We sailed in a Deluxe Balcony Cabin, two of us (myself and wife, age 37 and 36). Overall, I would give the cruise 4 of 5 stars, there were a couple of issues that stood out as negatives, but taken in total it was an excellent cruise. The ship is absolutely magnificent, it is obviously new as everything sparkles and is in excellent condition. The public spaces are well appointed and very well-lit, in fact, improvements in lighting, including more LED lights made all of the spaces feel more open and clean. Despite the large number of passengers the ship can carry and a sold-out cruise, we never struggled to find a seat in an entertainment venue, bar or the Horizon Court. The ship is large, so a certain amount of walking was required, but I did not notice it to be significantly different than previous Princess Cruises on other ships. The highlight of the physical ship features was certainly the Horizon Court! The new open layout and wide spaces between the serving lines made for much less crowding and prevented much of the aggressive behavior that I have seen from fellow passengers in the past. The new Princess Live television studio seems like a novel concept, but I generally found that it didn't add much utility to my experience. The lack of center stair case is a bit misleading, there are central stairs between decks 5 and 7, but no higher. I think it was occasionally inconvenient and it would be better to have it, but it wasn't a deal breaker or maker for me.

Across the board, the food was outstanding! There is always room for interpretation and stylistic preferences, but execution was spot on. We had traditional second seating in the Allegro Dining Room and had a fantastic experience. The first night, our service team seemed a little disheveled and thus the service was a little slow, but they started clicking the second night and I give them very high marks across the board. We also ate in Sabatini's and Alfredo's for sit-down service. Alfredo's food is excellent and I enjoyed it both times we ate there. Sabatini's was, as always, a treat and the service was fantastic. The buffet is not usually my favorite meal, but I found that the options in the Horizon Court were very diverse and well-delivered. The new wine list is stream-lined, but the offerings we explored were a good value and all excellent bottles. I think drinks were reasonably priced and mixed strong enough to feel like I was getting good value. The bar staff was friendly and efficient, but I felt that the ship, in general, and bars in particular, were understaffed, which led to some delays in service.

Our room was a fairly standard balcony cabin, can't say that I noticed an appreciable difference between it and a standard balcony room. The new flat screen TV certainly allowed a much larger screen with little impact on space, but I don't cruise to watch TV. All the features worked and climate control was sufficient, if not a touch slow to respond to desired changes. Shower water pressure was a little weak and temperature control was not as easy or precise as it should be. The only major negative of the cruise was the towels in the room. They were far from upgraded towels, in fact, they were some of the worst I have seen on a ship or hotel in a very long time. They were stiff, thread-bare and we even had one with a stain on it. This was far from what we have come to expect from Princess. Our steward was efficient and the perfect ghost, we rarely saw him, but his work was obvious. The room was kept spotlessly clean and the twice daily service was always delivered while we were out and about. I also noticed that generally the carts spent less time in the passageway than on previous cruises. Read more