Having taken 8 previous cruises all on Royal Caribbean, the Golden Princess was a huge disappointment. Let's start with the Cabin, which was located on Deck 8 Forward. On our first day we had a stained comforter, moldy shower curtain, broken sink and broken toilet. The room itself was quite small, there was no love seat which even the smallest Royal Caribbean rooms have. There was a large storage area next to the bathroom, but lacked adequate shelving. Our room came with two extra beds, but unlike Royal Caribbean where they come out of the ceiling, on this ship they're attached to the side of the walls which makes the room even smaller and led to a few bumped heads going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Underneath the main bed were ladders which prevented us from storing our suit cases there. No towel animals, but you get two pieces of milk chocolate every night. Sleeping was somewhat difficult. While the room was very quiet, the AC wasn't very strong and the comforter quite warm. But after day 4, we lost AC due to the infamous mussel issue, which made sleep even more difficult. And no AC apparently means no TV either, as the equipment overheats. The TV, when it did work, showed many fairly new movies which was a nice surprise. I'm not sure if this was related to the AC issue, but water temperature was problematic as well, it was either Hot or Cold, always the opposite of what you wanted. Our first night we went to the main dining room, where it took over 2 hours to bring out two courses, since we had shows to see we skipped desert as well as the main dining room for the rest of the cruise until Lobster night. On our second time in the dining room, service was much quicker though the lobster was overcooked and the shrimp were very salty. Out of all the cruise buffets i've experienced, this one was simply the worst. It was small, lacked any variety and the food extremely bland. It consisted of mostly hot meats, white or farmed fish, rice, soup and salad. Finding anything enjoyable was a challenge. The other issue is they serve you drinks, which many times didn't even come till after we were done eating, unlike Royal Caribbean which has several options including juices available for self serve. They did attempt Sushi once, but was indelible. In other words, it was no Windjammer. Another thing missing compared to Royal Caribbean was the outdoor Mexican buffet, ice sculptures and fruit carvings. The Gym was nice, though mostly cardio equipment. There was also a sauna and steam room available at no extra cost. The Spa, i'd stay away from. It's 3X the cost, and half the quality as on land. And they spend the whole time trying to up sell you ad-ons and future appointments. I don't get toe nail polish often, so i'm not sure how long it should last, but the "14 day no chip nail polish" was destroyed after my beach excursion the following day. The ship also has something called movies under the stars, where they show movies on a giant screen outside on the pool deck, if you can get past the broken pixels. We were watching a movie one night, when it stopped half way through, and weren't able to get it fixed, a constant theme on this cruise. The on board production shows were quite good, but a level below Royal Caribbean. Many of the costumes look like they came off the shelf from a halloween store. For the most part the crew was friendly, but not as friendly as on the many Royal Caribbean ships i've been on. One thing I noticed was the onboard photographers weren't very aggressive, which can be a good thing. The broken AC also resulted in the ship racing to colder waters and miss a port. For this we were compensated $500. This is probably fair compensation, though I've spent more on this cruise then any cruise in the past due to their weak pours. They charge $7 per measured shot of Vodka, where as Royal Caribbean free pours. The other issue I had with bar service was if you order a Vodka Red Bull, they hand you a large glass with 1 ounce of vodka in it and a can of Redbull, they don't even pour it for you. For Disembarkation we were suppose to vacate our state rooms by 8am, but couldn't leave the ship till 2 hours later, though this was possibly due to customs. This led to many passengers being nervous they'd miss their flight. On royal I normally purchase a transfer to the airport online or onboard, but couldn't find any such option with Princess. We were luckily able to find a shared ride van at the port for $16 per person. The only saving grace was this was an Atlantis Charter, which brought on their own entertainment and hosted their own parties which made for an enjoyable experience. This won't be my last Atlantis Cruise, but will be my last Princess Cruise. And if Princess is suppose to be better then Carnival, then i'm afraid to even try them.   Read Less