After 5 days in London we boarded the Crown Princess in Southampton. The check in process was quick and efficient - which was the last time that anything involving a line on the Crown Princess was quick and efficient. Our cabin was absolutely wonderful. It was the first time that we had a balcony and we would definitely book a room with one again. The room was quite nice and kept immaculate by our room steward.

We did have an issue with some of our shore excursions being booked improperly. I made my way down to the shore excursions desk to find a line that stretched around the entire atrium. It was moving so slowly that the shore excursion desk sent staff out to tell people to go away unless they had issues with the next day's excursions, which were already sold out. I made two more trips back to the shore excursions desk during our trip. Both involved waits of 10-30 minutes. I found the staff to be polite, but not friendly and of limited help with my issues. I also found that the hours did not coincide with my schedule (i.e. they were open while we were in port!?!?).

I found the dining to be VERY disappointing. We had the anytime seating option on the ship. Every time we showed up to the dining room, we had a wait of 10-15 minutes to talk to the hostess, who then promptly gave us a pager and told us to go away. 20-30 minutes later, the pager would go off and we could then be seated. We had the same experience at both of the anytime dining restaurants. Read more