My first Princess Encounter and not at Disneyland.

Well last week I went on my first Princess Cruise and well I must say that they are neck and neck with my old favourite Celebrity.  We treated ourselves to the 4 night mini cruise, when I say we I mean myself and three close friends who had never cruised before.  So all four of us ladies arrived at Southampton I built the excitement up a little as I always do when approaching the ports and spotted her right away as on that day she was the only ship in.  They were gobbed smacked lost for words and for these three that took some doing.

The boarding went swiftly as always but the odd comment was thrown at me like is it this crowed when on board? how does it stay afloat and other such first timers comments.  But once on board you could see them all relax and with eyes wide with wonder off we went to explore, have a sail away cocktail and the dreaded lifeboat drill.

Now for me who is a little bit claustrophobic and being used to the open Atrium and stairways of Celebrity and Royal. I found this a bit of a task to find our way around, as in some cases you have to go up a couple of decks, go across to go down. I could not leave them on their own as I would never seem them again with their sense of direction. But after a while it was fine . With regard to Public areas and staterooms this was very much the same standard as RCI (I will say that so not too keep repeating Celebrity and Royal).

The food and service was amazing as the staff are all American trained and really looked after us. To compare this aspect . The dining rooms were beautiful with low ceilings as on RCI  they dining rooms can be over 2 or even three decks which gives that open space feel.

Entertainment although we only saw 3 shows was also top quality and what I did like is that on Princess there was several different things going on to suite all tastes and did not end when the show had finished. On the only sea day we had we found plenty to keep us occupied and out of the shops and bars (thinking of saving our  money ) and if we did not have a big bill we could all do it again next year with no complaints from our other halves.  We tried Brazilian Line Dancing ,  How to look 10 years younger seminar (that did not work) and a wine tasting class. We also have to have at least 1 alcoholic encounter a day.

The ports of call we visited although only 2 we thoroughly enjoyed and we booked an excursion into Amsterdam which is something I don not usually do but the whole experience was fast efficient and a pleasant experience.  I thought it would be a lot of waiting around queuing to disembark and board coaches but Princess were amazing and we were off in no time. This also applied to the tender service in Guernsey.

I would most certainly travelling with Princess again and we have already started looking for next years little break.