This was the first cruise for our family - 36 and 38 with 2 kids 9 and 6. I will start off by saying that it was a wonderful time, and we are already looking to book our next cruise(s) with our extended families.

Embarkation. It went pretty smooth. We arrived right at noon, so the line was extremely long. Being first-time cruisers we really had no idea what we were doing. We just sort of followed the masses. My husband has Elite status and remembered while we were in line that we could get preferred embarking. So, we got out of line and were rushed to the front. Much better - because the line was very long!

Our cabin. It was small, but it was doable for the 4 of us. We had twin beds and both kids were on the top bunks that come out from the wall. The have a bar that comes across but just where the heads are. Both of kids are MAJOR movers when they sleep, so I was worried about them falling out. I did find them both a couple of times close to falling off and had to readjust them. The bathroom was very small as was the shower, but we were expecting that going in. The cabin did have a TON of storage space, though. There were plenty of hangers and space to hang up our dress clothes and plenty of shelves to hold the rest of our clothes. There was also plenty of storage to hold all of our luggage. Our cabin steward was OK. He was very good about spiffying up the room and the turn down service and always seemed to know when we were away to do these services. He was not the friendliest guy and seemed annoyed by our questions. He also did not respond to his page very quickly, took him over a half hour to come to the room. We also found out that Princess does not do towel animals. Myself and the kids were bummed about this! Read more