I just booked the October 28th 2015 2 night cruise on the Golden from Sydney to Melbourne and in my search for all things Golden I came across the video below on the Princess forum. The Golden had a spruce up back in May with new carpets etc. and a completely new Horizon Court. The ship looks great on the video and I'm looking forward to comparing her with my experiences on the Diamond and Sapphire.
The Golden (built in 2001) had a major refurb in 2009 which included adding the International Cafe, Vines Wine Bar and the Casino moved up a whole deck. You can now lose your money with sea views. The Crown Grill was also added which I'm looking forward to trying. My experiences on the Dawn, Diamond and Sapphire with the rather 'pop-up shop' atmosphere of the Sterling Steakhouse have all been pretty underwhelming.
The Golden also has the 'shopping trolley' aft design with Skywalkers perched above the aft pool. I understand that this design causes the aft pool area to be in a shadow for much of the time, hence the change in later builds, but I'm looking forward to a spectacular aft view from Skywalkers with nothing but ocean to be seen from the windows.
With the Golden about to spend a lot of time in Australia and with much excitement about her Circle Pacific cruise in 2017 I thought some of you may be interested in the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QhC...ature=youtu.be
cheers
Stu