First time Princess cruiser. Other cruise lines we have sailed were Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Disney. We went with three other couples and two other couples have sailed on Princess many times. We chose this cruise because we could drive to the port.
The good: Embarkation was easy. Food was good. The Crown Grille was amazing! The service and food at the Crown was well worth the extra money.
The not so good: The minute you get on board the push of the coffee cards were ridiculous. It continued for days! I bought the coffee card before we boarded. I didn't need to be bombarded to buy a coffee card every time I sat down. The upsell of bellini's or other cocktail specials continued every night even after telling our waiter we were not interested. Probably the worst buffet we have seen on a cruise ship. Food was the same day after day. Our waiter was crabby and not friendly. He started to warm up towards the end of the cruise, but by then we were done with his attitude. Our cabin steward was very friendly, however, if you place a towel on the ground it means that you want it replaced not hung back up! We came back to our room after he cleaned it and the towels that were hung up were the towels we showered with in the morning still wet. He also brought us wine glasses that we requested but then didn't bring back clean ones for 3 days. The service at the bars were slow. The Vines bar took very long for anyone to even acknowledge you are there. We did the 1/2 day at the Sanctuary which is nice. We were shown our loungers and offered water. Never saw anyone again for 2 hours. No water replacement, no offer for headphones. I had to hunt someone down to see if we could order lunch. Probably wouldn't recommend the Sanctuary to anyone. I would just use the pool and loungers around the adult only area under the Sanctuary. It's free!
The room was great! Our first time in an aft balcony and we loved a few things about this room. It is at the end of a dead end hallway, so it is very quiet. Never heard anything from neighbors or hall noise. The balcony was big! We spend a lot of time on our balcony so it was a nice surprise. I did go barefoot on the balcony once. My feet were black coming back in. Not sure if it was just dirty or if there is some soot that settles on it. The noise from the wake and thrusters was loud. Very loud. We actually liked it and slept with the door open at night. Overall a good room.