I'm from the West Coast had never been to this area of the country before. I went with my Mom and some friends for her birthday. Overall, it was an enjoyable cruise. The ship was in good condition, clean and in good working order. The only exception was the balcony in our cabin where there was paint splattered over the deck chairs (which I'll also add are narrow, uncomfortable and flimsy feeling) and decking. A mini-suite is what we usually book on Princess and the room was nice, plenty of room for two people. We had one of the AE rooms at the back which was nice and quiet and the accessible shower without a tub was nice to have as I'm 6' 5" tall and I can't stand up in the regular mini-suite tub/shower combo. The balcony is not all that much of a benefit on this itinerary, however, since it is rather cool in temperature, but the extra room inside the cabin is nice to have. The food was very good, much better than our cruise on the Crown Princess back in April. This was may have been because the Princess head chef, Alfredo Marzi was on board for part of this cruise doing inspections. We also got to do the Chef's table which we have been trying to do for some time now, and it was neat that it was with Chef Marzi. I didn't go to any of the shows or to the casino, so I can't comment on that. 5 ports in 7 days is a lot and we did an excursion in every port (booked through Princess), so maybe that was a bit much.

Halifax, Nova Scotia was a nice little city and we had a good tour guide there and great weather. The leaves were only just starting to turn there which surprised me given that it was mid-October. The maritime museum with the Titanic exhibit is interesting to see and the Citadel is as well if you like military history. We had lunch with a tasty lobster roll by the water too. Peggy's cove was just a lighthouse on the rocks with 1,000 of your closest tourist friends, so I wouldn't recommend that especially. There is also a marker out near there where Swiss flight 111 crashed. Taking that into account along with the Titanic cemetery and the Halifax explosion, and this seems to be a disaster prone place. We had a pleasant day there, however, so maybe that's all a thing of the past now. :)

Saint John, New Brunswick was rather unimpressive. I think this port was only added fairly recently to most Canada/New England cruises and if you wanted an extra day on the ship, this would be a good choice to skip. It was pouring rain so that may be coloring my review a bit, but it was quite a boring day. We did a long tour that was supposed to cover 10 highlights. The reversing rapids sound much more interesting than they actually are and when we were at the Bay of Fundy it was high-tide so we couldn't see anything. There were about 3 tiny souvenir shops out there with generic and very limited things to buy. There is also a ridiculously over priced restaurant. We also saw the city market which is tiny and nothing special compared to saw Pike Place market in Seattle. Then we went to a museum inside of a mall. Overall, I'm sorry, but I don't see any real tourist appeal to this area. Read more