Sea Princess Review
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We had a fine time on our cruise (thanks in part to the amazing weather), but there are some things that might be useful for others to know.
I encourage you to reserve a time for dining (Traviata and Rigoletto are the dining rooms on decks six and five), even though originally I wanted to dine at will either at the Horizon Court buffet, which is open pretty much all the time, or try our luck at getting fitted in to a dining room for each meal, or explore Cafe Corniche on deck eight (I'm told the pizzas are very good) or the Riviera Grill on deck fourteen for hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. (didn't try this, but heard good things). The food in the dining rooms is very good; the right side of menu (which is also posted outside the dining rooms) is today's particular offerings, while most of the left side is available consistently, so you can find something you want no matter what. We sat with very pleasant and amusing people, which made dinners a high spot in the day.
The only awkward part was that dinner seatings were at 5:15, which was quite early for us, or 7:45, which would have worked out better for us. They will hold your reservation for only 15 minutes, which is fair considering that they need time to serve several courses. They ask that you tell them if you plan to miss a meal. Some people were under the impression that unless they had originally signed up to eat in one of the dining rooms, they were restricted to the cafe, grill, or buffet, which is not the case - just call and find out how to get on the list. For both breakfast and lunch, we also ate in the dining rooms, but not in assigned seats, so I assume these meals are open to anyone as well. We had breakfast a couple of times at the buffet, which was fine, as well as a sushi lunch that was also fine, if not the fanciest possible; some people didn't seem to care for the buffet at dinner. I did not have a bad meal at any time during the trip, and I am still raving about the lamb chops, which were perfectly cooked and beautifully presented. I wasn't as fond of the beef, but loved all the fish I ordered, and the duck, and the venison, and the various terrines and other appetizers. If you find that you have made a mistake and ordered something that you don't like, just ask for something else and they will be happy to bring it - several people did this at our table when a particular main dish was not to their taste.
Cabin Review
D317, as I mentioned, was absurdly noisy from around 6 p.m. until 11:45 p.m. because it and surrounding cabins were beneath the Wheelhouse Lounge. The hallway was quiet. There was plenty of storage space, but the hair dryer needed to have its reset button pushed each time before it would work (our cabin steward had to show us this trick, since the man who came to fix the drawer couldn't figure it out either), and the light for the bathroom, located for some reason outside the bathroom on the left side of the door that opened outward from the right) shone directly onto the bed when you opened the door (we hung a flashlight on the inside of the door and avoided waking each other up). The TV sound varied from whisper-soft to horridly loud at the same volume setting. The beds were hard, and one of them squeaked quite a bit while the other did not. When sitting in bed, the person in the bed that was moved from the other side of the room to make a double-bed leaned up against the light switch and inadvertently turned off the light. (We never quite figured out how to make the lights work; one was a toggle, while the others went on or off in the usual way.) We were glad not to be near the casino, because even though there was a sign asking people to close the door to the hallway leading from the casino to the cabins, it wasn't always closed and the area smelled strongly of smoke.