MTJSR

Thank you all for highlighting some of the differences. I am looking for a different experience, even thou Princess has treated me very well and we all look for ways to compare before we buy. I was also a seasoned Sitmar cruiser before being bought by Princess. I loved the service and food on Sitmar and I had heard Seabourn, was very much like Sitmar.

'I have to ask, is this just way too many ports? At nearly 800 a day, I have to ask what is that special about Seabourn?'

 

 

Yes and perhaps you should do a little research before asking such a broad question.

I especially want to thank "WIRE" for their help. My "little research" actually started here on the Seabourn chat board. Good idea from a helpful cruise ambassador .

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This may not directly answer your question, but between "h20skibum" s recent cruise thread and my little video (link attached) from the same Hawaii cruise, might help. This was my 4th Hawaiian cruise, so clearly I like the route.

YouTube link:

Hi, after nearly 15 Princess cruises, I am looking at my first Seabourn cruise. It's an Encore 14 night cruise with a port everyday and zero sea days. I have to ask, is this just way too many ports? At nearly 800 a day, I have to ask what is that special about Seabourn? Thanks!

Having just recently been on the Grand and after reading thru these patters, they look more and more like sales brochures. I had to laugh thou, "Spend a 100 and pop a balloon to win" Oh my! More Carnival than just the corporate name:o

Boy do feel like I need to take this cruise again (for the 5th time) We were on this same cruise and I never saw the Day of the Dead stuff hanging in the Piazza. Come to mention, I also never saw the Hawaiian ambassadors either. I was always out of my cabin too. Must have gotten lost somewhere!

Side note, the one always good thing I missed from the other Hawaiian cruises was the themed buffets outside of Horizon Court on deck 14. Must depend on the Head Chef?

Loving your thread and the time you are investing in it. It's certainly showing me what I missed while I was filming my own video of the cruise.

Just for fun, I tried to find the total number of soft drinks in the world and failed, but it looks to be thousands. I quickly concluded why water is easy to stock and sell. Universal appeal and no advertising needed:D

Having just returned from a 15 day Hawaiian cruise and only 4 of the 15 days were in a U.S. port, I had to learn to put my phone in a drawer as I brought a laptop too. As far as WiFi goes, that's simple. Once on the ship, you will switch your device to the Grand Princess WiFi and when you click the internet, the Princess@Sea page will come up. You will have to identify yourself and that will become your portal for everything. PLEASE REMEMBER to type LOGOUT.COM in the URL (top of page) and hit enter. That will stop your minutes from being used up accidentally. On board the person in the internet cafe will help you with all your concerns. Enjoy your trip!

h20skibum, excellent job!

I love how you've captured a whole different angle to the cruise, we were both on. I'm glued to your thread now...no pressure!;p

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Yes it is but nothing special.

More for all of us that really like it!;p

Well this might help! I just sailed April 23rd and made a video showing some elements of the cruise. This is a link to youtube, where I posed the video. Enjoy the cruise, I've done it 4 times. One of the times with Nina (working 2 cruise) and her husband on the Golden Princess :-)

I look forward to your review! Since I was on the same cruise, it will be interesting to read it from your perspective.

Hi OP would you mind confirming the youtube address is correct? Can't seem to get it going and would love to view!!! Many thanks for your review, its getting us even more excited for out trip next year!!!

Hmm, I just highlighted the youtube link in the orig posting and then right clicked "Go Too" and it opened up but, if you go to youtube and search for GRAND PRINCESS HAWAII CRUISE - APRIL 23, 2017 it will come up as well. It will also say "Mark T" underneath the title. Enjoy!

I'm a little confused. Do you mean that you cannot get "brewed coffee" at the buffet or MDR? Do you have to buy the coffee card and go to Deck 5, get your coffee and then bring it with you? What do you mean about "Nescafe Syrup"?

Yes it's true! for some head scratching reason, Princess (and other lines?) think at this price point, we only get a syrup based coffee, that I assume is easier to handle?. There have been many threads on the coffee and like food this topic ends in a split. I prefer the bolder brewed coffee as it has body and depth. The weak brown tea like coffee is just hot brown water to me. Princess sells a coffee card that allows you to get 15 specialty espresso mixed drinks and "unlimited" brewed coffee. But, there is only 1 place to get it and it's on deck 5 midship.

OP: Do you really eat the same breakfast every day? Sure looked like it in the video. :confused:

For the most part yes!:) I did not take a new pic each day, I just used the ones shown as a way to represent morning in the video.

Thanks for the review and video. I note you went to Kaanapali beach in Maui. Did you take a cab? We're there chairs to rent and facilities there? Thx.

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Yes we did! In Lahaina by the big Banyon tree, the cabs are lined up there. It cost us 11.50 to go to Whalers Village/Kaanapali Beach. The different hotels on the beach, Westin, Marriot and Sheraton to name a few, may have chair rentals and I do recall seeing an assortment along the beach but not sure the finer details like price etc. There are 2 good restaurants on the beach at Whalers Village, I have eaten at both and recommend em.

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I am very surprised that the Coffee and Cones venue only has espresso drinks. Very weird indeed. However, unlike the OP, I hit IC every morning for fresh brewed coffee. :)

 

Thanks for the review and the video. Very nice.

Thanks! The whole Coffee and Cones counter felt disorganized. There are two signs hanging over the left (ice cream area) that say Order Here and Pick Up Here...but the Espresso machine was off to the right with no signs at all. So people who wanted an Espresso drink wated in the throngs of people getting shakes and cones. I asked the guy on the Espresso side (before I found out they do not serve coffee) "Do I have to wait in that line to get coffee? he said no, just come to this side" No signs anywhere! This will be a big issue now that the Grand is going to Alaska.

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Thanks for the review. Did Princess give you anything for your inconvenience?

In all honesty, I grabbed the folio out of the mail slot as we exited the room and stuck it in my backpack. I finally reviewed it and Princess did subtract 100 as a "Goodwill Credit" on the last day from each of us in the room. At first, I thought it was for the Chefs table issue because our MDR waiter mentioned it to a head waiter and Luigi (maitre d') was in our dining room all the time. But...because it is 100 and not 95, I now assume its for the carpet issue.

So to update this thread, it looks like Princess did give us a 100 Goodwill Credit each for the carpet. I think that is a nice thing and I/we appreciate it.

thanks for the video and review... just shared with a friend who wants to go to Hawaii.

 

I worked downtown in SF for 30 years... SF Bay view never, ever gets old... have taken about 10 cruises round trip out of San Francisco... love going and coming... your video captured it very well.

Thank you, I had fun piecing it all together. Same here, I have sailed many times from S.F and even though I live so close, it never gets old. Mark

Sorry folks for the text errors. When copy and pasting from my word doc, it ran words together and dropped some. :eek::mad:

We just returned from the last 4-23-2017 Grand Princess Hawaiian Cruise of the winter season. Overall it was a fantastic cruise. The crew was outstanding and the food this trip was good. There were too many positive aspects of the cruise to list in detail, so the few negative items are alittle easier to focus on for this improvement review.

Our room C607 was flooded by our neighbors overflowing toilet. We noticed it after dinner one night, early in the cruise. An attempt to vacuum the water up helped but we slept with wet carpet and towels on the floor that night. The next day our room steward was going to clean it up and new padding was to be installed while we were out for the day. When we returned,there was a large blower fan sitting in the isle as you walk in the cabin pointing to the bathroom door. This was at 1:50pm. Later that afternoon, our steward returned from his afternoon break (we were onthe balcony) and was packing up the blower to remove it. I stopped him and said “what about the rest of the cabin”? He looked at meas if I was kidding, but the carpet by the desk and balcony door wasstill wet. Someone forgot to monitor our cabin while he was on afternoon break, so now we were still going to have wet carpet going into a third day. Long story short, only after I said something, did anyone from the front office call us to see if everything was ok. A ball got dropped on this issue somewhere.

We attended the Chefs table. I have done this before and it was spectacular! This time everything was fantastic except the “main course”. What a massive let down. It was a Beef Medallion with small soft pieces of lobster and béarnaise sauce on top. The beef was not a filet mignon, but a round flavorless chewy chunk of sirloin. The lobster was softlike it was disintegrating? Yuck! “Nobody” at the table ate allthe meat which should have tipped off someone, but being nice people said the food was good. Only after and away from the table did thereal opinions come out. To be honest, the main course looked like amain dining room offering, so nothing special worth a 95.00 price tag. Finally, they assumed I was married to the lady next to me and gave her a cookbook and I got nothing. Oh well!

The coffee card and“Coffee and Cones” Someone at Princess Corp apparently thinks all passengers like Espresso drinks. The Grand has Espresso machines everywhere, but “Brewed Coffee” in only 1 location and that is deck 5. Coffee and Cones the new venue that is very close to the Horizon ct (where people eat breakfast does NOT have brewed coffee and they don’t even open till 10am. The dining rooms, where people eat breakfast do not have brewed coffee. The bars where people go todrink, do not have brewed coffee. The Nescafe syrup they use is soweak! Due to lack of access, after 15 days on the Grand, I had exactly 2 cups of real brewed coffee. My coffee card which “includes”unlimited brewed coffee, is a waste of money since I don’t drink espresso based concoctions. Luckily I mobile but the demographics on these longer cruises just aren't going to travel to deck 5 for coffee every time. The crew onboard agrees with me and doesn’t get it either.

With those issues aired, I posted a cruise clip-video on youtube that I think shows some of the sights and fun stuff we encountered onboard. Enjoy!

YouTube:

Grand Princess Hawaii Cruise – April 23, 2017

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Princess is very clear on their website that the new menu and new price will be on the Grand Princess this month, and this month doesn't have very many days left. You certainly aren't telling us that the ship isn't doing what Princess announced on their website that they are doing.:rolleyes:

I assure you that as of last night and from the mouths of the staff, they will NOT roll out the new menu on this Hawaii run and aren't sure exactly when.:eek: True Story!

Im on the Grand now and ate at Sabatini's last night. The new menu will be a 25.00 charge, but they are not sure when the menu change will occur. The price drop is due to Sabatini's getting only 30 people average a night and Crown Grill getting 100 average per night. All according to our waiter last night. The plan is to roll it out for the Alaska season, but they are waiting for the training staff to arrive and ready the kitchen on the Grand. Loved the Short rib penne, but it will be discontinued:loudcry:

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Come on Guys and Gals.

 

Just giving information that some wanted to know.

Why all the talk. Hate to say it some of you are a pain

in the ***. This is why some people don't ask questions

or post about their cruise!

 

On Grand now.... Butter Is On The Table..soft. No Blue Bags

Not reporting it again. Know some like the information and all

others just laugh away!

As I will be boarding the Grand this Sunday, the subject was interesting to me, so thanks!

For me, having fun with a topic is not destroying the OP's intentions or idea, I believe a faceless chat board makes it difficult though to have playful fun and not have it be seen as an attack/put down.

At 59 years of age, I see a huge difference in topics in the Carnival and RCC boards. Here we toil over blue bags and butter and there they celebrate beer by the bucket.:halo:

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Or what they call butter anyway.

It might be that special butter pronounced "Mar-Ger-In"

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Am I missing something? The bow cam showed the Grand in Kauai.