EMBARKATION: The fastest that I've ever experienced. I stayed at a friend's in Fort Lauderdale the night before after flying from Pittsburgh. He drove us to Port Everglades around noon Saturday. Not only were there no lines, I had to hurry to get all my documents in order. The whole process from the moment we walked into the building until we boarded was no longer that 15 minutes. Princess has this down to a science.

THE SHIP: The Crown Princess is gorgeous. It's very tasteful & elegant. It is very large & somewhat confusing getting around until you get used to it. One complaint would be the elevators. There was a lot of waiting & one near the end where our room was, was out of order. Luckily I'm still young enough & in decent shape to take the stairs. STATEROOM: We had a balcony on the Aloha deck near aft, starboard. It was surprisingly a nice size room. The balcony seemed bigger than on the NCL Dawn; however, it may have been my imagination. The bed was comfortable, a little firm but comfortable. The bathroom while small was adequate. The shower was kinda cramped but was fine. One of the best features of this room & I guess other Princess ships as well was the walk-in type closed...the largest I've ever had on a cruise. We were able to put all of our stuff in there which kept our room clutter free. On a final note was the room temperature....perfect! I was concerned about temperature from other reviews but had no problem keeping the room cool. In fact, sometimes I had to turn the temp up because it got too cold but no way was I complaining about that.

FOOD: Very good in most regards. There were some items that were kinda odd, but with the selection, I can't complain. The breakfast items were good also. The scrambled eggs weren't the best, but were ok. The waffles were the best! They looked like little stars & tasted awesome. I had them every morning. There also seemed to be a lot of seafood on this cruise. There was plenty of shrimp every night. Oh & by the way, there was plenty of seafood at the sail away buffet including scallops, shrimp & crab claws. We ate so much there that we skipped the dining room that night. The food in the dining room was good as well. We did have lobster along with prawns one night (both in one meal). I also ordered the Beef Wellington that night as well....totally stuffed! I'm not sure why so many people on here complain about the food on Princess. We had little complaints. This was my fourth cruise & none were totally perfect. This cruise was definitely at the top! Read more