I decided to go on a Princess cruise for the 1st time. I have been on 14 others but this was my first with Princess and it was on the Sapphire. The ship was decorated in a very celebratory way. I loved it. However, the food was not at all good. Nor was there a great variety as I had previously experienced. I had to send two dinners back as I couldn't even cut them with a steak knife and I thought lamb was always tender. Formal night with lobster ~ soggy, cold and tough. No flavor...we all got three baby ones. The vegetables consisted of 3 sometimes 4 green beans. The least favorite food on any ship I've experienced so far. There were shows each night that were boring. You'd think they would pump it up because it was Christmas week.. They didn't. The smoking in the casinos made my stomach sick. The two formal evenings out to sea would forbid smoking in the casino. Now tell me, why can't they enforce that healthy rule every day? I went on Celebrity and it's clean as a whistle in the casinos although they provide a corner of the outside deck for people that don't care about MY health. Smokers will smoke where they can and gamblers have no other choice. They had 2 inside and 2 outside very nice swimming pools and children were restricted from the areas concerning adults only. One adult pool however, had tons of tiny little black bugs in it. Pizza was great but not consistent with topping because they changed daily. Room Service was swift and the burgers were excellent and juicy. I should have just had those every day but way too much salt on the fries every time. Embarkation was swift enough and so was debarkation.

Don't get me started on the balcony design. I was looking forward to sunbathing wearing the suit God gave me at birth. Who knew the balconies would be graduated??? You looked over yours just to look onto someone elses!!!!! When you look up, yep, there they are staring at you. That did not work for me. It was also NOISY from the balconies like I've never experienced! C deck or "Caribe" is on the 10th floor with the numbers starting with 5, 6 and 7- go figure. That flood had the larger balconies but I didn't see the purpose in it. I couldn't get enough light to put on my makeup at night and the water in the bathroom sink came out only scalding. The shower was so small that my body parts were changing the water temperature and don't drop the soap whatever you do. No room for bending over. It was the size of a coffin. It was a nice safety feature though that didn't allow you to use only hot water. It wouldn't operate unless you turned on some cold also.