings and that was really great, but we did go to the club class for breakfast one day and thought it was very good too, which is likely the same as the MDR.

My husband loves soft serve ice cream so he really enjoyed the ice cream and coffee place..."coffee and cones" I think it's called. The buffet was not good to us, but the new design is very appealing. We never tried Planks or Steamers since we ate at odd times and there wasn't much available. We LOVED the Salty Dog Grill for burgers and fries and LOVE LOVE LOVED Slice pizza. Really, the pizza is good! They had pepperoni pizza always available and meatball focaccia, and a really good stromboli. I'm pretty sure we never actually got hungry on the ship! Not liking the buffet was a small issue for us since there was so much other good food available all the time.

Overall, we enjoyed our cruise immensely and would love to cruise the Caribbean Princess again. I hope you enjoy her as well!

Sailing on her april 2019

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Coffeeluvr05 .... BIG THANKS for your review!!!

How is she looking?

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Coffeeluvr05 .... BIG THANKS for your review!!!

You're quite welcome! We have since booked an Alaskan cruise on the Grand in 2018. So can't wait for that! I hope the Grand is as nice as the CB!

We'll be on the CB in 48 days. Our past four Princess cruises have been on the CB, most recently in December doing the great 8-day itinerary to the ABCs. It will be interesting to see what's new. We're not planning on eating dinner in any of the specialty restaurants. We tried three (Sabatini's, Crown Grill, and Crab Shack) back in December 2014, when we had a lot of OBC to burn. Crown Grill was my favorite.

I was just off the CB last month..

To those up thread that asked about the new Planks and Steamers.. I think everyone needs to know that during breakfast and lunch Planks & Steamers in nothing more than additional seating for the HC.

FYI.. The original big ballyhoo from Princess about special breakfasts in Planks & Steamers is nothing more than a few extra hot buffet serving stations in the back buffet area that used to be the Caribe Cafe buffet serving area which they left and is still there, and IMO add's absolutely nothing new, extra or exciting to breakfast.

The biggest failure IMO is the new Market Place buffet area.. At least in it's original form it's menu selections need's to be seen to be believed, and I'll leave it at that in hopes that by time many here sail that Princess will have corrected the original format and concept failure that we experienced last month .

New mattresses are fantastic

Srpilo

We sailed CB right after she completed dry dock and the ship looked very nice.

The beds had been replaced and were very comfortable. The rooms had all been wired for medallion cruises and they had installed plates by the mail boxes where the iPad's will be attached (per our Steward).

The buffet area looks very nice as does the new planks and Steamers area. As others have said these areas are available for extra seating at breakfast and lunch. During breakfast there is an omelet station on the planks side.

The Planks and Steamers sections are quite large... Which takes quite a bite out of the buffet seating in the evening.

Also - The buffet area has added hand washing stations similar to the ones on Royal and Regal.

Shelly .... Thanks for reporting back after your cruise.

Good to know where the omelet station is located. :)

I was just off the CB last month..

 

The biggest failure IMO is the new Market Place buffet area.. At least in it's original form it's menu selections need's to be seen to be believed, and I'll leave it at that in hopes that by time many here sail that Princess will have corrected the original format and concept failure that we experienced last month .

 

New mattresses are fantastic

Srpilo

I agree 100% Market Place food selection was awful. We were on late April and loved many of the new things they did but not Market Place. I was hoping by now that changes had been made but I guess not. FWIW I liked the selection in the old Horizon Ct. I thought it had gotten 100% better the last couple of cruises on the CB before the change. I've been on the CB 8 times.

We did Planks twice, it was very good and worth going but needed tweaking to make it great.

It nice you can go to many other places to grab a bite. The Lido new coffee ice cream place was a nice addition. Pizza place good as always.

framer

Just got off the CB today. I thought the ship was in good shape although our balcony had a fair amount of rust in places and there was a large hole (like an unfinished repair) in the facing of our balcony door. Our deck chairs were replaced mid week (there was a big dumpster full of the old ones on the dock) and our deck rail was re varnished as well . We ate at Planks (too much food, and not all that great) and Steamers (really good). I'm from the south, so we have many BBQ options, and I didn't find Planks to be anything special. They definitely need to do something to get more people to come in though. The night we ate there, there might have been 2 other tables taken. Salty dog was great and a good way to get a good bite after a long excursion day. We didn't eat from the pizza bar, as I am not a big pizza fan. To me the buffet is always a last resort, so I never get overly excited one way or another about them. I thought the ship in general was great and the crew was outstanding. This was our first time on Princess and I think we will be coming back again.

I have a Panama Canal cruise booked for 2/2018 on this ship and unless I read that the Market Place buffet has gotten better we'll be canceling. Princess buffets have always been very good and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and breakfast for dinner just doesn't cut it for us. I hope this changes before final payment in October but don't think it will. We enjoy dinner in the buffet so we don't have to dress up too much and don't have to spend 2 hours for dinner in the MDR every night Also have enjoyed the theme nights on other Princess ships. Really disappointed to hear the reviews are still on the poor side. Glad I have a plan B.

I have a Panama Canal cruise booked for 2/2018 on this ship and unless I read that the Market Place buffet has gotten better we'll be canceling. Princess buffets have always been very good and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and breakfast for dinner just doesn't cut it for us.

We found the buffet to be very similar to the buffet on the other grand class ships. If you have enjoyed those Princess buffets you will be happy with the buffet on CB. We ate at the buffet many times and never once left hungry and never had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches :D

 

The biggest failure IMO is the new Market Place buffet area.. At least in it's original form it's menu selections need's to be seen to be believed, and I'll leave it at that in hopes that by time many here sail that Princess will have corrected the original format and concept failure that we experienced last month .

 

Please, more details.

How is the food selection in the buffet different from what it used to be?

The new restaurants made from the buffet are poor imitations of a restaurant at lunch, just extensions of the buffet which is where many seemed to obtain their food.

We only ate in the buffet twice and, while the food was satisfactory, it was still like eating in a packed fast food joint.