Many of the CC passengers on the Sept. 3, 10, and 17 cruises on the Royal were extremely disgruntled with all the itinerary changes, so by the time my husband and I embarked on this cruise, we had low expectations. It was NOT the cruise we signed up for and we feel we did not receive a good value for the price we paid. Unfortunately, many of our low expectations were met. I used to recommend Princess to everyone based on our previous cruises, but no more. Other lines now seem much more attractive.

The last stop was originally supposed to be Naples, where we had signed up for a Princess Pompeii/Capri all-day tour. This port was swapped out for a day at Elba and because it's so far north, the time at the previous day's port, Messina, was cut in half. When the bombings and the coup in Turkey happened, we understood the cruise line's decision to cut out Ephesus, but to replace it with Kotor and Corfu, TWICE, as well as cutting out Malta entirely was a poor one. We understood that travel times and berth appointments were a factor but Princess had PLENTY of time to prepare the passengers (competing cruise lines did) well beforehand, but failed to do so. It put a huge damper on a cruise that we'd been anticipating for months.

E-Z-air: We chose this because we were going to a foreign country and if planes were delayed from weather, strikes, etc., we wanted Princess to accommodate a change. The prices were decent. The absolute BEST thing about this entire cruise was that both coming and going, Princess set us up with Pre-Check and going through TSA was a breeze. Read more