We were eagerly awaiting our trip onthe royal Princess, too bad we were no that impressed. Boarding was relatively pain-less once the long line began to move. We were on the ship quickly and surprised to find that our rooms were ready! We even found some of our luggage there already! We tried to go to a dining room for lunch (as we had read that they would be open, avoiding the buffet lines) but they were already closed. We headed up to the Horizons buffet-- very confusing. Though the seating area is large, the different food stations are difficult to find and understand. Seems that the food area needs to be more open so you can see all the different areas. Scavenger hunt was underway, but closed at 2:30pm-- not enough time for anyone to get to all the areas.

We headed back to our rooms, very small with very small balcony-- the chairs barely fit! We asked to have the dividers open between all 4 cabins in our party-- only problem is the divider covers part of the sliding door opening to the balcony so you have to bend over to get out-- poor design. The toilet paper holder location is behind the toilet-- very difficult to reach when sitting on the toilet (we ended up leaving a roll sit on the sink!) We had a set dining time and thoroughly enjoyed our dining experience-- food choices, service both excellent. Itinerary was changed due to weather, but that was OK with us. The casino is very small with hardy any room to walk, you can't get to some machines. The chairs are very comfortable, but too big for such a small area. The piazza is wonderful! More space is definitely well though out, plus very beautiful. Specialty dining was a huge disappointment-- had to pay for the Crown Grill before boarding, but couldn't get a reservation there so we ended up at Sabatini's which couldn't begin to compare. We had lunch at Alfredo's one day and it it took 90 minutes to get our food for a party of 8-- not good. The gift shops had very little selection, the inaugural merchandise was mostly gone (2nd week in the Carribean in the inaugural season), no good sales or specials. The pool deck is so crowded with "special" areas, pools are much smaller and more crowded. The light/water show at night was interesting, but a big sacrifice for deck & pool space. It seems like they built a bigger ship, to hold more passengers, but didn't pay attention to detail. We love Princess, but this is NOT our favorite ship!