We've cruised the Mediterranean twice before and have been on many other cruises. We chose this trip because friends were going and we had loved visiting Spain, France and Italy in the past. We had never been to Gibraltar and really knew very little about it - yet it turned out to be our favorite port! We upgraded to a Balcony room so we could enjoy quiet time to ourselves - turned out to be a waste of money. The Pacific Princess is a very small ship - easy to get around, however, not much to get around too. The staterooms were typical, however, no special touches or service from the staff. The entertainment was VERY limited and honestly poor quality talent. Cruise director staff was the poorest and most boring we have ever experienced. There was no energy or enthusiasm on the ship - no dancing, no "playing". Even in the casino the staff was not engaging. If you are looking for a very quiet ship, basically in bed by 10 - this may not have been the disappointment it was to us. We found the quality of the food to be below average as well as the service. This was our first Princess experience, so I don't know if this is typical of Princess, however, when we get together with our friends and/or family to decide what our cruise will be next year, we will make a pretty strong case that we would prefer not to sail again on the Princess line. No special touches or special care in ANY of the aspects. Poorly scheduled and planned activities, excursions were very generic and the tour guides for the excursions spoke very poor and accented English so it made it very hard to follow.