My husband and I took the April 27, 16 night transatlantic on the Grand, our first transatlantic cruise, but our 11th cruise over all and 9th on Princess. We were not sure if we would like a TA, but ended up loving it - found plenty to do on the sea days, had great weather for the most part, met wonderful fellow passengers, enjoyed interesting ports. Very glad we tried a TA, and will be doing another one this coming fall, we liked it so much.We flew to Ft Lauderdale the day before embarkation and stayed at the Embassy Suites on 17th. Great location, within walking distance of many restaurants, the Publix, and Total Wine. So, we purchased our 4 bottles of wine to take on board, along with some good french cheese, and were ready to go.Arrived for boarding at about 12:30 and were in our room (a balcony room mid ship on Aloha) within minutes, literally. Our room steward, Darwin, was wonderful. Always very efficient, cheerful, and thorough. Loved him. He kept us supplied with wine glasses, ice, napkins, at all times. The room (A636) was across the hall from the door where the room service trays come up each morning. Did make for some extra noise in the early morning hours, and for that reason alone, I would not recommend this room.During the many sea days (a total of 8 out of the 16 days) I found plenty to do - went to the spa for a seaweed massage (heavenly) and a pedicure, took the boot camp exercise class at the gym, trivia, movies (under the stars, in Princess Theater and in our room), line dancing almost every day, Zumba classes, along with just reading, relaxing, drinking specialty coffees at the international cafe, and sitting on our balcony. I was never bored, and found this a great cruise to unwind from work.Our evenings were always spent in Crooners, listening to Arny G., the piano/vocalist. Arny is simply the best entertainer on any ship, IMHO. Every night in Crooners was different, since Arny does all requests. He knows thousands of songs, and so each night has a different feel to it, depending on what is requested by the audience. He can (and does) sing in 7 languages, but also involves the audience through "name that tune" games or sing-a-longs. He sometimes also had "guest entertainers" come to sing with him - the cruise director Billy London or Melissa from the CD staff - and Arny is an extremely talented accompaniest on the piano for these singers. So, every night was interesting, fun, and different. Arny drew a huge crowd of regulars, and it made going to Crooners seem like "coming home" since by the end of the cruise we were friends with all these regulars. We did not see the production shows or the comedians, since we spent all of our evenings with Arny in Crooners.We tend to eat breakfast in our room with continental breakfast room service, lunch in the HOrizon Court, and most dinners in Cafe Caribe. We ate dinner in DaVinci dining room twice during the cruise. The reason we do not eat more often in the dining rooms is that we simply find the dining rooms too noisy. It is difficult to have a conversation with all of the noise in the room, and we much prefer the quieter, cozier Cafe Caribe. Overall the food is great - I love the huge variety of vegetables that are offered at every meal, since I eat very little meat. But, I did find that many dishes were just too salty. We had been on the Emerald for 20 days in the fall last year, and I do not remember this as being a problem then, but it sure was now. Many times a particular item was just not edible because of the high salt content, and this was a change from previous cruises. Don't know if there is a new chef or what...On this cruise we had both the balcony breakfast and the ultimate balcony dinner. Both were excellent - way too much food - but all of the food was delicious. We had the champagne and the desserts from the dinner wrapped and put in our refrigerator for a later time, since we simply couldn't eat any more by that time.There was an outbreak of the norovirus towards the end of this trip. We have been on a ship with the noro before, and we know the drill, and how it affects things. It slowed down dining in the buffets since you could no longer serve yourself and everything has to be handled by the crew only. But, the crew worked tirelessly to make it as painless as possible for the passengers. They were always cheerful and helpful, and as long as a passenger can go with the flow and be polite, it is not a terrible situation. The crew worked so hard during this outbreak, working extra time to man the buffets, etc.Speaking of the crew, this is one of the finest crews on any ship I have been on. They were all so cheerful, smiling, and helpful. Sometimes on past cruises, I would overhear crew members with complaints, but not on this ship. Even with the extra work required of them as a result of the noro, they were all smiling and cheerful and I never heard any complaints from any of them, publicly or privately.In ports, we tend to do sightseeing on our own. We like to walk, take pictures, talk to locals, shop in local groceries, find free wifi to check our e-mails, etc We rarely do ship excursions. But, in Dover, England, we did do a Princess excursion to Canterbury and the Canterbury Cathedral. It was actually a great excursion - the Cathedral is beautiful, the town was delightful, and the drive through the countryside was beautiful with the guide giving very helpful information about the various towns.In Bermuda we walked around and met a man who guided us to his private beach, where he had decorated it all with items that had washed up on shore, including loads of glass shards, but also furniture, shells, etc. The whole beach was like an art museum and he was very proud to show it to us.In Cobh we took a train to Cork, walked around, visited a pub, and just soaked up the atmosphere.In Falmouth, we walked into town, had a cider at a pub, took loads of pictures.In LeHavre, it was a Sunday and most everything was closed. But, after walking all around, we found the XGames being played out at the beach, and watched extreme skateboarding for awhile and had great crepes at an outdoor cafe at the beach.In Rotterdam, we took the Princess bus into Amsterdam and then did Amsterdam on our own, including a canal tour.And in Oslo we walked around the Achershus Castle, the Resistance Museum, and Oslo itself. We came upon the taping of "Good Morning Norway" - their equivalent of The Today Show - with lots of people lined up outside to watch, a marching band, the host interviewing people outside, sort of cool.We loved this cruise. We were fortunate to be able to stay on the ship for the following 11 day Baltic cruise (will do a separate review of that one.) We found that the passengers on this cruise were wonderful - a fun-loving bunch - perhaps younger than usually found on long cruises. Maybe that is because it was a TA, I don't know. But, it made for lots of laughs and good times.A special shout-out to Melissa and Miko of the cruise director's staff. Their Zumba and line dancing classes were awesome!And a very special shout-out to Arny G in Crooners. He makes the cruise!!