We just returned from sailing on the Golden Princess to the Eastern Carribean. Having sailed on Carnival 4 times, we just wanted to try something different. The reason we chose Princess was the pricing that was available for a stateroom with a balcony. Once you have sailed with a balcony, you can never go back to a plain cabin. Everything about this ship was perfect. The embarkation process was terrific. We arrived at the pier at 11:45 a.m. and were walking in to our stateroom at 12:15. Last October we sailed on Carnival Victory and stood in line for almost 3 hours before finally getting to our stateroom. Princess has this down to an art. The ship is beautiful and kept in great shape. The staff aboard were great. "Yes sir" and "no sir" were always used. They really made you feel special. We like the alternative dining choices, because we usually don't want to take the time to dress up for dinner. Usually the buffet style food is just o.k. However, Princess had great food on their buffet every day. Really great selection and everything actually tasted like real food. Even their room service menu was much better than Carnival. (I'm not really bashing Carnival, but that is my only comparison.) The passengers on board were, for the most part, older. This kept the partying to a minimum and made the entire experience very enjoyable. This may not appeal to some younger people who want to party and party, but for us this was perfect. I'm not saying that we don't have fun, but we are past the all night partying years. We are in our early 50's. We really liked the dome covered pool. It is air conditioned and a great break when you just want to stay out of the sun, wind and heat, but still want to swim or sit in a hot tub. While in port they roll the dome back, which makes it nice. Disembarkation, which can be a nightmare, went very smooth as well. We were off the ship and on our way to the airport by 9:45 a.m. The later your flight is, the further down the disembarkation list you are. Just sitting around waiting to get off the ship is terrible, because you are forced to vacate your cabin by 8:30 a.m so that they can prepare it for the next cruise. A little hint: Try to get a flight out around 1:00 p.m. This will get you off the ship in reasonable time. Princess is a little more expensive than some cruise lines, but as the saying goes "you get what you pay for." Very true in this case. We were soooo pleased that we WILL sail Princess again soon. Hope your cruise was as good as ours was.