This was our 4th cruise, third on a Princess Ship. We have loved cruising especially with Princess and looked forward to this cruise. I am sorry to say that it did not live up to our expectations. We had a great time overall but are considering another cruise line in the future as we felt that Princess is down grading service, food quality and staffing to passenger ratio. I will have to mention my pet peeve of the trip and that is: I am a southern girl and I love ice tea with my meals. I don't consider instant tea concentrate to be fine dining. Since we take these cruises so we can be pampered and dining is one of those pampering times I was most disgusted to find that I was served instant ice tea in the dining room. The overall condition of the ship was not bad but I noticed that the furniture in the public places was very worn and of inferior quality. Kind of like the stuff you can buy by the freeway for a couple hundred bucks for a room full. The Skywalker lounge had wonderful chairs and was very nice.
We opt for traditional seating since we travel with friends we met on our first cruise and we enjoy having the same table and wait staff for the whole trip and don't have to mess with reservations. The dining room was in the bowels of the ship next to the stairway from the crew deck and apparently from the smell close to the garbage hold. Our table was right next to the kitchen and we were nightly entertained by the noise from the kitchen, the constant traffic of waiters, and the breaking of dishes. Our wait staff was very good. But when the Head waiter came over and asked how we were doing and our table mate commented on the bad location of our table he walked away without comment and completely ignored her. The height of rudeness. I was appalled at his behavior and needless to say he got no tip from us. The food was good, but we have had better on other Princess ships and even on Royal Caribbean. Our first experience with Princess may have spoiled us, but we also thought the dining room food on the Dawn was very good.
The ship had a vibration that could be felt in most of the ship more so than any other ship and we have been on ships as large as the Grand. Our cabin was located in the bow of the ship on the Plaza deck outside...we tried to upgrade to another deck several weeks before the cruise but he ship was fully booked and we were unable to change. I have always gotten upgrades before but no luck this time. The cabin was a little smaller but adequate and I liked having the window. Since I tend to get motion sickness, I did have to take some medication a few nights but soon got my sea legs so other than having to walk miles to get anywhere we didn't mind it. Our room steward was pleasant and filled our requests, but he was harried and had 18 cabins...they usually have about 10 cabins...still he did an excellent job. He did get an extra tip from us.