This is a great ship! The cruise was our sixth, but first on Princess (the other five were on Carnival). We were impressed with the condition of the ship, the friendliness of the staff, and the quality of the food. Some of the things we were wowed by: We loved the automatic tipping plan. Anytime seating is a great way to dine, as it allowed us to plan our evenings the way we wanted to. Never a problem finding deck chairs. The pools were always open, and filled with fresh water (rather than salt water). Drinks were reasonably priced.
The production shows were excellent. We could understand the captain when he spoke. The variety of eating options was more than we expected on a ship this size. Afternoon tea was fantastic. Movies were shown in the theater most days. Princess Cays was excellent. Our cabin steward knew our names and greeted us EVERY time we entered or exited our room when she was on duty. Although I didn't think it was possible, the food was a step up from Carnival. The Sterling Steakhouse was well worth the $15 each. The walking track was in a much better location than we were used to (out of the wind and sun). The bands were very good. The library had books (can you believe that?) and was open! The buffet was open 24 hours a day.
The line was not constantly hawking things like the spa, the pictures, the "drink of the day", the art auction, bingo, etc. (they were all available, but weren't forced down our throats). Ten days was just right (we always felt we weren't ready to get off the boat after seven days on previous cruses). Some of the things we felt could be improved: Could use a daily newspaper to learn of world events, they could label their shows properly (a piano player and a banjo player were billed as a comedian, a juggler was billed as a comedian, (both were excellent, but weren't comedians), and another show which was billed as a comedian and piano playing turned out to be a great piano player who was a very bad comedian).