My husband and I went on Caribbean Princess to the Southern Caribbean in February 2012. This was our 5th cruise and our first on Princess. Our previous cruises were on Carnival and Royal Caribbean. We had heard that Princess was a "step above" these other two lines but we did not agree with that. We were not impressed with either the ship or the service. Although we had no major complaints, there was no "wow" factor. I guess if this had been our first cruise, we might have thought differently. But after cruising a few times you come to expect a certain level of service. Here are a few notables:

The food in the MDR was pretty bad. We have always had dinner in the MDR as we enjoy the sit down dinner experience and chatting with other passengers. The food was tasteless and unappealing and the menu choices were limited. However, the food in the Horizon Court was pretty good. So after 3 nights at the MDR we never went back and ate every night at the buffet.

The coffee on the ship was the worst ever. We ordered room service in the mornings and the coffee was always cold. The coffee was cold in the MDR when we went the 3 nights for dinner. The hottest coffee was at the buffet but still didn't have much taste to it. Even when we purchased a coffee at the Cafe it wasn't any better. Read more