This was our sixth cruise, second on Princess, and first on the Crown Princess. We were traveling with our long time cruise buddies that we met on our very first cruise back in 1995. This was our third cruise with them. We're 40 years old and we were not traveling with our children...thank goodness. I booked the cruise directly through Princess and their prices were very competitive with the on-line travel agencies. We booked our own air travel but did purchase transfers to and from the ship through Princess. I had some issues with not being able to update the Cruise Personalizer on their web-site with the correct immigration information. I had to call and then fax the info to them. One issue that we had was that my wife's passport was to expire within six months after the cruise and it's Princess policy to have passports valid for six months after the cruise. They informed us that we just had to bring her birth certificate and our Marriage License for verification. It was never a problem. We were never asked for anything more than her passport.

Embarkation: We flew in to SJ at about 2:15 and were greeted by Princess personnel at the airport. Within ten minutes we were on the bus headed to Pier 4. There was no line whatsoever and we were on the ship by 3PM (after a brief stop for free samples at the Duty Free kiosks).

Cabin: We were booked in a mini-suite on the Emerald deck (deck 8). We had the furthest aft cabin on that deck so we had the added balcony space provided by the ship's lines aft of the life boats. The cabin was great...our favorite by far. It was very efficiently laid out and had ample room for us and our friends (who had the next door cabin). The bed was very comfortable and there was plenty of storage for all of our things. Even the bathtub/shower was easy to use for a tall person like me (6'2"). Read more