my first cruise since the pandemic, first back on Princess. things have changed. overall it was a good cruise, but several things are different, of course. Let's start with the check in at the terminal: quite chaotic and confusing and took more time than I thought it would. having "assigned" time slots to come check-in didn't seem to reduce the number of people there-- who knew if they were all there at their "assigned" times? but finally onboard... the new medallion button and app works fairly well. more convenient. the room's the same, but don't remember the bed being so soft (we did the "queen")..

DINING: the BUFFET has gone back to self serve (i heard they had had staff serving passengers before, if that was true) it was good to be able to serve myself. many items were put into small serving glasses or dishes (eg. small salads, veggie sticks, deli meat/cheese slices) rather than laid out in large trays with large spoons to scoop with. this is smart and more health oriented. you just take a little at a time, less plate waste. good move! but I found some of the food items less than top quality. many of the breads/rolls were on the dry side-- like they were baked too long, or left out too long. this was particularly noticed (by me) in the morning breads... croissants, danishes, other pastries. coulda used a 30 sec- 1min shorter bake time.

some of the meatstuff like bacon and sausages (esp. the pork links) had a rather oily taste like the oil was getting to rancid... just old tasting. the turkey and link sausages didnt have any snap to them, they were rather doughy in texture. Read more