BACKGROUNDMy wife and I were very interested in a Princess cruise from Barbados to Fort Lauderdale with 4 ports of call plus Princess Cays, in 7 days. It turned out to be a repositioning cruise from the Caribbean, heading to San Francisco where the ship was to run Alaska cruises for the summer. Also I had never been to Barbados or any of the ports of call or Princess Cays. This was my 11th cruise and my fourth on Princess, which is a favorite cruise line for us.HOTEL and BARBADOS and BARBADOS TOURSI decided to stay on Barbados for 4 nights, 3 days, before boarding the ship there at Bridgetown. Flights to the Caribbean, other than Mexico always seem tough and wanting and overnight stay from SLC. I finally found a two stop American flight starting around 6 AM in SLC, then to Chicago, Miami and finally to Bridgetown, arriving around 10 PM at night. I didn't really analyze the last leg of the flight from Miami to Bridgetown. I expected it was a short 1-2 hour hop. The Caribbean is bigger than I expected - it was a fully 3 hours and out longest flight of the day from Miami to Bridgetown on a big jet. We were tired of traveling by the time we got there. We just caught a taxi, because Barbados is English speaking and a simple 2 for 1 fixed dollar exchange rate and also taxi fares are fixed - $20 for the 20-30 minute ride to our hotel. Right away we were amazed and caught up in the left side o the road driving there and narrow roads - everything backwards to the way we drive. In the dark things looked fairly nice and neat.We got to our room, at Amaryllis Beach Resort, late at night and in the weak lighting, sparse looking room and amenities and being tired I felt like we had a dump and we also didn't have a safe where one was supposed to be. It turned out the safe was being repaired and they got it to us early the next day. After out first use of the safe it "broke", locked shut, with our stuff in it. The hotel staff was really relatively expedient and responsive about getting it fixed - we ended up with 3 of them working on it and got it resolved, for the rest of our trip in less than one hour elapsed, so I was OK with that.We were also shocked by a tiny, skimpy, buffet, $18 US per person the first morning - we paid $20 US for a cooked breakfast that was just OK and not very big - $40 US total. We felt ripped off. No one was using that restaurant during slow season and it didn't get much business, so not much food out - so we avoided that for the rest of the trip. We found great deals at a coffee shop on the resort and for dinner one local restaurant and a bar/cafe on the resort had pretty good food at reasonable prices.We were discouraged there wasn't much business or restaurants close by but as the first day wore on everything started falling in place and looked much brighter - including our room which was really pretty nice and cutely done up- an older resort but nicely remodeled and fairly well furnished. The little kitchen was not very well furnished - no towels and very few dishes, etc but it was nice to have and we used it for coffee and tea. The resort personnel were nice and it was easy since everyone spoke English. There was a decent little work out center, beach towels, nicely gardened grounds, clean well kept public areas and rest rooms and the coffee shop, cafe/bar, and another cafe we never used, so all in all it was a well rounded resort. The beach was as nice as any on that part of the island, but it was on the southern part and still open to the prevailing waves. If I went again I would prefer a resort on the protected east coast for easier and better water fun. The beach was very nice and scenic to walk and a short ways from our resort was a nice board walk that provided access to a few more businesses. All in all Amaryllis Beach resort turned out to be a great deal and we liked the resort and prices we paid for it - a great deal for the money.Watch out for non-alcoholic malt energy/vitamin drinks in Barbados. They are near the beer and might be mistaken. I did like Banks beer from Barbados but it's just a typical lager - 4.7% alcohol. I really liked Stud Stout from Trinidad - 7.8% and a nice tasty stout. You can get beers for $2 US or less at stores and bars. Other prices, especially food we thought was fairly high in Barbados even with a 2 for 1 exchange rate and fancy restaurants really asked huge prices.By the second full day I was getting into island mode and relaxing. Two days we got an hour or so just laying on the beach in the shade at our resort.Before our cruise we had two tours on Barbados that we booked ourselves. The first one was with Glory Tours. We reserved an all day combination land and sea tour. We definitely prefer the sea part of any Caribbean adventures. Unfortunately the sea part was cancelled the day before we were to go, because no one else was signed up for the sea part, the day we wanted to go. Glory Tours was very helpful and contacted us at our hotel the day before to see what else we would work out. We decided to go for a full day land tour and would get credit for the difference, since the combination land and sea tour was more expensive. Glory Tours is working on menu style tours, where you can pick and mix and match what you want.  The tour guide was excellent and we covered most of the island and sights I had read about when researching Barbados before the trip. We had a nice lunch at a roadside cafe, same the first plantation and mansion on the island, toured the cave, and visited Mount Gay rum refinery where we tasted 4 rums. We certainly weren't short changed or scrimped on - the tour was longer than we expected with a pick up at our hotel around 9 AM and we didn't get back to our hotel until almost dark. For us the tour turned out to be a little too long and we were getting a little tired, fidgety and bored by the end, but that was mostly because of personal taste and for us, it just reinforced that we aren't big on land tours on islandsWe prefer to get out on the beaches and water and water tours and more active tours. If you like land tours and sightseeing this one was a great way to see the highlights of Barbados and you get a lot for your money.When we got home after our trip, we didn't see any credits for the tour. I talked to the owner, Sarah, by email and she was very helpful about taking care of the promised credit. I notice that Glory Tours is also reducing their deposits to $25 US, so you don't have to risk a major commitment to reserve a tour. If you cruise to or visit Barbados you should look up Glory Tours and see what they have to offer at http://www.glorytours.org/ or search for "Glory Tours Barbados".The other tour we booked while staying at Barbados was Cool Runnings Catamaran. This was a fun booze cruise with a snorkeling stop with turtles that was excellent, a stop over a barge type ship wreck just off the beach and finally a nice lunch stop where the blue water and sandy beach a short distance away, had a lot of the passengers jumping in for a refreshing swim, and swimming over to the beach. Different countries and islands do things differently. I expected the rum punch would be saved until after the snorkel stops - not on Cool Runnings - passengers were being pied with anything they wanted to drink right from the start. The only drawback for us, is that this is a highly acclaimed tour with lots of advertising and popular exposure. It may have just been the luck that day, but it was the most crowded catamaran tour I recall being on. The only seat my wife and I could find was on the back row of the catamaran, looking out over the engines, and sitting in the sun. My wife would have preferred shady seating and got a little bit of a sun burn that day. The crowd and seating was the only downside for us to this tour. Cool Runnings provides an excellent tour, well run. They took our reservation several weeks in advance, but we didn't have to pay until just before we boarded. Our pick up with a van full of passengers went smoothly and we only had a short 10 or 15 minute ride each way from our hotel and at the end of the day. The Cool Runnings catamaran is docked in downtown Bridgetown.An unexpected item affecting us in Barbados and the first couple of days of our cruise was May Day holidays and Sunday as a "closed" day in Dominica. May Day hit us Friday, our last evening and morning in Barbados - the restaurants we wanted most were closed both times. We recovered Friday evening nicely because the closed local restaurants inspired us to find and ride the Barbados public buses to the highly acclaimed Oistin's Fish Fry that happens every Friday night. The bus ride was a riotous wild treat on a crowded bus at night down narrow fast highways (driving on the left remember). The fish fry is a big hit, but I didn't find and $5 fish platters as touted - most were $15-25 US but well worth it. Loud music. Lots of tourists. Watching carefully on the return bus ride to figure out our stop.......The next morning, the restaurant we wanted for breakfast was still closed, despite having hours on Saturday - I guess because of the May Day holiday weekend but we recovered with a coffee shop breakfast at Amaryllis resort.We arrived in St. Vincent on a Sunday, when most businesses are closed and we also arrived in Antigua for a May Day holiday. This was nice for not having crowds, but a disadvantage for getting a feel for what the islands would be like on a normal day, as far as crowds, businesses and services.CRUISE SUMMARYI should start my review by explaining why a cruise expected to be my perfect dream cruise ended up just being better than average. I rate the cruise maybe 7 or 8 out of 10 but we ran into three unusual things on this cruise that we have never experienced before in any pervious 10 cruises that really took the "edge" off of it. Some of this you will realize was beyond their control, but three unique mishaps and the results really did affect our vacation adversely. The rest of the experience helped it seem OK, instead of the dream and perfect vacation I expected.  The first problem happened out our fourth day, at Antigua. We were supposed to sail away at 4 PM. The captain came on early to warn us that a life boat drill left the ship with one life boat that could not be retrieved due to mechanical problems and a 9 PM departure was expected. It turned out that the ship had to move, with the tender alongside, to a commercial dock and have it put back onboard by a crane. Talking to other passengers later, we discovered the ship didn't get the life boat back and out of port until sometime between 1 Am - 4 AM in the morning.  Fortunately it was a short run to St. Maarten, but we were still about 1 1/2 hours late. I had arranged an off ship shore excursion. We found the representative, but he told us it had been cancelled - I expect because we were so late and they had to leave with other paying customers. It turned out to be a beautiful day after a lot of morning clouds and some rain so the tour would have been great. We did recover by having a great time on the board walk at Phillipsburg and then lounging in beach chairs with umbrellas and a bucket of beer for the afternoon. WE liked St Maarten the best of the four ports we did call on.About the time we left St. Maarten, the second unexpected problem occurred, maybe from running too hard to get to St. Maarten. The captain came on the intercom again and we knew it wasn't going to be good. The ship had lost one of its four engines and we were not going to get a stop, for our last day at Princess Cays. We had to make a two day sea run to our destination of Fort Lauderdale. I was very disappointed since this was one of the biggest reasons I picked this cruise - a private island day plus 4 ports of call - a lot for a 7 day cruise. It was perfect for us, since we aren't into sea days very much - a little boring for us, to have more than a day or two at sea. Every passenger was given a $50 credit. If it wasn't for the other ports being so great, it would have really scuttled the trip for me.The long run to Fort Lauderdale also impacted us in other ways that were noticeable. The company/ship was more interested in getting back to Fort Lauderdale early and getting us off the ship for repairs than just being nice. We had to have our luggage out BEFORE DINNER the last night. Our room steward said that was different and I  know we have never been asked to part with our luggage and figure out our clothing, etc until late the last night at sea. I didn't mind too much the results at port but that was noticeable too - they got everyone off the ship ASAP - one of the earliest I have ever been off, and we were maybe 6 or 7 lots down the debarking group list. It was kind of like - thanks but get out of here now while we fix our ship and put an extra rush on you.Finally, and this issue was covered up and hushed up and they removed the evidence quickly from our cabin and I really felt like we should have been handled and warned was the last unique occurrence - brown water to at least every cabin on the lowest passenger deck - 5 / Plaza, to all cabins forward and starboard. I expect it was most of Deck 5, but at any rate maybe 24 cabins or more. I was busy brushing and doing my morning routine and taking pills, and within a minute or two of that I noticed brown water in the sink and in my water glass. It definitely was clear to start with. I will never know if I took my pills with that water and everyone we talked too was sure it was "grey water" and the brown was from the toilets. I confirmed that brown water was coming through, saved some in a glass and trapped some in the sink bowl for the ship's personnel to see. It was slowly getting clearer, but we had to run off to breakfast, asking our room steward to watch over anyone coming into our cabin. I think it took them at least 15-20 minutes to respond and out cabin steward already had one or two reports of the brown water. When we returned a little later the water was clear and they took the glass I saved for "testing" and emptied the bowl. In the afternoon a maintenance guy came by to run the water and flush the toilet several times and take another sample. We never heard a word from anyone in an official capacity, no apology, no warnings to anyone. The maintenance guy was apologetic about the inconvenience, but that's all and no helpful information about what made the water brown or anything to make up for it.Other passengers seemed oblivious to it except what they may have heard from the rest of us. My wife witnessed a small mob scene at the Purser's Desk, over this, later when she went to get some change. A woman had a plastic bag with a brown discolored rag and some bigger brown spots on it. Her sister was in the shower when the brown water started coming out. She demanded to see the captain and was waving the rag around and several other passengers threw in their angry voices. My wife left as the purser's clerk was leavings - I guess to get the captain or security. There still was no other word or announcement or credit or official apology on the brown water episode.At any rate I didn't get ill, but even after the water was coming through clear we didn't want to use the lines to our cabin for brushing or drinking the last 24 hours of the trip. I noticed there were still small black grains in the toilet after every flush, even 24 hours later. I felt this warranted some better, faster and more urgent warning rather than just dealing with it on a cabin by cabin or "personal" level. I think that was done just to be quiet and cover it up after the other problems we had on this trip, but this problem seemed to be the most serious - a threat to health and well being, not just an inconvenience.So that's why I didn't get a dream trip. Now to the rest of the story and good stuff about the Sea Princess cruise, that helped it not be a total disaster - memorable, but not the perfect dream cruise I had hoped for.EMBARKATIONHaving a relaxed vacation attitude to board and start our cruise was nice, as opposed to rushing to fly and board and "slow down" and get into vacation mode after getting on board. It was a short $15 taxi ride, 5 miles or less, over to the port in Bridgetown to catch Sea Princess. I went over way to early. We got there around 10Am and lots of passengers were still getting off to go home and go on tours and check out Barbados. They kept moving us along through the check in facilities, which were empty until we reached the first ship's security agent on the dock. He radioed for help and within half an hour a Purser's Desk employee came out and personally assisted us with a ship's card, forms, and helped carry our luggage on board and store it at the Purser's Desk until our room was ready so we were free to roam the ship. The most personalized and excellent exception service I have ever had boarding or cruising and it was greatly appreciated. I don't think regular boarding got going until half an hour or more after we got our special boarding. We asked some fellow passengers how the embarkation was and 3 out of 4 of us breezed through. In the middle of the afternoon, one couple said there was a bit of a line. I guess it just depends on the luck of whether you arrive when some large groups are coming on. This cruise had a lot of people from the U.K. and most of them were on for two weeks and it seemed like about half got off each week - so the Barbados boarding was probably about half as many people as a normal 7 day cruise - filling most of the ship all at once.SHIP INFOThe Sea Princess is billed as a "small" ship, fewer passengers and the suggestion is that's more intimate and less crowded. I came off feeling that doesn't quite ring true for me. I think I prefer the larger, 2,000 plus passenger ships. The two days at sea we had it was impossible to find a sun chair available on the sun decks. On the larger ships it seems there is always something in some nook or cranny that is very acceptable. The Sea Princess deck chairs were full from around 10 AM to 3 PM. Even the Promenade deck, most chairs were full, however, I would say if you walked the entire deck you might find 2 chairs available somewhere, most of the time. We were able to find bar or table seats most of the time when we visited the sun decks. With fewer passengers you do run into the same people more often. At ports it seemed like the "crowds" to get on and off were lighter but that may have been because most of the passengers were two week cruisers so maybe they weren't in as big of a rush and not as many early tours booked. The small but decently equipped gym had the least use I have ever seen on a cruise. The gym was never crowded and the aerobic machines were never full - usually just 1-4 customers using weights or aerobic machines. Maybe the crowded sun decks and un-crowded gym were related to the different crowd - being mostly from the U.K. they may be more relaxers and sun seekers, than wanting to stay in shape on a cruise. Another down side and crowding issue was the top decks food court, horizon buffet. On this smaller ship there were not multiple stations - just a port side line up and a starboard side line up. Those eating areas seemed more crowded to me than on larger ships, but interestingly enough, it just seemed to be a problem in the food line. When it was time to sit down, it was crowded, as expected, during prime times, but we usually could find a window seat, which I have sometimes found more difficult on larger ships at prime times.The public rooms on Sea Princess seemed nice and as expected on a modern cruise ship, just not as many as on a larger ship.FOODThe food seemed as good as any we have experienced on 11 cruises - a lobster night, a prime rib night - shrimp cocktail, beef tournedos and salmon available every night as an alternative. My wife felt there was a few nights where she didn't find much of interest on the main line up, but I think that is common when they have some special nights, such as Italian. With a lot of U.K. cruisers the Horizon Court buffet had nice spreads of cookies and deserts around 4 PM. My favorite, which I always look for on a cruise, was the chocolate chip cookies. I think Sea Princess has the best chocolate chip cookies I found on a cruise - large, soft and with a good amount of chips.Good food was always available, same as any cruise, to a ridiculous and weight threatening extent.CABINThe cabin seemed a little smaller than expected on a modern cruise ship. The main thing we missed over a larger ship was a small couch and table, maybe the room was shorter in length. The other dimensions seemed fine and normal - there was plenty of storage and the bed, etc, seemed fine and dimensions just no room for the extra seating and table and maybe a little less counter length and space. There was a much appreciated fridge which we did not have on our last cruise on the smaller ship - Holland America Ryndam. We were fine with the cabin.ENTERTAINMENTThe entertainment on Sea Princess was poor for us and toward the lower end of any I have experienced. There was no rotation of entertainers that I noticed. The music, until late night, like after 10 PM was very "loungy", big band, and all piano stuff with a little reggae/island music on deck, but mostly it was very boorish and poor. We thought we were on a Holland America cruise again - with all the music for the over 70 crowd. We do not see productions by the ship's crew, because we feel they are all just another song and dance, so we cannot comment on those expect a nice production by the ship's crew for country and western night was probably our favorite entertainment of the cruise.SHORE EXCURSIONSFor shore excursions I booked about half myself before the cruise and about half from Princess. As usual, I felt the ones I booked myself were much better values and I have had little problem with those. One of my self-booked tours was cancelled and I had a credit within two weeks. Our last day on Princess Cays was canceled due to engine problems and we were automatically credited, really never charged, for the cancelled ships tours on Princes Cays. We really enjoyed and one of our favorite tours or activities this trip was the ship's tour on Wacky Rollers in Dominica. Wacy Rollers half day tour took us in open air Land Rovers to waterfalls hikes and a swim in the Ti Tou Gorge - be sure to take your swim suit. The Ti Tou Gorge is gives you a unique and memorable swim through a slot in the mountain, draped in jungle greenery, to a waterfall. The open air range rovers, with safety cage and guide hanging off the back of the vehicle was much more fun than  the air conditioned taxis we saw a lot of people using to access some of the same sights. We liked the Wacky Rollers tour because it was active and adventurous, unique and entertaining. You can check out Wacy Rollers by searching for "Wacy Rollers Dominica" or at http://www.wackyrollers.com/aboutus.htm. The other ship's tour - Five Star Catamaran in Antigua turned out to be very good, but I don't believe it was 5 stars. The catamaran was pretty typical and standard. The service and crew were nice and did a good job, maybe a little better than average, but not exceptional - five star. We did have one of our favorite lunches on the 5 star catamaran and it took us to some islands and shallow waters that were some of the best and most perfect examples of what the Caribbean has to offer. I still felt it was a little expensive and over advertised since it was only 4 or 5 hours, with a snorkel stop and a beach stop, for $99US per person.The best tour deal and one of my favorites for this trip, I booked independently with Indigo Dive in Antigua, indigodive dot com. Find their web site at http://indigodive.com/ .  I highly recommend them. They gave us a half day water tour and 2 snorkeling stops plus snacks and drinks, including run punch for only $60 per person and we were lucky to have the tour all to ourselves that day. Kay, the owner of Indigo accompanied us personally and set up our reservation on the honor system so we only had to have the cash for the trip and gratuity, the day we hooked up. Kay and her assistant met us at the water taxi dock, just past security where the cruise ship docked. Kay gave us slow boat tour up the coast with a running commentary to a cave that has a swim though, but unfortunately there was too much swell that day for her to allow me to try that. At the same stop Kay directed me over to a place where a wall of coral dropped away out of sight into the Caribbean blue - a very memorable moment to swim over the rise of coral and look down the wall into the blue with swarms of fish. I am sure Indigo has perfect picks for any water group's tastes - snorkeling, scuba, etc.SERVICEService on Sea Princess was the great normal expected on a cruise. Our cabin steward, Petra, from Hungary, was the friendliest and most talkative room steward we ever had. People sometimes joke about how the cabin steward gets in and out almost like magic and you don't even know it. Maybe it was just random chance, but we never went back to our room and caught Petra cleaning - every day she got ours done without us even noticing. The dining room crew for our fixed seating dining was excellent and they learned our quirks and individual tastes quickly making dinner a special treat. The buffet staff was friendly and helpful. Other ships crew such as the Purser's Desk, spa personnel and deck attendants never missed just the right and proper level of service.SUMMARYWe felt this cruise was an excellent value for the money. We like a lot of ports of call and new places to visit. The cruise earned high marks for 4 new islands, plus getting to explore Barbados before the start of our trip and boarding in Barbados. It would have been perfect if we hadn't missed our final day at Princess Cays due to engine problems - and we would have had 5 ports in 7 days if we had stopped at Princess Cays. The rate we got seemed pretty low. This ship had been sailing some of the same ports most of the winter, but this was a repositioning cruise - breaking out to Fort Lauderdale, so they could continue to the Panama Canal and then to San Francisco for Alaska summer cruises, so like most repositioning cruises it seems we got a better than normal rate.DISEMBARKATIONI forgot to book Princess transportation to the Fort Lauderdale airport from port and we had never been to that port. Unfortunately Princess didn't have any way to let me do that while we were on board - other than to offer a land tour that would end at the airport. I figured we could get one of the many cheap alternatives you find when a ship docks and talking around found the distance was short from the port to airport, and fares should be inexpensive. We walked right off and got a taxi to the airport for $15. With the ship hurrying back for repairs we arrived extra early and they were trying to get us out of the way. We had 3-4 hours wait at the airport for our flight, getting checked in around 9 AM.