This was our second Princess cruise. We had enjoyed our first one and the itinerary on this one was perfect. We didn't want too many days at sea so only 3 sea days and lots of interesting cities was perfect for us. Luckily this time it stuck to the itinerary (last time we didn't make it into a port due to weather) so we got to visit everywhere we wanted (except Berlin but that was our decision).

Dining - Symphony was our favourite restaurant. Lovely food and excellent service. We didn't go on a formal night as we had found this too pompous on our previous cruise, but on other nights this was perfect for us. We also used the Horizon food court a lot. It had a wide range of food to suit all the different nationalities of passengers. The food was good but the service was very poor, definitely not American standard of service. They were quick to remove plates (in fact too quick, before others on the table had finished) but trying to get a drink seemed a step too far for most of the waiters. Apart from breakfast when tea, coffee and orange juice are offered, no one seemed to want to take a drinks order. Not sure if this was due to us being on the soft drinks package or if its the new system where they have to take your card. In fact this new system didn't seem to go down well anywhere on the ship. Last year (on the Royal Princess) we had stickers on our cards to show we had the drinks package, so only had to flash our cards to be served a drink. This year they had to take all the cards from us, swipe them and wait to see if they worked before starting to pour any drinks. Definitely not an improved system!

Entertainment - excellent (much better than last year), especially the singers and dancers who put on several fantastic shows. Beatlemaniacs was our family favourite as they were enjoyable across the ages. We went to see them on their second night in the Piazza but it was packed! There was standing room only on decks 5, 6 and 7. We also loved the Movies under the Stars and some of the smaller activities on sea days e.g. family quizzes and behind the scenes theatre tour. The live band outside and daytime music concerts on the screens were too loud and there was no escaping them if you wanted to sunbathe by the pool (there is an adults only area which would be quieter but we couldn't use it with our sons). Read more