Cafe Caribe on Caribbean Princess?

[jerseygirl3]

I've heard people mention how wonderful the food is in Cafe Caribe. Can someone explain to me what this dining venue is? I believe the buffet area is called Horizon Court. Is this part of that? What are the hours of operation? Can you eat all meals there? Is there a charge, like an alternative dining venue?

 

Inquiring minds want to know!

[Toto2Kansas]

The Cafe Caribe is more like a smaller, extension to the Horizon Court. It is towards the aft of the ship behind the regular buffet (Horizon Court). It is a no charge alternative and they do have very good food. We loved all of the seafood that seemed to be there on several nights. We found the Horizon Court was closed in the evening and this was the alternate casual dress place to go.

 

Sorry, can't remember what the hours of operation were as it was last summer that we sailed on the CB.

[monk888]

Cafe Caribe is attached to the Horizon Court. There is no additional charge. The Horizon Court and/or Cafe Caribe are open 24/7 for your gorging pleasure on the Lido Deck 15. You just go on up there at any time and hit the buffet. If the Cafe Caribe side is closed, the Horizon Court side is open. You just walk through from one to the other.

 

For the record, here is the official itineray of these venues:

Pastries and Beverages, 4AM til 10AM, Cafe Caribe

Breakfast Buffet, 6AM til 11:30AM, Horizon Court

Luncheon Buffet, 11:30AM til 4:30PM, Horizon Court

Light Snack Buffet, 4:30PM til 6:30PM, Horizon Court

Dinner Buffet, 5:30PM til 11PMm Cafe Caribe

Bistro, 11PM til 4AM, Cafe Caribe (Bistro is table service from a Bistro menu)

 

Horizon Court/Cafe Caribe features special dinner buffets on different nights. Here is a sampling from this last cruise June 4-11:

 

Saturday, Sailaway Buffet, Seafood Extravaganza with shrimp cocktail, lobster claws, King Crab Legs, smoked salmon and more.

Sunday, Cafe Caribe, Bierfest featuring traditional bavarian cuisine

Tuesday, Cafe Caribe, Rijstafel Rice Table Buffet

Wednesday, Cafe Caribe, Grilled Caribbean Lobster, Beef Wellington, etc.

Friday, Cafe Caribe, Creole Cookery

 

In addition, you can eat at the main dining rooms, grab a piece of pizza at Pregos for free, or grab burger, dogs and fries for free at the Trident Grill.

 

The Monk

[GloriaF]

I agree, the food was very good at Cafe Caribe. In the evenings, they have table linens and wine glasses and waiters for drinks. It is still a buffet for food - and can be a little confusing if you are drinking iced tea as to whether the waiter gets it or you do. Sometimes both happened, but we tended to try to get it ourselves since it is a no charge drink and they made no tip for the service.

[CruiseFever]

Like the above, we too enjoyed the Caribe Cafe.

 

Actually, The Caribe Cafe is two more buffet lines, not one. It offers a great deal of flexibility in feeding us beginning with the Embarkation Lunch you'll find as you board the ship on the first day. Then, with the Horizon Court's two serving areas, a total of four are open and all serve the same selections to the ravenous cruisers as they first board. At night, on that first night, the Cafe Caribe transforms to (as Toto noted) more of a table service restaurant if you want it to be that .

 

You can go through the buffet, sampling the Caribbean themed entree's (I know that sounds vague, but it works, trust me) which on that first night feature a fabulous selection of seafood.

 

You can also walk into the dining area which, since lunch, gained tablecloths and is preset with wine glasses and flatware where you will be treated to a table service type experience, complete with menus.

 

We didn't realize this until the cruise was over. The two times we dined there we simply walked through the buffet, then found a table and sat down, like most other people we viewed on our particular sailing.

 

Documentation available in your cabin or online does not make this apparent. I think that's because they like to retain the flexibility to do different things with this space and don't want to get locked in to one set way of doing things.

 

To me, that's all flavored with Personal Choice Cruising, which allows you do do stuff (like eating, or "Anytime Dining") when you want, where you want and with whom you want.

 

The hours of this venue are varied (see Monks post above) serving Pastries and Beverages from 4AM to 10AM, Dinner from 5:30 to 11PM, and "Bistro" service from 11PM to 4AM.

 

Tips:

• If you like the appetizers they're passing out on deck during Island Night head to the Caribe Cafe, they have them all on the buffet.
  
• When open, we'd go through the Horizon Court buffet first then the Caribe Cafe buffet. More selections, usually easier to find a seat during busy times back by the Caribe Cafe.
  
• While the Horizon Court buffet is a scramble type layout where it is appropriate to skip stations you don't want and go directly to the ones you do the Caribe Cafe is more of a straight line cafeteria setup, although it is not straight as in linear.