My husband and I have done one cruise a year, and just completed our 24th cruise on Princess. The cruises do add up and because of this we have been on a lot of the Princess ships and seen a lot of changes. With the advent of the large cruise ships the whole cruise experience has gone from something special to let's get the "cattle moving" . It is so sad to see Princess quality go downhill.

This years cruise really brought out the fact that Princess wants the lower end market. The secuity people on board Princess are now treating passingers with the attitude that we are all criminals. Since our last cruise in 2012 all passingers must take off their hats after going thru the metal detectors. When I asked why, I was told it was to check for drugs--as if one couldn't put them in a better place. We expect good secuity, not stupid security that harrasses passingers. Also be prepared if your knee or hip replacement goes off, you will probably have a pat down instead of just a wand to verify your knee. This is not a way to treat paying customers. We do not smoke, but we noticed from last year, that smokers are now confined to very small spaces in desinated areas and the casino is now closed to smokers at least 3 evenings a week. One last remark--for the first time we saw security people just standing and watching passingers in the public areas while the ship was at sea. To us this is creepy.

All in all for a lot of people cruising is just fine, as they do not know what a wonderful experience it used to be.