We were very excited about the chance to cruise on Princess' newest ship. Having previously been on Island, Crown and Caribbean, this would also be the largest Princess ship for us.

Embarkation - we arrived at Miami airport around 10am, the shuttle to the port was smooth, and we arrived a little before noon. As we expected, the embarkation process was very busy, but Princess did well in getting us on the ship in a reasonable amount of time, and we were enjoying lunch in the Horizon before 1pm.

Ship itself is beautiful. Everything looks brand new, of course. The Piazza is amazing. Alfredo's was very good, although busy at times we had no trouble getting a seat the two times we went. Regal has all the usual Princess cafes, bars, etc. The Princess Live concept was interesting, although nowhere to sit a drink down. We do not pay extra for the premium dinners, so we ate in the Concerto dining room each night. The food was good, and the staff made an effort to provide options for one of our table guests who had a special diet. The service was .. very .. very .. SLOW. Dinner routinely took more than 2 hours. We joked at times about orders ending up with the wrong person (it happened a lot). It seemed like they are still working out the kinks. Decks 16-19 are very nice. Decks 5-7, including the Piazza are equally very nice. Now to the issue. Getting between decks 7 and 16 can be a challenge. If you've read any of the other reviews, there is no mid-ship stairs. We were on deck 14 (Riviera) toward the aft, so this wasn't a big ticket item for us, except at dinner. We had to enter the Concerto dining room from mid-ship. No stairs. Lots of clogged elevators. Poorly designed. We heard in a talk that the next Princess ship will be built in the same design as Royal and Regal, but it will include mid-ship stairs. The balcony cabin was nicely laid out. Bathroom was fine, even if the toilet paper holder was in a weird location way underneath the sink. The balcony itself seemed tight. Another foot would've made it really nice. Nice flat screen TVs on the wall in the cabin. Plenty of video options to watch, including Love Boat TV shows. However, there is not enough sound barrier in the walls between cabins, as we could easily hear the TV from the other side of the wall. If you are going to hang TVs on the wall, provide plenty of sound barrier. Also, in the back of the ship, even on deck 14, we felt a lot of vibration from engines, especially when docking. Read more