This was our 4th trip with Princess Cruises, we chose this one, because it happened to be on our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Overall, we had the best experience with Princess over the years, perfect service, excellent food, great cabins etc. Unfortunately, this one did not turn out as expected.
We were familiar with the layout of the DAWN Princess, a sister ship of the former OCEAN PRINCESS, which we took on our Panama cruise from San Francisco and had enjoyed tremendously. Everything went smooth at the embarkation, our cabin was great and the balcony highly appreciated on the island-hopping-cruise of the Southern Caribbean. As we entered our stateroom, we were presented with a beautiful bouquet of roses, ordered by our daughter, as well as a certificate from her, saying "Princess Delight", congratulation on your anniversary. We were now curious to find out what that meant and checked with the purser's office. We were told by an agent to give it to our stateroom steward, and he would take care of it. He came back with the message: "It is some kind of a food". Well, we went back to the purser and after extensive checking on the computer, we were informed that "the kind of food" happened to be two one-ounce servings of Russian Caviar, accompanied with a bottle of California Champagne. After some more problems with the manager of the Caviar Bar, who never saw a certificate like this before, we were finally served and enjoyed our daughter's surprise tremendously on our first evening aboard.
As we entered the beautiful dining room for our 8:30 seating, we were guided to a table next to the kitchen entrance, not exactly a choice table for someone, celebrating such a special occasion as their 50th. Fortunately the couple, who was seated at the same table, turned out to be the most wonderful and entertaining people, coming from Salt Lake City, Utah. We had a great time at dinner throughout the cruise and were taking care of by highly professional and friendly servers with the exception of the dining room captain, who just made a short appearance at the third evening.