Fire and Ice Explorer Fly Cruise from Southampton to New York, 6 August 2027 (16 nights)

A happy, friendly, fun, multi-cultural and multi-generational vibe. 💖 We got the plus package which does save money if you’re particular about drinks ($28 for 2 glasses of fruit juice 🫪) but we found you don’t really need it for food and WiFi. The decor is very beige and a bit dated but the crew and other services on board made up for that and were excellent! Excursions on board are extremely expensive so we used a UK website which was great. In my opinion, more upmarket than Carnival; less posh than Celebrity but more fun. I would recommend this cruise for all age groups.

I believe RP did a great job of redesigning itinerary when the unexpected happened and we were unable to go into a port one day, ensuring we did another. So that was well thought through. Crew- they worked hard, but some of the systems worked against them. Eg. OceanNow delivery was not good enough for them to find us meaning crew constantly wandering around looking for guests who had ordered things. The computer systems meant that to order 1 can of beer took about 20 taps on their system. The crew generally looked tired and fed up and the customer service has declined since we last sailed with Princess to the point of rudeness on occasions. Having sailed 2 weeks, the only person with the mentality of customer focus that Princess used to have was Ricardo at the bar in Crooners bar. Learnt our names early, advised on cocktails , seeked out people sat around to offer drinks, smile/chat/served. Lots of other staff seem to be glued to their computer. The ship was both exuberant in some spaces whilst tired and worn in others. The shared passenger areas I found to be smaller. So on sea days, we had difficulty finding any space to sit out and relax in the sun or shade and the adult and other pools were rammed. Another sea day we decided to stay in and the quiz (princess live) was rammed and we couldn’t get in plus we couldn’t find a space to play games. Why the Wheelhouse bar had Spa demonstrations going on during prime time sea is beyond me, added to a general feeling of lack of space. Even the cabins were small especially the bathrooms. The queues were the worst thing. Queues for drinks at bars- almost always and if you had a package and could order where you were from the app, it was hard for them to locate you or the app didn’t have the drink you wanted so you had to go to the bar; queues for the dining room - even if you had booked a table we found this at pizzeria and main dining room. The computer system seemed to take precedence- we could visually see lots of tables empty but took lots of discussions, reviewing computer, walking around to visually viewing the table to actually getting guests seated - hence the 20 min wait to sit. Best bits: the food was amazing - best we’ve had on any cruise. Variety and taste. Excellent. Beds were so comfortable and the cabin steward reset out rooms often, which was great. Shows were of a high standard too. Overall, if I could change things- 1) take some $ from shows and add a few more bar stewards to outside deck areas 2) focus on the old CRUISE acronym (Courtesy, Respect, Unfailing in Service Excellence)

Food repetiitive

Great ship, been on a number of times and she is amazing. The crew went above and beyond to make a brilliant three week Atlantic crossing. My first time in an inside cabin was great and didn’t miss the outside view.