This was our first Princess cruise and we were celebrating our honeymoon. We have sailed with Carnival twice previously (Triumph in 2006 and Miracle in 2008).Princess booked our air and overall they did a pretty good job with the flights/connections. We flew into Ft Lauderdale the night before Embarkation and Princess booked us into the Marriott North which is aprox 10 miles from the pier. Not a great hotel, but not the worst we've stayed in either.Embarkation - We arrived at the pier at around 12:30pm, there was a huge line up, but it went so quickly, we were on the ship by about 1pm. Their Embarkation process was so quick and efficient, I was in shock at how smoothly everything ran.Stateroom - By the time we got onto the ship, our cabin (B707) was cleaned and ready for us to move into. The Bathroom was extremely small but that didn't bother us. The closet was quite large with lots of hangers. The rest of the cabin was about what you'd expect from a standard balcony stateroom. The balcony was not very big, but larger than I was expecting after having read so many reviews about this ship. It was perfectly sufficient for us and we spent quite a bit of time on our balcony. The bed was not very comfortable but we had an extra mattress topper placed on it and it helped a bit, but still wasn't great. We certainly didn't let something like that spoil our cruise. We spent too much money to be upset over such little things. Our room steward was fantastic; Danny was always eager to get us anything we may want or need for our room. He was super friendly and always did a great job with cabin.The Ship - Upon stepping onto the Emerald I was instantly in awe over her; what an absolutely beautiful ship. The dEcor and ambiance was very classy and tasteful throughout the entire ship, which was a very pleasant change from our last sailing on the Carnival Miracle. We did find that the layout was somewhat confusing and it took us quite a while to get it all figured out. Overall, we were extremely impressed with this ship though. We weren't sure if perhaps they were not booked to capacity on that sailing or if it was because of the layout but the ship really didn't seem overly congested at all, compared to our past cruises with Carnival. There were quite a few pools and hot tubs up on deck and they usually weren't too crowded either. We were also quite surprised to find that there didn't seem to be that much of a problem with people hogging deck chairs for the day. There was a bit of it, but we never had too much trouble getting a chair when we wanted one, for the most part. We really enjoyed MUTS. The sanctuary seemed quite nice, though we didn't get around to booking ourselves in there at all. The pool at the Lotus Spa was really nice; so tranquil and far away from everything else going on onboard. The International Cafe was really nice; my husband LOVED the shrimp salad. The specialty coffees were really good. If you drink a lot of coffee, the coffee card is definitely your best bet.We went to the Wine tasting on the second sea day and it was definitely not worth the $25 per person cover charge, even if you really enjoy wine, as we do. They give you a small sample of 6 different kinds of wine and a few canapEs. Nothing special, not worth the $50 we spent. There was a second wine tasting later on in the cruise for $9.95pp which I hear was pretty much the same as the first one, but as we were disappointed in the first one, we didn't sign up for that one.Food - The buffet was split into 4 separate venues, and there was always food available in at least 1 of the 4 stations. The food did seem to be a step up from what we experienced on Carnival. Buffet was quite good, but not outstanding. It is hard to make outstanding when you're cooking buffet for SO many people. The selection was a lot greater than on carnival. The Pizza was good and the Trident Grill was nice too. I absolutely loved their chicken breast burgers. We ate at Sabatini's ($25pp) which we were somewhat disappointed over. Their food is quite pretentious and really not any better than the food served in the traditional dining room. The service wasn't nearly as good either. Our Dining Room servers in the Botticelli Dining Room were absolutely fantastic; Ricardo and Sergio definitely made our cruise even more memorable. Since it was our honeymoon, on the first formal night, they came out with a special dessert for us to celebrate our honeymoon and they (along with all the other servers in that area) sang "Happy Honeymoon" to us. They were absolutely terrific. The food in the dining room was overall really good. We also had dinner at the Crown Grill ($20pp)one evening and like Sabatini's, the food seemed quite pretentious (as was our server) and that overall experience was not as good as our dinners in the Botticelli Dining Room. Ports - What a fabulous itinerary, every port was spectacular. We visited Aruba, Bonaire, Granada, Dominica, St Thomas and Princess Cays.  We pre-booked our excursions through Princess, except in St Thomas.Aruba - We booked the Aruba Sail & Snorkel; that was really good. They took us to 2 snorkel sites, the second being over top of a ship wreck. The company was Red Sail Sports and they were fantastic. The rum punch they served was made with 150 proof rum, so it packed a punch alright!Beware of Senor Frogs in Aruba, we ordered a couple of drinks and nachos($28)and quesadilla(about $18) and the total came to $100 USD. Their drinks are around $25 each and their shots are around $12 each.Bonaire - We booked Samur Sail & Snorkel. We had the option of drift snorkeling (which I HIGHLY recommend). That was absolutely spectacular, and the crew of Samur were really great also.We had lunch at a little place in Bonaire called Papagayo's, and it was REALLY good and very reasonably priced.Granada - River Tubing was fabulous. Another excellent excursion.Dominica - We booked the Champagne Reef Snorkeling which was quite an experience. The snorkeling wasn't nearly as good as in Bonaire but still pretty good, and the Champagne reef was a once in a life time sight to see.There we had lunch and a few local beers (beers were really good) at a place right by the pier called Cocorico Cafe; another really great little restaurant with really good local food.St Thomas, we did a little exploring on foot, then did a little shopping. Then we booked an independent tour guide to give us the island tour. Apparently a lot of these tour guides can be quite shady and have reputations for drinking while intoxicated so BEWARE!!Luckily, the guy we went with was really good (He also works for the local fire dept as a paid fire fighter). Check out Raymond's Island Tours (Raytours2000@gmail.com) $25pp and he'll show you the whole island and explain so much throughout the tour.Princess Cays - I was really disappointed in princess cays. We booked a clam shell ($24/day which seats 2 ppl) and it was hardly worth it. The beach was not very nice. I didn't see anyone going into the water. Perhaps there was a cleaner beach elsewhere on the island, but where the clamshells were set up, it was quite unappealing. Spent about an hour or so on the island then took a tender back to the ship to finish up my tan on deck.Disembarkation - went extremely smoothly and in good time. We booked a tour to the Everglades as we had a later flight out of FLL. That was a great way to end our fabulous cruise vacation. I would recommend doing that to anyone who has the time to do so.To summarize, we thoroughly enjoyed our time aboard and ashore during our cruise on Emerald Princess. It was by far a big step up from Carnival. The overall service was way better and the ship was so much nicer. Of course, it wasn't absolutely perfect, but it doesn't matter where you are in this world or what cruise line you chose to sail with, if you look for things to complain about, you'll find them. If you're looking for perfection, good luck to you; let me know when you find it!! Yes, there is a lot of 'nickel & diming' but that's to be found on any cruise line. There is no obligation to buy any of the extras, they aren't even pushy about it.We had an absolutely fantastic time; about as close to perfect as one can get in this world, I should think. We would definitely sail with Princess again in the future.