Classic Southern Caribbean cruise. Arrived at departure point Friday, the day before ship embarkation. Stayed at the Sheraton in Old San Juan. It was very nice and across the street from the pier where the ship came in. Took taxi to Old San Juan from airport. You will be charged per bag, so I'm glad when they asked me how many bags we had I didn't include the carry-on bags. It's $19 to the hotel (ship area) and then 50 cents each for the first three bags, then $1 each over that. Hotel was nice. Note: booking through Princess would have cost more. We booked through the Sheraton directly. Wandered around Old San Juan and had the best mojitos at Tio Dannys a street or two up from the hotel. Embarking was simple—checked out of hotel at noon, walked to pier, checked in, went through security, and were in cabin Aloha 247 at 1. Easy process and moved quickly. Enjoyed the ceiling fans in the check-in area.  Look up if you embark in San Juan! Cabin nice, just like its sister ship, Caribbean Princess. Bedspread was gross though and we asked our steward not to put it back on the bed. I do like the down comforter on the bed. Also the stewards need to pay more attention to amenities—we had all conditioners sometimes instead of the variety of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. The metal chairs on the balconies were awful. Cheap looking and rusted, which is funny since on our Carib Princess cruise in 2006 they actually replaced the deck chairs with molded plastic ones during our cruise. Lots of closet space, safe in stand-alone closet, tiny bathroom with very tiny shower. We were inconvenienced twice as they tried to work on the safes during the week. Suites below the Aloha deck (Emerald and Dolphin I think) do not have covered decks; everyone on the lido, Riviera, Aloha, etc. decks above you can see clearly down onto your deck. Photos cost too much money and are priced differently. Embarkation vs. in-port but they are around $12 each. Portraits are $24.95 or buy 5 get one free. A lot of $$. Then again, you're there, the background is set up, and the photos appear the next day. Common areas a bit different than Carib Princess. I did miss the room set up for game playing like Carib Princess had. Crown had a library stocked with lots of books and games, but nowhere to play the games on this ship. Jewelry overpriced in shops. Paid $11 for a bottle of suntan lotion out of desperation. Found that servers needed to speak and understand English better. Even our waiters in the dining room did not understand everything we said. They also did not come around more than once to ask if we wanted more drinks. One night we ordered champagne and when it was finished, they took the glasses. Didn't ask if we wanted more or anything else. Tipping is now $10.50 per day added to your shipboard account. Day at sea was great. Various games going on at all times as well as outdoor activities. We chose to read and sleep on one of the sundecks. Food in the dining room was good. Favorites were king crab one night, and the wonderful tender lobster tails on the second formal night. I'd say there was nothing served to our table of 5 that we didn't like except a couple of the desserts that were overly sweet. We each ordered something different and passed it around the table so we had our own dessert sampler platter! I wish they'd post in Princess Patter the themes of buffet dinners. We went to the German night and the last night buffet, can't remember what it was. This was the first cruise where we skipped the dining room so often and went to the buffet instead. Needed better chocolate desserts and ice cream should be available without paying extra. Pizza and burgers are consistently good on Carnival/Princess ships. Again, a lot of staff needed to speak and understand English better. The service we had on Caribbean Princess in 2006 was better than the service on this ship. But that's not the ship's fault. Also when are they going to ban smoking? This year we were lucky enough not to have a stinky smokers' cabin all week. But when you walked through the corridors you could easily smell where people were smoking in the cabin. Do they not remember the fire a few years back that was caused by smoking? Also, they are constantly varnishing wood railings during the day and we usually missed the signs and touched the sticky varnish. It's a bit contradictory to place signs around to use the handrails for safety, then varnish them and tell you not to touch them! Movies Under The Stars was cool. There is great celestial viewing from the front of the promenade deck (7). Saw shooting stars and the cloudiness of the Milky Way galaxy. Pretty cool; you don't see that in NJ. Didn't use the Sanctuary. Skywalkers was ok but didn't get lively. The DJ was kind enough to play every song we requested but we were the only ones dancing. Fusion also had dancing and I don't get why 2 clubs on the ship do the same thing at the same time. Ballroom dancing lessons were fun. One person in our party of 5 was supposed to be linked to our reservations, which she was, however, they did not have her dining at the same time or room with us. Trip to maitre de resolved it. Check your cards when you board to make sure you're at the right time and at the same table.

Ports. First: when you are supposed to be on a tour, be on time. Don't make the bus wait for you. Barbados was ok—did the ship-sponsored Concorde tour since I had never gotten to go on the Concorde. Needed more time though since you are organized into groups and do or view this and that at assigned times. Then you're rushing out to catch the bus because time's up. This was followed by island tour for an hour or so. St. James church gift shop—quoted us $4 each for rum cake but said $5 when it came time to give us the change from our $20 after buying 2. The old church was cool though—not sure I'd want to sit upstairs as it's quite rickety! We went to Boatyard Beach after that. Slow-moving traffic to get there, but the beach was very nice. St. Lucia. Went to beach. I agree with other reviewer who said taxis and vendors are the most aggressive here. Got very annoying. Reduit was ok—overrun with resorts and again people tugging at you for your business. Very shallow beach—only about 30 feet between the water's edge and the restaurants. We paid $5 for chairs just toward the right of the parking area, and then walked farther to the right and found shade under huts, and the chairs were free if we ate at this particular resort's restaurant (can't recall name—orange buildings). So we did. Had a great Caribbean chicken meal. Yes, we wasted $5 with the first person but the space on the beach could not be compared. Bought bananas from "The Fruit Man" who came around on a boat! They were delicious! Keep the taxi ticket you get when you get dropped off—they ask for it when your taxi comes back to pick you up. Rented a wave runner there and the vendor told us $30 for 40 minutes, then told us time was up after 30 minutes. Later someone else in our group bargained for a 15-minute ride for $20, which is all you really need to get your fill of the entire bay. Antigua. Taxi drivers again bombard you as you leave the gated ship area. One guy told us $6/person and when we got to his van a block away, he said "oh, I just checked the chart and it's $8/person." Really. Were you not just bragging that you had been doing this for 17 years? Would you not know the rate? Took a different taxi to Turner's beach on southeast side for $6/person. No ship-sponsored beach trip there, but the other ship in port (Aidavita) sponsored a trip there so it became a beach full of Germans. However, since we were using ½ of our hut (shaded), some of them took over the other ½ of our hut while we were swimming. Pretty bold. Food at the Turner's Beach bar was great—had lobster salad. Watch for an undertow here though it's a beautiful beach. Some animals on private property south of the beach but you can walk on the walkway (be careful of glass shards) and get a nice view of the cows, goats, and water. Montserrat clearly in view though the volcano top was covered by cloud. Back near the ship, go to Australian Ice Cream place. I tried 4 flavors! Belgian chocolate was great, so was tropical fruit! Tortola. New dock so no need to tender. Had privately booked day sail with White Squall 2. Day sail means SAILING to me. Had to motor to the Baths on Virgin Gorda due to winds coming straight at us. Baths were so crowded we ended up staying in one spot on the beach. Found a place to bodysurf and catch the waves between some rocks—was a lot of fun. Watch out for slippery rocks; we saw two people fall and get hurt. Sailed over to Cooper Island which was nice but a short sail. Ended up motoring all the way back to Tortola (yes, it is a SAILboat) and there was no need as the winds were slightly behind us which would be good for sailing. Had to smell diesel exhaust the whole ride back. Yuck. Would try different boat next time. There's a store called Jewels between the marina and ship area but they were totally uninterested in helping us with anything. Salespeople ignored us. St. Thomas. You will clear customs/immigration at 7am. Do yourself a favor and head down to Fusion at 7:30 or after when there will be NO LINE! 7am we walked back to Fusion and had to find the end of the line which was all the way at the front of the ship and then some! We looked most forward to this excursion on St. Thomas. Day sail with Pat on her 44 foot sailboat called Independence. We sailed with her last year. Great windy day for great sailing and snorkeling at St. John. Was the best excursion on the whole trip. Lunch is included and the best rum punch of the trip too. Back to Red Hook and then on to the ship with a quick stop in the Havensight shopping area by the dock. Note: we did not go to Crown Bay due to 2 other ships already there. Queen Mary was one of them. Havensight had nice jewels but I will avoid one store that sells liquor and jewels (on your right near embarkation area if you're headed back to the ship). I was looking at tanzanite and the rings were way too much $$ for me. So the saleswoman actually had the nerve to say to me something to the effect of: by the time you decide you want tanzanite it will be out of your league! I couldn't believe a salesperson was telling me this! I left shortly after and bought nothing at that store. Will not go back there. Did buy a nice big amethyst slide at another store. Saturday came around too quickly but debarkation was easy—went to Wheelhouse and waited for our pink tag to be called. Keep your debarkation tags (colored tags) on your luggage if you are flying back to mainland US or the Dept of Agriculture has to inspect your bags. Taking a taxi back is cheaper than prepaying for Princess transport. Our plane was changed (737-800 to a 737-900) and the seating was a tiny bit different so everyone who paid Princess $15 to have their luggage checked in directly with the airline had to go to the counter to re-check their seats since the aircraft changed. So why pay the $15?

Despite some issues, we had a great cruise and our final photo on the ship is all of us frowning that we had to leave!