My first cruise was in 1985 & I have cruised with NCL (& NCL when they were NCCL), HAL, RCCL, Princess, Wind Star, Paul Gaugin when it was Radisson, and the now defunct Ocean Quest. This was my 3rd Princess cruise, my first on Golden.

My first Princess cruise was a 7 night Caribbean on the Caribbean Princess & it was a fabulous cruise. My second Princess cruise was a Trans Atlantic on the Grand & it was nice, but not fabulous. This cruise was less than nice, it was adequate.

Embarkation & debarkation went smoothly. Debarkation was excellent -- very well done! The only annoyance was that there were no cabs waiting & I'm not sure that Princess has anything to do with that. So a tight airport connection was made tighter. Embarkation was annoying in that we stood in line for over an hour. There were 18 spaces for agents, but only 9 present, & 1 of them was designated for passengers needing special assistance. Anyone could place themselves in the "Special Assistance" queue, & many did. There was an agent directing passengers to the check-in counter & when a space became available, she would direct a passenger from the "Special Assistance" queue. Consequently, all check-in agents were utilized for "Special Assistance" passengers -- many of whom looked healthier than those standing in the routine queue -- & tempers began to flare. Things settled down when another agent took over & started letting the routine queue check in. Read more