This was our 3rd cruise, and our 1st time on Princess. We have only cruised with Royal Caribbean in the past, and we tried Princess so that we could see how the two companies compared. Overall, we couldn't find any major differences in the companies, but there were some small and subtle differences that we noticed.

Embarkation: We flew into Ft. Lauderdale the day before our cruise and spent the night with our friend. We arrived at the port at 2:30 in order to avoid the large crush of people who want to get on the ship as early as possible. The port was nothing spectacular...very industrial and purely functional. The process was easy and we were thru the door and headed to the ship within 15 minutes after arriving. We carried on 2 bottles of wine and no one ever looked in the bag. Princess does a good job of directing you thru the port and to your room once you step aboard.

Stateroom: After much research on the Cruise Critic boards, we had reserved a balcony room on the Caribe deck. The room was approximately 12ft x 12ft, and the balcony was huge...9ft x 9ft. Our room was in the middle of the ship, which is supposed to be smoother ride. The room was tastefully decorated, subtle tones, and very clean. We met our room attendant, Bianca (who is from Romania) and she was wonderful all week. She would often come by and see if we needed anything. We talked about where we were from and she shared with us about Romania and her family back home. Our room was always well stocked and tidied, and she was never intrusive. Read more