Background - Solo late 30's female traveler. This was my second cruise and first on Princess. This trip was really a mixed bag for me, I will try and outline the good and bad points where Princess excelled and really dropped the ball.

3-1-08 Arrived at FLL airport on time at 4:30 PM. Pre-arranged Princess transfer took 90+ minutes to get to the Embassy Suites and was ultimately in an old, smelly Greyhound bus. The driver made a blatant plug for tips. Upon check-in received flyer on Princess transfer to port the next day. Scheduled time was 2:30PM, attempted to call Ph# listed on flyer to request an earlier time but recording indicated that office hours were Mon-Fri only. As I wanted to get on ship earlier vs later (and hotel checkout was 12:30)I booked a shuttle at the hotel for $6 and was at the terminal at 12:00PM and in cabin by about 1:00, nicely handled in what was a very crowded chaotic area. The Embassy Suites appeared to be recently re-modeled and was nicer than most I have stayed in. It was at capacity but did not really feel like it. 3-2-08 At port I was yelled at by Princess rep in a blue jacket w/Princess logo (no name tag) as I was standing in line for carrying my own luggage (which consisted of a small roller bag and a medium sized garment bag). I ignored him and proceeded to the waiting area. Upon arrival to cabin it was not configured as a queen bed as requested at booking. Cabin steward was defensive and indicated it had never been requested, seemed much more interested in proving himself right than fixing the problem. It was finally converted about 6:30PM. Not a good start to my trip! Otherwise the steward Fernando, was ok, efficient enough but not overly friendly. Had to request pool towels a couple times as they were not replenished. Otherwise cabin was nice, loved the large balcony on the Caribe deck. Good sized closet area and the bathroom is tiny but adequate. 3-3-08 and all remaining Sea days. Very difficult to get a lounge chair at any of the pool areas at any time of day. Observed lounge chairs being reserved for hours with no usage by anyone. Staff would not remove any towels or items left on chairs even after being asked despite signs posted to the effect that chairs could not be reserved. No Smoking areas were also not upheld, again despite requests to do so. These two complaints were rampant throughout the entire trip and were a significant frustration and health concern. 3-4-08 Sea day / 3-5-08 St Martin. Received VM in cabin indicating that the Horseback riding excursion I had booked online well in advance of departure for 10:15AM in St Martin had been changed to departing at 7:45AM and if I wanted to change to another excursion to stop by the tour Desk, which I did. I re-booked for the Hidden Forest Hike w/Lunch Tour for the day in St Martin instead. Sometime that very same evening between 7:00 and 9:00 I received a cancellation notice in my mailbox. It indicated there were plenty of other things open and to contact the Tour Desk when they opened to book something else. I called the desk at 7:00AM which was the posted start time and there was no answer. I stopped by around 7:30 and again around 9:00AM and there was again nobody there. Finally at about 10:00AM there was an employee there who indicated at that point it was too late to book anything thru the ship. I proceeded to debark and was faced with 60-90 minute waits for cab lines and several hundred person deep lines on the water taxi lines as there were three ships in port that day. Due to Princess's utter incompetence and lack of communication my entire days stay in St Martin was ruined completely. All I was able to see was the very small marina shopping area. When I returned back to the ship there was no big surprise, nobody at the Tour desk! 3-6-08 St Thomas, perfectly lovely day at the Butterfly Farm and Mountaintop tour. Loved it! 3-8-08 Princess Cays was cancelled due to "weather issues", personal observation was that it was a hot sunny/partly cloudy day with weather no different that the rest of the prior days. Captain repeatedly referred to "maintaining the safety of the vessel" as the reason for canceling the port. Perhaps just picky semantics on my part but it would have been more appropriate to refer to the "safety of the vessel and it's passengers and crew". NO Compensation was offered for this day in any shape or form by Princess! As St Martin was a complete waste of a day and Princess Cays was cancelled that represented 66% of what I booked the trip to see. A very significant reduction in what I paid for at the full solo rate! General comments regarding Coral Dining Room/Food Quality - I ate in the dining room all seven evenings of the cruise. The Maitre D or Assistant controlling the seating six out of seven nights seated me directly in front of the service station area in full view of the discarded table scraps bucket and loud silverware service area the servers used. This was clearly as I was a solo traveler, as ALL couples in line before me were repeatedly given beepers and told it would be a few minutes for a "good table". I would have happily waited a few minutes but was told that was all that would be available. On the occasions where again I indicated I would be happy to wait I was told it would be at least 45-60 mins to which my hunger could not tolerate. On the last evening I finally did get a table one away from the service area! Two waiters also made comments about my being a solo diner which I felt was completely inappropriate. When I asked to speak with a manager, the Maitre D indicated in a high handed manner that "He WAS the manager!" Lovely!

Food was average to really good at every dinner. Surprisingly some of the appetizers blew the entree out of the water. If I had known ahead of eating I would have had two! The main buffet area is just as bad as previous posters have written. It is small and poorly laid out. Forget about finding a seat inside in the air conditioned area after 7:00AM. The food is ok at best, the omelette to order cook seemed to disappear every time I was there and only "pre-made" ones were out. The pizza at the grill area near the main pool was absolutely great and I ate some every day! One of the few highlights of the trip. General comments about public areas and lines - The ships public areas ie Crooners, Lobby Bar etc were never designed to handle the huge volume of scooters, wheelchairs and walkers that were in use. It presented an unsafe walking condition for the able bodied. These passengers also repeatedly were permitted to cut to the front of the line at the shows, bars, buffets and no effort was ever made to maintain the order of first come first serve. Consequently I either was delayed in my plans or denied the opportunity to see the shows. I waited in line for some of the shows 20-30+ mins early and never got in, people in scooters and wheelchairs showed up two mins before and zipped right in and had seats "reserved" for them either in special seating area or by "friends". Again no effort made to adhere to the signs posted everywhere about not "saving" seats. As small as the theater area is that was totally unacceptable. Read more