This was our third cruise aboard Princess and first in 6 years. Meanwhile, we have cruised Celebrity three times, NCL once and Seabourn once. Seabourn is an entirely different class than the others and there are not enough superlatives to describe that cruise (Mediterranean).

We have grown to expect a pleasant cruise with Princess with options to purchase luxury for those who wish to have it. By luxury I mean better wines and gourmet food items such as caviar. These items no longer exist and in fact, the entire Princess experience has dropped significantly. The food, which used to be very good, is now mediocre at best. Meat quality is poor, seafood is clearly frozen and fishy tasting and wines are low quality.

The service was spotty, with mostly good service, some excellent service and some poor service. In my book, anything less than excellent service demonstrates how well staff are trained, how well they are treated by Princess and how much they care about their customers. My family had two cabin attendants serving us in three cabins and one was excellent and one was good. Our regular dining room server was excellent, but in The Crown Grill, which is supposed to feature higher end service and food, the server and the service were mediocre at best. But the worst service was at the pools, where several of the attendants ranged from unfriendly to surly. When asked for towels or directions, more than once I got a stare like I had three heads. Read more