My wife and I are in our sixties and are frequent cruisers - our only other Princess cruise experience included a tropical storm, so we wanted to try again. We cruised from Ft. Lauderdale to the Southern Caribbean from 12/17 - 12/27/12. We had never been to Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada or Dominica, though St. Thomas has been a port on our previous cruises. We are lucky to live in Miami, so hotel accommodations are not an issue for us.

Embarkation went very smoothly; we were on-board within an hour of arrival. Our balcony stateroom was small, but well designed with plenty of closet space. The tiny bathroom and shower were functional but far from attractive and had stains in the shower. The mattresses on the beds seemed old and tired - a little hard, and while sleepable, not as comfortable as on other cruises.

The food choices were excellent. We opted for set time dining in the Botticelli dining room, and found both the food and service excellent. The Horizon Court and Cafe Caribe offered a nice variety of very good dishes and had some evenings with a regional focus (Mexican, German, etc). We visited two of the specialty restaurants. Sabatini's was OK and the Crown Grill was outstanding. Read more