This was only my third cruise, the second to the Eastern Caribbean (my first was last year on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas - which was great.) I was with my fiance and his family, who have been cruising for 18 years, and they are all platinum members of Princess' Captain's Circle, but it had been a few years since they'd been on the line - definitely pre-Carnival. Before we left, my fiance kept going on and on about how great Princess was, and how excited he was to be back. What a total disappointment for all of us!!! I had fun, because I was with my fiance's family, but the ship itself was not at all what we expected.

The ship had just come out of two weeks of dry dock, and let me tell you, the crew used this excuse for just about everything. It was obvious it was a brand new crew that had likely never worked together, because nothing seemed to gel. In addition, things that should have been taken care of while in dry dock, like replacing burnt out light bulbs in cabins and deck fixtures, were not.

The food was TERRIBLE. The buffet was so awful that by the last day, we were taking one bite of everything just to eat something. And since they usually only had one or two of the four SMALL buffets open, it was always packed, so getting your food took forever. There were very few healthy choices, especially for breakfast. Everything, eggs included, were swimming in oil. And all the meat was pork, which my fiance and I don't eat! No beef or turkey sausage or bacon. (We even learned that the meat sauce used in the pasta dishes AND the meatloaf in the dining room were made with pork!!!!) Read more