EMBARKATION: We had read all of the review saying how efficient embarkation was. Even after that I was still shocked at just how easy it was. Twenty minutes after we arrived at the pier we were in the Horizon Court looking for a table - and that includes dropping our carry on luggage off in our room.

THE SHIP: We loved the design of the ship. With 4 pools and 8 hot tubs there was never a problem finding a place that wasn't too crowded. They seemed to monitor the annoying activity of saving deck chairs, and we never had a problem finding a place to sit. We didn't always find a seat at the first pool we went to, but we always found something. We loved that the casino is in its' own area and you don't have to walk through it to go places. That really annoyed us on other ships. They also seem to have figured out smoking on this ship. The smoking areas seemed to be in lower traffic areas and we never noticed any smoky areas, which was a real plus for us. One other thing we really liked was that there were several venues for activities. We were annoyed in the past that when you would go for a show, or other event in the main theater that Bingo was always running overtime and you had to sit through 5 or 10 minutes of that before the event you had planned on attending could start. Not so on the Golden. They stagger the activities between the different venues on the ship so that there was never an overlap. The other thing that was a real plus on this ship was the lack of line ups. I don't recall lining up for anything, that is a stark contrast from previous experiences.

STATE ROOM: We were actually fortunate enough to be upgraded to a Mini Suite two days before departure. There were pros and cons to that. The room was fantastic. We even had a full sized bath tub, which was really nice. The downside was that the balcony was completely open to everyone above. There was zero privacy there. When out on the balcony looking at the view, someone above would often start a conversation with you. That's fine, but it's nice to have some privacy as well. We were originally slated for a balcony stateroom on the Caribe deck, where the balconies were as big, or bigger than the mini-suites on Dolphin but the balcony was half covered which allowed for some privacy. In the future we would stick to Caribe and not take the upgraded room, just because of the balcony. PUERTO VALLARTA: This was our favorite stop. We did the Sierra Madre hiking tour through Princess. We absolutely loved it. The hike was way more challenging than we thought it would be. About half of our group turned back because it was too difficult. Toward the end of the hike there were hot springs, which felt really good after the hike. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot. It also gave us a very good taste of the real Mexico. We also really liked that there was no obligatory shopping on this excursion. In the past we have found that they always seem to take you to a 'special place' to go shopping and it is usually a real disappointment. After the hike, we went back to the ship for lunch and to clean up a bit, and then out to do some shopping. We had a great time there and found the shopping to be very good. Read more