For Anyone Just Off the Grand Transatlantic

[San Diego Ellie]

We are considering this cruise for next year, and are hoping some cruisers who did it just now can comment on the weather, cabin conditions and problems, and other general information on the cruise.

 

Thanks!

Ellie

[chrysalis]

Has the TA even ended yet?

[San Diego Ellie]

I just checked dates, and it ends today. I had thought it ended yesterday.

[San Diego Ellie]

Ok, now they really are back. Hopefully someone can give information on how the cruise went, the cabin condition, and whether or not they would recommend this itinerary at this time of year.

[WAVTAM]

In Lauderdale waiting for flight. Just off Grand. Weather was rainy frr two days as tropical storm Sean passed thru us. Ports great. Food and service fine. Entertainment was the only thing in my mind lacking. WAVTAM I'm sure reviews will be posted soon.

[San Diego Ellie]

thanks for such a prompt reply, Wavtam

Ellie

[saltywillie]

just off the grand yesterday sat ,the food was very bad ,I mean bad ,the service was very good , our room was good we were on the lido deck ,the weather was rainy a few days ,i would do it the other way in the spring going west to east would try another cruise line maybe , would have to think hard about booking princess again

[CanadacruiseRN]

My Dh and I were on the Grand and had good food every night in the anytime dining rooms. Steak was done to my taste every time I ordered it, we had pasta, seafood, chicken, pork, great desserts, salads, and the soups are always so tasty and good. I guess the food is subjective and everyone has their own tastes. Alfredos Pizza is superb! The Horizon Court is still a Buffet but did have good choices for salads and fruit.

 

The string quartet was a wonderful addition to the piazza every evening, however the sword swallower was beyond my comprehension....I guess Princess is trying to appeal to a wider audience! NOT ME!

 

We enjoyed the shows Motor City and British Invasion. We found Phoenix Rising interesting....they changed the beat of almost every tune to make it danceable. The first thing we heard them play was The Last Kiss...a very sad ballad, but pepped up to a speedy waltz. Ouch!

 

Did not attend the Hypnotist, comedians, Lorraine Brown, Spencer ? so cannot comment.

 

Our cabin was comfortable and large enough for 2 weeks aboard. We had an obstructed oceanview on Emerald deck, very handy to the promenade deck.

 

The weather was a little rough for a couple of days, but nowhere near the seas we had for the Pacific Princess TA in Dec 2010...which were 35 foot waves, with broken elevators and several crew and passengers injured.

 

Good ports overall...a little problem with lack of time in Santiago, Bermuda and Lisbon.

 

Hope this helps..............

 

Laurel

[San Diego Ellie]

That was very helpful. Thank you.

Ellie

[bbq]

We were on the Grand 29 days which ended with the T/A Saturday.

This was our 5th T/A & second on the Grand. We've also crossed on the Emerald, Diamond and Ruby on Princess.

Good Stuff::)

Had a table for two in late traditional dinning reportedly unavailable.

They still serve caviar and fench onion soup reported by others has discontinued.

They still had Captain Circle evenings, not coupons has someone reported.

Six formal nights and on deck 5 and club vision they couldn't get rid of the drinks...a real first for Princess.

Crew was really perfect, (elite) laundry the next day, every day, unsolicited

Dinning Room service at the speed you ate at.

Private limo to London Hotel.

Private train to "Rome on your Own" was really great.

Not So Good Stuff: :mad:

Had balcony cabin on rear deck 10... Ship vibrated unbelievably when docking and very slow to complete. Previously (Before they removed 20 ton Skywalkers last May) it never did that.

Stuck in rear most starboard side elevator for 1/2 hour cycling between floors...felt like "Tower of Terror" at Disney world. Whoever answered emergency phone wanted to know what floor wew were stuck at.. we were moving but they didn't understand.

Lecturer died in Bruges first day of second part of cruise.

A Man fell in outside pool and they dragged him out cpr etc, appeared to be a stroke. Crew wasn't very helpful till Dr. arrived. Took 12 minutes till they announced foe the crew to go to pool.

Weather:

Have taken over 60 cruises now, 33 on Princess, and the weather finally caught up to us; 3 days rough seas and rain, 9 days beautiful Med weather, 12 days rough sras & rainy weather and ended with 5 days of warm to partly cloudy into fort Lauderdale.

What was also noticeable there were no special days at sea, "Chocolate Extrava, Deck Barbecues etc.

The only comment I can make on food (we have the menus memorized by now) is we hate "Chef Night" menu of which we had two. Unless we simply left the dinning room too early there was no "Baked Alaska" the last night of each cruise.

Although I enjoyed the trip on the Grand I've cancelled my next three cruises (49 days) around South America on the Grand because I cannot believe the excessive vibration isn't stressing the steel hull.

I would recommend the Ruby T/A above all if the itenary suits you.

[RASHOPPER2]

We were on this trip as well as the Grand crossing in the Spring. The ship was in much better shape this time, although there still was a problem with the center elevators. The food was excellent as was the service. However the weather was really a downer. It rained in three ports, Vigo, Lisbon and Ponte Delgada. The ship rocked and rolled on and off for three days. Just when we were getting fed up the sun shone, and the last 5 days were gorgeous. I think that spring TA's are safer weatherwise than the fall ones.

[san diego sue]

Were elevators a problem the whole time for passengers? Your getting stuck was the same thing that happened to me on spring transatlantic.

Mine also cycled between floors then shot up suddenly and went to deck

15. Princess customer relations told me(after the cruise) that the elevators were getting fixed.

Were the blue matting put back on the balconies? In the spring, there wasn't any.

Were the toilets functioning properly?

We also are on the 49 day Grand South America 2013 so need to know.

Thanks

[caribill]

Lecturer died in Bruges first day of second part of cruise.

 

there was no "Baked Alaska" the last night of each cruise.

 

 

 

What was the name of the lecturer?

 

Were you in Anytime or Traditional dining?

[Shoalwater]

had a terrible vibration. We were aboard in 2004 on a Baltic cruise and they vibrated just the same as they did this Nov 4, 2011 sailing (especially in the aft Botticelli DR, where we had early seating). As for cancelling a voyage because you are afraid the vibes will damage the hull, well, no comment. We are also reserved for the 49 day FLL-SFO around South America trip, and are re-evaluating due to a less than stellar menu and poor entertainment on this TA sailing. We're booked on the 7-April return TA, and will make a decision then. We are not worried about the ship's structural integrity however. (Oh, they did serve baked Alaska the final night in Traditional dining, early seating for sure.)

[san diego sue]

I never worry about the vibrations. However toilets and elevators are my big issue.

Shoalwater we will wait for your transatlantic in the spring for a honest update.Thank you.

[WAVTAM]

Location..Location.... Location. On the Grand with Shoalwater and we had forward Plaza room. Sleep like a baby every night. No vibration appreciated. Forward elevatores worked great.

Lecture who died was Roger Urnasky (sp)

 

WAVTAM

[bbq]

You can't remove 20 tons of steel mass hanging over the top rear of a 120 ton vessel and expect safe performance. Princess cleaned it up to sell it. The front-center may feel great but that won't help when the rear falls off. They don't x-ray ship hulls in service like aircraft they just rely upon predictions from design phase. When they dock just watch how long it takes to use the thrusters to get in close and the duty cycle they use compared to other like ships...abnormal!:eek:

[SwissDave]

You can't remove 20 tons of steel mass hanging over the top rear of a 120 ton vessel and expect safe performance. Princess cleaned it up to sell it. The front-center may feel great but that won't help when the rear falls off. They don't x-ray ship hulls in service like aircraft they just rely upon predictions from design phase. When they dock just watch how long it takes to use the thrusters to get in close and the duty cycle they use compared to other like ships...abnormal!:eek:

 

Good grief :confused:

 

For a start the ship is 120 THOUSAND tons and skywalkers was removed to STOP the rear falling off.

 

How do you know they did not use xray (or ultrasound for that matter) to inspect the joints previously - otherwise how would they have known there was a problem developing?

[Tiffany's mom]

We have done the TA on both the Emerald and Ruby. This year was our 4 TA left from Venice (our favorite city) on Oct 19. This year was 12 days later than before and the weather was not as good. We are booked for next years TA. It starts in Venice on Oct 9 ten days earlier than this year. On the 4 cruises we have had from nice warm days to very rainy cold days. That is one being the coolest, but it is the time of year. All of Europe was colder and rainer this year. We hope next year will be better. The past years have been very smooth crossing.

 

I think the earliest sailing is the better in the way of weather. The Ruby ports are great and we call this sailing our time-share.

[bdjam]

Who is Princess selling Grand Princess to and when is this going to happen - she's presenting cruises though the middle of 2013. I'm with Swiss Dave - good grief - I've been on other ships that have a lot of vibration when thrusters are being used...I would assume that there wasn't the same vibration when the ship was at cruising speed?

And not to be critical, but I don't think Diamond Princess has ever done a trans Atlantic cruise - she's been based in the Pacific as far as I know...

 

You can't remove 20 tons of steel mass hanging over the top rear of a 120 ton vessel and expect safe performance. Princess cleaned it up to sell it. The front-center may feel great but that won't help when the rear falls off. They don't x-ray ship hulls in service like aircraft they just rely upon predictions from design phase. When they dock just watch how long it takes to use the thrusters to get in close and the duty cycle they use compared to other like ships...abnormal!:eek:

[caribill]

Who is Princess selling Grand Princess to and when is this going to happen -

 

Not selling it to anybody.

 

What was sold (or otherwise disposed of) was Skywalkers after it was removed from the ship.

[venicecruiser]

We were on the 11/4 TA.

 

It was our first time on the Grand and our last as well...Two of the elevators (center) were out of service for a large part of the cruise and on the others, you never knew if it would stop on the floor you wanted.

 

It was nice to have an IC, but the area was VERY cramped/tight. It was always packed with people.

 

Service was not up to the usual Princess standard for the most part.

 

The food, with the exception of Crown Grill was never hot. Most of it, in Horizon Court, main dining rooms, and IC was lukewarm at best. And the food was not great.........

 

The entertainment, with the exception of Lorraine Brown and the "violin diva" (can't remember her name) was awful.

 

Weather left a lot to be desired, but Princess has no control over that! I think in the future we will look for fall TAs that leave Europe earlier or just do the spring TAs.

 

Claudia and Rod

[jkocpa]

We were on the 11/4 TA.

 

It was our first time on the Grand and our last as well...Two of the elevators (center) were out of service for a large part of the cruise and on the others, you never knew if it would stop on the floor you wanted.

 

It was nice to have an IC, but the area was VERY cramped/tight. It was always packed with people.

 

Service was not up to the usual Princess standard for the most part.

 

The food, with the exception of Crown Grill was never hot. Most of it, in Horizon Court, main dining rooms, and IC was lukewarm at best. And the food was not great.........

 

The entertainment, with the exception of Lorraine Brown and the "violin diva" (can't remember her name) was awful.

 

Weather left a lot to be desired, but Princess has no control over that! I think in the future we will look for fall TAs that leave Europe earlier or just do the spring TAs.

 

Claudia and Rod

 

 

I have to disagree with two statements here. It is just my opinion.......but, I found the crew on this voyage to be one of the friendliest, most "eager to please", most efficient that I had ever experienced. Each one of the crew that I came in contact with - our room steward, the bar staff, the waiters, the CD staff - all seemed to genuinely want us to have a great time. They were smiling, cheerful, and went out of their way to do extra little things for us. My other disagreement is on the entertainment. I agree that they were a couple of really poor entertainers, but Arny G, the pianist/vocalist in Crooners was fabulous. We spent many evenings in Crooners with him, and each night he gave his all and was great fun and very entertaining.

[bbq]

The Diamond Princess hits rough seas crossing from Vancover to China a trip it takes every year. The storms have been equal to the North Atlantic. Four years ago on the Grand Princess North Atlantic crossing the ceilings fell out, mirrors in state rooms fell on people sleeping etc. We changed course back to England from Greenland for a period but the rear structural vibration wasn't there? Has anyone who commented sat on the rear of Lido deck, this fall, when there's an early morning docking requiring the thrusters to be used? I did for 29 days and I can't believe the vibration won't stress out the weldings over time. I hope it's safe but I won 't go back on it. No further comments on my part.

[Christo']

Those welds ain't going anywhere, son.