We have always had a great time cruising, and Princess had become our favorite, but we may try Celebrity or Royal Caribbean for our next cruise.

Embarkation was a little congested compared to Ft Lauderdale, Miami or San Juan. Disembarkation was very congested and probably what made us not so happy with this particular cruise.

Dining was great, although some soups had very little flavor and desserts are sometimes fluffy with little flavor, very disappointed with the grapefruit preparation in the LIDO buffets ( perhaps they had been prepared the day before) in the skywalker lounge, my guests were told they were out of bananas and that the chocolate banana (drink of the day was not available... great customer service, eh?) comedians were ok, cruise director and staff were great. The audience at some of the shows were old and they sat in the middle and the comedians had a real struggle with the crowd. The champagne fountain show was ridiculous, in fact a real noisy crowded mess.

This cruise had just come off of the ALASKA season, so the shops were still showing ALASKA products and it seemed that it was a restocking cruise. We went to the clearance sale that had many high priced junk trinkets that should have been at a 90% off flea market... One cruise line's treasure sure seemed like junk. It also seemed to me that the duty free liquor salespeople were a bit pushy toward the end of the cruise... to the point that I believe that they were on commission when they told me that I had to buy it right then and there. (I believe that you could have purchased it in the shop the next day). My wife felt that the selection of fragrances was poor on the ship.

The ports were great, the captain successfully avoided hurricane nora and olaf. Some of our friends who were on Royal Caribbean cruise that left the day after ours went to San Francisco, Catalina and Ensenada, instead of the Mexican Riviera... now that would have been quite the disappointment.

We took the PRIME TIME SHUTTLE to and from LAX for about $15.00 per person + tip. We made reservations on line using the ship's 35 cents a minute internet.