Second cruise with Princess and just as eventful as last year though for different reasons. Last year on Crown Princess we had a missed destination - Corfu - due to intercepting Syrian refugees who needed a doctor. This year we had 2 engine fires and to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to have one engine fire could be regarded as a misfortune, to have two looks like carelessness! Other passengers with many more cruises under their belts than us said they had never experienced anything like it. It was quite surreal to see the crew running round in their life jackets at 11pm while we the passengers sat sipping our G and Ts. Having been initially told that there was nothing to worry about the Captain then announced that there was smoke in the engine room followed eventually by an admission that there had been an engine fire. This was repeated at 11am about 3 days later. It certainly spooked some passengers and rumours circulated that a crew member had died and that some passengers had asked to get off at Civitavecchia (can't confirm or deny either of these). From then on there was a lot of dark humour about being the same company as Costa and having an Italian captain!

OK enough of the dramas. Embarkation was not totally smooth with a wait of about 2.5hours. Strangely the reason given was very similar to last year - customs inspection - which seems a bit suspicious. Disembarkation was very quick and very smooth - went from waiting in the lounge to sitting on our coach back to the car storage compound in 20 minutes.

The cruise itself was excellent. The staff were attentive, sometime to the point of obsession and always gave excellent service. The thing that struck me last year and this is the fact that every crew member you meet whatever their rank or role says hello (unlike some of the passengers) Read more