Cruised previously with Royal Carib. & Celebrity; chose Grand Princess for our June 19th Med. cruise as we'd heard good reports. It was a catalogue of problems and shockers starting with the inordinate amount of time at embarkation, to discovering that the mini suite wasn't cleaned properly with filthy glass doors to the rather old and rusty balcony to the layer of dust accumulated on some of the shelves within the suite. These issues were dealt with quite quickly however, and we settled down to discover that the Grand Princess represented more about 'faded elegance' compared to our previous experiences - hadn't realised the age of the ship before booking! 2 days into the cruise and the nightmare started with the toilet filling with raw sewage - the crew were extremely concerned and so were we due to the health risks associated with untreated sewage. The problem was fixed within a couple of hours and we insisted that the toilet and suite were sanitized - you cannot imagine the stench!! We considered leaving the ship as they were unable to change our suite due to the ship being full (late promotion ensured the ship was full with kids who went free with every adult booking), but were reassured that this wouldn't happen again. 3 days later and the toilet malfunctioned again and this time flooding the bathroom floor. We should have left the ship then but an Engineering Officer changed the whole toilet mechanism and we felt somewhat reassured - sailing back to Southampton the toilet filled with sewage again... It truly was a disgusting experience and we were so relieved to disembark without any illnesses. We've subsequently discovered that the ship had been infected with a Norovirus on the 2 previous cruises - it's easy to understand why with our experience!! Ship is due to be refitted next April and we would strongly recommend that Princess Line don't wait - the old girl is truly tired with essential equipment malfunctioning and breaking down. Finally, to complete the scary experience, there were 3 electrical black-outs to contend with; once at sea which left the ship drifting in the Med. with no locomotive power or steering. On these occasions ALL the toilet systems were unusable as the mechanism is driven by electrical suction pumps. We could add more but it's enough already.. In future we will check the age of the ships we choose to cruise on, or perhaps we were just unlucky with the Grand Princess?