Embarkation process: Very smooth. Cannot be any better. We had pre-registered on the Internet and all we had to do was to go to the counter and pick up our cruise cards. It took all of about 10 minutes! Cabin: We had a balcony cabin on the port side on Aloha deck. fairly good size cabin with queen bed, desk, full length mirror, open closet space with plenty of hanger space, a double-door cabinet with shelves that included a password protected safe. Many before us have commented on the extremely small size of the shower stall. We agree. Not a bad stall if your waist size is 28! Overall excellent, comfortable, spacious, and quite cabin.
Food: Breakfast buffet is excellent. The omelette station is just wonderful. Plenty of fruits, breads, cereals and meats are available. In juices only orange juice is offered. We found it a bit on the watery side. Great coffee. Lunch and dinner buffets are OK but nothing to brag about. Plenty of choices for both events. We enjoyed the grill and the pizza place for most of our lunches. Great burgers and pizza. One annoying thing - both places, grill and pizza close at 6 pm! Folks with kids were not too happy about that. We had 8 pm sitting in the Provence Dining room for the dinner. We had asked for a table for two when we bought the vacation, bit we were mildly skeptical about getting it. Well, we did! That was a pleasant surprise. Excellent service from the wait staff and every evening, excellent food with a good variety in the changing menus. We dined at the Bayou Restaurant, one with the New Orleans theme. We enjoyed it, at a $10/pp cover charge. Food and service were very good. Great live jazz music too! We did not try the Italian restaurant.
Public areas: This is where the ship really shines! Entire 7th deck is for open public areas. That includes a good size casino, Wheelhouse Lounge, Princess Theater at the front end and the Universe Lounge at the back end. All 7th deck facilities are excellent. The atrium rises from the 5th deck to 8th deck and is a beautiful site to watch and relax. Bars are everywhere. A few CruiseCritic reporters have mentioned the pushy bar waiters pushing the "medium" size drinks. True. However, all of the bar waiters were very polite and did not mention the larger drinks once we said no. Bar drinks are fairly priced, sizes are reasonable and presented very nicely.