This was our first Princess cruise, but our 10th overall. We've mostly cruised HAL and Disney, with a couple of short Royal cruises as well. The short version is that it was a good cruise and we found a lot to like about Princess. Nothing was bad, and a few things were very good indeed.

Embarkation was smooth. The rooms were basically ready when we got on, though someone (not our attendant) was just finishing up vacuuming one of our rooms, and the bed configuration wasn't what we asked for. The bed thing was fixed while we were at lunch, so no harm no foul.

The food was uniformly good, with some very good items here and there. The beef tenderloin I was served at the embarkation sit-down lunch definitely exceeded expectations and set a great tone for the rest of the cruise. MDR food was generally good. Crown Grill was very good. The meat quality at Crown wasn't quite up to the fanciest steakhouses (maybe a notch below HAL's Pinnacle), but it was perfectly cooked, and all the appetizers and sides were winners. Share was probably the second-best restaurant we've ever been to on a cruise ship (first is Remy, on the Disney Fantasy). We made another reservation for later in the cruise, and we enjoyed it just as much. Read more