We recently returned from the Golden Princess Mexican Riviera cruise (March 8-15, 2008). We are a couple in our late forties traveling with two children ages 7 and 11. This was our 3rd Princess cruise and we've also been on Celebrity once. Overall this was a wonderful cruise and we would wholeheartedly recommend Princess, this ship and this itinerary to others. So please realize that any criticisms we mention in this review are areas where we feel Princess could improve, but they were also pretty minor when it came to our overall experience. In fact, while onboard we booked the Crown Princess British Isles cruise for July 2009.

Pre-Cruise/Embarkation: We drove out from Phoenix on Friday and stayed at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro, which we had booked through Priceline for $66 per room. The hotel is quite satisfactory and at that price who can complain anyway? We ate dinner at the Whale & Ale (close to the Crowne Plaza and quite good except for burnt flavor in the sticky toffee pudding). Saturday morning we drove over to the cruise terminal and parked ($84 for the week). Since there really isn't much to do in San Pedro, we arrived at the cruise terminal at 11:00 am anxious to board. They weren't quite ready, but still we were onboard in about one hour.

Ship & Stateroom Condition: We booked two side by side BA balcony cabins on Caribe deck (love those extra large balconies!). We like to have two cabins for the four of us. Since our kids are too young to be by themselves, DH and I have to split up but we're willing to do this for the extra space and two bathrooms that come from two cabins, and we went back and forth via the door in the balcony partition. This arrangement worked great for us and we booked the same cabins for next year's cruise. The overall condition of the Golden was just fine. We saw some minor wear and tear but we also saw the crew constantly out doing maintenance and repairs. Read more