My wife and I like to try to take a cruise before the holidays in December. It's nice to get away from the cold and just relax. It's generally very easy to accomplish this with a Caribbean cruise. We prefer the itinerary of the 10 day eastern Caribbean cruise over the 7 day if we can get away from work a few extra days. We really enjoy the islands this cruise goes to. This was our 15th Cruise with Princess and we've seen quite a number of changes over the years, some we have liked and some, not so much.

We chose a balcony cabin over a mini suite preferring to spend the extra money on good wine and nice excursions. Our cabin was fine, certainly not lavish but livable. But like we tell ourselves we don't spend a lot of time in the cabin. We were a bit disappointed with the size of the balcony. They are smaller than on the Emerald and Ruby but I do realize that Princess chose this to be able to make more balcony cabins available on the Royal and Regal ships.

Embarkation went very smoothly and quickly I'm pleased to report. I really do enjoy and appreciate the expedited boarding process given to platinum and elite members. We embarked between 11am and noon and to our surprise our cabin was ready. After dropping off our carry on bags we headed to the spa so my wife could sign up for the enclave. It's a bit pricey but she really enjoys using it. That's another reason not to upgrade to a mini suite. From here we proceeded to Alfredo's for lunch. We use to go to the horizon court buffet for lunch but that generally gets rather hectic during embarkation. Alfredo's pizzeria is so much nicer we feel. They make a really nice red sangria which goes very well with our pizza. There's no surcharge at Alfredo's which is really great. Read more