We have not cruised on Princess for over ten years and that was on the Emerald Princess when we were totally new to cruising. Since then we have cruised over 25 times on NCL, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America and Carnival.

The itinerary went from Fort Lauderdale to Princess Cay, then on to Falmouth, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and finally Cozumel, Mexico. We did not plan any excursions in Jamaica or Grand Cayman so we stayed on the ship during those stops. In Cozumel we only went ashore to visit the shops as we have been there dozens of times previously.

We flew down to Fort Lauderdale a day early just in case of any flight delays. We had a direct flight with Air Transat which was four hours. I had booked us into The Link Hotel on Sunrise which seemed to be a nice hotel when I looked at it on the internet. It had breakfast included and an airport shuttle plus it was fairly close to the port. My mistake in not checking the reviews on “trip advisor” before I booked. The place was a dump. It was basically an old three storey motel where they cleaned up the main reception area so it looked nice. The elevator had pieces of the wall smashed out; the walkway (cement) to our room on the second floor was dirty with old spills that had never been cleaned up. The room had dark laminate flooring so you couldn’t see the dirt. I had on clean white socks and after an hour of walking around unpacking they were black on the bottom. The TV set had thin black lines all through the screen and there was a rip in the ceiling where you could see the insulation. The bathtub had a bunch of cracks in it and there was no plug or metal grab bars. The breakfast was continental and with only one staff looking after the whole area it was also dirty. Someone spilt dry cereal on the floor and it was never cleaned up. We won’t be going to that hotel ever again. Read more