We chose this cruise because of the number of ports which were mostly impressive in the end. The embarkation process was quick and organized which was nice. The ship seemed older and offered less to do than we have been accustomed to in our other travels. The cabin was what it was - we don't book a trip for the cabin since we won't be in there much, but we did have a few issues with the cabin. The bathroom flooded out two days in a row which ruined some of our personal belongings. The hot water was down for three days non-consecutively - it would get lukewarm but never reach hot. Both of these issues were addressed and corrected after multiple efforts, but our personal belongings ruined were never addressed. The dining was overly slow - taking 20-60 minutes just to get us a table every single evening. We wasted so much time waiting for the dining room that we missed several shows that we originally intended to attend. We also had to listen to the head waiter in our section belittle and speak down to the assistant waiter which was sad. We ordered the drink package and every single soda we received was flat - we eventually asked for our money back on this. The buffet had minimal selections and the food offered was not all that good anyway. The cookies in the buffet were the best - if not for the cookies, I would have lost weight on this cruise which I would think is impossible. The salad bar offerings were tiny and downright pathetic. We had to get our own drinks in the buffet and when the staff cleared the tables, we would say thank you to them and they never once responded - it seemed like they hated their jobs and didn't want to be there. Entertainment was just okay - there were singers in the Voice of the Ocean that could sing better and were better entertainers than several of those in the cruise shows. The service was lackluster and there was not much holiday spirit on the boat at all - from decorations to attitudes. We worked with the customer service rep about some of the issues we had and she was outstanding - polite, professional, understanding - a real treat to deal with. We wished the rest of the staff would have taken some cues from her on how to interact with the guests and others. We booked a couples massage online before arriving. When we got to the spa on the day of our appointment, they had no record of our appointment claiming their system was down. We waited for 20-30 minutes and they scrambled to find two masseuses to administer the massages. We also put in writing and verbalized that we wanted upper body only massage for one of them and they didn't perform the massage as requested. Ports were great - beaches on Aruba and Barbados were amazing. Megan's Bay is always a nice stop! We are not sure we would cruise with Princess again as this was a real downer. If not for the great ports and amazing company I had with me, this was a bust.