Just did an Alaskan cruise with Princess. The itinerary was great and Princess does pretty well entertaining during days at sea. Their technology is excellent - for example, their "Voice of the Ocean" competition featured real rotating chairs just like on The Voice. Also, the ship was very nice. We were on Crown Princess which apparently is due for updates. To me, it was nice the way it was. Our room side, bed, and balcony were all great.

Unfortunately, Princess' service is very very poor in comparison to other lines I've been on. Where do I start? OK, let's take drink service. First of all, hardly any bars open early which basically meant I had to go to the pool deck to get a drink for the beginning part of the day. And for those who order liquor straight or on the rocks, you get an embarrassingly small amount. It looks like what's left when someone is DONE with their drink. They have nowhere near enough wait staff to meet demand either and I felt like no one was around when you needed them.

Food lines and beverage lines were always overcrowded. They often could have opened both sides of the buffet but would not do so until it was a guarantee that there would be a long line on both sides. In all, I felt like I was dropped into the middle of some massive cost cutting program that Princess had unleashed. Read more