Terrible experience

Booked a cruise with Grand Princess as part of the California Dreamin package through the Scottish Cruise Centre. Had been on a couple of cruises with Royal Caribbean before, which were amazing so very excited to be doing another cruise and to California. However, within 20 mins of arriving on the Grand Princess our spirits were dampened as we soon came to realise that the ship was old, run down and certainly nothing like the wonderful breathtaking experience we had with Royal Caribbean. Our cabin was old fashioned and basic, our balcony which we had treated ourselves to for the first time was grubby and grim. The majority of the people on the ship were very elderly and entertainment was geared towards their needs rather than being accommodating for people under 60 - one key event that sticks in my mind was 'Knit and Natter', which I think says it all. The food was very poor (including serving 'hot' food that was frozen all the way through, the entertainment terrible, and drinks were limited, on occasions the ship ran out of basics such as sparking wine, gin and vodka. The other major disappointment was the route. Our planned stop at Long Beach, near LA was changed at the last minute to San Pedro (a deserted, dangerous industrial estate) which was approximately 2 hours from downtown LA via 2 buses and a subway leaving us limited time to see the sites. We were given no advice or assistance as to how to get to LA and were left to our own devices. The final stop of the cruise Ensenada was by far the worst. This terrible, run down town had nothing for tourists and felt very unsafe - most people on the cruise spent no more than 10 minutes there before getting back on the ship - a total waste of time and a risk to our safety! The only saving grace of the whole cruise was making some lovely friends, who like us were extremely disappointed and vowed never to travel with Princess Cruises again like ourselves, sticking to Royal Caribbean a far superior company in every way or trying an alternative company.