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For our 7th Princess cruise we chose to round out our Caribbean options. Overall, the ship is typical Princess. We did miss the loss of Skywalkers lounge for late evening entartainment. The new upper stern lounge - whatever it's called - was dull and overly air conditioned. The worst on-board feature was Crooners Lounge, a favorite mid evening venue on prior Princess cruises. Sound volume was always excessive to the point that it was pointless to try conversing with traveling companions.(Doesn't "crooners" imply soft and mellow?) Then, there was the entertainment - or total lack thereof. For some reason the cruise director thought that he has singing talent and should foist himself on passengers at the excessive volume. He seemed to imbibe more than the patrons and increase his volume with each drink as his voice degraded. It made for most unpleasant evenings. He needs to listen to Ray Cousins, who provides TOP NOTCH entertainment on other Princess ships to find a model for Crooners Lounge entertainment.
Otherwise, cabin service met typical Princess high standards; the ship was clean and well maintained. And, the theater entertainment although offering shows that we had seen before was high quality. One thing that we see consistently with staff on Princess, they speak well of the company and its treatment of them. That shows in how they relate to the passengers, us - their customers. We will be travelling on the Grand Princess in June 2012 and hope that Princess has found solutions to its Crooners Lounge deficiencies, since we have advised them of same.
Oh, a comment on St. Maartens. The port offered little. But it was interesting to see on a bus tour the contrast between the well developed Dutch side and the rather scraggly French side with its heavily armed police.
San Juan was great, but too short a stop. Seek out Yogi, the tour guide on old San Juan Plaza. He's the best!
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