So this was our second voyage on Caribbean Princess. The first was right before it was refurbished (2017 or 2018, can't recall exactly). That experience was ok, but disappointing only in it was an unexpected step down from the Regal and Royal Princess ships that we had previously loved.

Now, we are Platinum with Princess Captains Circle, and we had a free week coming in June. So we decided about a week before the sailing to give Caribbean Princess another try. We had watched the Princess videos about all the improvements made to the ship, not the least of which was the MedallionClass features and two new specialty dining venues (Planks and Steamers).

Unfortunately, we discovered after boarding that BOTH Planks and Steamers were closes indefinitely (according to the staff we asked) and those areas were acting as overflow for the buffet. We prefer specialty dining options over the MDR, but because of two of the 4 venues being closed, the other two (Sabatinis and Crown Grill) were booked for the week much faster than we anticipated. This left us with burgers, pizza, International Café, and room service. Apparently, we were not the only passengers using these options as Salty Dog (burger place) was very busy almost all day. Room Service was good, but very slow, with at least 1.5 hours wait and twice it was nearly 3 hours. International Cafe was excellent however and was our lunch choice almost every day. Read more