We are a couple in our early 50's traveling without children and this was our third straight Princess cruise - the last one was in 2004. We had very high expectations based upon our previous cruises with princess.

Embarkation: a disaster. Our cabbed dropped us off at the pier amid pure mayhem. No Princess reps visible , people all about, we tacked on to the end of am extremely long line that extended to the street not even knowing if we were in the right place. After about 45 minutes entered the building only to encounter long lines divided by deck. For some reason our deck was the longest line and barely moved - took over an hour to get to the front. The Princess person directing people to a line of check in windows was allocating only a couple of windows to our line and many more to other lines so they were moving much faster. a couple behind us just left our deck line and went in another - they ended up getting through about 30 minutes ahead of us. After checking in you joined the line to go throughout the security - another 30 to 45 minute wait. Whole process over two hours and very frustrating because of the lack of organization and direction. After we got on the ship there wasn't a band playing and waiters with premixed drinks on trays like previous cruises. Then no sail away party - the weather wasn't that bad -- they could have done something.

Stateroom : was good, more room than previous Princess ships. The room stewart was nice but not as visible as on previous cruises - I'm guessing he had more rooms to take care of and therefore less time for each stateroom. I heard this from other people as well. Read more