We booked almost a year in advance and looked forward to a great adventure seeing Asian ports for the first time from the comfort of a cruise ship. We had to get visas for the China portion of our trip. We also had tetanus, typhoid and hepatitis A jabs in preparation. About a month before our departure we received an upgrade from the outside cabin we'd booked to a stateroom with partial balcony. Everything sounded great and we were very excited.
Our flight to Vancouver from Heathrow was pretty uneventful (although British Air packs people in like sardines and there's no legroom). Problems started once we had cleared customs in Vancouver airport. 96 of us were booked into the Four Seasons Hotel but there were no busses at the airport. We had to queue up for an hour at the airport before we were finally picked up. Then at the hotel, instead of being able to check in and go to our room (all we wanted to do was have a hot shower and go to bed), we were herded into a function room off the lobby where we had to queue up for another hour so the Princess rep could hand out immigration forms (which easily could have been mailed ahead of time). Next morning, after being charged a fortune for hotel breakfast, we were again made to queue up for over an hour to return the forms to the Princess rep. This was only the beginning of a horrifying ordeal with US Immigration where we had to again queue up for 3 1/2 hours. Princess certainly had not prepared us for this!
At last we boarded the ship and went to our stateroom which was lovely. We were in the bow on Deck 11. The balcony was great and our cabin was comfortable. The steward who took care of us was very professional and we were impressed by his good service.