This is the 3rd cruise my girlfriend and I have been on. In 2004 we did a Celebrity out of Miami, and in 2005 we did a Princess out of Galveston. We are both in our 40's and are from the Northwest, so our primary goal we go on a cruise to get away from the winter for a week and be pampered on the ship. No worries and no hassle's. For me it becomes a hassle when things are not convenient. We take our vacation at the same time every year - over Presidents Day week in Feb. The Diamond Princess Mexican Rivera was not the most pleasant experience. We made the best of it and had a good vacation. But the overall experience was lacking. Much different than our Princess cruise in 2005 out of Galveston. I hope Princess will read this and make the suggested changes.

Embarkation/Disembarkation is a hassle. That's just part of the cruise experience. Our flight arrived early on the day of sailing and Princess had someone at the airport to meet us. They transferred us to the Marriott to wait in a banquet room with other passengers and served complimentary juice/coffee and danishes. We were also able to "check in" so that when we got to the ship we were able to bypass the long lines of people checking in. Security was tighter than I remember on previous cruises and it seemed like there were more hoops to jump through. I felt sorry for all the people that did not have expedited check in - the terminal looked like a very crowded Walmart.

During the muster we were told that our cruise had 430 children on board. I thought that was a rather large number and an experienced cruiser told us at the Captain Circle meeting that they thought Princess limited to the number of children on the cruise to 400. More about this later. Read more