We had this trip booked for 19 months. We were originally booked to go in April but had to reschedule it for personal reasons. We had the great opportunity of being introduced to the Princess Cruise Lines in 2004 through a friend. Our first voyage was on the Golden Princess in July '04. At that time the ship's itinerary was in the Southern Caribbean.

Our Room - On our first cruise we had a balcony room on the Baja deck port side aft. And we loved it. For this cruise we had booked the same deck in the same part of the ship. However, we received an e-mail back in May or June that the sailing had been discounted so we upgraded to a mini suite with balcony on the Emerald deck, E720 (port side aft). Also received an additional discount in July which ended up making the price of this room less than what we originally booked the balcony room for. We loved E720 so much. There are only a few suites with balconies on this deck. Our view was totally unobstructed. The mini-suites are amazing. I loved having a bathtub and believe me it was used. Our room Stewart was okay. Not great like the one we had on our first voyage. Our beds were put together as Queen. However, the Steward didn't put the Queen top (not sure what is called) on our bed so the first night we kept slipping in between the twin set-up. I had to look under the bed to find the top and re-make the bed. Also, I thought they used to make those cute towel animals and leave on your bed. We did not get one of those at all :-(. The Room Stewart also came in the room several times after only a couple of quick knocks and we had to scramble to get ourselves together.

The Ship - The Ship itself has been remodeled since we were last on her. As far as the ship herself, overall, we enjoyed what she had to offer. The number of pools and jacuzzis are great! We loved The Movies Under the Stars. Very disappointed in the tv program selection. People ask why you want to watch tv on a cruise. But for a 14 day cruise with 8 sea days we did watch some t.v. They forced you to go to the Casino or Player's lounge to watch the Sunday games and some of the World Series so that you would purchase drinks. That was not cool! They could have as well broad-casted them in the staterooms. As far as the Piazza I was somewhat disappointed. There wasn't enough sitting room for the events that they held there. It would often be very overcrowded. The skywalker lounge is a joke! Even on our first voyage. We went up several times after 10pm and if there were 4 or 6 people in there on any given night. The New Deal Band they had playing every night in the Explorer's lounge and at the Captain's farewell party was TERRIBLE. I also found the poolside entertainment lacking. They could have had more parties and music. I was expecting a big Sail-away party on our last Hawaii port but there was NOTHING going on out there. Don't have the production shows on the formal nights. Instead have a band and party held in the Piazza on each of those nights. Starting about 6:00 and going to at least 10 or 10:30. People are all dressed up and want to do something after dinner. One night they had a crew formal party in the Skywalker lounge set for 10:30 but our dinner was over at 7:00 and there was nothing really going on for us to stay dressed in our formals for 3 more hours. Read more