This was our first cruise with Princess having completed 18 other cruises with P&O, Celebrity, Cunard, Royal Caribbean and MSC. We had been somewhat seduced by the hype, the advertising and former passengers feedback plus the fact that it visited, amongst others, Guernsey and Bordeaux (more later). We had never been to Guernsey and have relatives in France whom we had arranged to meet in Bordeaux.

Unfortunately, the ship had been delayed by 2/3 hours returning to Southampton, so when we arrived at 11.45 we were very unceremoniously turned away at the dock gates and told to come back in about an hour - so that all the did-embarking passengers could leave the port. No obvious, practical contingency plan. It was 15.00 when we actually got into the terminal building. Then there was the inevitable wait to queue to go through security before joining the ship at about 16.00. There had been an explanatory text, apparently, which we didn't see until on board Crown Princess. All this queueing - little did we know - was a fore taste of things to come.

We had an inside cabin - sorry, stateroom is so pretentious - A237. This was excellent! Clean, roomy, comfortable, well maintained and quiet. Superb service from attendant, Glen. Read more