I chose Princess Cruises based on the strength of the cruiseline's reputation and the many glowing recommendations of my travel agent and friends. I was incredibly disappointed in the land portion (7 days) of our Cruisetour that preceded the actual cruise which probably set us up for a disappointing experience on the ship. Princess has been doing this a long time and this shows in the seamless embarkation, disembarkation, and handling of our luggage. These things went extremely well. However, so many other things that COULD have gone well didn't... and I attribute this to the volume of business Princess handles. The excursions staff are poorly trained and so when things don't go as planned, no one knows how to handle the situation. Missing buses, mis-handled excursions, and incorrect billing are all things that happen... but they also need to be remedied and not addressed with a shoulder shrug.

Amenities should also be as advertised. The "Fun Zone" was closed on the ship, the video arcade removed, and the space where Princess Links was supposed to be located was nothing more than some old astro turf with a few cup holes. Kid-friendly really means "kid-tolerant" as there was nothing for my young boys to actually do that was age appropriate aside from parking them at the Kids Club. (Needless to say, they aren't anxious to cruise with Princess again although we might be able to get them on a Disney ship.) NOTE: I spent a lot of time walking around the ship to entertain my boys and our favorite game became spot the broken stuff. The busted and missing railings count was up to 7 when I disembarked.

As for the food. I don't understand why so many people rave about it. The Horizon buffet is mediocre and there is so much sodium in the food, it make me feel sick. We had dinner at the Crown Grill which was delicious (which should be with the extra charge!), but our celebratory Wedding Dinner at Sabatini's could have been bested by The Olive Garden. Our main courses were simply inedible, overcooked to the point where we couldn't even cut the shrimp. The special Crab Shack night was fun, but definitely not worth the $29 cover charge per person. Fortunately we tried Donatello's and it proved to be the best choice; so we dined well here for the remainder of the week. Read more