If you are thinking of the Ruby Princess, I beg you tothink again. Our pre-Christmas cruise from LA to Cabo was bad in almost any metric. This was our 9th cruise, and our first (and last) on Princess. The management of people was awful -- our anytime dining routinely required an hour wait for dinner and a half-hour wait for lunch, made worse by the norovirus epidemic that sent many of the buffet customers to the sit-down restaurants. The puzzling thing was when we finally were seated, there were empty tables throughout the diningroom while passengers waited outside. Food quality was uniformly poor -- every pieceof fish I ordered was fishy tasting, the beef was chewy and of inferior quality. The fish and chipsisg pub was raw on the inside.

WE had only one stop -- Cabo --and we ewre herded into the diningroom to wait for "our turn". We were fortunate in that we got there early and waited only 90 minutes. Others waited up to 2 1/2 hours to get a tender. Howcouldtheynot have been prepared for all of us wanting to go ashore? Unbelieveably poor preparation.

The norovirus was caused by the poor design of the buffet where literally everything was self-serve and everyone used the same utensils. It was a germbreeding ground. For this I blame Princess 100%. The cabins had no soundproofing -- you coukd hear noise from above (doors closing, etc.) and conversatins from the adjoining rooms. Eventhe paper products were dreadful -- recycled ChinesedKleenex which was like sandpaper, brown paper towels in the common restrooms. Even the budget lines do better. THis was the worst cruise experience we have ever had. I would strongly encourage you to avoid Princess at all costs. They will ruin your vacation.