We arrive in New York the day of our cruise, Which I would not do normally. We like to spend a night before in the port of embarkation, to allow for the issue that come with air travel. However the weather was great, we had some delay in our air to ship transfer. We had about an hour wait for the bus to the ship. When we arrive at the ship the process went smooth, This was our first time using the E-ticket with Princess. You might want to make two copies of the transfer sheet. we did not need going to the ship, but did going back to the airport at the end of our cruise. We received a nice upgrade in rooms about 7 days before our cruise. We paid for a nice Mini suit. So to say our room was nice is a little bit of an understatement. We had a whole lot more room than our past cruises. Our room Stewart met with us with in the first hour of being on the ship. I had a little problem with the safe right off. they had a new design, I must have not push a button hard enough. Our room stewart had someone in our room to fix it for us within five minutes. I made sure of what I had program before pressing enter. The ship is just over 1 year old and has been well kept in the public area and in our room. Some people said they had a hard time getting around on the ship because some of the floors had areas that were for crew only, so you would have to go up a floor then back down. We had been on this type of ship before, so just knowing the color of the carpet on each side of the room hallways will help. Princess gave out maps at our embarkation which can be a big help. We made our reservations in the first hour by phone for the whole week, don't worry about being right just change it later if you need too. Reservation will allow you to walk up and go to you table right then, other wise you will stand in a long line the first night. We had great weather with the exception of our sea day which was foggy most of the day. Hearing the fog horn night and day will embed a sound in your head. We relaxed and found our way around the ship enjoy the sound of some of the bands, which where very good at their style of music. each day had multiple choices of music. We had hope for some cooler weather during our trip, Halifax was nice, but the rest of the week was hotter than the normal avg. We hope for some color in the trees and there was a little but not what you would hope for in trying to get fall colors in your photos. We explore more this trip on our own, than in our past, which turn out to be a great deal for us. We explored some sites and things not offered in the shore excursions. That is not to say anything bad about what was offer by Princess, They had lots of good choices, We like getting away from the crowd sometimes and three of the ports allow this. We did go on the land and sea in Bar Harbor. We enjoy the sail boat and going up on Cadillac mountain (or Hill if your from the mountains). We had Two ships in Bar Harbor which was a little too much for the little town. the shops were full, just walking the sidewalks was hard. Like New York during rush hour. We also enjoyed a trip to Cape Cod to visit the Mayflower II and the Plantation. The history lesson was very nice as you enjoy the sites and people who play their roles well. The food service was great as always, This crew seem to make it a little more special with extra choices not shown on the menu and remembering our likes. If you like a Pizza snack, burgers or fries. they had them ready when you were, You could pay for Ice cream outside, or go in a get it for free in the horizon court or during dinner. I am not sure why you would pay for it, when you could go inside and make your own. The Shows on the ship were good, we had seen the shows before, and some of the special guest shows were the same from our last trip. This was a little surprising since it had been 18 months since we had cruised with Princess. Our last cruise was with NCl around Hawaii. All in all we had a great trip and our thanks to the whole crew, Great job!!