This was my 51st cruise (and 19th on Princess). Through the years I have witnessed significant declines in quality on all of the lines but with the global economy in the shape that it is, I have tried to keep an open mind. However, I found this cruise sufficiently disappointing that it would make me think twice about booking it again...regardless of the price.

Although the ship is only 4.5 years old numerous public toilets and elevators were constantly out of order, the large number of kids on for the Holidays I'm sure didn't help. Also, the room we had was near the lifeboats/tenders and with three tender ports (we combined this cruise with the previous week's 5-day cruise) it was very noisy in the early morning hours.

The food was perhaps the worse part of the trip. The salad greens throughout the ship were wilted and served room temperature, gross! The seafood was flavorless. The beef, well, they switched to shoulder cuts which to me really isn't "steak." Although the meat was not tough, the shoulder cuts (like flat iron) have more of a grain to the meat that makes it feel (and cut) different and it certainly tastes different. To be truthful, I think I would rather have the shoe leather sirloin they serve on Royal Caribbean. Read more