we arrived in Houston the day before our cruise left and stayed at the hotel at the Houston airport, leaving by bus the following day for Galveston. The weather was much colder that we had anticipated, but the weather had been unusual in a lot of places this year. We got to the ship and were on board very quickly. We immediately found our cabin and deposited our carry on stuff. We had an outside cabin with a queen size bed configuration. The bed was pushed up against the wall not centered (there is not enough room to center it) to make getting in and out very difficult and the bed was under the window so you had to stand or kneel on the bed to look outside. We went upstairs to have lunch and our immediate reaction upon arriving in the Horizon Court was how very small and disorganized the food set up was. There was no flow and you just kind of went around in circles until you found the exit and left to find a table. There was never a problem finding a place to sit. After lunch we headed out to get our bearings on the ship. We like the traditional dining and always go to the dining room to make sure that we have a large table. The traditional dining room is like an afterthought on this ship. It is on the same deck as one of the other dining rooms but on the other side of the galley, so you must go up a deck, walk to the end of the ship and go down a deck. What a pain!! We have travelled on several other cruise lines and much prefer the elaborate, two and three story dining rooms than the set up Princess has. I guess they do that to allow for the Anytime Dining. We had no trouble finding deck chairs, lots were available both sun and shade and in the Solarium. The large screen on deck was fun - if you didn't want to watch what was on, you just had to move a few seats away and you couldn't see it. Lots of people certainly enjoyed the football game.

I do admit to being a fussy eater, but I must say that I did not enjoy most of the food served - both in the Horizon court and the dining room. I ordered veal twice and it was tough both times. I ordered the Beef Tournedoes from the "always have" menu and they were tough, too. I'm not much for seafood or fish - so that really reduces your choices. The only meal I really enjoyed was the Chicken Kiev. My husband thought the food was wonderful. We just wandered around the shopping area in Costa Maya. It was a nice area and the merchants were not really aggressive. In Roatan, we took the Pirates, Parrots and Monkeys tour. It was fun and you got to hold the parrots and monkeys. There was a beautiful beach at this park and it would have been nice to know that so you could take beach things along and go for a dip. This park was very nice and clean and well tended. In Belize, we took the Mayan ruins tour. It was a 2 hour bus ride each way - and they don't slow down for pot holes. The guide was very good and very informative. The included lunch was tasty and you get a couple of bottles of water on the bus. It was very warm by the ruins and take insect repellent along. It was very interesting and I'm glad I went, but I don't seem me going to see any more ruins any time soon. Plus, the tour takes the ENTIRE time in port - didn't get to even look in a store to buy a souvenir. In Cozumel, we had booked a beach day including lunch. The water was rough and several scuba and snorkel tours had already been cancelled, so when we showed up at our pick-up point, we were told that we could go and use the pool and have lunch, but we couldn't use the beach toys. We figured we could swim in a pool on deck and save ourselves $140, so we cancelled and got a full refund. We went shopping instead and still spent the $140. The last day is at sea and heading north, so it is starting to cool off. This is the largest ship that we have travelled on and we figure that when they added the extra cabins to get more people, they didn't add any more public space. It was congested by the photo place which is the only route to the Princess Theatre. The Princess Theatre has no center aisle, which means that the rows are about 25 or 30 seats long. That is no fun having people (including waiters) climb over you to get to there seats or serve drinks. The elevators seem to work only sporadically. And not all the elevators go all the way from top to bottom. We have been on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and love the glass elevators overlooking the water and the 8 story atrium. We also found that the entertainment in the evening always overlaps. If you want to eat dinner (late seating), and go to the show, you miss the 50's party or the Western night. And if you want to attend these events, you must leave dinner early. We tried going to Skywalkers a couple of times and it was smoky and they only seemed to be playing "rap crap" music. It was certainly not full. But you sure get a great view from up there. The big production shows were really good. The rest of the entertainment was ho-hum. Not much variety - three comedians, a magician and Johnny Thunder(he was good). We had a good time - met some wonderful people. Crew on the ship was ok. They seemed to do their jobs, but no one appeared to go "above and beyond". I'm not sure that we would travel out of Galveston again. We like to leave from Florida where the weather is warm before you even start the cruise.