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Planks and Steamers(?) on Caribbean Princess


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Was on CB 10/14 - 21 and Steamers/Planks pretty empty. I didn't go and would not pay extra for that.

 

Feel that one of the consequences for those added venues was a great reduction in the variety and quality of the regular Horizon Buffet food. Felt it was worse than my other recent Princess cruises. IMHO.

 

Hope they don't extend this to other ships.

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We were on the Caribbean Princess for 24 days last July and we ate dinner in Planks several times and loved it. We also enjoyed the baked potato soup they served there at lunch each day. We did not dine at Steamers so I cannot comment on that. The wife is not a fan of clams, mussels, or oysters so the Steamers menu did not appeal to here. We have always enjoyed the Crab Shack crab menu but never have been able to finish all they gave us.

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Was on CB 10/14 - 21 and Steamers/Planks pretty empty. I didn't go and would not pay extra for that.

 

Feel that one of the consequences for those added venues was a great reduction in the variety and quality of the regular Horizon Buffet food. Felt it was worse than my other recent Princess cruises. IMHO.

 

Hope they don't extend this to other ships.

 

I could not agree with you more. First time I ever gave Princess a bad review on Horizon Buffet. We were on British Isles in August. Tried both and they were OK but would not do again. And the Buffet was awful IMO. I could never find anything I wanted to eat. Selection was terrible. I wrote on my survey that I hope they would not add this idea to other ships.

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I could not agree with you more. First time I ever gave Princess a bad review on Horizon Buffet. We were on British Isles in August. Tried both and they were OK but would not do again. And the Buffet was awful IMO. I could never find anything I wanted to eat. Selection was terrible. I wrote on my survey that I hope they would not add this idea to other ships.

 

I filled out my survey too - lowest scores I've ever given.

 

Over 14 days, I walked out of Horizon several times with nothing. Saw meatloaf 3 times and it was not good meatloaf.

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We are looking forward to trying the new venues in March but not for dinner. We want to see what the breakfast and lunch are like. I've seen a lot of negative comments about the revamped World Fresh Marketplace buffet. Hopefully somebody is listening at Princess.

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Was on CB 10/14 - 21 and Steamers/Planks pretty empty. I didn't go and would not pay extra for that.

 

Feel that one of the consequences for those added venues was a great reduction in the variety and quality of the regular Horizon Buffet food. Felt it was worse than my other recent Princess cruises. IMHO.

 

Hope they don't extend this to other ships.

 

I feel exactly the same on all three points. We were so disappointed in the buffet food that I wrote to Princess. They called me but offered no assurance regarding our upcoming Hawaii cruise...which we may still cancel.

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I could not agree with you more. First time I ever gave Princess a bad review on Horizon Buffet. We were on British Isles in August. Tried both and they were OK but would not do again. And the Buffet was awful IMO. I could never find anything I wanted to eat. Selection was terrible. I wrote on my survey that I hope they would not add this idea to other ships.

 

Same here for the 27 day British Isles/TA in September/October. The peanut butter area is a total waste of space, too.

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We were on the CB for 14 days (Oct 7 - 21), I agree, the buffet was HORRIBLE!

 

We received a free Specialty Dinner Gift Card from Princess for our Anniversary, so we tried Steamers and it was really good! Shame that it was so empty. Doesn't come close to the Crab Shack, but still good!

 

Not a big BBQ fan, so we didn't try Planks.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I too was on CB Oct 7 - 21 and did not think much of the buffet. The variety in choices left a lot to be desired. It seemed that the only thing that might have changed from day to day was the carving station. We tried Steamers once and I was disappointed there as well. I had the clam pot and my husband had the mussels. The size of the clams in the pot were the size of my thumb nail and while there were many in the pot, if you are a sea food lover you had to do a lot of imagination to actually taste the clam. The mussel pot was a little bit better. All in all, I don't think I would go back to Steamers again. I registered my disappointment with the head waiter and he said many people had the same complaint and he had advised management about this problem. I think I would have been happier if they still had the crab shack. I was really looking forward to trying that. The MDR was definitely a better choice for food. The Crown Grill menu also changed. If you wanted surf and turf there was an additional fee. In the past, it did not matter. There was a lot of hype in the renovation of the food venues when the ship came out of dry dock about the World Market Place but in actuality it was just a change in name and a redecorating of the buffet area.

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We are just of the CB 12/20 Panama Canal. I couldn’t agree more that the Buffet is horrible. I have never been on a cruise where I could say I was hungry until this one. The selection of food, the quality, it all was bad. I have completed my post cruise survey and voiced my opinion on this. We didn’t try Steamers or Planks. We did eat in Crowne Grill and had the filet, which was delicious. The surf & turf is an additional 10.00

 

 

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It appears as though our cruise on the CB in November will be more interesting than we originally believed. We may check out one of the two new food venues. We generally confine our meals to the MDR with the usual exception of lunch on port days which for us generally means a stop at the pizzeria after a long shore excursion. We will check out the HC however given the negative responses here.

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I've seen a number of complaints about the selections and quality of food in the new World Fresh Marketplace (replacement for Horizon Court) but am reserving my own opinion until I can actually check it out for myself. We sail in 87 days for a 14 day Circle Caribbean (a true 14 day cruise - not two 7 day cruises stuck together) and will see for ourselves what it is like. It's hard to understand how they could mess up a buffet. I've always found that their American bacon at breakfast is really pathetic in every HC we've tried. I'm wondering what, exactly, is the "issue" with the new venue. I just keep hearing that the "selection" and "quality" is bad but I don't really know what changes have been made to the selection. As for the "quality"... I have never found any fabulous food in HC.

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It has been a few years since we have been on Princess, but are planing a Canada/New England for the fall. I do remember eating in the HC and ending up with a salad as my meal, because nothing else appealed. And a salad is not my first choice ever!

You may think this is a recent change, but I know it was happening in 2014.

Trish

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I've seen a number of complaints about the selections and quality of food in the new World Fresh Marketplace (replacement for Horizon Court) but am reserving my own opinion until I can actually check it out for myself. We sail in 87 days for a 14 day Circle Caribbean (a true 14 day cruise - not two 7 day cruises stuck together) and will see for ourselves what it is like. It's hard to understand how they could mess up a buffet. I've always found that their American bacon at breakfast is really pathetic in every HC we've tried. I'm wondering what, exactly, is the "issue" with the new venue. I just keep hearing that the "selection" and "quality" is bad but I don't really know what changes have been made to the selection. As for the "quality"... I have never found any fabulous food in HC.

We are going on the CB January circle Caribbean and will let you and the board know our impressions. I do understand that each ship and its head chef will be a bit different in their preparation but what does not compute is the different selections. For example, I have yet to be on the Grand and have them not offer different types of breakfast hash; corned beef, turkey, salmon and pork. CB seems to be on a corned beef and only corned beef hash offering. Not a big deal but, come on, change at least something on that breakfast line sometime. We keep the Horizon Court for a quick breakfast and very light lunch. I don't believe that we have ever eaten dinner up there. The Florida guy mentioned beef medallions being served in HC. I may have to break a rule for them.

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I've seen a number of complaints about the selections and quality of food in the new World Fresh Marketplace (replacement for Horizon Court) but am reserving my own opinion until I can actually check it out for myself. We sail in 87 days for a 14 day Circle Caribbean (a true 14 day cruise - not two 7 day cruises stuck together) and will see for ourselves what it is like. It's hard to understand how they could mess up a buffet. I've always found that their American bacon at breakfast is really pathetic in every HC we've tried. I'm wondering what, exactly, is the "issue" with the new venue. I just keep hearing that the "selection" and "quality" is bad but I don't really know what changes have been made to the selection. As for the "quality"... I have never found any fabulous food in HC.

 

Here are some examples of selections from our British Isles in August. It is a small area of buffet compared to other ships. Breakfast was OK. Hard to mess up the typical items

Lunch and dinner were similar format. Along back wall center was a carving station. Sides were limited to 4-5 items being a starch and some sort of veggie combination dish. Left side was the Eastern Destination. The 5-6 items were typically an oriental cuisine. Right side was Western Destinations. Again 5-6 items that were probably more American/Continental. I never once got anything from either side.

Center section was salad station - either greens and make your own, or bowls of blended ingredients. There were several days when there was never any Ranch dressing! Outer section was premade sndwiches, never saw a combination I liked either due to spices, always seemed chipotle, cajun, thai, which I do not like, or cheese used, etc. etc. Never just a plain sandwich of meet cheese, etc. Cheese section was very limited if you just wanted cheese and a slice of bread. If offered at all on some days. Fruit limited. Desert section was limited with a hot, usually a bread pudding. Cookies, little cake items, a couple pies.

So if you did not see anything there you wanted, no other choices. The small buffet area in Planks was very limited and a pre made hot sandwich. Steamers had a ramen noodle section.

I agree with another comment....what was the point of the PBJ????

Hope that helps.

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We sailed on the CB several times in 2016 and once last year. We never had a complaint re the HC offerings and we usually ate all our meals there (except for a few dinners in the DR) as is our custom on all our cruises. True, we are not gourmands, but we've never gone hungry (and actually enjoyed our meals) on the CB--I esp. like the Italian- and German-themed dinners. While the buffet selections on the Royal (been on it twice) are more numerous, I always found the "hot" food lukewarm at best--this was never a problem on the CB. We will be on the latter again in late Feb 2018 and may try Planks or Steamers (although we're generally averse to paying extra for meals when the HC and DR are included in the cost of the cruise). I suppose if a cruiser prefers really fine dining, they should avoid the buffets on most mass market lines, and perhaps head to Crystal or similar line.

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  • 5 months later...
Was on CB 10/14 - 21 and Steamers/Planks pretty empty. I didn't go and would not pay extra for that.

 

Feel that one of the consequences for those added venues was a great reduction in the variety and quality of the regular Horizon Buffet food. Felt it was worse than my other recent Princess cruises. IMHO.

 

Hope they don't extend this to other ships.

 

I agree with your assessment about variety and quality of the food at the World Buffet. Princess used a lot of space for the two new evening venues which stole seating capacity from the buffet users in the evening. We ate at Steamer's once and thought it was quite good but the menu selection was really poor. As far as Plank's BBQ goes, well, we are from the Midwest where barbecue is a passion and I felt we would be really disappointed with what the cruise lines calls barbecue so we didn't try it.

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