We chose this sailing to fulfill a dream of cruising the Holy Land. It was a packed itinerary and physically exhausting to see so much in 12 days. I'm sure there's a method to Princess Cruise Lines madness of putting 2 days of Israel and 2 days of Egypt back to back but it would have been nice to have a sea day in between. That would be my only complaint about the itinerary.

We flew into Venice the day before embarkation and stayed at Hotel Arlecchino. This hotel fit our needs very nicely and we were able to catch a cheap bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma and walk to our hotel. We were also able to walk to the cruise port with a little help from Venice's people mover. Once off of it, Princess had a bus to take us on into the port area. Very easy to do. Embarkation was extremely quick with no lines while we were there.

My husband and I have cruised 5 times, twice taking our kids and the other 3 alone. My youngest was concerned about this being a smaller ship and not having all the activities of the larger ships. It was not an issue on this port intensive itinerary. The Pacific Princess library is wonderful. A lovely room with so many books to borrow while on board. We also enjoyed the available board games as a family. We enjoyed the on board trivia a few times. One daughter enjoyed the spin classes in the exercise area and another enjoyed line dancing activities. I also attended the chef's demonstration and the kitchen tour. It was really nice to see how clean everything was! Read more