We have sailed Princess several times and have never been disappointed, until now. Princess is our favorite cruise lines so I find it difficult to be negative, however I think a few complaints are in order.

I first want to say that the Coral is a beautiful ship, spotless clean and she sails as smooth as glass. The food was good in the dining room as well as in the Horizon Court and the crew were wonderful. Our room steward, Efren, was terrific. My husband's back was bothering him the first few days and Efren made sure there was plenty of ice and plastic bags in our room and came by to ask about him several times. Kudos to Efren.

We booked an obstructed oceanview. Normally, we always book a balcony, but the economy being what it is made that indulgence too much. The first thing I did when we boarded was to go to the Pursers Desk and request an upgrade. I knew the ship wasn't full (1,300 passengers and they carry up to 1,900) and there had been flight delays all over the country possibly keeping people from boarding. They told us they were going to give passengers that missed boarding a chance to get on board in Aruba, so they wouldn't know about an upgrade until then. In Aruba, they denied us - not because of late arrivals, so I was told. As we met people during the cruise, we heard story after story about how they were upgraded up to 5 categories. Some had booked interior and ended up in oceanview. One oceanview couple ended up in a junior suite and so on. I'm not a person that expects something for nothing, but that put a bad taste in my mouth. The couple with a 5 category upgrade would have been just as happy with 4 categories and give us the 5th! Read more