Both staff, menu planning and lay out of the Golden Princess was disappointing.

1) Check in with my handicap father went well and they swiped our credit card at registration. The next day we received a notice saying there was no payment information we must see customer service right away if not we would not be able to incur charges. Naturally we dealt with long line.

2) Horizon Court is just way too small to handle the 2600+ passengers on Golden Princess. The wait on first and last meal were way over half an hour and it was really difficult to find tables.

3) The first night at the dining room was complete chaos. Only 1 person had the job to deal with the many assignment issues of 300+ passengers. We waited with my handicap father for over half an hour from our dining time to be finally assigned to the Anytime dining floor. For the first time in my cruise history, I called every morning to reserve a table at the Anytime dining floor to avoid the chaos again. Even though they took down our name and room number, no one ever called back to follow up on our table assignment issue. Most importantly, you get a different wait staff each day, and since they may have a lower chance of receiving gratuity, you received often below standard service. Nadia and Nick were the 2 exceptions. Good service and attitude.

4) The Golden Princess 3 Night Cruise presented one of the worst menu I have seen. The main course menu had poor options. The only highlight was the wonderful dessert menu. We only wish they offered more sugar free items (only 1 night out of 3). We ate a lot of shrimp cocktail since as seafood lovers there were hardly any other good options to be found. Their beef options were really inadequate, which was really disappointing for my sister who was traveling with us.

5) At the safety drill, one of the staff was downright rude in ordering my disable father to be moved to the most interior of the casino in the handicap area, after we had sat there for half an hour as instructed by other staff. It was almost a punishment for being early and she was totally clueless as to had difficult to move a disable person in a crowd.

6) On the evening before returning, I placed a breakfast room service order outside the door at around 7 pm. When it wasn't picked up by 9:30, I called the Purser's office. They told me on turnaround day there was no room service. Food will not be delivered. On day of departure, I rushed to pick up a few breakfast items. As soon as I came back, room service was delivered. House staff told me there is room service. "Inadequately trained staff again."

7) Before arrival at Ensenada, I called the Purser's office and asked if there were shuttles available at a fee from the Pier to go to center of town. The staff answered, there was none. My sister and I took a chance and disembarked. Sure enough, there were plenty of shuttles.

8) On the 2nd day, I called the housing staff at least 4 times. They did not return any of our calls. I had to write a large note requesting they remove the trash.

Lesson learned. Staff were not trained thoroughly and they lacked knowledge of just about everything. I was a Princess Cruise fan before and my sister a Royal Caribbean fan. After this cruise, I have to agree with her.