We live in the Laguna, CA area and since the flight to Santiago, Chile was approximately 13 hours we upgraded to business class. We researched on the web for various flight connections but did not desire to have more than one stop for the flight down. Utilizing Princess for flight connections resulted in several advantages:(1) price was the best we could find (2) we did not have to pay the airline at time of making flight reservations (3) did not have to purchase flight insurance and (4) Princess know of our flight in case we would be delayed in flight connections.Leaving from greater L.A. internationally meant a flight out of LAX; however we discussed our return flight with several Princess people as we desired to return to SNA (John Wayne Airport in Orange County) but Princess stated that they only write contacts with the airlines to return to the same airport as the departure.Our flight was excellent; however, we arrived in Santiago, Chile at 5:00 AM and Chile has a reciprocity tax with the U.S. in the amount of $ 131.00 US to be paid only at the time of arrival; this was known and anticipated but the fact that only one cashier was available at that hour when the schedule was published and known resulted in our having to stand around in line for several hours. After that was accomplished the Princess bus was waiting for us but evidently had to wait also for the next plane which resulted in another couple of hours standing and/or sitting around. The next thing which happened which I assume most travelers for cruises have encountered is arriving at a hotel in a foreign country after traveling nearly 24 hours and your room is not ready!! Again; sitting around in a hotel lobby resultant in temporarily checking your luggage at the concierge's desk is something that no one appreciated but is very common when booking a hotel through a cruise line and arriving in the morning. The short half day tour we had booked in Santiago was excellent as was our stay for a couple of days. People had warned me to be very careful in Santiago regarding potential theft etc, when walking in town; we encountered no problems nor did we see or hear of any difficulties by any of the Princess passengers. The bus ride from Santiago to Valparaiso was excellent. Embarkation in Valparaiso was easy and uneventful. The first night there was open seating in the dinning room as is the normal practice.The following evening we found that our early seating was in the corner of the dinning room by a window which was probably one of the best locations one could ask. Our waitress from Romania was great and mixed in perfectly with our fellow passengers; we have taken over 45 cruises and this was the best table group we have ever encountered which consisted of all US citizens with a couple from Pittsburgh, another from S.C. and us from Ca., we all enjoyed the dinner company! The food on board was good; the main dinning room I would rate at a 7; the Horizon Court (buffet) which most people utilized for breakfast and lunch I would rate at a 5. The entertainment on board was mixed; several comedians were excellent while others we walked out on. It seems that the best entertainers were on the cruise from Valparaiso to Acapulco and it went downhill from there. By the way what we thought was one cruise was actually two; one section from Valparaiso to Acapulco and the next to Seattle; needless to say, we were not aware of that and if we were we would have simply booked Valparaiso to Acapulco as the rest of the cruise through Mexico we have done at least a half dozen times. After Cabo the seas got a little rough and the planned stop in San Francisco was only from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm after cruising for 2 days and the schedule after that was another 2 days of cruising North only to have to fly back south to LA.... Remember that Princess refused to book us back into SNA as we departed from LAX and they were insistent that we must return to the same airport from which we departed. As we have had it after 23 days away from home plus the rough seas plus the airport deal we decided to attempt to catch a flight from Oakland to SNA; the internet was slow as hell on board but we were able to make that connection so we "jumped" ship early and came home Friday. In our opinion Princess is slowing getting more and more like Carnival; management is showing!! While the food was pretty good they surely seem to be nitpicking other things such as they now charge for ice cream at the ice cream stand, they no longer have lemonade...wine prices keep escalating higher & higher... room stewards appear to have many more rooms to do. i.e. Normally in our prior 45+ cruises when you left the room in the morning to go to breakfast by the time you came back your room was done....not anymore...many times it took several hours and 'might be cleaned' by lunch. We had a refrigerator out and non-functional for 17 days!!! Initially; they kept telling us that it is now a refrigerator but a cooler and could only maintain 65 degrees. Maintenance came to the room after the 2nd day....and really did a job....the thing did not work until the 18th day when someone else came in to repair it....after six calls and etc etc. and by the way the cooler kept everything quite cold so the initial maintenance buy did not know what he was talking about. As Elite members of the Captains club our cabin is automatically stocked with several miniatures of liquor, soda, water etc... too bad that we could not cool these items as they would have been appreciated on those hot days around the equator! Smoking is a problem; while the ship has nice large balconies people next door can smoke in their rooms as well as on the balconies causing constant smells of smoke and that type of annoyance. Princess could use some guidance on how hotels handle the smoking problem. The daily newspaper Pitter Pater is not very well organized in comparison to other cruise lines and was not normally delivered in the evening but finally found itself to our room in the morning. (We like to look at it in the evening to plan the next day's itinerary.) Reviewing everything if we had known that we could have gotten off in Acapulco we would have!!! The rest of the cruise did not compare entertainment wise and port wise just simply duplications of things we have done in the past. By the way, when we spoke to the Purser to find out if we could get off early and received their permission to do so she stated that we would be given some credits. Time will tell if we do get any credits back. As a Elite member of Captain's Circle we were entitled to free laundry and dry cleaning which was excellent; the credits on our account from precruise booking while on a cruise, laundry, dry cleaning, internet amounted to nearly $ 1000.00 which is further offset by the insurance savings and also by not having to pay anything until 60 days prior to departure. We were also entitled to special canapEs on the Captain's reception nights which was prior to dinner which was early seating; the canapEs were delivered while we were at dinner!!! Tasted one...not very good anyway but their timing and delivery was poor. That's about all in relation to cruise 9809 & 9810. By the way; the cruise cards which I have saved for many years for many different cruise lines now Princess is destroying them prior to one's departure so you no longer have that referenced memory card. If anyone saves these "on board cards" remember to go to the Purser's office prior to departure and request a 2nd card! All in all the itinerary was excellent; the ship was fair; but the length was a little too much for us and while we will cruise again the time factor will be in the 13-15 day time range. .