On Caribbean Princess - The World Fresh Market Place

[4x4bob]

For you who have been on the Caribbean Princess and have experienced both the Old Buffet and the New World Fresh Market Place. How would you compare the two, the Good, The Bad, the Ugly (if any).

 

Thanks

 

Bob

[skynight]

Did you read this: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2523227

[Coffeeluvr05]

I am aware that you asked for old vs. new comparison. We have only experienced the new in April and we really didn't care for the buffet at all. My husband is usually all about buffets and to appease him I went with him and we were only in there twice and really couldn't find anything that was very good. The quality of food was pretty poor in my opinion for a cruise ship. The lettuce in the salad area was in extremely poor condition that I would not eat it. This was our first ever Princess cruise so maybe this was just a fluke. All that being said, there are so many great food options on the ship that we never really felt like we were missing anything.

[easyboy]

Did you read this: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2523227

 

 

Thanks for the link.

The assessment on this thread is more descriptive than the others. Eager to experience it.

 

 

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[OCruisers]

Thanks for posting this question, Bob! (y)

Many of us are interested.

Hopefully, more will reply with their comparisons between the old and the new.

[53sunset]

We were on the Caribbean Princess for the April TA and unfortunately, we thought the new Market Buffet was terrible. If this would have been our first Princess cruise, I'm not sure we would have booked another. We are Elite, so we've cruised on several different Princess ships but this was the first time we've had a complaint of any kind. We usually go with the flow, but the new buffet was hard to take. There are many other dining options so don't let the buffet spoil your cruise, and you may like it. :)

[Lucky TGO]

Thanks for the link.

The assessment on this thread is more descriptive than the others. Eager to experience it.

 

 

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Ditto!!

Tony

[Grego]

We'll be living on this ship for about a month at the end of September. We are interested in how the World Fresh whatever stacks up to other buffet venues on the PCL ships. It will be hard to surpass the Royal Class ships with their layout and tremendous selection and overall quality, but it will be a better layout than the "Conga Line" of the other Grand Class ships. Regardless, we are going anyway and will make the best of it.

[floridalover5623]

We usually go with the flow, but the new buffet was hard to take.

?? In what sense? The quality, selection or the layout?

 

We were on the ship before the change and didn't think it was great but still in line with other Princess ships (except for the Royal class which surpass the others by a mile).

[spyro1952]

I am very experienced Princess cruiser and experienced the new buffet when it debuted on the east bound TA in April. I thought it was horrible. The food was very redundant, in fact mostly the same thing everyday. Also very poor quality and totally unappealing. If I did go there it I would end up with tuna salad and make my own sandwich.

The redesigned seating area seems to have decreased the actual number of seats and on sea days it was difficult to get a table. We mostly ate in the MDR on sea days or burgers/pizza.

Definitely not my favorite ship in many ways.

[FritzG]

I am very experienced Princess cruiser and experienced the new buffet when it debuted on the east bound TA in April. I thought it was horrible. The food was very redundant, in fact mostly the same thing everyday. Also very poor quality and totally unappealing. If I did go there it I would end up with tuna salad and make my own sandwich.

The redesigned seating area seems to have decreased the actual number of seats and on sea days it was difficult to get a table. We mostly ate in the MDR on sea days or burgers/pizza.

Definitely not my favorite ship in many ways.

 

I'm sorry to hear this because we are also spending a month on this ship very shortly. I think we'll be going to the dining room more often, but it's a port intensive cruise, and the dining room is closed at lunchtime on port days.

[spyro1952]

I'm sorry to hear this because we are also spending a month on this ship very shortly. I think we'll be going to the dining room more often, but it's a port intensive cruise, and the dining room is closed at lunchtime on port days.

 

Yes I will be on the TA portion of your cruise. You should be ok on port days because so many pax are off the ship and it's not going to be a big issue getting space at the buffet. The food is a different issue though.

We booked the B2B TA/British Isles in April '18 to specifically because it is on the Royal Princess - such a nicer, newer ship to spend 26 days on. See you on board. Enjoy your BI ports!!

[FritzG]

Yes I will be on the TA portion of your cruise. You should be ok on port days because so many pax are off the ship and it's not going to be a big issue getting space at the buffet. The food is a different issue though.

We booked the B2B TA/British Isles in April '18 to specifically because it is on the Royal Princess - such a nicer, newer ship to spend 26 days on. See you on board. Enjoy your BI ports!!

 

We took the Royal British Isles cruise on the Royal in 2015--I wish we were going on the Royal again. We loved the ports, but we wish the ship was stopping at the Shetlands or Orkney instead of the Dublin overnight.

See you onboard!

[licram]

The World Fresh Market Place was terrible. Only good thing was mashed potatoes. Needed a saw to cut any of the carving board meat. No variety at all. All sandwiches are premade and dry and tasteless.

 

 

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[floridalover5623]

I'm getting the impression that the World Fresh Market Place was added only for the reason of advertising and they did nothing to improve their food quality or preparations.

We might return to the CB some day but only if it were due to price or itinerary, certainly not because of the food.

[1emerald1]

Per a Princess sales rep, all of the ships will have the Horizon Court replaced with

World Market Place during their next upgrade, except for the Royal, Regal and Majestic. She also stated that Princess would be following the pay to eat restaurants that other cruise lines are doing.

[floridalover5623]

Per a Princess sales rep, all of the ships will have the Horizon Court replaced with

World Market Place during their next upgrade, except for the Royal, Regal and Majestic. She also stated that Princess would be following the pay to eat restaurants that other cruise lines are doing.

Well that's some good news anyway. :)

[geoherb]

We sail on the CB in two weeks. Our port times have not changed since we booked it, but we booked after the final payment date. I haven't had time to read the early posts on our roll call thread to see if there have been any changes since the early folks started posting on it.

 

One of the reasons I booked this itinerary is the overnight in Dublin. I wanted more than one day to see the many things to see there. The itinerary before ours goes to Liverpool instead of two days in Dublin. I much prefer our itinerary.

[AF-1]

So the new world fresh market place. This replaces the Horizon court. Is café Caribe still there and it changes over at night to something else?

[mdgary]

So the new world fresh market place. This replaces the Horizon court. Is café Caribe still there and it changes over at night to something else?

 

 

 

I believe one side is Planks and the other side is Steamers and both are have additional charge for dinner.

 

 

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[bunniebird]

We just returned from a British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess and were highly disappointed with many aspects of the cruise.

During the first night on board, I got food poisoning, probably from the buffet upon boarding. It was reported to the guest services desk, and they said "thank you for the information" and dismissed it. Then they must have decided that this could be a potential ship-wide problem and called the stateroom several times to get the complete story and ask all their questions. The medical staff seemed to not have a complete procedure to follow either, because they called the stateroom too many times, asking duplicate questions, quite frankly causing me to get out of bed and take the call. I was isolated in the room for 24 hours following the final "incident" and they called the following morning to release me.

So aside from that, we found the food was really lacking in quality. The main dining room beverage server assigned to our table kept making all these weird noises. Very annoying, and we never went back to that table. Crown Grill and Plank's were pretty good, but Sabatini's was awful. The room was noisy, we were seated right in the path of every server, as they tripped over each other coming out of the kitchen. The wait between courses was extremely long, server got the order wrong on the appetizer so they brought an additional appetizer that was the correct order. Main courses and the desserts were not good Just a bad experience there, and it was a cover charge restaurant. Don't bother.

Another detail that really bothered me was the pepper grinder. I expect freshly ground pepper, but what came out was regular table shaker pepper. Why cut corners there? The breads and rolls offered anywhere on the ship were very airy and tasteless.

Some positive comments: embarkation was a breeze (which might be the port's good job and not the cruise line), and the buffet staff was very prompt with drinks, the bed was great, and the hot dogs and french fries were good. The ship appeared clean in all the common areas.

This was our first cruise on Princess, and I think our experience was enough to make it our last.

[AF-1]

We just returned from a British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess and were highly disappointed with many aspects of the cruise.

During the first night on board, I got food poisoning, probably from the buffet upon boarding. It was reported to the guest services desk, and they said "thank you for the information" and dismissed it. Then they must have decided that this could be a potential ship-wide problem and called the stateroom several times to get the complete story and ask all their questions. The medical staff seemed to not have a complete procedure to follow either, because they called the stateroom too many times, asking duplicate questions, quite frankly causing me to get out of bed and take the call. I was isolated in the room for 24 hours following the final "incident" and they called the following morning to release me.

So aside from that, we found the food was really lacking in quality. The main dining room beverage server assigned to our table kept making all these weird noises. Very annoying, and we never went back to that table. Crown Grill and Plank's were pretty good, but Sabatini's was awful. The room was noisy, we were seated right in the path of every server, as they tripped over each other coming out of the kitchen. The wait between courses was extremely long, server got the order wrong on the appetizer so they brought an additional appetizer that was the correct order. Main courses and the desserts were not good Just a bad experience there, and it was a cover charge restaurant. Don't bother.

Another detail that really bothered me was the pepper grinder. I expect freshly ground pepper, but what came out was regular table shaker pepper. Why cut corners there? The breads and rolls offered anywhere on the ship were very airy and tasteless.

Some positive comments: embarkation was a breeze (which might be the port's good job and not the cruise line), and the buffet staff was very prompt with drinks, the bed was great, and the hot dogs and french fries were good. The ship appeared clean in all the common areas.

This was our first cruise on Princess, and I think our experience was enough to make it our last.

Wow. Sorry you had a bad cruise. I just took my first princess cruise to alsaka three weeks ago. It was near perfect. Ship was great. Staff were great. Food was excellent everywhere. We have booked another cruise because of our first experience.

[cherrypop]

Wow. Sorry you had a bad cruise. I just took my first princess cruise to alsaka three weeks ago. It was near perfect. Ship was great. Staff were great. Food was excellent everywhere. We have booked another cruise because of our first experience.

 

Different ship different cruise can make all the difference. This year we did a Holland cruise to Alaska and it was horrible, food was the worst. Last year we did the same cruise to Alaska at the same time of year on the same ship and it was all amazing. The difference one year can make was amazing.

[floridalover5623]

I believe one side is Planks and the other side is Steamers and both are have additional charge for dinner.

 

 

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It sounds like adding the World Fresh Market Place and replacing the Cafe Carib was only done to make room for two pay restaurants.

When I first heard about the change I assumed it was to improve the quality of the dining experience, similar to the Coral layout.

It seems that profit was there only motivation.

[floridalover5623]

During the first night on board, I got food poisoning, probably from the buffet upon boarding. It was reported to the guest services desk, and they said "thank you for the information" and dismissed it. Then they must have decided that this could be a potential ship-wide problem and called the stateroom several times to get the complete story and ask all their questions. The medical staff seemed to not have a complete procedure to follow either, because they called the stateroom too many times, asking duplicate questions, quite frankly causing me to get out of bed and take the call. I was isolated in the room for 24 hours following the final "incident" and they called the following morning to release me.

My wife had a similar experience on another ship with food poisoning.

The symptoms had dissipated a day later but we went to medical just to see if it happened to anyone else. Not only wouldn't they tell us, but wanted to charge us just for reporting the incident since they wanted to check her over.

Needless to say we were going to walk out & they then told us there wouldn't be a charge but they still quarantined her to the cabin for 24 hours. (with a full menu selection)