I wanted to embark from San Francisco and the timing of this was perfect for spring break. The embarkation and disembarkation were extremely smooth and trouble free. The ship is very efficiently run. I loved how the docking in San Diego and Ensenada were very close to downtown. The tendering in Santa Barbara was very slow with over a 30 minute line heading back to the ship for the last 2 hours onshore. Another positive were the comedians onboard. They were great! And the Scottish vocalist was also excellent. One other entertainment option that was enjoyable was the Voice auditions and competition. We wished there were more good entertainment options than these. The days at sea were very boring. They even repeated the same paper craft activity both sea days. We found the Da Vinci dining experience to be horrible. Several wait staff were rude (when I dropped my fork and politely asked for a new one, the waiter took his time returning with a replacement and made a snide comment about how he guessed I could have a new fork when he finally did bring me one). The maitre d's were also not welcoming or nice. There was always a wait for a table between 5 and 7pm with buzzers given out. When I called for a reservation earlier in the day, I was told there were none available. There were very few tables for 2 guests and sharing was required for a shorter wait. When we agreed to a shared table one night after waiting for some time, we were shown to an empty table for 10 and told we couldn't have a menu and order until the table was filled and we couldn't be told how long that might be. On another night, we witnessed the hostess taking money from a passenger to get seated more quickly. Overall this left us with a negative opinion of the Grand Princess dining experience. The only other negative experience was the condition of our balcony. There was a tacky, discolored mesh tile on the balcony (like you find around swimming pools sometimes). It was warped and not laying flat, so you would trip over it if you were not very careful. The furniture on the balcony was stacked up in a corner and did not look like it had been cleaned in a long time. All cruise lines have their pro's and cons, but after sailing on other lines recently, I was not impressed with the overall Princess experience.