This was our first experience on a Princess Cruise and our 7th cruise overall. My wife Sheryl and I (married 45 years this November) did our first cruise some 40 years ago on a Royal Caribbean Cruise line. Way back then they had travel agents and ours told us that starting our first cruise on Royal, especially for 14 days would spoil us and we would be hard pressed to find a better cruise line in the future? I always remembered that statement and it held true for 40 years! We have cruised to Mexico several times, Alaska, Caribbean again and our most spectacular cruise was in the Mediterranean to Israel,Egypt, Turkey and the Greek Isles before they closed all cruises to Israel and Egypt some 25 years ago.

Consequently all other cruise lines paled in comparison to Royal, despite fabulous destinations, until we sailed on the Pacific Princess from Tahiti to Hawaii. All cruise lines have good service ( we have tried five different lines) and most have good food. Certainly those ships that carried many more passengers could offer better entertainment value? Perhaps our only average experience on Princess, as this is a small ship some 562 feet and carried only a bit more than 600 passengers. The entertainment was average at best and the stage was small,so bigger groups could not perform anyhow?

This was also our first time selecting a room with a Balcony, all other previous cruises were inside cabins! Our room was excellent, we really did enjoy the Balcony and we were located only two rooms from the Stearn of the ship. I selected this location for a better ride, given we were going to spend 5 days out to sea traveling between Tahiti and Hawaii and yes we did run into rough weather while out to sea. While in our cabin we comfortable despite 12 foot seas and 35 to 40 knot winds! Read more