This was to be our 5th cruise and our 4th cruise line we've been on, and we were excited, having heard great things about Princess and their high food quality, the more adult crowd, and we liked the layout of the Royal. I like to start out with the Good first, so without a doubt, the staff on this cruise was absolutely THE best we have ever experienced. Everyone we encountered was "genuinely" friendly and greeted you, and not with the standard frozen-smiles we've all certainly seen. Our steward Patune was stellar, the best ever, with his level of helpfulness and actual CARING about our comfort, 5 stars for this guy! The ship was kept immaculately clean, everything was under control, our fellow passengers were good, and all in all it was a "quiet" cruise. We loved the choice of music concerts shown on the big screen in the afternoons, and the movies at night were not only very current, but also some classics were mixed in. For the football crowd, the Sunday Night game was on, and they bring out very thick, comfortable chair pads and blankets every night for the on-deck viewing activities. Very nice. And again, top shelf treatment by ALL staff was the shining star here. The entertainment was sometimes very very good, and others not so much, but that seems to be the norm between most cruiselines. We quite enjoyed the fun trivia shows with the cruise staff in the Princess Live, and the ship's singers/dancers.

So, the Bad now, and it was without a doubt the worst detriment to our cruise, and that was the food. We are generally dining room every night folks, but it proved to be just of ordinary quality, the meats were dry, and the menu from night to night had very little variance and imagination, and the meal took close to 1-1/2 hours. So we ended up being buffet diners almost every night, but that was no respite either. And here too, it was the meats that were perpetually over-cooked day after day that became a real puzzler. What was the chef's aim, we were wondering? Meats generally need to be a tad under-cooked when they are to be under warming lights for long periods of time, but virtually every night I dined on lifeless, TOUGH meat, and the same tired array of side dishes, and this went on for the entire 11 days. And by the way, for reference, my wife says that my palate is that of an "ordinary schmoe" so I am not a culinary snob at ALL, I am rather quite QUITE easy to please. But even the breakfast was subpar, scrambled egg pans had large excesses of WATER in them, gross, large amounts of toast was put out in metal pans, and was hard as a rock quickly under those lights, and the Eggs Benedict looked and tasted like rubber. (In comparison, on Norwegian you can gets eggs cooked-to-order at the buffet with FRESH toast.) And typically on a longer cruise one could expect some changes in the menu, but there were remarkably few. We began to be able to memorize where each thing was, as they were there every night in the same spot. The hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza on the Lido deck became dinner and the better deal more than once. The pizza was above par and quite good up there, and we ate at Alfredo's a few times, and it was great. We were told we could obtain pasta there, we did, and it and the service, again, was great. But we feel like Princess may want to look into getting a new chef or increasing his budget? But, the cooking "itself" was sub-par on a REGULAR basis, so it goes back to the chef and his kitchen. This is the only factor that may keep us from coming back to Princess, sadly.