My wife and I arrived via Eavesway coach at Southampton at approx 15:00 hours, quite a queue for embarkation as a number of other coaches had also arrived. We were in our cabin though by 16:15 and as we began to unpack the muster command was issued at 16:30. Quite a rush to get to our stations with life jackets, there must have still been people boarding I would have thought. Anyway this did not take long, no standing on deck as we have been accustomed to before, just sat in the vista lounge theatre and listened to the usual instructions then back to find our cases already there. As we had wind,rain not much of a sailaway party so it was off to the bars prior to eating, we were anytime dining in the Rigoletto dining room which suited us just fine.

Dining
The food overall was excellent, the reason I have given only 4 stars is that over the two weeks I had three duff meals, however as the choice always included a wonderfull 'dry aged sirloin' plus the princess shrimp cocktail (we would call them king prawns) there was no need to go hungry.Some theme nights some choices were not to my taste, ie frogs legs, snails etc., there was always something we could choose that satisfied. We never used the Horizon buffet at night but did hear good reports. The breakfast selection was extensive though by the second week my wife was passing and settled for a light lunch. I preferred to eat breakfast in the dining room as you got pots of tea poured for you instead of having to mess about with hot water and tea bags, plus boiled eggs and poached were always available, the buffet had fried and scrambled only. But as the restaurant only served until 09:30 I did not always make it, it tended to be around 01:00 before we got to bed.

An alternative Italian was available on deck 8 called the Corniche this served wonderful pizza and pasta plus starters and a delicous Tiramisu, not a fast food place but served to your table this is open lunchtime until 16:00 and again from tea time until midnight, well recommended.

Round the pool the grill serves burgers and chicken steaks plus hot dogs and fries all afternoon.

At 15:30 to 16:30 afternoon tea is served, warm scones plus bowls of whipped cream and strawberry jam to help yourself to and sandwiches.

The Bistro is located in the Horizon and opens from 23:00 until 04:00am ,this serves steaks and pasta dishes, needless to say we never made it there.

The Sterling steakhouse at a $15 cover is located there too but due to my wifes lack of ability to get through three courses we never tried this though I was told that the steaks were melt in the mouth.

Drinks

A soda package is available for $3.50 a a day which gives unlimited soft drinks, usefull for families but not for us, they do not do an alcoholic package unfortunately.
Drinks prices though are quite reasonable, pints of bodds and stella are $3.95, as are mixer drinks like vodka coke etc. cocktails are $4.95 except the cocktail of the day which is $3.25.Bottles of buds/becks are around $3.25-$3.75 whilst the large grolsch are $4.95. Wine starts at $20 a bottle.

Of all the bars we preferred to have our pre dinner martini cocktails in crooners whilst the pianist tinkled the ivories, not the best voice going, bit laid back so we would head off to the wheelhouse bar after dinner where the music was a bit more rock and rolly plus some nice strict tempo music as well to practice our come dancing steps. The Razzamatazz disco was a bit too quiet, no atmosphere I thought.
The other bars like the premier cru, explorers tended to have the string quartet music.

The entertainment provided by the ships crew was very good but some of the artists were not to my taste, illusionists, comedians, jugglers and violin players plus an opera singer and classical music night. We were happy to collapse in wheelhouses and dance and drink until the early hours.

As far as families are concerned there was a lot of moaning going on as children are not allowed after 11:15 in bars, discos etc, plus were also barred from other daytime activities, however we were also told by some dining companions how good the childrens clubs were so basically it is a question of seeing for yourself. A lot of the people on board were well past their sell by date, probably old p&o types who thought they were still on the Adonia, always moaning about the kids, running about, being noisy etc. so be prepared for that. The cruise director Chris Nicholls was not to helpfull I believe.

The best night we thought was the champagne waterfall night, it was the third formal night, the food was superb, beef wellington,lobster tail etc plus the show that night was an excellent production called the piano man, followed by the champagne waterfall and a lively disco, good photo opportunity here plus plenty of free glasses of bubbly then onto wheelhouses again to dance the night away.
Regarding formal nights apart from a few suit and tie jobs all the guys had their DJs on.The women looked pretty smart too.

Excursions-
We did not take any of the princess excursions, seemed rather pricey plus we do not like being tied into a 8 or 9 hour outing, generally we were back on the ship by mid afternoon so my wife could get her sun bed. Some tips for the following ports.
Civittachia- There is a free shuttle bus which takes you into the town from which it is a short walk along the sea front to the station on the left.
A return to Rome costs 9 euros, get off at St Pietro if you want the Vatican which is what we did, the end of the line is Rome centre. Journey takes around an hour and trains are every 20-30 minutes.

Lisbon- there is a shuttle bus which charges $4 ew which is quite good as it was a fair way from the ship to the centre.

Barcelona- again a bus takes you from the ship directly to the beginning of La Ramblas, 5 euros return for two. Recommend the tour buses here, around 33 euros gives you unlimited rides on any of the three buses which cover all of the main sights, we settled for a leisurly strool up la ramblas, coffee and do-nuts and back to the ship (that sun bed again for my wife).

Propiarno- enjoyed a relaxing few hours on the beach here followed by chocolat crepes and cream, this is a tender job.

Cannes- did not get ashore on tender due to sea being very choppy though most people did

vigo- did not bother here as it did not look too exciting, chance for my wife to get full day in on sun bed.

Naples- Sunday, traffic mad settled for walk around the harbour, could get the hydofoil to Capri or Sorrento, it is a few minutes from leaving the ship on the right and costs 22 euros to go to Capri, quite a saving on the excursion price.

Gibralter- choice of a shuttle bus into the town for £1 or 2 euros, good reason to have your english money hee as you get a much better deal than using euros, especially if you are having a couple of drinks.
Would recommend though waiting at the terminal entrance for the tour mimibus to arrive, he only charges a totoal of £15 (which includes the £8 entry fee) and you see everything, the caves, tunnels and apes, only takes around 1-2 hours and you get dropped off in the town centre, this does away with a lot of walking if for example you took the cable car.
Cigs are still a bargain at £ 9.20 for 200 and spirits are roughly the same as the ship, £4.50 a litre of smirnoff red.

To finish just like to say how pleasant and efficient all the staff were, especially our cabin steward who kept our ice bucket topped up and hung up happy birthday baloons in our cabin for me. The cabin (or stateroom) was the basic inside though we did have a couple of upgrades, plenty of room, 3 pin uk sockets, I could recharge our camera batteries and boil our mimi kettle fine (they have taken the tea making facilities out). The hairdryer was powerfull enough for my wife, and she is very fussy regarding that.
The fridge was great for my Stellas, we brought 24 cans and vodka on board without any problems.

Nearly forgot-Movies under the stars, I expected great things from this but was dissapointed, the movies were not recent releases except for a couple which were not exactly blockbusters, they provide blankets to keep you warm and serve free popcorn but really there is plenty in the ship to keep you happy and during the day nobody seemed too bothered, you get headphones but a lot of the time the sound is on anyway. The movies on the tv were better and more recent.

Finally (honest) regarding tips, the cabin steward gets $3.75 per day person, so in our case that was $7.50 a day or $105 for the two weeks. $6.25 per day per person goes to the restaurant staff, a total for two of $175 over the two weeks. So a grand total of $280 is deducted unless you wish to amend this, we left things as they were as we paid exactly the same two years ago on RCIs Voyager ,only by envelopes.
When you get your itemised statement these deductions for tips are clearly shown so must go to the relevant persons. Our steward looked after 13 cabins which means if every cabin has two and no one cancels their tips ,he will come out with $1365 every fortnight, so I doubt if they get paid very much though presumably there will be some taxation involved.
Where I do disagree however is regarding children, a couple we spoke to had 4 year old twins and were still charged the full rate for each making their contribution $560 over the two weeks. They went to the pursor and got that changed needless to say.

Embarkation was fairly swift as we had the Eavesway coach waiting, you have to exit your cabin by 08:00 which is a bit of a rush, we were off the ship by 10:00am. Fancy trying Legend of the Seas next year as my wife wants to avoid flying if possible, so I am looking forward to seeing some reviews of this boat in the near future.

We booked this cruise to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary through Cruise Control, and were expecting a celebration package once onboard. We didn't get it because Cruise control hadn't asked us for our wedding certificate, to prove our marriage was indeed 20 years old! (being new to cruising, we didn't know it was needed).
We embarked at Southampton, which appealed to me immensely as I hate flying, but had to queue for what seemed like hours. I expected better service from the QE2 terminal, but the queue was out of the door when we arrived.
The ship itself was clean, the staff were friendly, and our waiting staff in the restaurant were supurb. The food was excellent, the only complaint from one person at our table, was that it was not hot enough, although I had no complaints. We were able to order from room service 24 hours, and ordered morning tea every day, tipping $1 a time. The service was prompt and good, no complaints.
My only gripes with the entire holiday were these.
-We went on an anniversary cruise, and didn't expect there to be so many children. Not a problem usually, we have 2 ourselves; but these kids were unruly, and one night had a food fight in one of eating areas. They were also running around the ship at all hours, and climbing into areas which were out of bounds at night. Princess had "youth security", and did they need it!
-The port of Naples was dire. We docked there on a Sunday, nothing was open, and several passengers were mugged. It might have been better to go to a port that is open on a Sunday!
-The tenders! We disembarked onto a tender at Cannes, and it was a beautiful calm day. 4 Hours later it was a force 5-6, with quite a swell. The tenders had difficulty docking at the ship; one, which had an engine out, took forever to get back in. There were a few very upset and anxious people on board, which was made worse by the staff on the ship who were helping the tender to dock, laughing and joking about it. The tender crew also seemed inept, and I would question their ability to control these boats.

Apart from these few points, we would definitely sail with Princess again, but on an adult only cruise, with few tender stops!

The Sea Pricess love, it was bloody marvelous! All the staff on board were very lovely and nice. The food each night was scrumptious with a wide variety offered. My personal favourite however was the morning toast, oh and the chefs special fishy pie. A favourite past-time of mine was the Lotus Spa - my god it was nice! I needed to loose a bit off the thighs and buttocks so I decided to try the course of 3 ionithermy thingy and my god was it good, and what a lovely girl who performed it on me - oh so gentle. I would really recommend it to anyone! Well better go or I'll be late for bingo, tara! x