We bravely boarded the "Tilt-a-Whirl" otherwise known as the Crown Princess a scant 2 weeks after its little mishap. This brand new ship, twin to the Caribbean Princess, is beautiful and spacious. We always cruise in an aft balcony room to enjoy the privacy, quiet, and hypnotizing wake that aft cabins provide. Also, the balconies are twice as deep as star and port side balconies for the same price. Our balcony, unfortunately, had a huge 3 foot wide metal support beam on it, as did 2 balconies on each aft deck. Therefore, for the same price as our neighbors, we dealt with a huge obstructed view whereas they did not. Totally unfair. Our agent assumed the obstructed view was a flagpole or something trivial. It was, however, hugely significant. Princess refuses to recategorize these rooms (they are BB) because of what they say is a larger balcony space. Not much good if you have to rearrange your furniture each time you use your balcony to move around your table, chairs, and loungers, depending on what your activity out there is. Maneuvering the furniture and my toes around this beam was truly treacherous. Leaving from this new Brooklyn port is fabulous. Very smooth embarkation. As expected, the waters were a bit choppier than leaving from a Florida port, especially coming home following Hurricane Ernesto up the easter seaboard. We were rocking and rolling and so were our tummies. The Captain made haste despite the swells and we dealt with it. New feature which this "foodie" absolutely loved was the Cafe Caribe in the aft of the Horizon Court. The Horizon Court was its usual fare but the Cafe Caribe featured a different Caribbean cuisine every evening starting at 5PM. Catch a bite there before your 8:30 P.M. dinner seating. It was fabulous. The other big hit is the International Cafe at the bottom of the Atrium. Offering up warm baked cookies at 3 A.M. was a big hit with my group. Service during our reserved seating was ok. I felt there were plenty crew in training. Ordered items went missing, beverages were not waiting for us as I am accustomed to, a little disorganized. Our cabin steward must have also been newer, as we received NO towel animals from this kind young man, even with a child in the room. Movies Under the Stars is a fantastic feature, although none of us were able to stay awake the 2 times we tried this cinema extravaganza. The lounge cushies and blankies were too comfortable. Not even fresh popped popcorn could keep us awake. Beware of the vent grates on the upper most deck near the satellite balls. My 11 year old tripped and fell onto it during our sailaway resulting in 3 stitches to his badly lacerated knee. The medical staff were stellar, even though I was presented with over $400 in medical bills and missed sailing under the Verrezzano Bridge! I truly felt this to be the ship's responsibility and the bills are in dispute. Let's see what happens. bon Voyage!