We liked leaving from SF. We liked the duration. The ship was nice but not much of a wow factor. We have cruised Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Grand Princess came in last. The demographic was a much older crowd. That figures because it is a longer cruise and during school going in Sept. We had no problem socializing with older folks and even dodging walkers, scooters and wheel chairs (and there were plenty) but Grand Princess obviously catered mostly to the older folks. We would only recommend this cruise if you want a lot of time to relax and maybe if you book stellar excursions off the ship. Or of course if you are a senior citizen. We had quite a few days at sea with not much to do during the day. There was a lot of piano playing, guitar, violin and such but only a game here and there, bingo on the regular and a lot of get togethers upselling different things on the ship. Do not book a special photo shoot on the 17th floor unless you have thousands to spend. There were a couple big shows but a lot of smaller shows of duets and single piano player. A couple comedians but showed only a few times so it made for tight crowd. I think the whole cruise of 10 days offered 2 nights of big shows. They were good but way more on Carnival and Royal. The food was horrible in the buffet to start but it got better with time. The main dining offered gourmet food but was not as full of taste as it was visual. We think maybe they keep it on the bland side to suite everyone's taste. It was best toward the end. Some things better than others. We did dine in the crown grill one night. It was awesome food. We would recommend that. The desserts were on point and exceeded our expectations every day. The service was stellar In the dining room and those guys helped make our trip. It was ok for our 6 year old because they had kids club but the pool was closed a lot. The basket balls were flattish on the court. The outdoor gold was small and uninteresting. There was an outdoor pool by the buffet but every time we went outside we smelled smoke so we couldn't stay. Apparently the smoking area is right above that. Speaking of smoke it was always so smokey by the casino we could barely breathe. My son gagged on the smell and I had to rush him into the bathroom where he threw up about 6 times. So we had to avoid that area. We felt we had to smell smoke way to often on the ship and with the rules were changed to smokeless or only a couple of smoke nights instead of the other way around. Anyway, overall decent trip but this is a very realistic review from out viewpoint.