Caribbean Princess draws mostly North American passengers, regardless of whether it's sailing in the Caribbean or the British Isles. (The Manchester-born hotel director told us this is because the Brits would rather head to the warm weather of the Med than stay in their own colder climate.) With that said, our British Isles sailing did have a small contingent of Brits, Australians and Brazilians. The mix is fairly similar on Caribbean cruises.

Age-wise, the ship trends toward boomers and older during the school season; our mid-May sailing had less than a dozen kids on it, but crew members all expected loads of children once school let out. Along with kids come younger couples during the summer months and during holidays. The rest of the year, the average age seems to be close to 65, with a smattering of younger couples.

The dress code onboard Caribbean Princess is "smart casual" during the day and most evenings, though depending on the length of your cruise there will be one or two formal nights as well. Most evenings you'll see men in trousers or dark jeans and collared shirts and women in dark jeans, nice slacks or skirts with blouses or simple dresses. On formal night, most cruisers go all-out; you'll see plenty of men in suits and even tuxedos and women in ball gowns and cocktail dresses. (You'll also see a fair number who don't dress up at all, but they go to the buffet for dinner.)

Princess Cruises charges a gratuity of $13.50 per person, per day for most passengers; $14.50 per person, per day for those in mini-suites; and $15.50 per person, per day for suite passengers (including children). The charges are automatically added to your shipboard account on a daily basis and are shared among several crew members including wait staff, room stewards, buffet crew and housekeeping staff in public areas. You can go to the Passenger Services desk to adjust your tips if you feel that's necessary. A 15 percent gratuity is added to all bar charges, dining room wine accounts and for spa services.