This was our first cruise. We are in our late 50s (well, o.k. Fred is 57, I am 60) and he just retired in June. We went with 4 other couples, the men all retired together. I am very likely to get motion sickness, so I wore a patch all week and had no problems at all. Some in our group were veteran cruisers, some were newbies like us. The first night out of Ft. Lauderdale the boat rocked gently and we slept soundly. The next morning we heard veteran cruisers whining about the night being the worst they have ever suffered with being buffeted about by the high seas!! Some even admitted to being frightened. I knew then that I would probably not have a problem. The rest of the trip was so smooth I could not believe we were on a ship. We had 5 rooms on the Lido deck with adjoining balconies. They opened the dividers so that we could walk back and forth, which was nice for morning coffee together, and afternoon cocktails. The Lido deck is nice because there is no one above to look down on your deck. We were able to look at the balconies of several decks below us. Also there were three pools, numerous hot tubs and a 24 hour buffet on the Lido deck, and the gym was one deck above us. Very convenient. We had a table for 10 for early dinner. The food was fine and the service attentive. Because Fred is a first class cook and we eat very very well at home, it is hard for me to judge the food. The waiter was intent on providing a LOT of food, which is not what this group of older folks really needed. Fred usually ordered the wine for the group and that seemed to make the waiter feel we needed extra meals, which we did not. But we had a grand time each night. One night we made reservations for dinner at Sabatinni, the Italian restaurant. There was a $15 surcharge per person to eat there. It is the entertainment for the evening to eat there. You order your entree, and they bring you EVERYTHING else on the menu, which is a lot. Like a grand tasting party. <br><br>Breakfast and lunch are available in the dining rooms and at the 24 hour buffet, and pizza and burgers, etc are available at the pool. The buffet was wonderful and quick if you were in a hurry to get to the pool, but you could take as long as you wanted. There was a tremendous variety of food. I was impressed with the ability to serve eggs over easy in the morning. There were loads of them, all cooked just right. We paid $20 each the first day for a sticker on our ID cards that gave us free soda all week. We felt that we got our money's worth, and were served with a smile every time. <br><br>I do not know how many bars and nightclubs there are on the ship. We did not get to them all. There was good music and entertainment where ever we went. The theater was huge, but it was hard to get a seat. We did not get to see a show in the theater until the last night. It was a strange kind of musical revue that was entertaining. The entertainment seemed to be predominantly British and Australian, with very goofy British humor. We loved it.<br><br>Our first stop was St. Maarten on Tuesday. See my entry on the SXM board called "Tiny Trip Report". Next stop was St. Thomas, where we went to the beach for the day. Last stop was Princess Cay, for a day at the beach with a barbeque.<br><br>Fred used the track in the morning for exercise, and liked it. I took a couple of yoga classes. The gym was noisy and not conducive to meditation. The instructors were very young, and treated it pretty much like an exercise class. It was a good stretch, but none of the spiritual aspect that I am used to.<br><br>Some have said that as novices we started at the top with a balcony room on the Lido deck of the Golden Princess. I can believe that it doesn't get much better. The weather was perfect and the sea smooth. One day we were moving with the wind at the same speed as the wind, so it was perfectly still. That was strange.<br><br>There were a lot of very elderly folks on this cruise, who complained about everything. I hope they were enjoying their misery, because I couldn't find anything to complain about.<br><br>I will be happy to go on more cruises as long as they are "in addition to" and not "instead of" trips to Italy, California, New Orleans and a few hundred other places I want to see. It was fun but can't compare to a week in Florence or Rome.