We just got back from a 4 day cruise on the Caribbean Princess and I must say I was disappointed. This was my 9th cruise on Princess and 23rd over all and Princess is nothing like the cruise line of old. The entertainment was mediocre at best, the food and service in the Coral room left a lot to be desired and the buffet in the Horizon Buffet was even worse. This is the first time I've eaten at the buffet and there were now trays to carry your food and drink back to your table with. I asked one of the drink servers if they had any trays and she looked at me as if I was from another planet. They allowed people to enter the buffet line from 4 different sides. Talk about chaos. They had entirely different selections on the same buffet. If you didn't go against traffic and check out both sides, you missed a lot of items. They no longer serve lobster in the Coral Room, that has been moved to Sabatini's' or Sterlings which are both surcharge restaurants. If you cruise on the Caribbean and want to eat at either of them, book it before hand or as soon as you get on board. I guess the less then desirable room in the other restaurants makes every body want to eat in them. We tried to get reservations in both on the second day and they were totally booked up for the entire cruise.

We booked a mini suite (AA)(D-420) and it was the same size or even smaller than a balcony room on Holland. Room service selection is the pits now, all you can get is a continental breakfast. I remember when a full breakfast was the order of the day and you enjoyed it on your balcony. To get fresh fruit you have to fill out a form and hang it on your door everynight or you wont get any. It used to be automatic. There were no robes in the room and those also had to be requested which like the fruit also used to be automatic. We were sitting on the balcony the first night and around 1 am it felt like it was starting to rain hard. It turned out they were hosing down the pool area up above and it was running all over the balconies below. Nice touch.

The room steward was great and kept our cabin clean and orderly all the time. Read more