Overall we had a good experience. I suggest you read the fine print very carefully before arriving at the port. The fine print contains some things that are not allowed to be brought on board. Since we had arrived by plane and had no place to put the items, we just lost them. This was very frustrating! They did not offer any options, they just took them. This is not the way we wanted to start our cruise. These are things that are allowed on planes. The staff was very helpful; although, less than 5% spoke clear English. It was difficult to place a request if it was anything other than the normal, like please bring me milk not coke. We had a balcony room. It was nice and what i would expect. The shows where nice. We enjoyed each one. The meals where also nice. We like the anytime dining better than the scheduled dining. The scheduled dining can interfere with your tours at the stops. One thing that i did not like it the Michelangelo and Da Vinci dining rooms are way to crowed. I am not normally bothered by such things, but I was getting very uncomfortable in this situation. I could not get between the tables they are so closely set. The food in each was very good, but we much prefer the more relaxed atmosphere in the Horizon dinning room. We are not of the uptight and proper city crowd. Another thing that is irritating is the constant sales pitch from the staff trying to sell you booze. You can not go on deck without at least 6 worker trying to sell you a drink package. This was our first cruise. A cruise to Alaska was lifetime dream. If we decide to take another cruise, i would consider Princess again. We are more about the destination than the cruise.