We chose this cruise for the itinerary, as it hit six ports in ten days - five of which we'd never before visited. We typically cruise with Royal Caribbean, but they unfortunately tend to hit the same old ports. This was our first cruise with Princess, and likely our last.

My first disappointment with this cruise was the ship itself. Don't know if it being Italian made impacted this, or whether the design team is just inexperienced. Regardless, we found the ship to be poorly designed, which made it difficult to reach destinations without going up and then back down again. Not to mention that stairwells are very narrow, where it was difficult to pass someone going the opposite direction. Also, don't ever select an "obstructed" balcony stateroom of any kind. There are a bunch of these on the ship due to the poorly designed placement of the life rafts. Royal Caribbean designs there ships in a way in which rafts are tucked up underneath stateroom balconies, so that ocean views are not impacted. Not so with Princess. They're smack dab in front of your view. Even non-obstructed balcony staterooms feature obstructed views (in my opinion) when viewing down to water. On Royal Caribbean, you see water against hull when looking straight down.

Service wise, I would rate Princess as one half star higher than Carnival (I'd say 4 stars), and at least one star lower than Royal Caribbean at 5 stars. Ship staff is permitted to eat in the guest buffet, which I and other guests viewed as tacky. Also, it made this area more crowded. Another tacky and very "Motel 6ish" thing I noticed was that they section off a portion of the buffet dining area at night (with fish netting no less) and turn it into a premium dining room, wherein you are required to pay a fee to dine. I believe they called it "The Crab Shack." You'd never see something like this done on Royal Caribbean. Read more