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Princess Cruise Line

MS Golden Princess

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Glen Henchel
# previous cruises: 5
Date of Trip: October 25, 2003
Itinerary: Caribbean - Eastern

This cruise was more than I had expected, all previous cruises were on ncl and royal caribbean. This is most defiantly a giant step up from ncl and slightly better than RCCL. Every aspect of this cruise was wonderful and as of now princess is my choice for future cruising and would recommend it to anyone.

All public areas are laid out it such a way that it didn't seem cramped especially around the pools (this ship has 4 pools) and on a cruise with 3 days at sea this was important. The aft pool looking off the back of the ship is a gem in design and in proximity to other amenities.

In comparison to other cruise lines the food was better and the waite staff gave the dining experience a more formal atmosphere. Food in the dining rooms was excellent and more surprising the food at the buffet was great. The personnel choice dining option is the way to set up your dining experience. We really like not being pinned down to a specific time or table, on the other hand once we found a waiter we really liked we stuck with him for the duration of our cruise.

We had a balcony room on the caribe deck and discovered this was the best aspect of our cruise, our room steward was incredible he sat down with us in our room when we first boarded and asked us to tell him of anything we needed or wanted and within an hour everything we had asked for was there. Our room was no bigger than other balcony rooms but because of the closet and shelving design we had more than enough storage space, in fact we had empty drawers and 2 empty shelves. The most incredible part of our room was the large balcony almost 9'x9' and we used it even for a dinner. While our balcony was great we only had 50% privacy from above, but the poor souls on the deck below us (dolphin deck) had no privacy from our balcony. Had we been on the dolphin deck this would have really upset us.

We only got to see a few shows and found them to be average. We were entertained but not anything to write home about. In fact we thought the cruise director was the best entertainment (very funny and talented).

With 3 full days at sea we found there was a ample amount of activities to keep us occupied, as I stated earlier we found our favorite pool and spent a good deal of time there. We also discovered the art auction which we enjoyed. St Thomas and St. Maarten were great ports to visit and will go back on upcoming cruises.

We found in comparison to other cruises that princess seemed to attract a bit more of the upscale and possibility higher class of passenger. Most people we met were very nice and courteous.