BACKGROUND We are a married couple in our early 40's. We have cruised 10 times in the past 7 years. We have been on NCL, Carnival, HAL previously. This was our 1st Princess cruise. THE ADVENTURE BEGINS Delta cancelled our original flight into San Juan and moved us to a later flight.It got into San Juan at 2:20 instead of the original 12:40PM. This did not seem like a big deal- it was. ARRIVAL IN SAN JUAN 1st, booking your own taxi is easy simple and inexpensive. We got our bags and within 20 minutes of landing we were in a taxi leaving the airport. We arrived at the dock at 3:00. Many previous reviews had written about the nightmare of getting on this ship in San Juan. Some, however, had said it was easy. Princess stated on the cruise documents to arrive after 2:00 PM for faster embarkation.

At 3:00 PM, the line stretched outside of the dock and down the side along the bay. We are talking several 100 yards long. The line and process were very un-organized. At 5:00 PM we had managed to get from outside the terminal dock to the entrance of the building. Of course long lines bring out the worst in people. Lots of cutting in lines, bribery to willing "cruise plus" employees, and some very angry people in line. We get upstairs to check in and more lines. Let me emphasize, this was NOT a unique issue but an ongoing and deliberate strategy of Princess to under staff this area. At 6:30, fully 3.5 hours after arriving, we walked onto the ship. We were laughing that at least our luggage would beat us to the room-wrong, it showed up around 9:00 PM. This was the worst situation we have ever encountered anywhere. My suggestion is if you want to cruise Princess out of San Juan, arrive no later than 1:00 PM or after 5:00 PM. THE ROOM Mini Suite, nice, average size for the category. The only complaints were the rusty furniture and really cheap amenities. THE FOOD The buffets were, well, buffets. Nothing special, nothing really that bad either. Anytime Dining-That is what we did and had no real issues. We only actually ate in the dining rooms twice on the cruise. Average "faux" haute cuisine. Not terrible, not great, but OK. Special Venues- We ate 3 times in the Crown Grill and twice at Sabatini's. Better quality ingredients, better service, atmosphere. If they would have more changes to the menu during the week, we would probably eat there every night. That cost us $280, less than 2 massages in the spa. To us, very worth it. BELLS AND WHISTLES One of the principal reasons for trying our Princess was all of the new little twists that they offer. THE SANCTUARY Now, this sounded good, a private adults only area that you could relax without children screaming and the constant "touring" of wandering male cruisers to see the "sights". $20 a day PP ($10 for the 1/2) REALITY Wow, did Princess blow it!, great idea - poorly executed. 75% of the area is covered in a heavy screen. The 25% that was left was the sunning area that was out along the pedestrian walk way (private??). The spa pool is NOT part of the sanctuary and you had to go out and around to use it. The sunning area was packed all of the time and the shaded area was pretty much empty. The only thing they are selling is privacy and you do not get any of that. Waste of Money THERMAL SUITE Great idea, a private, exclusive relaxing area.A steam, dry sauna, aroma therapy area, heated lounge areas and a couple of rain forest or misting showers. Both for male and female guests. $130 per couple for the cruise REALITY The steam area was OK, the "mild sauna" was a joke. Heated bench, no other heat. It was about 75 degrees in there. The aroma room was broken, the mist shower was broken and the other showers were on 15-20 second timers. The area was not policed so people would wander in, look around, talk a bit, leave the doors open, etc. Waste of money MUTS This really sounded like fun. REALITY The screen itself was neat, bright, good resolution. Old release family style movies or football games mostly. MINI GOLF Fun, free and something to do. Not exactly anything more than a putt putt on a wobbly boat. They do need to re-furbish it, it's getting a little ragged. INTERNATIONAL CAFE Little hidden gem, nice place to grab a bite. Wish they had desserts at night though.

ENTERTAINMENT Average shows, some very good piano players, great doo-wop group, liked the walk by Explorer's lounge. CASINO A lot of table games and very few slots. That is fine with us as we generally play mostly table games. But, I think it kept a number of potential players out. They had $5 minimum on most nights and a few $3 minimums on others. PORTS OF CALL ST THOMAS We went over to St. John. We took a taxi to Red Hook and a short ferry over. You can pay for an excursion if you want, it's a little over double what you can do it yourself for. Great beaches, small island atmosphere. ST. KITTS We did the Princess Kayaking tour. Fun deal, a little hokey. But, I understand you are trying to fill up 3 hours in tour time when most of the participants could never paddlefor half that long. But, a very good time- in spite of the rain. GRENADA- Attack of the street sellers, I felt like I had a big bulls eye on my forehead.Stay on the boat BONAIRE- The polar opposite of Grenada. Friendly people, clean town, no pressure sellers. We walked down to Divi Resort (about 15 Min to your right)$20 a piece for all day and a lounger. It turned out that this was where the Princess took people on their tours. They paid $80 we paid $20, hmmmmm. ARUBA- We went to Palm beach. There is an independent company between the Hyatt and Occidental that will sell you a lounger for $5. Great atmosphere, no beach hawks, clean and a great beach.Note- The Playa Linda (next to the Hyatt) has a mini market (beers $2.00) and a cooler is $6. SAN JUAN- FILL UP THE BOAT- AT ANY COST Princess offers a "local" deal to fill up cabins in San Juan. That means you have some fairly large packs of local families and non-traditional cruise passengers on the ship, predominately in the buffets, covered pool areas and any other "free" public areas. I noticed that several of the inside rooms listed 4 passengers stuffed in the cabins. I would question if this strategy is beneficial to Princess. From my standpoint, I would never go on another cruise where this had been done to this extent. It cheapened the experience. It definitely effected the morale of the service staff.They were bringing cases of sodas, beers, water and bags full of groceries. Maybe, this is the price we pay due to the larger and larger mega ships with more rooms that must be filled. Princess markets an "upscale" product. This is selling out your product and your loyal cruisers for a few bucks. OVERALL The Princess experience is not bad. It has a few issues, some related simply to being in San Juan, some more related to trying to be "everything to everyone". I would consider Princess again, but, I would never do Princess out of San Juan again.