Our cabin was sold to us as an ‘Unrestricted View’ stateroom. This was a blatant misrepresentation because there was no view whatever on the left-hand side except for a very large white metal cabinet which blocked that entire angle. When we complained to the service desk on the ship and asked for the unrestricted view that we paid for we were told the ship was full and no upgrade was possible.

We had an excellent cruise on the Grand Princes in 2010 but on this cruise it was evident from the very first that Princess standards have fallen tremendously. When we arrived at the terminal we had to wait for almost three hours in the booking hall and then had to suffer long queues to get on the ship. Later, when we assembled at our Muster Station on the ship for the normal lifeboat drill, the very long recorded ‘emergency instructions’ message broke down twice.

On the first day out, soon after sailing, there was a callout for medical teams and we were informed by the Captain that there was a fire in the engine room. This was eventually brought under control. Read more