We booked this cruise, and paid a premium price over a similar Princess cruise, because of the itinerary including stops in Newfoundland. It was a big change for two Princess Platinum "lifers". My goal was St. Anthony with a tour to Anse des Meadows and the ancient Viking settlement. Hurricane Earl killed that idea and those stops were off the list. Sad but not a fault of the ship.

My beef was with the fact that at the alternative stops the tours were sold out as fast as concert tickets. We took the "Have it all" package but booking dinner at the included specialty dining rooms was problematic. Reservation dates and times are dependent on tour times. With the last-minute port changes, we could not book a dinner because of capacity in those restaurants was limited by a lack of staff. We managed only one dinner out of the 2 we paid for in the package.

There are no buffets as before. It is now cafeteria-style dining, with lining up and waiting to get served over a counter. Again the lack of adequate staff made the waits very long. Read more