Cruised with Princess a few years ago and it was brilliant, so was looking forward to a trip round the Med seeing some new sights. Embarkation went ok, cabin ok, food, drinks, service and trips all ok. The only snags i consider worth mentioning are the standard of entertainment, i have been on other cruises and with other cruise lines so i have room for comparison, but the entertainment on this cruise was shockingly poor. There was only one evening of 'Broadway' style production, with dancers performing an awful 70's medley which was high school production at best complete with sexist undertones, unnecessary in this day and age. Other nights were a particularly bad comedienne who was about as funny as a burning orphanage, a singer who had a bit part for 10 minutes in the lion king, admittedly he had a good voice but they had him sing two nights running as there was no alternative act. There was plenty of karaoke nights in other bars if that's your thing, along with knobbly knees and Mr and Mrs. The house band were OK but once you had heard one set the others on subsequent nights seemed the same. It was very very lazy entertainment. It wasn't all bad, there was a Frank Sinatra tribute act who i personally think should have been one of the theatre acts, not resigned to a side bar.

Another snag, photographs, i have never understood why they print off hundreds of photos of guests, taken by the on board photographers, and charge a fortune for them ($25 per pic). As most never get sold. What a waste. Why not charge less, say half the price, you would sell twice as many = less waste, save the planet.

A general question, why is the casino on board cruise ships so big? The one on Crown Princess is massive and on a good day there would only be a hand full of punters in there, what a strange waste of real estate that could be used for a better purpose. Read more