Grand Princess Review: March 2007

This is a Review of The Grand Princess. Sailing Date: March 10 - 17, 2007

Ports: Galveston, Belize, Roatan, Cozumel & Mahahual

Prior Cruising Experience:

Princess x1

Celebrity x4

Carnival x2

RCI x2

I sailed with my DH and two DD's. Ages 10 & 14

We drove to Galveston and spent one night pre cruise at the Harbor House @ Pier 21. A great hotel which offers free parking for your vehicle while you are on the cruise. The parking is not covered. The parking lot is gated. Highly recommend this hotel.

We ate dinner upon arriving at the Harbor House...at Willie G's, which is a 20 second walk from the door of the Harbor House. The food was excellent, as was the service. Highly recommend.

We headed over to the Ship @ 11:30 am. We took a taxi, which we did not have to do. It was recommended (by the Harbor House staff) that we drive ourselves over to the pier, unload and then DH bring the car back to the Harbor House to park the car. It would have been a 5 minute walk for him to return to the Pier on foot.

Like I said, we chose to do the taxi...so that we could get right on the ship and not deal with the car. The entire taxi fee was about $10.00, which included a tip.

Disembarkation: At 11:30 am, there were about 50 people processing onto the ship. Because we had priority disembarkation (suite passenger), we were on the ship in about 5 minutes. It was that simple.

Others in our group arrived later in the afternoon and had to deal with hundreds of passengers checking in at one time. I strongly recommend that you arrive at the pier before noon.

Our Cabin: We were booked in a category PH suite on Deck 10. Our children were in an inside cabin, right across the hall.

The Suite was very nice and we were very pleased with the condition of the cabin, the service of the cabin attendant and suite perks.

The bed/linens were very nice. My DH has back issues and he liked the bed. That is huge, folks.

In a full suite, you can order off of the dining room menu and have it delivered to your suite.

We did this a few times.

One time, we had another couple over for dinner on our balcony. This was NOT considered Ultimate Balcony Dining. Room Service came and set up the table on our balcony and then set all of our dishes down. We served ourselves the different courses.

It was very nice. Highly recommend.

Two of the suite perks that I was especially pleased to have were the free laundry/dry cleaning/pressing...and the free internet.

Priority tender tickets were nice, also.

We sent clothes out to be cleaned almost every day. In by 9 am and out by 5 pm.

Cruise Critic Meetings:We had two gathering set up for our Cruise Critic Roll Call. 2:30 pm on the first day of the cruise. 2:00 pm on the second day of the cruise.

I missed the first meeting, only because I had mixed up the meeting places and was actually on another deck...asking everyone if they were from Cruise Critic. :eek:

LifeBoat Drill: Scheduled for 3 pm. We were scheduled to sail at 4 pm. We actually sailed around 5 pm.

Coming up next: The Dining Room.... and Belize !

Thanks for sharing with us while onboard, too. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. We're on her in 13 days!

The Dining Room:

We were trveling with a group of 14. All of the group were confirmed with early, traditional seating. This was confirmed just a week prior to sailing.

Upon arriving at dinner on the first day, we see that our reservations are all messed up. Half of our group was put on Anytime dining.

There were many others that also had their reservations messed up. There was a huge line waiting to see the Maitre d'.

I was able to speak with the Maitre d' after dinner and he told me that he would have the situation fixed by dinner the next day.

Fixed it was.

He assigned us to the anytime dining, with a fixed reservation at 6 pm every night.

The service in the dining room was good. Certainly not excellent. My DH likes to drink regular iced tea with his meals. Not the iced tea that you have to pay for, that comes in a glass jar.

So, because he was not "paying" for the iced tea, he had to constantly ask for it. Nobody was willingly bringing it to him.

Food was good. Sometimes very good. I think Princess does a fair job in the food department. Food is definetely better than the service.

Pastas were always very good. Especially the lasagna I had at lunch one day.

Belize:

All ships tender in Belize. We had priority tender tickets, so we were (I think) the first tender off of the ship. We did not use the ship's lifeboats for this tender port. We use local boats that held perhaps a few hundred people each.

The Grand anchored a LONG way from the land. Someone told us it was 6 miles. I believe it. It was a long ride.

We had a private tour set up for Belize, for just my family of four. We met our tour guide at a designated area and he took us away !

We went to a Baboon sanctuary. It was very cool.

It was actually a family property. ie: a couple of rustic homes were on the property. The young man who lived there was very familiar with the Howler monkeys that were on his property and he called them by name and enticed them with pieces of bananas. The monkeys immediately came down to see us. They took the bananas right out of our hands. They were so cute. One of the monkeys was a newborn.

The land owner also showed us how he "called" the male monkeys.

He began to make a most horrific sound with his mouth. Soon, a male monkey started making the same sounds back at him. Wow. The male monkey was sooooo loud. It did not even seem real. It was real, because he brought us to where the male monkey was.

We were also treated to a python. Yup. A snake. A large snake.

The land owner had caught the snake a few days earlier. I believe the snake weighed over 100 pounds. It was amazing. The land owner was also sporting a bite mark on his lip area. Seems as if he was trying to kiss the snake earlier that day and the snake bit him !!!! :eek: The snake is not poisonous.

He was going to keep the snake for a few days....

and then let it go.

He says he has caught them before.

My DD's touched the snake. Not me.

We ended the tour at a resort for a snack and a cool drink.

Headed back to the ship.

A great day in Belize.

Coming up next: Roatan

Roatan:

In Roatan, our group of now 16 is going to spend the day with an orphanage.

The Grand docked at this port.

A bus picks us up at the ship and takes us on a short sightseeing trip over to the orphanage.

The orphans greet us as we get out of our bus. They are precious.

We have brought plenty of sandals and some other supplies.

The Orphanage Directory gives us a tour of the orphanage.

Then some of our adults get to work organizing an equipment supply closet.

The rest of us..... we play with the children. Board Games, basketball, etc.. What a special memory.

Then we all load up on the bus and the orphanage van..... and we head over to the Bay Island Beach Resort (http://www.bibr.com) for lunch.

We had arranged with the resort to do a buffet lunch for our entire group. There is about 40 of us, including all of the orphanage folks.

We eat.... and play along the beach and the pier. The resort is a dive resort. Very lovely.

This resort will sell day passes for cruise ship passengers.

Back to orphanage for some singing.....with the kids

and then it is time to head back to the ship.

One 15 minute stop at a store for souvenir shopping....

and then we arrive back at the Grand.

The tender back to the ship was very fast, and very wet. Many who were seated at the edges were getting very wet.

Next Up: Cozumel & Onboard Entertainment

Onboard Entertainment:

We didn't see a lot of what was going on around the ship. We do like to relax while we are cruising, and for us that means not running ourselves around the ship to all hours of the night.

We did see a comedian one night. He was pretty good.

One night we saw the Grand Singers/Dancers in the Theatre.

This was my 10th cruise, and I regret having to report that the show we saw was the worst show we have ever seen on a cruise ship.

Set budget, sound system, singing, dancing,..... all mediocre at best.

Princess falls short ...... with this Production number anyway.

There were many movies showing on the Grand. Under the Start (MUTS) and in the Vista Lounge. Perhaps other places as well.

I saw "The Illusionist".... it was very good.

Seems like everyone was always talking about all these movies they were watching..... out on the ship and in their cabins.

No live entertainment (music) in the dining rooms.

Cozumel:

We have a private tour set up in Cozumel, for a group of 13.

The Grand docked in Cozumel.

Two taxis take us over to a pier where we head out for an all day adventure on a boat.

We fish, snorkel, spinnaker, tan & have lunch cooked for us onboard this boat.

A 3 man crew really took care of our group.

We caught a barracuda..... and cooked him up for lunch as well. Yum !

Lunch was fajitas and pasta salad & beans..... and plenty of drinks.

Avacado dip prepared on the boat w/chips..... so good !

Before lunch, they took us (via small rubber boat) over to a deserted island. I think it was called Passion Island. We called it Gilligan's Island. There was no activity on the island. Just us. Very nice.

I highly recommend this private tour. We had a really good time. We were out for about 7 hours and it cost $80.00 per person. Try comparing that with the ship's tours.

Included all food & drinks, including alcohol.

Next up: Mahahual

Mahahual:

Wow. This place was very cool.

We dock at Costa Maya....and have prior arrangements with a cab to pick up our group of 10 and bring us to the Hotel Maya Luna. Folks....this place was awesome.

They don't really sell a day pass.

You can buy food/drinks there... and if you do not buy a meal, they will charge you $5.00 per person to be there.

They also charge a small fee to use their snorkel equipment and rubber boats/kayaks.

THIS PLACE IS GORGEOUS !

The owners are from Holland. Carolien was very hospitable and took very good care of us.

The breeze was constant and the chairs/hammocks were lovely.

We took a little tour of one of the bungalos..... very nice.

My girls and I had lots of virgin pina coladas.

For $1.00 the landscape man will pick a coconut out of the tree and stick a straw in it for you to enjoy the juice. Very nice.

We loved everything about this place. A perfect place to relax for the day.

Carolien will only take up to 15 cruise ship passengers per day, so it will not be crowded.

I think she only had the four little houses that she rents out.

I had a great shrimp lunch.

My family of four ate and drank for 5 hours.... played with the boats, snorkeled and relaxed.... and ended up paying under $80.00.

I very highly recommend this place.

We could certianly consider spending a week at this place.

Coming up next: My Conclusion

Disembarkation:

We were ready to go at 7 am.

We left our carry on luggage in our cabins and met some friends down in the dining room for breakfast.

We did not leave the ship until 10:30 am.

There were 700 passengers on this cruise who chose to do the Express Check out. ie: they walked off the ship with their luggage. (not having put it out the night before)

I would guess that all passengers were not off of the ship until 11:30 - 12:00.

There did not appear to be enough porters available to handle all of the passengers.

Our luggage tag color was yellow. This was mid point in the list of color tags to be called. The list moved fast, after the 700 Express Passengers were called.

As we were leaving with our luggage, there were folks arriving to board the ship for their cruise.

Some Hints: (hopefully helpful)

1. Bring a travel alarm clock. There are no clocks in the cabins.

they do have a wake up call option on the phones. But, this doesn't help you when you need to know what time it is.

2. Arrive at the ship by 11:30 am.

3. Don't have a schedule which requires you to rush during disembarkation.

It's a really big process. Don't let stress ruin the ending to your vacation.

4. Bull Frog sunblock. It is simply the best.

5. On the last day of the cruise, go to Guest Relations early in the day. (Pursers Desk). As the day goes on, there is a line at this desk.

You'll need to go here to get a copy of your bill, to check for any errors.

6. Big mosquitos in Belize. Bring bug spray.

7. Try the milk shakes...offered for $3.75. Many folks raved about them.

We carried luggage off ourselves, were numbers 85-89 and were in our car, luggage loaded and on the road by 8:25. We thought it went very smoothly. Oh, used Bullfrog spray and son still got massive sunburn from snorkling :). It only lasts so long.....

In Conclusion:

Princess is a fair product. It is a product that will work for many people.

I believe that they may be following their parent company (Carnival)...

Marketing is huge on Princess. Buy this, buy that.

Walk through this dining room and purchase all the items that we have been trying to sell you all week.

The dining room experience is very big for my family.....and Princess has competition that beats them in this area.

Automatic tipping and Anytime Dining seem to be the two areas that I see may be hurting this cruiseline. (My opinion, as this is my review)

Will I recommend this Cruiseline to someone?

Probably not.

I will recommend Celebrity and RCI over Princess.

Is Princess bad?

No.

But, I won't be offering their name over the other two mentioned above.

It was a good cruise.

My family had a fun time.

Traveling with friends is always a good thing.

I am looking at doing Alaska again in 2008 .... and will be looking at Celebrity.

This concludes my review.

I am glad to try to answer any questions you may have. :)

Some of your excursions sounded really great. Where did you find out about these options - here on the CC boards or through other resources?

I'm always on the lookout for things to do in port that are not the 100+ people ship excursion.

Moonpet.....

In Belize, we used http://www.experiencebelizetours.com

Allen is the owner...

and was also our tour guide.

He did a great job.

In Cozumel, we used http://www.travelnotes.cc/cozumel/tours/tucan.php .

It was the Tucan Sailing Adventure.

Sanitation Issues:

The public restrooms were always found to be in a very clean condition.

There was an attendant available (always) at the beginning of the Buffet line and at the entrance to the Dining Room ..... with a liquid hand sanitizer.

We also saw this as we were entering the ship, from being out in port all day.

This was good.

Kids onboard:

This was a Spring Break week for many. There were between 800 - 900 kids onboard, under the age of 18. That's a big number.

From our point of view, Princess did a very good job of managing this amount of youth. Well, ok. The parents did a good job, too. :)

We did have groups of large teen boys come knocking at our door, several times.....looking for Joe or Robert. I finally asked them why they keep coming to our door looking for boys.

Well, our cabin number was C410. There are several decks (5 total) that also have a 410 cabin. They knew these guys were in 410, but they did not know what deck.

So....they wandered and did the knock on the door thing.

No biggie.

Really, though.....

I think Princess could have done a better job of numbering their cabins. It was a bit confusing. Not sure how that made it through the QC department, when the ship was being designed. :o

Thanks for providing your comments. That excursion in Cozumel sounds like a real blast.

Jill - what a great review. I'm so glad you guys had a good time. Hopefully I will get my review together soon. It was so good to finally meet you.

Well, I guess I really wasn't done writing my review, afterall ! :D

With a new day, comes new thoughts.

Coffee onboard the ship:

Although I am not a Starbucks fanatic, I am a coffee drinker.

My husband and I were very disappointed with the coffee onboard the Grand.

The Buffet coffee was horrible. There was no enjoyment in drinking this coffee. In an effort to not have a caffeine withdrawl headache, I did have some every morning, but it was pretty bad.

I had to do half coffee/half hot water in my cup. It was that thick.

I really don't think this substance was brewed.

The dining room coffee was a little better, but it was still not a pleasurable experience.

In both areas, I do not think the "cream" was actually cream.

I think it was milk.

When you are one who likes cream in their coffee, milk does not cut it.

The coffee stayed very dark, even after putting in their "cream".

I meant to ask the waiter what exactly the "cream" was, but he really wasn't very available for any chit chat.

I am also sad to report, that we left dinner on the last evening not even knowing our waiter's name. We knew he was from Romania, but that is all.

Of course, this is partly our fault.

But, if this gives you some idea of how there was very little personal interaction with the wait staff. In our case, anyway.

He brought the food and was "out of there" quickly.

Among ourselves, we referred to him as: "Romania".

No goodbye on the last night.

No goodbye on any night.

On previous cruise with other lines, it was always a time of goodbyes and pictures with the waiters. This has always been our RCI and Celebrity experience.

Reviews aren't always full of things that make you feel good.

My intent is to write an accurate review of what I experienced.

It is my review....

and I will write my experience.

To end this post on a very positive note:

Let's talk about "The Love Boat Dream". WOW !

A dessert that is offered all the time on the dinner menu.

You must try it.

Our table did....

and we were hooked.

This delightful dessert was seen every night at our table. Often sitting along side another dessert.

Excellent job, Princess. :)

Thanks for providing your comments. That excursion in Cozumel sounds like a real blast.

It was a real blast. From the reservation process to disembarking the boat at the end of the day.... it was very well run.

We were in good hands and we felt that way the whole day.

The Team (that's what I'll call them :D ) gave us much instructions and were quick to correct us if we needed it. ie: safety issues.

We even had a few sea sick passengers. (My DH was one of them).

The Team knew exactly what to do to make them as comfortable as possible. And even took the "sickies" to dry land (Gilligan's Island) ahead of schedule so that they could be off the water.

All recovered while on land for about an hour.

All had an enjoyable remainder of the return trip.

thank you ...as we are cruising next saturday on the GP, i really enjoyed reading about all your recent experiences...thanks for taking the time to discuss your week on board! ...we are "virgin" princess cruisers and do agree with your assessment of RC and celebrity...hoping for the BEST...mic cruise

thank you ...as we are cruising next saturday on the GP, i really enjoyed reading about all your recent experiences...thanks for taking the time to discuss your week on board! ...we are "virgin" princess cruisers and do agree with your assessment of RC and celebrity...hoping for the BEST...mic cruise

mic cruise....

You will have a good time.

When you have experienced other cruise products, it is hard to not compare.

The experiences can be very different.

Bon Voyage ! :D

Thanks so much. I enjoyed your oboard posts and now this review. We are cruising on 3/31 and looking forward to it.

Good review. Thanks for sharing.

Let's talk about "The Love Boat Dream". WOW !

A dessert that is offered all the time on the dinner menu.

You must try it.

I'll try one tonight. Thanks.

I've enjoyed your comments. My experience is a bit different so far, but we are not with a family group so that may have something to do with it.

Getting off in Costa Maya and heading for El Faro this afternoon........

If you happen to check back here, take a look at this thread. Jackie needs someone like you to run up to the Fitness room and ask for her CD...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=519756

I have told her I will ask for it next week, unless someone (you?) onboard this week gets there first. :)

Really' date=' though.....

I think Princess could have done a better job of numbering their cabins. It was a bit confusing. Not sure how that made it through the QC department, when the ship was being designed. :o [/b']

Along that same note, I learned a lesson about selection of cabin numbers: We had 4 teen girls in cabin A711. This was also the Voyage number (A711) and was stamped on all 3000 room cards (they don't print room numbers on cards for security reasons).

Sooooo, my girls had folks knocking on their door and trying to use their keys to get in, at all hours. I think eventually folks figured out where their rooms really were and the intrusions eased up.

Roatan:

 

The tender back to the ship was very fast' date=' and very wet. Many who were seated at the edges were getting very wet.

 

[/b'][/quote]

I don't recall a tender at any ports except Belize(?).

 

P.S. GREAT shore excursions. I wish I'd linked up with your group!