15-Day Caribbean and Bahamas Cruise on the STAR PRINCESS

Sailed 23 days on the Star leaving Vancouver Sept 27.thru panama canal to ft lauderdale.

- Nice ship but the layout not so much. Our cabin was forward. Many activities, the buffet, were midship and aura was aft. On a ship this big that was a lot of walking for food. Other ships we have been on the main dining room is midship, far more practical.

- The room\balcony. Size was fine, except the bathroom is ridiculously small. Not even big enough to towel off. The cabin steward did a great job keeping it clean. However, the rooms are cleaned in order of ones Princess membership. Since we were 1st time princess cruisers in a standard cabin, ours was often one of the last to be cleaned and a couple of times not done in the morning. This is one of the reasons why we will not cruise with princess again.

- The fitness room. Hands down the worst fitness room on any ship we have been on. Lots of treadmills. Some stair climbers, spin and recumbent bikes. Oddly no upright bikes. Area for stretching and free weights is a joke. Obviously an after thought. So small. Many times we threw a mat on hallway and one time I put the mat down by an exit door. The mats are very poor quality, thin and small. Impossible to properly clean. I bet they have never been cleaned. They are thrown on a rack in a small area. I always had to step over someone stretching to get a mat. Area for free weights is also small. Tight area for 2 benches and weight racks. Another reason we will never sail on this ship again.

- Itinerary. We chose this itinerary for the panama canal cruise. But leaving beautiful vancouver at 2 AM is idiotic. 2 overnights in San Fran was 1 too many. Next stop - Cabo was ok. Because of the hurricanes the ship unfortunately skipped mazatlan. No alternative after cabo, so we spent 6 straight days on the ship. A bit too much. Cruising through the canal, which took the whole day, was really well done. Onboard narration by an expert was excellent. However for some strange reason he couldnt be heard throughout the ship.

- Dining. Our dining room was the aura. Food and service at dinner was very good. Breakfast and lunch menus hardly changed, service was slow and hit\miss. Buffet was fine. Gelato which Princess crows about was terrible. Pizza was very good. Burgers were terrible. American diner was terrible. We tried one premium restaurant - Sabatini’s. It was terrible and turned us off of paying so much extra for the others.

- Entertainment. Was actually quite good from Vancouver to Cabo. But when the ship skipped mazatlan the entertainment became dreadful. Because no new entertainment was brought on, there were no new shows and it seemed the entertainers who were on already hardly performed. The venues are really small. Seemed most of the entertainment was done by the cruise director and staff. Movie offerings in the room and Under the Stars are limited and not very good

- Embarkation\disembarkation. Worked well.

- Misc. The only loungers out of the sun\rain are around the lido pool. So unbelievably noisy. The sea view terrace has lots of loungers in a quiet area but they are not out of the sun\rain.

-To summarize. Ship is ok. Layout is odd. Requires a lot of walking. Fitness room is a joke. Food is poor to good. Service dining rooms is poor to good. Cabin steward was very good. However being treated like 2nd class when it came to cleaning it, is irritating. We will not sail with Princess again

Cruise ship experience for adults was mid most activities rely on drinking and gamboling. Not family friendly my teenagers were complaining that there was NOTHING I mean nothing to do for them, even the kids were saying the same thing. The only activity they had was the teenage club where there was nothing but video games left and right. Additionally they have a SPA my teenage daughter has arthritis she wanted to go to the spa to help her inflammation but it was 18+. If there is an age restriction they should add a time slot when it’s all ages! Very disappointing experience no entertainment which left my kids sad and left out. All negatives aside it was clean and the staff were friendly and nice. Few other concerns was the food, it felt like there was no seasoning at all and the food was bland just take a look at their cheese and onion soup it looked like resident evil food. If you want to go to a cruise ship where the sole purpose is to get drunk and gamble away your life savings, princess got you covered!

I thought the Star was a beautiful ship and offered good food with very good service. Cruised from Vancouver down to Los Angeles after the Alaska season. Good shows; always something to do somewhere on the ship. If you are going to main theater, get there AT LEAST 30 mins early...PACKED VERY QUICKLY!! The only two caveats are: 1. There are odd starts/stops on the decks, requiring you to go up or down, rather than through; and 2. the ship holds a bit less than 4500, yet only has EIGHT loungers in its Thermal Spa. I do NOT recommend a week-long Thermal Pass. Half the time you will get sent away by the spa because the Thermal area is overly full, and the other half of the time you will be waiting for a lounger, space in the jacuzzi, or a place to sit in the saunas (VERY limited space!).