Princess Cruises - Grand Princess Review

Overall 3.89 of 5 view all 9 reviews

chaz
Blue Springs, MO

worth a repeat performance

frequent-cruiser, lover of cruises, willing to pay for quality, married, love to travel

Pros

good ports, fun staff

Cons

inefficient debarkation

AUG

2007

Several years ago I had an unpleasant experience on Princess when one of the staff was rude when I questioned why nothing was done to recognize our 25th anniversary on the cruise. It was a long 16 day cruise, and I was really irritated that lots of travelers received free bottles of wine, etc., for no special occasion. My husband and I were ignored and then treated rudely when I questioned it, especially since Princess throws away lots of bottles of champagne on a trademark champagne waterfall.
Consequently, my husband and I didn't take a Princess cruise for several years until I found an interesting one leaving Galveston, a convenient port, at a fantastic price. That prompted me to try Princess once more. We had such a great time that we signed up to take the same cruise again 3 months later at a much higher price because Princess decided to leave Galveston as a departure port. And because it was such fun, we're taking another Princess cruise this fall. The cruise staff was excellent and had lots of activities that were either fun to watch or participate in. They certainly had much more pleasant people on the ship than our other experience.
We loved our waiter so much that I wish we could be on another ship with him, but unfortunately, he's going to be on vacation when we could have taken another trip on the Grand. The food was excellent, and there were many delicious vegetarian dishes offered. We had a balcony cabin, but I found the way the balconies are tiered, allowing one deck to look down on the balconies of the cabins below a little too public. Balconies should be private without allowing other passengers to see you. Also, on one of the cruises the cabin next to ours had a smoker who prevented us from enjoying our balcony when we would have liked to use it. When I called the purser's office to complain, nothing was done. Later I learned from a travel agent that one side of the ship is designated as non-smoking, so that may have been why and we were just lucky the first time to have non-smokers on either side. The starboard side is designated as non-smoking on our next Princess ship, but I don't know if that's standard on all of their ships.
Since we love to dance, we found Princess much better than others to offer opportunities for lessons as well as venues for dancing. On the Grand, one of the dancers named Vian was wonderful to teach enjoyable classes as well as offer help at one of the evening entertainment sites. Their shows were very good, but we didn't care for the production numbers, but that's just our personal choice. The comedians were very entertaining. The movie theater had great films, but the screen made the picture distorted, and the actors looked as if they weighed at least 50 more pounds than they did. The giant screen around the pool is the best place to view films. Every evening they have "movies under the stars" and during the day, there are also special films and events shown there.
As frequent travelers on Princess, we received free internet time, but it was really slow and took a long time to send and receive email. The staff there was most helpful in using the computers. Between the two cruises we took, Princess changed its internet policy and went from unlimited use to allowing a specific free time allotment depending on the cruise length.
Despite our earlier boycott of Princess, we've become big Princess fans again. We tried Royal Caribbean's new ship Freedom of the Seas last year, but in spite of all the extras offered there, we enjoyed the Grand much more. The food was better and the activities suited seasoned cruisers much more. Princess has a laundromat onboard which Royal Caribbean does not. That makes packing much easier since you don't have to take as many clothes.
One problem that I found was the lack of ample space in the assigned diningroom. On both cruises we had to use the alternative dining option because we were too far down the wait list to get an assigned table. However, on the second cruise the maitre d' in one of the dining rooms worked it out so we could always have the same table and waiter. Alternative dining options seem to be much more popular on cruises today than in the past.
Overall I highly recommend the Grand Princess for a great staff, excellent food, and many entertainment options. Their prices are usually very competitive and offer great bargains compared to other cruise lines.