This was our first cruise so have nothing to compare it against, however we would without hesitation sail with Princess again. We found the whole experience to be superb and have no complaints at all regarding the ship, the service, the food, the island stops, or anything else that is the responsibility of Princess. Our room was larger than I expected and the balcony was fine for both my wife and I to sit out and enjoy a drink. For two average sized people the size was more than adequate. We had breakfast on the balcony every morning.

The only negative regarding the cruise was the number of (I assume) experienced cruisers who moaned and complained about what to me were trivial things that were personal choice rather than glaring deficiency of the ship or Princess. You can't please everyone, and surely every ship will have something that not everyone likes but that is what a website like this is for. The lack of Central stairs was a large bone of contention. But to my wife and I, walking less than 100m Aft or Forward to use those stairs was hardly a chore. Moaning about having to wait 2 mins for a lift seemed ridiculous. You're in the Caribbean, what's the rush? As an example of how intolerant some people were we spent several hours at Magens Bay on St. Thomas, which is arguably one of the best beaches in the world. There were 5 cruise ships in port that day and after reading many reviews on this site, we were expecting the beach to be very busy. Arriving at the beach, we spent less than 10 minutes strolling in the surf towards the left side of the beach. All day at this spot it was quiet, with not many people around and plenty of space to lie down and enjoy the view. However, it seemed that many people seemed to stay on the part of the beach that was 50ft from where their taxi dropped them off. Here it was noisy and crowded, but to say that the beach that day was overcrowded and disappointing would be completely inaccurate. Sometimes, even if you are in paradise you have to make a small effort to get what you expect, some people seem to forget that. Royal Princess Eastern Caribbean - highly recommended.