I decided to take my 13 year old on this cruise to Alaska. We live in WA State so decided to drive to Seattle for embarkation, which was a breeze. When we reached the cruise terminal (after 1:00 pm for faster boarding) I thought it was a nightmare. Huge, and I mean huge, lines of people waiting to board the ship. I would hate to have seen what arriving before 1:00 pm was like. Much more efficient boarding in southern CA. When we finally made it on to the ship we were starving. Droves of people at the buffet. When the line finally got close to the entrance of the buffet an announcement that we would all have to report for muster. We, and many, many others had to leave the buffet without eating and attend the 30 minute life jacket presentation. Are you kidding me? People were starving. Couldn't this have waited until right before sailing. Not to mention I have been through this drill 6 times now.Our luggage arrived at our stateroom in a very timely fashion. I felt the stateroom was beginning to look a little shabby. Dings and scratches on the furnishings, a stain on the carpet by the bed, and hair (someone else's) in the shower. For the entire cruise, if you lifted the lid to the toilet it smelled like a sewer. We bought the drink card for sodas, etc. with tipping included was about $56.00. The bartenders were not friendly when using this card. Guess they don't feel they make enough tips off of them.The Sapphire Princess is very confusing to navigate. Bear in mind I just cruised on this same ship in April. After two cruises in less than 3 months, I still haven't figured it out. Chose "Anytime Dining" but was told that this only applies to dinner and then there is at least a 1/2 hour if not one hour wait to get into the dining room unless you make reservations. It would have been nice to have been told this. The buffet was not good and the congestion, lines and general organization of the whole thing was a mess. I asked for a glass of milk one morning and was promptly delivered a lukewarm glass of it. On one night the watermelon was so mushy and brown my son said it was nasty and we threw it away. Lots of recycled food made into strange entrees that were just not good. The dining room food wasn't much better. King crab legs were extremely salty and tasted like they had been frozen for over a year. Jumbo shrimp were dry and tough. Lobster--salty and tough. Roasted tomato soup grainy. A scallop, shrimp and crab with caviar appetizer that was extremely fishy tasting...UGH! The service in the dining room was pretty good although most of the servers were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Purchased a bottle of wine with dinner one night and was told the bottle would follow me wherever I went. A big fiasco a couple of nights later trying to find the bottle of wine to have with that night's dinner. Not once during our seven day cruise did our room stewardess fill our ice bucket. I am a smoker and know this is a touchy subject when cruising. However, Princess ADVERTISES that smoking is allowed in stateroom cabins. Have cruised three times with Princess and every time have met resistance and downright rudeness from room stewards when asking for an ashtray for the stateroom. First cruise was told I would have to smoke in the stateroom bathroom only. Second cruise was told I would set off the fire sprinklers in the room and had to smoke out on the back of the ship. This cruise room steward passed by me in the hallway and disgustingly commented to her co-worker that "SHE IS SMOKING IN THERE!" How rude. My 13 year old was extremely bored on the ship. Not enough activities or organized integration with other children for this age group. He went to the teen center one time. I feel $11.50 per day discretionary tipping for children is too much. My son ate in the dining room twice so tipping for the buffet (where you serve yourself) and for pizza, burgers, and ice cream cones seems a little much. Do you tip at your local drive in? When I spoke with the front desk about taking some of the tipping charges off his account was told I would have to come down and complete paperwork and then she slammed the phone down....how dare I. Ended up paying the full amount for his share of tipping and mine but am not really sure why I decided this--poor food, marginal service, many rude employees. Hmmm...think they deserved to be tipped? It is my feeling, at least in our case and probably many others, children should be charged 1/2 for tipping as they utilize very little of the services. $11.50 a day for children for straightening a bed, slapping down a couple of pieces of pizza and burgers and fries on a plate, and making an ice cream cone seems a little much, especially after having to wait in line FOREVER to be served. All and all, based on my experience of sailing three times with Princess, I would not recommend them to travelers. I have sailed with Carnival and Royal Caribbean and the service, food, amenities and general staff attitude is far superior. Princess really needs to get it together.