We do a lot of traveling...just not a lot of cruising. I think our last cruise was sometime before we had kids, and as our oldest just graduated university...its been awhile. We thought 9 days on a transatlantic jaunt might be too much...but the crossing was perfect. Some of the highlights:Big beautiful sparkling clean shipPolite attentive staff in EVERY encounterGreat variety and quality of food both in the buffets, and sit-down restaurantsAlways some interesting activity taking placeAttractive, and did I mention sparkling clean, public rooms, and cabinsNice selection of late release movies both on MUTS and room TVsVery very nice staff people (how do they keep their employees so upbeat when they are all working so hard?)We got to the ship way too early...but they let us on anywayWe purchased a inside cabin...but ended up in a cabin with a balcony because the ship was not full (waaay cool!!)I don't know how they fixed this one... but out of the 9 days on board, we had 2 that were rainy and blustery...the good kind of Agatha Christie-curl-up-with-a-good-book rainy blustery days, which, believe me, were a relief from all those sundrenched laying-by-the-pool days that preceeded them.NO jet-lag...when we got to Portugal...having just had 9 glorious nights rocked to sleep listening to ocean wavesThank all you people at the Princess Cruise lines...you do a great job...we will be back!