This was a repositioning cruise and since we had never done a transatlantic cruise,we decided to try one. The price was an excellent value and one too good to pass up and not do it. The ship was just coming out of dry dock so we were the first ones to go on the "new" Caribbean Princess. We have sailed on her 5 previous times so we have seen the old and now the new. The new Horizon Court (now the Market Place) and the two new restaurants Planks (barbecue) and Steamers (seafood) are very nice additions. We tried them both. One of the biggest downers was the Embarkation. The ship wasn't finished and then there were problems in dry dock (a bomb scare and the propeller problems) The ship wasn't even in Ft. Lauderdale when embarkation was supposed to begin. The hotel where we stayed (The Rodeway) knew of the problems and extended your room stay for $5 more and the shuttle went at a later time. Since we had already checked out of our room, we decided to go to the port anyway. We got to the port and waited in line for almost 2 hours . After finally getting our room /ship card we were put into an Elite Lounge (we are Elite) with a small bottle of water, a few snacks and again another long wait started, and no further updates at all. By this time tempers were starting to flare Finally about 3 pm, we got to board the ship. We didn't leave port until 10 pm that night. For the very long delay, Princess compensated each passenger with a coupon for a free drink....REALLY???? To me that was a huge insult. LUckily the cruise did get much better once we set sail, We only did 14 nights as when we booked (about a week out) nothing was mentioned about it being a 25 night cruise. Had we known, we probably would have stayed on.

The food this time was just mediocre. Some nights we ate in the Market place cause even for me there was nothing on the dining menu that sounded good to me. There was way too much fish dishes and the meat that was said to be top sirloin didn't even come close....It was tough, and the fish one night was way overcooked. We like trivia so we played it daily with some couples and we became a team. The entertainment was pretty good, but for such a long cruise, I feel they could have had better.

The ports were really good,,,,Cobh Ireland was a great town to just walk around in. Falmouth England was also a small nice town. We did do the Paris Tour(le Harve port) sponsored by Princess. It was good, Our guide was a sweet French lady. The only draw back was that Paris was so far from le Harve so by the time you ride the bus to and from Paris, there was actually very little time to do much sightseeing in Paris. We left the ship in South Hampton and spent three days in the London vicinity and did the tourist things.We would definitely go on another Transatlantic cruise, but next time would like to take the southern route. if at all possible.