This was our 6 th cruise with Princess, so we're pretty familiar with them. We took the red eye out of Vegas via Atlanta and depite Delta breaking our wheel on our bag made it safely and on time into Ft. Lauderdale. Our nephew picked us up and we were off to Einsteins Bagels for a quick breakfast and some great coffee too. We arrived at the terminal early and were on baord without delay by 12:45. Our room was on deck 12 Aloha 432 right at mid ships near the goofy elevators and stairs. More on the elevators later. Our room steward Jerome was friendly and brought us our robes, egg crates & hangers promptly as requested. The room was clean, fairly small, but had a nice roomy closet and flat screen TV.The ship was a beauty, only 3 1/2 years old, next to the Ruby Princess, the 2nd newest in the Princess fleet, and the crew was constantly cleaning, and sprucing up the ship. In fact our balcony railing was re-varnished during the cruise, so we could not lean on it for at least 24 hours.The sail away party was off and runing with the house band from St. Lucia, "Icon", but before that the mandatory muster drill. Beautiful blue skies, seas, and 78 degrees,made a perfect setting for our embarkation.So much to see & do the ship's "Princess Patter" refrencing is the only way to see and do the things that interest you. Take it with you whenever you leave the room..We elected to have "anytime dining" and made a reservation for 5:45 every night, so we would not have to wait, or miss a show, or activity that interested us. We just bypassed the line and walked right over to our great table location next to the windows.Now for the mysterious elevators that sometimes worked and sometimes had a mind of their own. On several occassions throughout the cruise, we found the elevators would only go up so far sometimes deck 8 or 9 and then heading back down on their own, even though many of us had pushed 11,12, & 14.Time for a major overhaul I'd say Princess. Many of the passengers would start pileing into the elevatoe before others could get off, and some were very rude. Pool chairs & lounges typically filled up fast, if you did not reserve one by at least 9 am, forget about it, same for the evening movies (MUTS) under the stars.No enforcement was seen as some lounges were vacant for several hours at a time ? The pool near MUTS is very loud due to movies, or concerts being played all day. I think they should just play music during the day only as the MUTSis very loud and not condusive to relaxing. A far as the food is concerned we really enjoyed the dining room for breakfast and dinner, it sure beat fighting the crowds in the buffet, and the lack of tables to sit 3,100 ! We also enjoyed the tasty but very thin pizza out by the pool and burgers, chicken sand. and fries. A nice variation from the buffet, and don't forget the "Pub Lunch" in the Wheelhouse Bar on Sea days, Fish N Chips, Bangers & Mash etc. delicious. "Shows", lot's going on at night we saw Russ Harris a funny Commedian, impressionest Michael Brown, and "4" major shows with the Princess singers and dancers. You usually only get 2, and they are repeated, so that was a big plus we enjoyed all of them. We picked up the Fab 4 the Beatlemaniacs in St. Kitts for one night only and they brought the house down with the majority of the 50 + crowd, singing along to some pretty talented guys ! The entertainment was much better than I had read in other cruise critic reviews, but so was the food. One note on a "downer" here the "Explorer Lounge" is just too small of a venue for any act good or bad. I would guess it only holds about 100 or so passengers yet they held several comedy and magic acts there. Club Fusion was a little larger but still too small. Princess Pop Star (Karaoke) was held there and I want to thank DJ Clinton for finding my song I wanted to do by Michael Buble not in their older karaoke library.We missed a couple of other entertainers just too many places to be and things to do. The Casino was ofcourse tight as a drum, especially the slots, yet consistantly busy every night ? Lot's of waisted floor space in the middle of Gatsby's Casino for some unknown reason. Photos are taken often, and everywhere, including on shore, it's big business for Princess, say "cheese" ! Bingo, we won $75, having to share with 4 others sigh, lot's of games daily, the "not so newly wed game"," passenger feud", trivia, shopping shows, fruit carving, 50's 60's sock hop, country western night, bar wars, and various pool games (days) going daily. The "deck party" out by the pool was a big hit (late night), conga lines group dancing, limbo bars and good music made for a fun night.We had 3 days at Sea, which is my favorite itinerary, no rush to get off or on the ship, just relax and do whatever, the more sea days the better I say. "Happy Hour" is currently 4 pm to 7 pm, on this cruise, so you can get certain cocktails for only $3, take advantage of that if you can, otherwise drinks are expensive.We met lot's of nice people especially two nice British couples and many Canadians. Most passengers were very cordial and happy to be aboard, despite some of the rude elevator people I mentioned earlier, a good mix of all ages. It's not the ship,and what belles and whistles it has, it's the staff/crew that make your ship & cruise a wonderful experience. The C.D. staff on this ship was a bit inexperienced, perhaps (new) and it showed on many occasions in comparison to the 5 CD staffs we have sailed with in the past Billy London's crew needs some re-training,and to be more personable, instead of trying to out cute each other. Sorry folks, but that's the way I see it, and the rest of our group of 5 felt the same way. Ports:First portAntigua - was our first stop and let me say after leaving the tourist shopping areas most of these Island nations are really poor desperate people who dearly rely on us to visit and spend money. Antigua has 365 beaches, one for every day of the year. After finding a fair price he took us to Valley Church beach about 15 minutes from the port, it was absolutely gorgeous. They had a nice bar, showers rest rooms and it was very clean, great beach day in Antigua. On the way back we found a few gift shops before re-boarding the ship.Our second stop was St. Lucia. We went zip lining at theTreetop Canopy, and had a great time zipping across 12 different lines over the St. Lucia rain forrest and river below. A great excursion I definately recommend it.We saw some very poor housing conditions along the way, sad.It's a beautiful island, we wish we had more time to see it all.No time to see the beautiful "Pitons" (mountains), maybe next time, I hope. Next was Barbados, after doing a little shopping we decided to walk into town and found the "Boatyard" a private beach which was recommended by the CD on his morning show. We paid the admission $12-15 ? At entry you get 1 cocktail beach chair or lounger, umbrella, and transportation back to the ship. We noticed hardly anyone was in the water ? It turns out this particlar beach was infested with jelly fish that day and several tourists had been stung. We asked for a refund and headed back through town on foot. We found a nice bar had a drink then walked back to the ship stopping along the way to shop. Turned out to be a not so good beach day as some light rain came down. This was the only time we had weather of any concern. I will say the people of Barbados were very friendly even though my sister in law was asked why she did'nt buy anything from them in a commanding way. Stay together Sales, it's a tough racket ! St. Kitts - Another beautiful Island, after a brief stroll through the tourist shopping areas, we saw some cute little monkeys vendors were using for photos and some local men dancing through the courtyards in their native attire & headgear, very flashy dancers. We found an inexpensive 90 min. tour through the city area, with a later stop at a beauitful beach, South Frigate and again ran into many Emerald passengers with their blue & white stripe towells. On the way we stopped at a beautiful overlook and admired both oceans from high above the Caribbean on one side and the Atlantic on the other. A spectacular view in either direction, including the new mega-resort "Marriott". St. Thomas - What can I say shopping areas everywhere, although very spread out.We booked the Magens Bay & Blackbeard Castle tour. The later was just a made up tourist trap by a lot of fun and facts along the way. Again, the elevated view above the city & bay was spectacular. Three pools for swimming, jewelry stores, gift shop, and ofcourse a couple of bars. Hurry up with that rum ! There was a regatta in the bay at the time, sail boats everywhere. Magens Bay our first stop was breath taking ! National Geographic ranked it one of the top 10 beaches in the world for sure beauty, and I can see why. A calm horseshoe bay surrounded by green rolling hills on both sides. The beach had all kinds of lush green foilage everywhere, rentals, bathroom and bar complented the beach as well. Princess Cays - Eluthera (Bahamas) It's been 5 years since I first visited P. Cays and they have really fixed it up, plus added many more things to see and do. This was our last stop before Ft. Lauderdale and it was the dreaded "tender" ! We decided to have a nice calm & relaxing breakfast in the dining room before getting in line. You meet in the Michael Angelo dining room deck 5, where you can sit and relax until they call your group number. It was a good idea, as everyone seemed to want to be the first one's over for our brief 6 1/2 hour stop. The whole process took apx. 45 minutes, not bad really ! There are plenty of loungers over there, but the shaded gazeebos fill up fast, so if you need shade, go early ! We enjoyed a nice clean beach, bathrooms, showers, a fair tasting lunch, and some great swimming & snorkeling. My wife, sister in law, daughter, and friend all rented various floating devices and we all had a great beach day together, our last on the cruise, sigh ! For late March, it was perfect, 82 and I guess the water was in the hi 70's. Definately worth the short visit, and your time. We look forward to our next visit there, again in March 2012, check it out !That being said, I guess it's time to talk about disembarking, and that did not go as well, or as smooth as embarkation. We were asked to leave our cabin at 9 am sharp by our steward, despite our group not being called to leave until after 9:30. Please do yourself a favor eat early in the dining room before (9am) so yo don't feel so rushed off the ship even before yout time. Our luggage was mis-placed in the hanger, so it took another 20 minutes to find it in another section, that was stressful. Now for "Terminal 21", good luck, it's a real mad house out on the street. Make sure you have an advance reservation for ground transportation, and they know specifically where you will be, and at what time, otherwise it's mass chaos curbside ! I guess there is no such thing as a perfect cruise really, it's impossible to please everyone, so just go with the flow, don't worry, be happy as the song goes. Happy cruising everyone !