This was our first time on Princess though others in our extended family group had been on some of the larger Princess vessels. We were a group of 8 with two kids 11 and 12, their mum and dad (me), and my wife's parents and grandparents. Most of our previous cruising experience has been on Radiance (visiting NZ, Tasmania and Alaska) so apologies if I do some comparisons to that ship along the way!

Boarding was fine and handled efficiently. We had spent some time at the Sunshine Coast prior to the cruise and rented a car from Europcar when we arrived at Maroochydore airport. We were able to both drop it back and fill it up with fuel at their Hamilton depot 100 metres from the cruise terminal which was very convenient!

First impressions of the public areas of the ship were good. It had been spruced up a bit in Singapore last October and looked great. The layout of the ship did feel a bit claustrophobic to us though with low ceilings (I swear the head chef had to duck when walking around the main restaurants so his hat did not fall off!), a small atrium from deck 5-8 and tiny cabins with balconies 'inside' the bulk of the ship. Radiance is definitely a nicer ship in terms of its layout with lots of places to look out, a higher atrium, outside glass elevators and larger 'standard' balcony and interior cabins. Read more