After cruises on the Celebrity Mercury, the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas, the Norwegian Majesty and the wonderful old Britanis, we decided to try Princess because of all the terrific things we had heard about them. Unfortunately, we were sorely disappointed in too many things to make it one of our better cruise experiences. Now, we are not complainers. In fact, we are two of the easiest-going people you can find. We have never complained about a cruise until now, but there was so much that disappointed us, I have to write this review. I won't touch on everything here because it would take too long. I'll just list the best of the good and the worst of the bad.

THE BEST

Embarkation was pretty easy. Even though Princess said that embarkation would begin at 1 p.m. we arrived at the Long Beach terminal at about 11:45 a.m. Checking in only took about 15-20 minutes and then we had to wait about another 45 minutes before boarding. Captain's Circle members understandably boarded first and that was the reason for our short wait. The waiting room was large and comfortable so it was no problem for us. After taking the obligatory boarding photo we were directed to our cabin by Princess staff people. Read more