My fiancEe and I cruised to the Southern Caribbean from Jan 2-9, 2005, aboard the Golden Princess. This was our fourth cruise and one we chose because it would take us to four islands we had not been to before: St. Kitts, Grenada, Caracas and Aruba. We had previously cruised aboard the Carnival Triumph and Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas and were very pleased. We were looking forward to cruising with Princess, which we had heard was supposed to be a class above both Carnival and RC. Throughout our cruise we found several things that we really enjoyed that other cruise lines just didn't have but we also found that Princess was lacking in a lot of categories, which is why we felt our cruise experience was good rather than GREAT or EXCELLENT, which is how we'd describe RC and Carnival.
The great... The Golden Princess had four pools that were open 24 hours a day. One of those pools allowed you to swim against the current, which provided an excellent workout. With each pool, there were at least two Jacuzzis, so there was always someplace to go. There were always lounge chairs available by the pools or a deck above. The food was much better here than on Royal Caribbean's ships. We frequently complained that steaks were too hard, food was too cold, oversalted, or undersalted on RC but no such thing here. It was always well prepared and delicious. Like any other cruise line, we had a different menu every night for dinner. However, we also had an "Always Available" menu, which included entrees like fish, chicken, steak, appetizers like shrimp and Caesar salad, as well as desserts like the "Princess Love Boat," ice cream, and cheesecake. This was fantastic for my fiancEe and I who LOVE shrimp and can never get enough. The pizza, which didn't quite compare to Carnival's, was still pretty good, and much better than RC's. The service was excellent!!
Our room steward, our waiter and assistant waiter provided top of the line service -- they catered to our every whim and desire. We were particularly impressed with our waiters who took note of the fact that I liked tea with my dinner and three shrimp cocktails as an appetizer while my fiancEe liked two along with a Sprite. After that first night, we'd come to our table and see a Sprite and tea, along with our shrimps waiting for us. Room service was fantastic! We ordered tea on several occasions and were told it would take about 30 minutes. They must have magicians working in there because it only took 5-10 minutes on both occasions. This was a welcome change from Serenade of the Seas where we would order room service, they would tell us wait 50 minutes, and after an hour and change it still wasn't there!