My girlfriend and I sailed on the Dawn Princess, round-trip from Seattle on an Alaskan cruise on May 13, 2006.
We have cruised on other ships before and decided to give Princess a try for our Alaskan cruise. We were not impressed.
The ship was in shabby shape. The carpets were dated and dirty. Our room wasn't as clean as it should have been. The bathroom was dirty. The bed linens were worn out and ripped in spots. The towels were obviously heavily used and not of good quality. The room reminded us of an old Holiday Inn or a Days Inn. Even the plastic mat on the balcony was badly stained. It was not what we expected from Princess, which is supposed to be a good quality cruise line. The Carnival ships we traveled in the past were actually much nicer, cleaner and more elegant (even though Princess is supposed to be a step-up from Carnival).