This was our 11th cruise. We have cruised on Celebrity, Holland America, and Carnival, as well as Princess. To us, the key criteria for a good cruise are the food, service, entertainment, and ports.

We ate most meals (including breakfast, lunch, and supper) in the main dining room, fixed seating, 5:30pm. We found the food well-prepared, delivered quickly and hot, and enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the Caribbean choices on the supper menus. The soups were very good (something I found to be a weakness on previous Princess cruises) and the french onion soup was the best anyone at our table ever tasted. Our waiter, Fin, was friendly, humorous, and very efficient. Breakfast in the MDR was a real treat, with Arnold as our waiter, and he was outstanding. We like hot milk with our coffee, and after a day or two he remembered to bring it without being asked.

We enjoyed the nightly entertainment, and found the Princess dancers to be energetic and entertaining. Including a show in the British pub, they did four performance during our week, and we enjoyed all of them. A real highlight was the a piano entertainer--Thomas Franek! He put on two different shows the same night. Comedian and ventriloquist Bart Rocket was good the first night, but not as good after that when he was pressed into service to do another show after an entertainer missed the ship in Belize, where we failed to visit (it being a tender port and there being rough weather). Read more