This was my first cruise with Princess because my traveling companions chose the cruise. I was extremely disappointed by the indifferent and unknowledgeable (or sometimes outright rude) attitudes I encountered on several occasions by members of the ship's staff. I don't want to diminish the fact that there were some very friendly staff members on the ship, but I am coming away with the impression that Princess does not spend a great deal of time orienting new crew members on the layout of the ships or training them on customer service skills.

I asked for directions to various places on the ship and was told multiple times, by multiple crew members, that they didn't know because they had only been on the ship for a couple of days/weeks. One bartender kept me waiting almost 5 minutes while he completed a personal call that seemed to involve nothing more than gossip. The shore excursion personnel didn't seem to know much about any of the ports we were in and the desk was more often closed than open. A waiter in the pizza restaurant was so rude and inefficient that we asked for someone else to wait on our table. Overall, from the minute I got on the ship to the time I got off the ship I felt like I was on my own to get information.

The embarkation terminal in San Juan was horrible! We had to walk up some metal stairs with our carry-on luggage in the hot sun. There was a ramp next to the steps, which would have been easier to get my roller bag up, but the crew insisted we walk up the stairs. I never saw any porters after I arrived there so there was no one to help people with any of the bags. I felt really bad for the older and more frail passengers because they didn't seem to be treated any differently. Read more