Considering Grand Princess

[Bobed1927]

We are considering a Caribbean cruise on the Grand Princess next year but are concerned about the size of the ship. We have cruised many times but always on smaller ships. Will we experience crowding around the ship? Is tendering a crowd problem? Any other comments?

[-Lew-]

We have cruised on the Grand twice and find the size, for us at least, to be fine. Although it's the same physical size at the Crown, Emerald and Ruby; the passenger capacity is much less. The above three are rated at 3100, the Grand is 2600.

 

As for tendering, I feel Princess handles it very well. We tendered in Cannes in September and it went very smoothly. We did the 14-day Caribbean cruise on the Grand last winter and didn't need to tender at any port.

 

Lew

[A Sixth?]

The Grand is our favorite cruise ship ... it just was the right size (as huge as it is) and the covered pool and general layout is great IMHO

 

Plus it has one of the nicest crews on the water!

 

We're aboard again this may-June and can't wait... I'm sure the OP will love her.

[agabbymama]

Just a word of caution. I did the Med in Oct '08 on the Grand Princess. She is mammoth. You will find she will probably be the biggest ship in any port. And yes, lines to tender, lines to use the restroom, lines to get a burger by the pool, lines to purchase in the on-board stores, etc. etc. She was the largest ship we have sailed on, and we've decided we won't be repeating the experience.

 

We are two older ladies, with mobility issues, so we faced a whole complete different set of problems than most people might. Our cabin was aft (I selected it specifically because there was an elevator to the dining room and the laundromat was also there). The only thing the deck plans don't tell you, is that the dining room is only open for dinner. We had a long trek to get to the other dining room or the buffet for breakfast and lunch. And we never went to one show in the showroom, we made that trek once for a ship sponsored tour, and decided that late night after a day of sightseeing and a show, we wouldn't be up for the long trek from the bow showroom back to our cabin aft. We usually made it mid-ship and that was it.

 

We also felt the communication and passenger service was lacking, possibly from the number of passengers on board, that the purser's desk was inundated with questions/problems. We were staying two days post cruise in Venice, and put that on our paperwork to Princess both in the personalizer and the paperwork they left in our cabin on-board. We were given "gold" colored tags for our luggage, but the letter stated "silver" and they informed us because we hadn't pre-arranged a pick-up at the dock, there would be no taxis or shuttles to Piazzale Roma. We went to the Purser's Desk and asked about the luggage tags, he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and asked to see the letter as well as the tags. His reply was, "the gold tags would have sent your luggage to the airport, it's a good thing you discovered this". He gave me the silver tags, but he did not offer an apology of any kind. Then when I asked about the taxis, he said there would be none at the port. We would have to pay $24 pp for the Princess transfer. That ride took 5 minutes. Really left a sour taste in our mouth for Princess.

 

We have booked our next cruise on the Ocean Princess (688 passengers) next year and hope to have a better all around experience.

 

My advice is to go with what you know you like.

[SwissDave]

Yes the Grand is a big ship, but by no means anywhere near the biggest - there are lots of newer bigger ships. As has already been said she is the same size as other Grand class ships but with one less passenger deck - so 500 less passengers. Sailing I was on in July was full but it certainly didn't feel crowded, and I never saw a queue for a restroom, not saying there werent, I just didnt see any. Tendering is easy. At those ports they will tell you to go to a certain meeting place, Vista lounge, theatre, somewhere like that to get a tender ticket. Once you have it there is no need to wait in any lines. They will announce over the PA when your ticket colour is ready to go. When this happens simply go to the tender deck.

[gertz]

We like the Grand and it's sisters including the Diamond/Sapphire and the Coral and Island. The small ones are ok for us when it is port intensive but we would not book one for lots of sea days. The rest no thanks. We have done them and the people issue is just too much for us.

We were on the Tahitian/Ocean last year going to Hawaii and would have really rather had the Grand. This year we will do the Golden to Hawaii in April.

When you have mobility issues, and I have minor ones, it creates issues that you really don't want or need but some how they have to be overcome or it will spoil the entire cruise. The issues on the Ocean will probably be about the same but you just won't have as far to go.