We boarded Golden Princess in Osaka after spending 2 days there which we thoroughly enjoyed. Embarkation was a breeze as we got to the port at 12.00 and were on board and having lunch at Horizon Court at 12.45. This was after we had dropped our hand luggage in our stateroom. It is easier when you have cruised with Princess before as the ships are very similar so it is easy to find your stateroom. We had traditional dining which was very good and we sat with 4 passengers and we had a good time together. Meals were very good but somehow the level of some of the dishes were not as we had experienced on previous cruises. More sauces and the desserts were more with puddings and strudels. Chocolate journeys were very few and far in between. Our stateroom was fine and the stewards we had were excellent and nothing was too much for them. We always found room on the upper deck to relax. Sometimes we had to move the deck chairs to get out of the sun but never a problem. Some guests are rude when they leave their towels on a lounge and don't come back which then restricts other passengers from using them. Why cant the passengers put their used towels in the used bin provided when they leave the area. I suppose they expect because they paid then they don't have to lift a finger. Small change we found was that the staff did not come around the lounges to see if you wanted anything to drink as they did on our previous cruises. As we boarded the ship in Osaka we expected to have the Waterfall champagne during that leg. On the first formal we just happened to walk to the Vista lounge to find out that there was a private function for some invited guests only which happened to be the ones that boarded the ship in Osaka. We never got an invitation and so we put a complaint at the Service desk which has been ignored. Voice of the Ocean is advertised on all Princess cruises. They had one on the Sydney/Osaka leg but none on the Osaka/Los Angeles on.e. When I questioned the cruise director's staff I was told that they did not have it as there were no registration made by passengers. Hey listen there are auditions where the passengers that are willing to participate can sing and get voted in by fellow passengers for the final. It was just laziness on the part of the cruise director's staff to put it on. So those that left the ship in LA missed out. We were on a cruise last year that had 2 segments and they had 2 Voices of the Ocean. The piano man should be retired as he was hopeless. My wife nicknamed him "Mr Personality" as he had none. He would stare at the window all the time and sometimes it looked like he was lip syncing. He was not interested in the guests he was only there because he got paid for a job. That is why the promenade bar was empty most of the time after 10.00pm as he was gone and there was nobody about. We have on previous cruises where the piano man would keep us entertained until midnight most of the time. I am an entertainer and found it most unacceptable. We enjoyed all the ports we visited and had no issues with the tour we had booked with Princess. I had prebooked tours and excursions privately on the internet and they were all ok. We had the best weather in Alaska,Canada,USA,Hawaii,Tahiti and New Zealand. The sea was good until 2 days before we got to NZ when we rocked a bit. And then also from NZ to Sydney. My wife and I were not the best then. We danced most nights and had a good time meeting with lots of people and having fun. Maybe the band should play some slower songs at the beginning and then bring the tempo up. It was too much rock and disco right from the start which I think put quite a few people off. Would we go with Princess again? Yes we will and we look forward to the next one with anticipation. Indigo the band was excellent and the the Irish shows that the 2 sisters did were very good. I had the opportunity to sing with the pianist on 2 occasions and had a top time. I think that Karaoke was fairly poor on the ship. I like to sing and went to all the karaoke and make people happy but they only had them every 3 or 4 days. One suggestion is to have them at the happy hour so people would be able to have a go and pretend they are Beyoncé,Elvis for an hour. It seems that they were always in a rush to get it done and sometimes just cut them short of time. Read Less