We chose this cruise for the ports. We wanted to see a Dubai and Petra. In my opinion, the ship was in pretty good shape. Yes, it needs paint in a few areas, but it is due for a refurbish anyway. I like the M class ships and was very happy with the ship. We could not get excited about the entertainment offerings in the theatre, which I think was because it was a repositioning cruise. We did enjoy the Take 5 band. The food in the main dining room was good, not great, but I had no trouble finding something that I wanted to eat. I was disappointed with the Tuscan Grill. I thought my steak lacked seasoning and could have used a little more attention from the servers. At $45 per person, I will not go back. Princess specialty restaurants, ie Crown Grill, is $29 per person. We did eat at Quine twice - catching it on sale at $30 per person, I felt we got much more attention and a great selection of food. We had 9 sea days, including transiting the Suez Canal, and 5 ports. We did ship excursions in Muscat, Oman and Petra, Jordan. We had scheduled a walking tour in Muscat which was cancelled, and the only other offering was a panoramic tour. It gave us the opportunity to get off the ship, but we were not impressed with Muscat, or the panoramic tour. Our ships tour of Petra was excellent. I only wish we had another day in Petra to explore some more. We rented a car in Katakolon and drove to Olympia. I was disappointed in Olympia. While there is signage by most of the ruins to describe the ancient use, they did not provide a map or brochure to help you organize your visit. Also, there is no parking at the site. You have to find a parking spot in the modern town of Olympia and then walk to the site. We did like the little town of a Katakolon and the people were very friendly. Our cruise also visited Dubai and Athens, where we had arranged private tours.
Our stateroom was on the penthouse deck, between the suites. This stateroom is not as big as it looks on a deck plan, as there is a attendant storage/corridor between this stateroom and the suite next door.
Probably our fault....we disembarked in Civitavecchia and had rented a car for subsequent travel in Italy. There was a shuttle that took us to the port exit, but this exit was different from the port exit used on previous trips. We found ourselves a long distance from our rental car agency that is located near the other port exit. We never thought about the port changing its exits.