This was our 5th Princess cruise. We had elected to sail on Holland America last time as we had not particularly enjoyed the last Princess cruise we'd taken. We chose this latest cruise more for the itinerary than anything else, knowing though from reading previous info on this itinerary that we'd likely miss at least a few ports.

We flew to England arriving August 31st and spent three nights at Carey's Manor in the New Forest. A perfect start to this trip. We caught a cab to Southampton early Friday afternoon. Embarkation was pretty swift although there was some confusion at first of what line to get in as we had a full suite. I think it took us all of 20 minutes to actually arrive and board with our bags showing up not long after.

Cabin & Room Steward: Our cabin steward was Alfredo and he looked after us very well for the entire cruise. We were in suite R410. Very comfortable, loads of storage, loved the whirlpool tub - although I only decided to use it in week two and could not at first as the stopper wouldn't stay down. We reported it and it took a few days to get it repaired. But, once it was, a nice luxury. There was definitely noise from above the cabin due to the location. From past reports, I'd been aware prior to the cruise that this might be a problem. But, husband suffers badly sometimes from seasickness and did not want a suite either forward or aft - stomach normally handles mid ship best. This cabin is under the entry/serving area of the pizza outlet and you could definitely hear tables and chairs being scraped across the deck. Fortunately, normally after 11pm at night there was no noise so it wasn't really a big deal for us. I think this was in part that it was a northerly cruise so not many up on deck due to the weather. I don't think I would book this cabin for somewhere like the Caribbean as I think the deck above would be more active and the cabin much noisier. The internet connection in our cabin was available most of the time. Slow which was expected but consistently available. I'd taken my netbook with me and was able to stay in touch with home on sea days using it. The free laundry perk was great, especially on a two week cruise. We also enjoyed the fresh fruit delivered every other day. Read more