Background: Brought my mother over from UK to see Caribbean. I am in my 30's she is in her 50's. I have cruised many times, mostly Eastern and Western Caribbean, a few times with RCCL and Princess and NCL. I had high expectations of Crown Princess since it was a new ship.
Embarkation: Was easy not much waiting time and I followed cruise critic advice from other passengers to go to the Duty Free Shop prior to boarding and stock up on Wine and alcohol the advice was to put this inside your carryon bags, we did that and just walked straight on, I saw other people with the plastic carrier bags from the store have to give up all they bought.
We booked an obstructed ocean view cabin on Emerald deck, had a note from Princess to say they upgraded our cabin to a disabled cabin, upon entering it was a huge shock, there were stains on the panels above the bed and stains on the carpet and it had a terrible urine smell. Eventually during the cruise we had the stains somewhat removed, but its not really acceptable on a ship of this category to have an individual cabin in such poor condition. The smell disappeared after many Chardonnay's and my mums british hairspray. I would have given this a 5+ except for this. NOt a complainer will give it a 5 :)