We selected this cruise because of its itinerary and because we have enjoyed sailing with Princess before. We booked a Penthouse Aft Suite (C728), partly for the extra space and partly for the added suite perks. We are still fairly new to cruising (this was our 5th), but this was our least favourite to date. In summary, we liked the Crown (smaller and less crowded), but it lacks some of the mod cons and luxuries of the newer Princess ships, plus we felt that the service, food and entertainment weren’t quite up to scratch and there seems to be more and more upsells. The Sanctuary was fully booked for all sea days even before the Sail-away so, if this is important to you, then I suggest you ignore your progressive boarding slot and board as soon as you can! Overall, we still enjoyed the cruise and would book with Princess again.

Embarkation/disembarkation. We were really unhappy with the progressive embarkation process (slots allocated according to stateroom deck). Boarding was not supposed to begin until 1230, but actually started around 1000 am (mainly for Princess organised transfers). Pro: by the time of our allocated slot, there were no queues at all. Con: Our later boarding slot, combined with an early safety drill, left us with little time to explore the ship and the Sanctuary was all booked out. Disembarkation was confusing – we were separately advised to wait in three different lounges (we eventually opted for the Walk Off Express).

Stateroom. Our suite was large, clean and neatly prepared by our steward. Pros: We loved the deep, wide balcony with wake view (we spent a lot of time out there); the shower was pretty good; and the complimentary room service was handy, especially for breakfast on the morning of disembarkation. The cons: the hairdryer belongs in a museum; several of the sockets only worked intermittently; the phone wake-up service didn’t work (even after it had supposedly been fixed)’ the new HD TVs are too big for the space so you have to duck to avoid a poke in the eye or bump on the head; and most of the Suite perks were below par – poor quality welcome ‘champagne’ (Korbel); minibar tailoring was delayed and the offering was much reduced, the complimentary laundry service now takes 48-72 hours instead of next day return, no separate VIP Lounge or sunbathing area for Suite guests; and we struggled to get our preferred restaurant for our complimentary embarkation speciality dinner. Read more