Golden Princess Review
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Additional details
We took a 3 night jaunt out of LA - booked literally 3 days in advance. For a quick weekend trip (we drove to port) we were thrilled at the $279 pp rate for a balcony cabin - cant beat that right? I'll preface by saying this cruise must have been about 1/3 full - it was like a ghost town...which meant in some ways we felt like we were on a private cruise.
The port of LA (San Pedro) is quite industrial, not very attractive and the driving signage is terrible! We finally found our way and discovered the very nice smallish ground parking lot, literally a very short walk from the pier.
Embarkation was quick and smooth - however there were representatives seemingly every 20 feet giving us directives or asking for an ID or something. We were able to carry our own luggage onboard and went right to our cabin which was made up for us. (Note to those not used to it...the balcony doors on this ship are 'sliding glass door' type, not a swing out door).
Cabin Review
It appears that on the Golden Princess, the Caribe deck has the largest balconies. We were in C622 and found it relatively quiet (with the exception of the RUDE kids next door). Cabins don't have much in the way of amenities - flat screen TV, mini fridge, small bottle of hand lotion, sub par hair dryer, shampoo/conditioner and liquid shower gel - both mounted in the shower. There are no samples of other toiletries as we have found on other cruises. There are not many TV channels from which to choose. Lighting above the desk area is poor. Since the hairdryer is mounted there, it is presumed you would also put on makeup there which was not so easy. Placement of outlets is also poor.There was no top sheet on the bed, only a fitted sheet and the comforter which I thought was odd. The mattress was the most god awful thing I have ever had the misfortune of sleeping on (well worn out and as hard as a ROCK - felt like we slept on a box spring). All 4 pillows were a complete joke (almost no stuffing in them, like 4 cotton balls shoved in a pillow case). My husband made a joke that we would have been better off sleeping on the floor and he was going to sue Princess for a bad back.The cabin is smaller than what we have experienced on Carnival. You really had to maneuver around each other to get by the bed to the bathroom. There is extra closet space which could have been reconfigured to provide more cabin space.There is a desk area with a chair. One small armchair and a small square table on opposite sides of the mini fridge. There is no room for anything else.We do like the sliding glass door from the cabin to the balcony - cuts down on the door slamming experience you hear a lot with Carnival.