This ship was supposed to be a destination vessel. When they originally released the maiden year schedule the pricing was at a premium level. Soon after the first voyages and poor reviews the prices appeared to drop reflecting a growing trend of dissatisfaction. I like Princess and have a couple of trips each on the Golden Princess and Crown Princess. The problem is that many of the things I appreciated so much on those ships have been eliminated or cut back. The veranda deck walk is a thing of the past. The fantastic bow section of the upper veranda deck walk is gone. The forward views from the fitness center are gone. The rear pool is gone, replaced by one forward attached to the pay for view Sanctuary. The center stairways do not go up to the passenger floors causing backups at the elevators (this is not a minor problem, ask anyone who has sailed on the Royal). The verandas are miniscule even in the mini-suites. They eliminated the side aisles in the upper part of the theatre to slide in a couple of extra seats but it means that people who want to leave in the middle of a performance have to climb over a dozen people. I heard more bad things about this ship in elevators and public places than any other ship I've been on, and that's not as many as some but more than a dozen.

Other than the balcony, my room was fine but I noticed that there is a significant privacy problem for rooms on the starboard side due to the skywalk. The staff try very hard to please the passengers but I sense that they also know that they cannot fix the poor design of this ship. I will sail Princess again because I like the people and the food and the atmosphere but I won't sail on the Royal Princess again unless they make changes.

I you have a chance to do the same trip on an older, but better ship, I recommend Princess for the Caribbean without question.