First time with Princess - Met our expectations well

Hi there - we're a gay couple in our late 40's early 50's from the NY area - previous 10 cruises with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.  The short four day itinerary from Port Everglades lined up with our post Thanksgiving plans.  The learning we took away from this is there's little difference between lines on the core items.  Its brand attitude and execution that ultimately drive the points of difference. Royal Princess is a impressive ship on the outside.  Embarkation was the easiest we've experienced.  We found the ship's staff to be among the friendliest and most attentive - in the dining rooms, while on deck or ashore, awaiting tenders, during the hosted LGBT meet up.  Royal Princess has many nice design elements to flaunt - among them her Piazza, main pool chaise platforms, the glass bottomed bridges, dancing waters and large screen.  The food quality was good to passable.  The buffet had a lot of options.  Royal Princess also owned the "fun" from sexy legs contests to movies under the stars - squarely positioning her as a mass market vacation - while offering access to premium experiences - tea time, wine tasting, the Sanctuary, a well attended art auction, and lectures more likely found on better lines.  It was a nice balance that appealed to our middle class roots.  That said, we like our creature comforts.  The interior layout of Royal Princess is helter skelter.  There is poor flow across the main decks outside and in.  Lots of dead ends or doorways to nowhere.  We never got our bearings.  Cabins have large walk in closets which appear to have robbed balcony space - no room for footrests or cafe tables.  The adults only area was without cushioned chaises - those had to be purchased in the Sanctuary - and there was limited shade.  Finally this relatively new ship had offered branding that seemed to be out of date.  Considering how much competitors execute internal brands - Celebrity's Lawn Club, Blu, Luminae, Qzine, Murano, Tuscan Grille, etc.- all of which have something unique to offer along with the catchy name/phrase.  It left us feeling like these experiences were an afterthought for standard spaces.  In the end, we had a great time.  We met some nice guys from Atlanta, New York, Florida and beyond.  We would willingly take another Princess Cruise again.  Interesting enough - it has us thinking about trying Royal Caribbean again - a line we haven't sailed on in over a decade.