Background InformationMy wife and I have cruised a total of three times. On our first cruise we sailed with Royal Caribbean out of Seattle, Washington, for a 7-day round trip to Alaska and Canada. On our second cruise we sailed with Carnival out of Galveston, Texas, for a 7-day round trip to the Western Caribbean. Our third cruise was aboard the Golden Princess out of Los Angeles, California, for a 14-day round trip to Hawaii and Mexico. I am very observant and though some of my remarks may be viewed as nitpicking, I am merely stating what I observed.-------------------------Travel To Port of EmbarkationIt should be noted that there are two major ports; the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Princess cruise ships sail out of the port of Los Angeles.-------------------------Hotel Info (if any)We are local southern California residents and therefore did not stay at any hotel.-------------------------StateroomOur stateroom was pleasantly cozy, and as we can sleep on relatively firm mattresses, we did not have a real problem. In fact, we enjoyed our little stateroom. If you really listened, you could hear a slight whirring noise (I suspect it was from the nearby elevators), but it did not affect us in any way. Don't forget to close the bathroom door on rough sea days, otherwise it will open and close (not close all the way) all night until you get out of your bed and secure it shut. We did hear a bit of creaking within the walls of the ship but it wasn't unexpected. After all it is a moving ship.-------------------------Ship InfoThe ship entered service in 2001 and was refurbished in early 2009. Overall, the boat did not appear old or run down, but this was clearly due in part to the continuous maintenance that occurred during our cruise.Exterior metal surfaces which had rust bleed through the existing white coating: During the first half of the cruise, there was a noticeable effort in which the crew repainted external metallic objects (posts, bases, rails, etc.) in which rust had bled through the white coating. Needless to say, there were areas that were not entirely ventilated in which you could smell the coating (oil-based paint) they used to cover the showing rust. You could also detect it if you were immediately downwind of the freshly painted surface. There were signs stating "Wet Paint" in most places and my wife and I were able to avoid these areas. A young couple which sat at our table during dinner was not so fortunate. The man had somehow contacted the white paint with his dress shirt, and the woman had paint on the sole of her shoe.Exterior metal surfaces which had severe rust develop on the surface: On the second and third sea days on the return leg, the mornings in the Calypso pool (indoor pool with overhead conservatory) were full of an amazingly deafening racket. I witnessed several people leave the area while I put my earplugs in an attempt to block out the loud hammering and scraping noise. I wandered to the area upstairs and in front of the pool area (miniature golf area) and witnessed a crew member removing rust from a wall in the miniature golf area which was shared with the enclosed pool room (the Calypso). I saw him do it with three tools; a tack hammer, a putty knife (not a hand scraper), and a metal bristle brush. That crew member worked for hours to remove the large patch of rust (he seemed to use the hammer more than the other tools) while the Calypso emptied out for the morning.Exterior wooden handrails and other wooden coverings: Many of the exterior wooden surfaces received a coat of varnish during the cruise. There were signs stating "Wet Varnish" in most places but my wife and I were unlucky enough to touch an unmarked wooden handrail that had relatively fresh varnish applied. It was a little sticky and hard to wash off our hands. This was not done on the port days when most of the passengers were off the ship. This was done during our sea days.Elevator maintenance: We very rarely used the elevator but did notice that during the last half of the cruise; at least one elevator was out of service in each of the forward and rear elevator banks, which each have four elevators (we did not notice this in the center bank, though it does have six elevators). On several occasions I witnessed the elevator doors propped open for maintenance but did not see anyone. It is possible that maintenance was occurring within the elevator shaft. This did create havoc during the evenings (not for us) as the areas in front of the elevators were very busy.Television channel changing issues: Several people we spoke with had trouble changing the channel (as we did). I noticed that that the elevated television supports were large and square-shaped, for older style televisions. Though the old televisions had been replaced with thin flat panel televisions, they were recessed so far back on the existing support tray that you had to hold your arm in the air to change the channel while lying in bed. This was a minor inconvenience but tested your endurance while you flipped through the twenty or so channels with your arm outstretched.Horizon Court buffet layout and design: The layout of the buffet made dinners in the buffet a traffic nightmare, though it would seem difficult to really remedy the situation.Young children overtaking the Calypso pool area and screaming as they played: Many of the young children were let loose in the indoor pool area, where they screamed at the top of their lungs for several hours on one of our sea days and filled the room with echoing noise. I did witness several people leave and complain about the noise on their way out. This is in part, the fault of the parents but also the fault of the crew for not enforcing any of their own rules regarding parent supervision in the pool area or disruptive behavior on the ship.-------------------------DiningThe food served on the entire cruise, was just short of disastrous. There were a few exceptions. Horizon Court buffet: We ate breakfast here nearly every day, and had cereal (which we both love) and various typical breakfast foods. It should be noted that the food in the buffet is just that, food from a buffet, usually not that tasty and usually not that hot. If you enjoy food as long as it fills your stomach, you won't have much of a problem eating the buffet food.Dining Room (Donatello): We ate lunch most often in the main dining room, and I'd say one of my favorite dishes on the entire cruise was the hamburger/cheeseburger in the main dining room served during lunch. It was ground beef and had pink in the middle at least two times, but they got immediately me another burger while I watched my wife eat.Dining Room (Donatello): We ate dinner here every night (except the first full cruising day when many people were sick). We had much higher expectations for the main dining room food, and most of the food sure fell short. All of the cuts of beef, of which I tried four tenderloin cuts, a rib eye cut, a New York cut, and a prime rib cut, were sad, sorry excuses for red meat. I would not classify these steaks as even being USDA Select, which is the lowest grade of USDA rated meat sold in retail. I spoke with several others who shared a similar opinion, though some disagreed with me. I do consider myself somewhat of a steak lover, and enjoy grilling my own steaks. I don't think any different cooking style or seasoning could save the lousy excuses for beef, which had a color reminiscent of beef that had been long frozen. Both times I had lamb, it was terribly dry. The sauce it was swimming in reared its face several other times during the cruise as well. Overall the appetizers were fair, the salads were tasty (I'm not a picky salad eater), the broth soups were too bland but the creamy ones were usually quite good and lava-like hot, nearly all of the entrees were awful, and the dessert was hit or miss, but usually a hit. The entree should be the highlight of a meal for me but I could have done without it on nearly every dining occasion. The fettuccine alfredo, which was available any night in the main dining room for dinner, was the highlight of the hot food every night. I ordered this as an appetizer nearly every night. It could be ordered with grilled chicken and in a Parmesan bowl if desired.Desserts: The International Cafe on deck 5 had great desserts. This was the place to go once you realized that the vanilla and chocolate ice creams served in the dining halls and ice cream bar tasted unlike the vanilla and chocolate flavors you had in the past.Pizza station: The pizza was actually quite tasty and I enjoyed this several times as a snack. My only gripe was that it was a little limp (the crust was very thin though) and after asking the server twice if he could cook a single slice a bit longer in the oven, he just smiled and put it on the plate. It was clear we had a language barrier.Drinks: Orange juice was usually watered down and came in the tiniest glass. If you wanted fresh squeezed juice, it was available for $2.95 a glass from deck 14 in the Calypso Pool area. Concentrated orange juice was available in the main dining rooms during breakfast (free) and lunch and dinner (some fee).Coffee served in the dining halls and buffet areas was usually very weak, and had a strange tinny (metallic) flavor. My wife and I enjoy our coffee and caved in to buy the coffee card. Otherwise, the prices for good coffee ranged between $1 and $3 dollars, depending on whether you wanted it plain black or fancy with chocolates, foams, and other fancy adders. You had to pay for the coffee card to get consistently good, strong coffee.Soda seemed a bit watery (though it was a freebie from a friend of ours so I can't complain, too much...). Soda was not free and could be purchased individually or with one of several drink packages. The cheapest package for endless soda was $4 a day, I believe.Lemonade: I asked for lemonade at every dining area throughout the ship, and could only ever get it in the Horizon Court buffet on the 14th deck. Every waiter I asked in the main dining rooms refused to get me lemonade, though in all honesty I don't blame them (it's at least eight decks up). For whatever reason, Princess does not supply lemonade throughout the ship. On the other two ships I cruised on, the lemonade was endless and available most places.There was a recurring trend throughout the ship.Bad OJ = free, good OJ = fee.Bad coffee = free, good coffee = fee.Bad steaks = free, good steaks = $25 fee per person in the Crown Grill (I did not personally confirm they are good in the Crown Grill but was told by everyone who tried the steak at the Crown Grill that it was better than the steaks served in the main dining room).The coffee and soda cards could not be prorated in price! This is what I was told by several people on the first few days. It is possible they were incorrect. I bought the coffee card on the second day and the price was definitely not prorated.-------------------------ActivitiesThe activities on the ship were similar to the other cruise lines we had cruised with in the past. The trivia was fun, as were the karaoke contests. We also enjoyed playing board games with new people and chatting away. On several occasions we looked for something to do (card or board games) since there weren't a lot of things to do between 9:00AM and 5:00PM. We did not partake in any of the Hawaiian activities, such as the ukulele lessons or the luau dancing. I did notice that on the Golden Princess, there were almost no activities on the port days, whereas on other cruise lines, there were a whole lot more. This didn't affect us a whole lot, since we disembarked at every port except for Mexico. The boat was required to stop at Mexico to comply with the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 (46 USC §289), which states that foreign flagged vessels may not transport passengers between ports in the United States, unless a $300 fee is paid for each passenger transported and landed.-------------------------Children's ClubsWe had no experience with these clubs.-------------------------ServiceStateroom service: This service was acceptable and the gentleman who was our steward was very talkative and very polite. We had our "Privacy Please" card in the slot most of the time and only required his services when we used up our towels. He also made a point of catching us while we scurried to make dinner on time to give me something or chit chat with me, which became an annoyance. He also insisted on tending to our room on the final day, even though we would return after breakfast and wait on the bed. Dining room service (Donatello's): The waiters who tended to us during lunch were fair and did a good job. The waiter who tended to us during dinner did a very good job and we were all friends by the end of the cruise (this is expected). -------------------------EntertainmentThe entertainment during the morning and afternoon was mostly adequate. We did throw in card and board games, and got the chance to meet some very nice cruising mates in the process.The entertainment during the evening was much better. The shows with the dancers were decent but were enjoyable. The karaoke contest was fun as well. We did not really visit the lounges with live music so can't really comment on that.We did not partake in any extra services onboard, such as the massages and spa treatments. -------------------------Port & Shore ExcursionsWe took the cruise knowing what the itinerary was, so we didn't complain when we arrived in Mexico like many other passengers.As it turns out, some of the shore excursions could be taken using public transportation (such as the Diamondhead Crater). The excursions by Princess were, however, hosted by professional and knowledgeable people who made a good effort.At our fourth port, in Maui, we tendered to and from the shore. Princess performs this process every two weeks though they had a terrible time getting the people on the ship due to the winds and moderate seas. Our tender boat (which was one of the rescue boats) sat in the water several hundred feet from the boat, while one of the other tender boats unloaded. Several people were queasy. Meanwhile, I was told that the line to return to the ship took an hour and a half, reminiscent of a line for an amusement park ride. This was something I expected Princess to be experienced with and provide a seamless experience. It did not go well.-------------------------DisembarkationThis went very smooth and felt like a process which a professional cruise line had a lot of experience.-------------------------SummaryWe felt like Princess was trying to nickel and dime us, and otherwise provide chintzy quantities and lackluster qualities wherever possible. The chocolate tasting consisted of a piece of chocolate about the size of a peanut. The coffee and alcohol tasting consisted of an amount that could fill a thimble. The free mixed alcoholic drinks (first and last formal nights, and possibly others), had almost no alcohol in them. The patter wasn't always clear on whether or not a special event was complimentary or not, such as the smoothie event whereby you were charged $3.50 to put your fruits into the blender.It is clear that the staff is required to ask if you want something from the bar at every chance they get, and some people we met were assaulted eight times in one sitting by crew asking if they wanted a drink from the bar during one of the special buffet events on deck 14.On both other cruises we were on, the ship provided seasick pills. They clearly did not want people vomiting all over and having a lousy vacation because they were sick the whole time. Princess refers you to the gift shop so that you may spend some of your money, which is not always open and I was therefore unable to buy aspirin during the wee hours for my sick wife. We will not sail on this ship nor would we recommend it to anyone. In fact, it is doubtful that we would ever sail on Princess again. We were told that other Princess ships provided better food by some more experience Princess cruisers.-------------------------