Maybe it just wasn't fair... our last cruise- last year a 17 day TA from Fort Lauderdale to Venice was fantastic- wonderful service, from the ding room to lounges to the cabin. Our tours, except one, were more than perfect. On this ship the service was spotty- a fabulous server followed by someone who had no idea what he/she was doing. People sat in bars forever waiting for service while servers wandered around doing nothing. Some of the food was very good and some was awful. The desserts were wet goo. The pizzas were burnt, greasy cardboard. If the food wasn't right it didn't matter because by the time the waiter came around to make a change I was ready to move on- again a service issue. I know they are capable of cooking because I had a few amazing dishes on board, but the gambling was not limited to the casino. The cabin steward did an adequate job but did not change sheets when they got a mark on them or always set out clean glasses, etc. Annoying. Our favorite bar servers were Nenad from the Wheelhouse and Togu , who worked here and there. The Wheelhouse had the best servers (all were good and friendly) and the worst entertainment. Crooners had the worst servers, once I was waiting for someone from cruisecritic and waited 45 minutes without anyone coming near me. Then Togu walked into the bar (happy hour was starting in a few minutes) and he took care of me. I heard stories like this many times during the cruise. We did all Princess tours - happy with all except the guides from the Bergen and Boston tours. The Production shows in the Princess Theater were very good- Fiero was the best. (:
This was an average balcony cabin. The shower curtain is no longer "affectionate". The mattresses were a bit hard. Otherwise it was as expected.