We have a cruised seven times, mostly with R.C.C.L. This was our first time on Princess.
Transfers. Princess transfers are horrible. While the process at the airport went very smoothly the bus was unbelievable. It was an old charter bus, very smelly and noisy and the seats needed total refurbishing.On the way back it was worse. We did the Express disembarkation where you take your own luggage. We were off the ship by 8:00 and proceeded to be stuck on the bus for 45 minutes while they tried to fill every seat available, even though there were 10 other buses waiting. Because so few people were going out of Houston-Hobby we stopped at Houston-Hobby and then went on to IAH. All in all an approximate three hour fiasco.
Embarkation. We arrived around 1:00 p.m. and walked right up to the registration counter. No problems and very smooth. Upon entering the ship no came up to us to ask if we needed help finding our cabin but it wasn't too difficult anyway.