Because of illness, I had not cruised for two years. My last cruise before this one was on Princess in the Caribbean. We chose this cruise because of the itinerary and our prior good experience with Princess. Massive cost cutting is going on. A very small thing sums up the Princess present attitude. Princess corporate has told its waiters to conserve butter. We had a table for four. Only three pieces of butter were provided. It became a joke during the cruise getting three pieces and having to ask for a fourth piece. Princess' buffet has been dramatically reduced in both choice and quality. In the past, the dining room was open for lunch every day. Now, the dining room is only open on sea days for lunch. Very few activities were available on sea days. The evening dinner menu has been seriously cut both for quality and quantity. In the past, you could opt for steak at any dinner. The steak has been replaced by hamburger. We had only one port talk during the entire cruise. All the other talks were canned video in your room. The shore excursions were significantly over priced. I got the same or better excursion on Viator for 2/3 the cost of Princess. I don't even know what my cruise director looked like. There was evidence of differed maintenance all over the ship. My balcony door lock was broken during the entire cruise. On the plus side, the room was clean, the steward was great, our dinning room servers were very good.

Be aware - Don't rely upon Princess' past reputation. It is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish Princess from Carnival.