My husband and I boarded the Caribbean Princess on May 29, 2004. This was his first cruise. This was my second cruise. My first cruise was 8 years ago on a Royal Caribbean ship. In a nutshell, we were disappointed with our Caribbean Princess cruise. The highlights were the food and staff at Sabatini's and The Stirling Steakhouse. We also enjoyed our balcony on the Aloha deck.

The disappointments were as follows: 1) The crew and staff were unfriendly, appeared ill at ease and stiff and in some cases, lazy. We actually had to have our cabin steward, a gentleman from Romania, replaced because of very poor service 2) The ship was not pristine. It was unsettling to walk places throughout the ship and see half eaten plates of food sitting on tables, fingerprints everywhere, etc. The children on this cruise were totally out of control and running rampmant --- we blame the parents for this --- but, it still impacted our vacation.

The ports of call were fine. The weather was great. The private dining rooms were OK. But for the dollars spent, I was truly disappointed. Since my husband had never cruised before, he didn't have anything to compare our Princess experience to. Read more