As a long time Princess cruiser, my wife and I invited an 81 year old aunt to join us on this cruise out of NY. With summer dragging on forever these days, early Oct. is too soon for Fall colors. The ship is very nice and the ports are great. The dining room food is high quality. But, the new and revised Horizon Court layout concept has gone insane. Three separate aisles across the ship, all unmarked and all different. Want eggs, sorry, they're in the last aisle. Want bread, sorry, that's over there at the other end. Stupid for stupid's sake seems to be the idea behind the change in layout. Yes, the crowds are more dispersed, but it is impossible to figure out where to find anything where everything looks the same and nothing is labeled as to which aisle has what items. Add to that the concept of the elderly walking in circles searching for their food and then trying to find where their table was and you can imagine a room (actually two identical rooms on each side) filled with tray carrying passengers wandering in search of their family or travelmates.

Sadly, attention to sanitizing when entering the dining venues seems not to be of interest to the crew. Nobody asking anyone to spray their hands anywhere, anytime. Very shortsighted. The cabins (mini suite) were nice and spacious, regular balcony Cabin for my aunt was also nice and quite sufficient. I went into an inside cabin and got immediate claustrophobia. Almost prison cell sized.

As a regular cruiser, I've come to anticipate the port talks and enrichment programs. There were none. Very disappointing. Read more