This was our first cruise with Princess, and will probably be our last. We had previously cruised with Royal and with Holland America, and have generally been happy with cruising due to cruise lines' ability to accommodate a gluten free diet for me. We were disappointed with the Princess experience, as described below.

First, the first day of the cruise we did not depart on time, and were stuck on the ship at the port for 24 hours. The delay, finally attributed to a mechanical problem, caused us to miss one of our 9 scheduled ports (Liverpool), for which we were compensated a mere $75 per person. Later in the cruise, we missed a second port-Edinburgh, for which we were not compensated at all. The Captain said bad weather caused us to abandon the port (which required tender boats), but didn't explain why we could not have used with of the two ports nearby, or why we couldn't steam to our last port a day ahead of schedule, rather than languishing on the seas, merely to keep have more hours of casino time.

The main problem for me on this cruise was the lack of knowledge of the dining room staff as to how to handle my gluten free dietary requirements. The main dining room was not a problem, the head waiter there was excellent, but for breakfast, lunch, the international cafe, and the ice cream court, I had continual issues with lack of knowledge, cross contamination issues, and just plan obstinacy. Read more