First, this cruise review represents two couples, late 50's.  We are two sisters, and we travel together with our husbands.  This is our 12th cruise, the 6th with Princess.  Other cruise lines we've used include Holland America, Celebrity, Carnival, Disney.  We can truthfully say we've enjoyed all of our cruises at some level (except one).  We can always find things to enjoy, and try to embrace the differences in what ships and cruise lines have to offer.  Variety is a good thing!  This is my first attempt at a review after making use of the many generous reviews on Cruise Critic, so I will try to "pay back" for all the reviews I've read!First, embarkation was a breeze.  Short line at about 2:30 p.m., onboard within 20 minutes or so.  The cabin is teensy, as was the bathroom, and the balcony.  Disappointed.  We last sailed on the Carnival Spirit and enjoyed the room and balcony.  Much more spacious.  Overall, the room is tired looking, like a motel room that has seen better days.  TV is updated, but we rarely used it.  We make much use of the balcony, and it was a real test of logistics to get the 4 of us on the balcony for wine and cheese in the evening.  But we did it!  As noted by others, the open balconies below us (we were on Aloha) would be very unappealing, due to the lack of shelter from the sun and from prying eyes above!  Unless one person stands in the shower it is impossible for two to be in the bathroom at the same time.  We all found the beds to be very uncomfortable.  Our steward brought egg crates and that helped but I never made peace with that bed.    The ship itself was in great shape, nice and new looking for the most part.  I didn't see alot of maintenance going on, so that was never disruptive.  In case you don't know, when you get off the elevators and try to think "left or right?", the completely blue rugs designate the starboard side.  The blue and peach/pink/coral rugs designate port.  Makes life easier.  This ship was almost identical to a previous Princess cruise we'd been on, so the dry dock didn't make it super special for us.  We enjoyed the location of the International Cafe, and made good use of the coffee cards.  They were a good value since we felt the coffee onboard was mediocre.  The remainder of the ship layout was very similar.  We agree with others that the casino was small for the size of the ship, and felt the Princess Theater was also too small.  Must admit that we only attended one show, the final one with a magician who was a hoot (James Michael), comedian, laughed till we cried (Tony Daro) and singer (so sorry, I think his name is Jesse Hamilton, but he was wonderfulgreat stage presence, fantastic voice).  We don't love production shows, so can't comment on those.  We also saw James Michael in the Wheelhouse Bar, a venue that was too small for the number of people who wanted to see the show.  Many had to stand, and many stood outside in the hallway.The only times the ship felt crowded was when trying to get past all the folks looking through photos, in the casino, and mercy, in the Horizon/Caribe.  What a mess.  Truly.  It took alot of work to get a meal.  We tried varying the times we went, and every time had to search through at least two seating areas to find a table.  I agree that the service was so-so.  We usually got our own beverages and refills.  They were fairly prompt in clearing off tables but that was about it.  Not a huge deal to get our own beverages, but the service was less than what we've had in the past.Cannot say enough about how poorly the food areas are laid out.  It's just a confusing "stew" of stuff.  People enter by two doors then muddle and mill around until they stumble into what they'd like to eat, then stumble out.  It's like beans in a jar, rolling around, banging into each other, then eventually shooting out the exit.  Trays would be nice, but would probably jam things up even more since people with trays take up more space than people holding a plate.  I don't think it can be fixed.  The design is just flawed.  The only thing I can think of is to have a traffic food cop to police how many people are in there at a time!  They were pretty diligent about hand cleaner but there was not someone policing hand cleaner all the time, and this is during the swine flu outbreak.Our single greatest disappointment of the cruise was the quality of the food, especially at lunch.  Did we always find something to eat?  Yes.  But we got to a point that we were SURPRISED when something was good rather than the other way around.  We'd usually try 5 or 6 spoonfuls of different things to find the one thing that was good enough to get more and call it lunch.  It isn't that it was awful.  It was just very school cafeteria-ish.  But, there were some wonderful surprises.  The guacamole and chips and salsa were fantastic.  The mashed potatoes were real.  A few of the soups were good.  The salad bar was ok.  Desserts were almost uniformly a disappointment.  My sister and I, after two days of lunches that were a challenge, decided to try a veggie burger at the grill.  We stood and waited for them about 10 minutes, watched them cook on the grill.  Finally got them, and they were exactly the consistency of uncooked meat loaf in the middle.  I shudder just typing the description.  Nasty and I don't mean maybe.  Fries were good.  Our husbands enjoyed the brats with sauerkraut.  The seafood was sometimes good.  Breakfast was ok for us as far as food.  It was always a traffic jam.  We tend to eat the same thing every day.  Cereal can't be messed up, though the milk never seemed sufficiently cold.  I liked the muesli and granola.  Two days I had soft fried eggs and bacon and it was good.  I'm impressed that they could serve soft fried eggs!  Two mornings we skipped breakfast in favor of getting the workout done and went straight to lunch.The fitness center was ok.  Maybe it was the times we went but we didn't have trouble finding a treadmill.  Although, at inopportune times they would block off 4 or 5 treadmills for no apparent reason.  One section of the treadmills had exercise bikes and big exercise balls immediately behind them.  So close that you had to step from one treadmill to another to get to them.  That seems dangerous to me, if anyone should fall on one of the treadmills they'd be off the back and straight into the exercise bikes.  A few days we exercised later and the sun was blazing in the windows.  It was like a greenhouse.  A truly miserable workout.  A little pull down shade would make alot of difference.  All the machines had their own tv and headsetvery nice.  Lots of distraction.  After 11 cruises, we decided to try something different for this one.  The appeal of formal night is very low for us.  We have had a rough past year and wanted the least amount of hassle for this cruise.  In the past we would dutifully wear gowns and tuxes and then go back to our rooms to change to be comfortable for dancing in the evening.  This cruise, for the first time, we ignored formal night and ate in the Lido.  Interesting.  Didn't miss the dressing up in the least and also don't believe in pushing the wardrobe boundaries and trying to get in the dining room dressed less than formally.  Both formal nights the Lido dining was "dressed up" with place mats and table settings.  On the second formal night (Friday) they served lobster claws, beef wellington and crab legs....very similar to what was served in the dining room.  Our husbands were very happy campers with all the lobster and crab they could want, when they wanted it.They served all the crab and shrimp you could want in the Lido area on the night we sailed rather than on Monday with the first formal night.  So we ate in the dining room once, in the Lido 3 times and in speciality restaurants 3 times.We ate in Sabatini's twice, enjoyed it.  Nice service from Martin and Albie.  Good food.  Don't eat everything they put in front of you and you'll be fine!  Also ate in the steak restaurant.  Didn't enjoy it as much, but the service was good, as was the food.  None of us had steak, though my brother in law had the pork chops and enjoyed them.  Onion soup was great as was the chocolate dessert and the sampler dessert.We didn't miss the dining room experience, but that doesn't mean that on our next cruise we won't go back to it.  The one meal we had in the dining room was 50/50.  Half of us liked it ok, the other half didn't.The passengers on this ship were a great cross-section of ages.  Lots of late 20's/early 30's; a few young families; a good mixture of all the other age groups.  No age group dominated, as far as I could see.  No issues with behavior or rudeness.  Everyone we met was lovely.The ship itself was sometimes just plain hot.  Might be the lights.  In the casino and other public areas it was roasting hot several nights.  The staff onboard was just great.  With the exception of one barman outside who was a little surly, the people were as lovely as they come.  Quick to smile, responsive, eager to please.  Jose, our room steward was super.  My sister and husband's shower only put out boiling hot water.  He was very prompt in getting a repair guy in to fix it.  He also responded quickly with our request for a sheet and blanket rather than just the duvet, which cooks my husband.  Ovette, at the purser's desk, responded to a problem we had and helped solve it with patience and good humor.  Daniele in Crooner's Bar was great.  Sammy, in the International Cafe was so personable and always remembered our names.  We loved the staff.  My brother-in-law wanted skim milk for his cereal one morning and they were very prompt in finding it, bringing it to him with a smile.  The staff is among the best we've ever encountered.Cannot thank Princess enough for the smoke free casino night.  LOVED IT.  Sorry to all the smokers out there, but it was so nice to not have to breathe second-hand smoke in order to enjoy a big amenity of the ship.  We were just thrilled that ships are finally taking note.  Each night we were in the casino I made note of how many smokers I saw, and the non-smokers vastly outnumbered the smokers every time, at least during the times we were there.  We have been driven out of casinos many times by smoke, and I would love to see the non-smokers at least have a 50% split on the evenings.  Only fair.One change in Bingo....if you came to the first one and didn't bring a pen you were out of luck or had to spend $1.50 to buy an ink roller thingey.  That irked my husband....it seemed like one more way to nickel and dime the customer.  No sheets with fold under little tabsyou had to mark these, so be warned!  Bring pens or little highlighters and you'll be good to go.The soft-serve ice cream was good, but why would you not serve it in the evening?  With all the people on deck and in the Lido area, it would seem to be perfect.  We always enjoyed that on Carnival and missed it on this cruise.One issue we had is with the Platinum level service.  When we boarded we had the wrong card levels.  We went to see the return passenger office to see about getting things updated correctly.  Both families were platinum, but it took alot to get it updated.  I'm sure the staff member was following directions but when we talked with her, it was like 20 questions.  Let's Play Stump the Passenger!  It appears that they don't track cruises well if you move, and we were stymied by being asked exactly when did you take a cruise.  She had to have been looking at the info in the computer but we were quizzed about the cruises we'd taken and she wouldn't give us any information or update us unless we came up with the cruises/years we'd been on Princess.  If you don't have it written down in chronological order it's really tough to do, especially since there were Carnival and Holland America and Disney and Celebrity cruises in there, too.  It doesn't have to be so hard.  Certainly not passenger friendly and not a great way to treat people who are on their 6th cruise with your company.  So, we missed expedited embarkment but got to sit in Sabatini's to wait for our color to be called.  Wonder what 12 cruises gets you?  :-)Overall, we were ok with this cruise, but are going away from Princess for a while.  Part of it is the sameness of the ships.  This ship was so much like a previous one we were on that it was a little like taking the same cruise (except the food quality has suffered).  One fun thing with trying different cruise lines is the fun of discovering a new ship, so we're going to branch out a little.  Our last cruise was on the Carnival Spirit out of San Diego and we would have turned around and done a back to back in a nanosecond if we could have.  We hated to leave that ship!  For this cruise, we would never do a back to back and left without a backward glance....Ports:Arubawent to Eagle Beach by taxi.  It was ok.  Not great.  We took this cruise for Aruba.  We had been on a previous cruise headed to Aruba for the last stop and two passengers went tragically overboard so we never made it for understandable reasons.  Aruba was high on our list, and it was ok, less than we expected.Bonairefabulous.  We booked a snorkel trip with Woodwind.  Dee and Tina are fantastic.  Loved them, loved the tour.  Great service, nice snorkel.  My sister is very frightened to snorkel but wanted to try.  Dee was the epitome of patience.  So understanding, gentle, encouraging.  There was also a woman onboard who had had a bad snorkel experience and Dee absolutely guaranteed that she would have a good experience.  And she did.  My sister was worn out from the stress of snorkeling, though she did it and enjoyed it as much as she was able.  Dee saw that she was tired and came over and held her hand and helped her paddle to the boat.  She and Tina were just so great.  Could not recommend them more highly.  Also served drinks, beer, watermelon, and offered them over and over.  One thing I loved is that as we headed back to the dock Dee saw a man (not in our group) who was apparently standing on the coral and she challenged him and admonished him to please not stand on the coral.  Good for her!  If you haven't been to Bonaire, it is just charming.  A lovely place.  GrenadaGrand Anse beach.  Fun.  Took the water taxi.  Beautiful beach.  Crowded.  It's a little overwhelming, because when you land on the beach there a bunches of beach waiters and folks standing there wanting to get you to rent their chairs.  We chose Nicholas, a real hustler in the best sense of the word.  He was on the go, kept checking back with us, brought drinks, got us set up and was up and down the beach the rest of the day.  Nice kid.  Ask for him.  We admired his hard work and tipped him accordingly.  Bought spices at the spice market at the beach.  Dominicawe weren't interested in windshield time, no matter how pretty the terrain.  Have seen the rainforest in the Amazon and Puerto Rico, so it held no appeal.  We walked around in town but can't comment on tours.Have been to St. Thomas many times.  Stayed on the ship and enjoyed the day.One note.  Following the cruise we stayed one night at the Caribe Hilton.  Very nice.  The most wonderful pool area with several levels of pools and jacuzzis, swim-up bar, beach area with a breaker area that gives protected ocean swimming.  Ocean and pool are at the same place so visually it is super.  Prices are through the roof for food and drinks.  A mojito is $12, as are all "beach drinks".  $7 for a beer.  Food is very expensive, too.  If you stay here ask for a room in the new section.