Just off the Grand 12/17-12/24

[kywildcatfanone]

Merry Christmas everyone!,

 

I didn't see a thread on this cruise, if there is one already, my apologies or I would have posted within an existing one. I also haven't read all about the threads on the Crown last week, but it sounds like I should be glad I was on the Grand. This was our 10th cruise, all with Princess, and all 7 day Caribbean cruises. We had been on the Grand a couple of times before, but all before the most recent dry dock.

 

We got to the port around 10:30am on Saturday, went to the priority lounge and we given our room keys around 11:30. Had to wait another 5 minutes or so, but were in our cabin by 11:45.

 

Wow, the ship looked great. We really enjoyed the new piazza, the new staircases and look of the ship was great. It looks so much better without the shopping cart handle. The One5 nightclub looks cool, but I didn't go in there at night.

 

We ate in the Michaelangelo dining room on the non-formal nights. Apparently it is being used for both anytime and traditional dining. If you had a reservation or traditional you lined up on one side, and anytime without reservations on the other. We made reservations each night (we were anytime) and had the same table and wait staff (Noon and Roger). They were great, hard workers who laughed and had fun with us. The food was it's usual to us, and that was good, not great, but good. Saw lots of men/boys wearing shorts and t-shirts and they were not turned away, so it appears the Grand features a very lax dress code.

 

We did not take formal clothes and ate in the Crown Grill both formal nights. It was wonderful. I had the filet, and it was probably the best steak I have ever had. We love the Crown Grill. Our waiter (Francisco) said this was his first week working in the Crown Grill and we thought he did a wonderful job both nights.

 

I had a couple of old coffee cards that I could use with no issue, on a couple of occasions they didn't even punch the card, just gave it to me for free.

 

We stayed on the Lido Deck in an interior cabin as we always do, and loved it. Our steward (Marlon) was quiet but efficient, always smiling, a really good guy.

 

Overall the shipboard experience was what we have come to expect. I think people slept in a lot on this ship, as even on sea days it was not a problem to get a lounger by the pool up until about 11am, which surprised me a bit from past experiences. The shows we attended were good, the production shows we had seen before. I will be glad when they change them again. We missed out on seeing one of the comedians because we did not get there early enough.

 

The itinerary was new for us, Aruba and Curacao. We enjoyed both stops, but just got off the ship and walked around and shopped, no excursions.

 

The weather was the biggest issue, but what are you going to do. The 2nd Sea day in particular was rough, so rough that I had a headache all day, I presume a form of sea sickness. I had never experienced that at all before. The next couple of nights were bad as well, but by the last Sea Day and Princess Cays stop, the weather was spectacular. Overall a bit rough, but not unbearable.

 

I would like to see Princess make better use of MUTS, but I know that is subjective. They seem to want to start moves around 3:30pm, and if you want to eat at 5:30, you can't watch the whole thing.

 

Disembarkation was it's usual chaos. We do express walk-off, but Princess doesn't do a great job of crowd control and it's a mess trying to get off the ship, but I'm kind of used to that by now.

 

Overall another enjoyable Princess cruise... We are pretty easy to please, our expectations aren't that high and we rarely are disappointed.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions, I will try to answer.

 

Mike

[tennisobo]

Hi Mike:

Thanks very much for posting your review. I sail on the Grand in January, so I was particularly interested in your post.

 

Which dining room did you use for dinner?

[jean s]

Nice review. We are sailing on the Grand in February. We love the Crown Grill and nice to read your positive comments about this restaurant.

[bigguy1]

Saw lots of men/boys wearing shorts and t-shirts and they were not turned away, so it appears the Grand features a very lax dress code.

 

Was that shorts and tee shirts for dinner in the MDR????

[Coral]

Thanks for your comments!

 

Glad you had a great cruise. I had your sailing booked but had to cancel before final payment.

 

I think you are lucky to have been on the Grand (compared to the Crown) :)

[mycruz]

Nice review of the Grand. I'm looking forward to our second cruise, first since she's been refreshed. We booked this last spring while on board the Ruby, when I heard she was getting a makeover we didn't hesitate to book her. Another spring break cruise with the grand kids, and I can't wait!

 

The crew especially sounds good as well.

[cherylandtk]

We, too were on this same sailing, and I know a few folks from our Roll Call had switched to the Crown in order to get extra hours in Curacao. From all the troublems posted with the Noro issues there, I would agree with the statements that we were on the better cruise.

 

I also agree with all Mike said, although we did not try any of the specialty restaurants and will defer to his experiences. A few additional observations of my own are added here.

 

Food: Good to very good, not spectacular, but certainly not swill and plenty of choices. Breakfast and lunch in the dining rooms are very good, pub lunch is good, Alfredos is very good.

 

Weather: Mostly cloudy with frequent showers, seas from Slight to Heavy, and the promenade decks often had to close because of the conditions. But sun worshippers were able to get their fill (just ask Joe C.) and even those of us who avoid most sun came back with a noticable bronzed glow. Maybe it was just our cabin location (600's on Caribe deck) but both of our cruises of the Mexican Riviera had a day or two with just as much rockin' and rollin' as this one did. I did not see or hear of anyone so ill as to be vomiting. I did hear that a few felt dizzy or motion headaches. And the weather did provide for a new onboard activity, body surfing in the (adult only) Calypso pool. The adults were having more fun than the kids did in their pool.

 

Passengers; Many multi-generational families, about 400 kids onboard, but I did not see a lot of them. No swarming in the elevator, no lolling on the stairs. Heard one report of about 5 or 6 running noisily up and down the hallways but they were sternly admonished by a crew member. We did get a strongly worded letter from the captain upon boarding that "Parents are responsible for their children's behavior". Not sure if it was the weather or the families, but plenty of loungers available by the pool. People seemed to be having a very good time and enjoying themselves, did not hear any of the often-prevalent whining or complainers.

 

Cabin: Yes the Grand is 13 years old and in some ways shows her age (carpet stains, switches, brass finishes, random chips and dings in furniture), but she is clean and maintained. Rust, while present in some places, is constantly being dealt with and attended to. A/C worked great, very cold. Toilets worked fine, no problems. Carpet was replaced in the minisuite below us one day, we saw all the furniture out on the balcony while they did so, so ongoing refurbishing does happen.

 

Balcony: The blue matting on the balconies has been removed, and I am not a fan of the epoxy paint substitute. The floor seemed constantly dirty and grimy, and just looks industrial. Even with rain several days, it never got clean and was never washed or swept while we were onboard. I would rather have the open weave matting so the dreck can fall through the holes and one does not have to walk in it and track it back into the room. (One of the decks above us was having the rust/paint scraping and many flakes landed on our balcony and nothing was done to remove it or clean it up.)

 

Dress: It seems every cruise the attire gets more and more casual. About 15% tuxes on formal night, 60% suits and the rest was a variety ranging from shirt and tie to argyle sweater with jeans. And this was the traditional room, which tends to follow the dress code. I did not see any shorts in the dining room on formal night but am not surprised to learn they were there, particularly in the Anytime rooms. (My own attitude is I'll adhere to the code but it does not bother me what others wear as long as the clothing is clean and not some sweaty worn-to-the-beach-today mess).

 

Decor: The ship was decorated with lighted garlands and trees everywhere. Christmas Carols were on the ship's progress channel and it was an odd, but humorous, juxtaposition with the caribbean music floating down from the pools.

 

Staff: With the exception of the Purser's Desk (I swear that one of their job requirements must be 'sourpuss') all the cabin stewards, dining staff, buffet staff, cooks, officers and even maintenance people we had contact with were wonderfully charming and smiling. This undoubtedly leads to happier passengers.

 

CC Meeting: We had about 25-30 members show up at the meeting in the One5. Along with the Captain, Cruise Director, Food and Beverage Managers and several other of the top staff. They were all very kind to meet with us and Capt. Bilton gave a very nice welcoming speech to us all. Many thanks should go to CC member Pat for organizing the meeting so well.

 

In short, we had rain in both ports, I caught a cold the third day out, the seas were rocky and we had a wonderful time. :D

[kywildcatfanone]

Hi Mike:

Thanks very much for posting your review. I sail on the Grand in January, so I was particularly interested in your post.

 

Which dining room did you use for dinner?

 

We ate in Michaelangelo (deck 5). We had anytime dining, and I called and made reservations each night, although it didn't seem to be necessary.

 

Mike

[kywildcatfanone]

Saw lots of men/boys wearing shorts and t-shirts and they were not turned away, so it appears the Grand features a very lax dress code.

 

Was that shorts and tee shirts for dinner in the MDR????

 

Yes, Michaelangelo dining room.

 

Mike

[kywildcatfanone]

 

Not sure if it was the weather or the families, but plenty of loungers available by the pool. People seemed to be having a very good time and enjoying themselves, did not hear any of the often-prevalent whining or complainers.

 

In short, we had rain in both ports, I caught a cold the third day out, the seas were rocky and we had a wonderful time. :D

 

I agree with your observations here. Usually on sea days, we have to get out early to get the lounger area we want because of the usual chair hogs putting items on chairs to reserve them and then not showing up until the middle of the afternoon.:rolleyes: But not on this cruise, and I don't really know why. Perhaps more older folks who don't use the pool areas as much. And yes, lots of pool surfing on a couple of days. I was surprised they didn't close the pool because of the waves it was creating. I figured it would become a safety issue.

 

I also agree with you about the weather, but the last two days made up for it, the weather those days was spectacular.

 

Mike

[kywildcatfanone]

By the way, is the dessert station on the Grand's Horizon Court being behind glass and manned by employees something that is just for the Grand, or is this rolling out fleet wide? It's the first time I have seen it. Also, why did they do this, to prevent waste?

 

Mike

[kywildcatfanone]

Oh yeah, something else I meant to mention but forgot to. The wireless did not work the entire week in my room. My notebook could connect to the access point fine, but it wouldn't assign me an IP address. I called the internet cafe manager and he told me it was because too many people were on. I tried a couple of more times early in the morning and late at night, and no luck. I went down to a friend's cabin on the Aloha deck and it worked fine.

I reported all of this to the internet manager, but he gave me the same story. I heard several people saying they had trouble connecting.

 

It didn't bother me that much, the ones in the cafe worked OK so I used them when I needed to, but had I paid for internet I would have wanted it to work in my room. Since I'm platinum, it was free and I was OK with going down to the cafe.

 

Mike

[cherylandtk]

Mike,

The dessert station was part of the new Horizon Court layout....something that may be tried on other ships if this retrofit works on the Grand. They took out the large banquets that people tended to camp out on all day and put in place a different traffic flow pattern with the pastry/dessert/snack station (which is the only section available from 3:30 to 5:00). It took me all week to adjust to that station, I just could not remember to check it for items I wanted, like toast or english muffins in the morning!

 

Our internet signal worked fine from the room, but not at all from the Calypso pool, I guess that is the way it is on a metal ship. Quality varies from room to room. I agree that if I was paying I would want it to work from my room, and would want to check the signal before signing up.

[kywildcatfanone]

Mike,

The dessert station was part of the new Horizon Court layout....something that may be tried on other ships if this retrofit works on the Grand. They took out the large banquets that people tended to camp out on all day and put in place a different traffic flow pattern with the pastry/dessert/snack station (which is the only section available from 3:30 to 5:00). It took me all week to adjust to that station, I just could not remember to check it for items I wanted, like toast or english muffins in the morning!

 

Our internet signal worked fine from the room, but not at all from the Calypso pool, I guess that is the way it is on a metal ship. Quality varies from room to room. I agree that if I was paying I would want it to work from my room, and would want to check the signal before signing up.

 

I really didn't like the way they had the dessert area, but it is what it is. It almost made me forget to look for dessert after lunches. :p My cabin was on Lido, and I could not connect by the pool either. I think the access points on that deck were not working correctly. Finally on Friday the internet guy told me they were having trouble, but didn't know when they would be fixed.

 

Mike

[TravlGrl]

We were also on this sailing, and something really noticeable for our group was how people were responding poorly to our santa hats and reindeer/snowman antennas the first 2 days on the ship. By day 3, people warmed up to our group and were openly smiling with us, talking with us, and happy to see our holiday spirit.

 

I agree 100% that Purser's Desk had a sourpuss attitude, and won't go into details, but the negative attitude there was shocking. Overall though, the cruise staff we were in contact with were mostly friendly. My only complaint was, while in Alfredo's Pizzeria (which none of us liked -- the pizza was tasteless, but we admit that we're pizza snobs and enjoy pizza quite often)...Francisco just couldn't stop sweating. When sweat is not just dripping down the side of a person's face, but is also dripping off the chin to the point of nearly dripping onto the table, I have an issue. Francisco carried around a sweat rag that he kept in his back pocket, and used as often as he could, but it was extremely unappetizing to see the sweat collecting on his chin and dripping down. Thankfully, I didn't see it drip in our food or water...THANKFULLY! I did bring this to Pasquale's (Maitre D) attention, and he assured us he'd have a word with Francisco and provide some coaching for him.

 

We enjoyed Sabatini's one night, and while I prefer the old format, the food choices were still vast and we were able to order most of the appetizers to share. For those of you interested in the "Lobster Three Ways", it's really just "Lobster Two Ways" -- a small lobster tail, lobster risotto (scrumptious!), and a lobster drizzle over everything (but the menu says "lobster bisque" even though it's a little glaze they pour on top). For only $20 per person, a visit to Sabatini's is worth it!

 

Our wait staff at late seating was one of the best teams we've ever experienced, and we nominated them for the "You Made the Difference" award. Other than them, I didn't encounter any outstanding service, and the Purser's Desk was below average.

 

Overall, the cruise was fantastic despite the less than ideal weather (though we got some sun in Aruba, on deck when we left Curacao, all day in Princess Cays and each day at sea). The people in our group really made this one of our most fun cruises ever.

[kywildcatfanone]

TravlGrl,

 

Now that you mention it, I saw several people wearing the santa/reindeer antenna's. I thought it was cute....

 

Mike

[Sailingpeace]

We, too were on this same sailing, and I know a few folks from our Roll Call had switched to the Crown in order to get extra hours in Curacao. From all the troublems posted with the Noro issues there, I would agree with the statements that we were on the better cruise.

 

I also agree with all Mike said, although we did not try any of the specialty restaurants and will defer to his experiences. A few additional observations of my own are added here.

 

Food: Good to very good, not spectacular, but certainly not swill and plenty of choices. Breakfast and lunch in the dining rooms are very good, pub lunch is good, Alfredos is very good.

 

Weather: Mostly cloudy with frequent showers, seas from Slight to Heavy, and the promenade decks often had to close because of the conditions. But sun worshippers were able to get their fill (just ask Joe C.) and even those of us who avoid most sun came back with a noticable bronzed glow. Maybe it was just our cabin location (600's on Caribe deck) but both of our cruises of the Mexican Riviera had a day or two with just as much rockin' and rollin' as this one did. I did not see or hear of anyone so ill as to be vomiting. I did hear that a few felt dizzy or motion headaches. And the weather did provide for a new onboard activity, body surfing in the (adult only) Calypso pool. The adults were having more fun than the kids did in their pool.

 

Passengers; Many multi-generational families, about 400 kids onboard, but I did not see a lot of them. No swarming in the elevator, no lolling on the stairs. Heard one report of about 5 or 6 running noisily up and down the hallways but they were sternly admonished by a crew member. We did get a strongly worded letter from the captain upon boarding that "Parents are responsible for their children's behavior". Not sure if it was the weather or the families, but plenty of loungers available by the pool. People seemed to be having a very good time and enjoying themselves, did not hear any of the often-prevalent whining or complainers.

 

Cabin: Yes the Grand is 13 years old and in some ways shows her age (carpet stains, switches, brass finishes, random chips and dings in furniture), but she is clean and maintained. Rust, while present in some places, is constantly being dealt with and attended to. A/C worked great, very cold. Toilets worked fine, no problems. Carpet was replaced in the minisuite below us one day, we saw all the furniture out on the balcony while they did so, so ongoing refurbishing does happen.

 

Balcony: The blue matting on the balconies has been removed, and I am not a fan of the epoxy paint substitute. The floor seemed constantly dirty and grimy, and just looks industrial. Even with rain several days, it never got clean and was never washed or swept while we were onboard. I would rather have the open weave matting so the dreck can fall through the holes and one does not have to walk in it and track it back into the room. (One of the decks above us was having the rust/paint scraping and many flakes landed on our balcony and nothing was done to remove it or clean it up.)

 

Dress: It seems every cruise the attire gets more and more casual. About 15% tuxes on formal night, 60% suits and the rest was a variety ranging from shirt and tie to argyle sweater with jeans. And this was the traditional room, which tends to follow the dress code. I did not see any shorts in the dining room on formal night but am not surprised to learn they were there, particularly in the Anytime rooms. (My own attitude is I'll adhere to the code but it does not bother me what others wear as long as the clothing is clean and not some sweaty worn-to-the-beach-today mess).

 

Decor: The ship was decorated with lighted garlands and trees everywhere. Christmas Carols were on the ship's progress channel and it was an odd, but humorous, juxtaposition with the caribbean music floating down from the pools.

 

Staff: With the exception of the Purser's Desk (I swear that one of their job requirements must be 'sourpuss') all the cabin stewards, dining staff, buffet staff, cooks, officers and even maintenance people we had contact with were wonderfully charming and smiling. This undoubtedly leads to happier passengers.

 

CC Meeting: We had about 25-30 members show up at the meeting in the One5. Along with the Captain, Cruise Director, Food and Beverage Managers and several other of the top staff. They were all very kind to meet with us and Capt. Bilton gave a very nice welcoming speech to us all. Many thanks should go to CC member Pat for organizing the meeting so well.

 

In short, we had rain in both ports, I caught a cold the third day out, the seas were rocky and we had a wonderful time. :D

 

Thank you for the interesting report and sharing your positive attitude. I am curious about the mini-suite refurbishing, can you tell us what section of the ship that would have been ?

Welcome back on land and Happy Holidays !

[lovevacadays]

Thank you all for your reviews. Fun to read.

[caribill]

We have spoken with two friends who were on this cruise and they had the following comments:

 

o Overall the cruise was a good one. They had a good time.

 

o They liked the remake of the Piazza area and the new stairways there.

 

o The International Cafe had the best food on the ship.

 

o Anytime dining experience was not positive:

Fish was either prepared poorly or tasteless.

Poor presentation of the food. Very little garnish on the dishes.

Would not take reservations if wanting a table for two

When the complementary birthday cake was not finished, were unable to take the rest to their cabin, even in foil.

 

o Cabin needed refurbishing, especially the bathroom area.

 

o Entertainment was very good

 

o Princess did not enforce the rule of having no children in the first several rows in the Princess Theater shows

 

o As mentioned in another post, the Calypso pool is now adult only

 

o No more fruit and dessert buffet at the deck party

 

o Video shown at the "Welcome Aboard" show welcomed passengers to the Sapphire Princess.

 

o Great day at Princess Cays.

 

Again, they very much enjoyed the voyage.

[TravlGrl]

Mike - That was probably us! We wore them every night, and were not a quiet group. :)

[Hunwolf]

Last year on the Emerald Princess, our daughter participated in the Junior Chef's at Sea program. They allowed us to take the remainder of the cake (not eaten by our group at dinner that evening) back to our cabin.

 

It seems bizarre they would not let someone take their cake with them. That's messed up. :confused:

 

On a side note, we got off the Voyager this week and the weather in the Western Caribbean wasn't any better. Just a tough week weather-wise...but those are the breaks...

[dog]

A few comments:

 

*toilet in cabin would not flush on 2 different days - 3 calls to purser's desk & problem was fixed

 

*nicely decorated for Christmas

 

*badly stained carpets in our cabin

 

*room service food was unedible/pot of coffee cold on delivery, missing items we ordered

 

*enjoyed Princess Cays beach day-nice set up/food good there

 

*cabin steward told us the next time we wanted our cabin cleaned in the morning, we had to call him & leave a message... We could not believe he said this to us.

[srpilo]

Merry Christmas everyone!,

 

I didn't see a thread on this cruise, if there is one already, my apologies or I would have posted within an existing one. I also haven't read all about the threads on the Crown last week, but it sounds like I should be glad I was on the Grand. This was our 10th cruise, all with Princess, and all 7 day Caribbean cruises. We had been on the Grand a couple of times before, but all before the most recent dry dock.

 

We got to the port around 10:30am on Saturday, went to the priority lounge and we given our room keys around 11:30. Had to wait another 5 minutes or so, but were in our cabin by 11:45.

 

Wow, the ship looked great. We really enjoyed the new piazza, the new staircases and look of the ship was great. It looks so much better without the shopping cart handle. The One5 nightclub looks cool, but I didn't go in there at night.

 

We ate in the Michaelangelo dining room on the non-formal nights. Apparently it is being used for both anytime and traditional dining. If you had a reservation or traditional you lined up on one side, and anytime without reservations on the other. We made reservations each night (we were anytime) and had the same table and wait staff (Noon and Roger). They were great, hard workers who laughed and had fun with us. The food was it's usual to us, and that was good, not great, but good. Saw lots of men/boys wearing shorts and t-shirts and they were not turned away, so it appears the Grand features a very lax dress code.

 

We did not take formal clothes and ate in the Crown Grill both formal nights. It was wonderful. I had the filet, and it was probably the best steak I have ever had. We love the Crown Grill. Our waiter (Francisco) said this was his first week working in the Crown Grill and we thought he did a wonderful job both nights.

 

I had a couple of old coffee cards that I could use with no issue, on a couple of occasions they didn't even punch the card, just gave it to me for free.

 

We stayed on the Lido Deck in an interior cabin as we always do, and loved it. Our steward (Marlon) was quiet but efficient, always smiling, a really good guy.

 

Overall the shipboard experience was what we have come to expect. I think people slept in a lot on this ship, as even on sea days it was not a problem to get a lounger by the pool up until about 11am, which surprised me a bit from past experiences. The shows we attended were good, the production shows we had seen before. I will be glad when they change them again. We missed out on seeing one of the comedians because we did not get there early enough.

 

The itinerary was new for us, Aruba and Curacao. We enjoyed both stops, but just got off the ship and walked around and shopped, no excursions.

 

The weather was the biggest issue, but what are you going to do. The 2nd Sea day in particular was rough, so rough that I had a headache all day, I presume a form of sea sickness. I had never experienced that at all before. The next couple of nights were bad as well, but by the last Sea Day and Princess Cays stop, the weather was spectacular. Overall a bit rough, but not unbearable.

 

I would like to see Princess make better use of MUTS, but I know that is subjective. They seem to want to start moves around 3:30pm, and if you want to eat at 5:30, you can't watch the whole thing.

 

Disembarkation was it's usual chaos. We do express walk-off, but Princess doesn't do a great job of crowd control and it's a mess trying to get off the ship, but I'm kind of used to that by now.

 

Overall another enjoyable Princess cruise... We are pretty easy to please, our expectations aren't that high and we rarely are disappointed.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions, I will try to answer.

 

Mike

 

Thanks for your positive spin, and upbeat review.

 

 

Srpilo

[cherylandtk]

I am curious about the mini-suite refurbishing, can you tell us what section of the ship that would have been ?

Welcome back on land and Happy Holidays !

It was in the 600's on Dolphin, but it was just the one cabin below us, not the whole series. I did see a gentleman out on the balcony earlier in the cruise, but not the last two days. I hope he was not one of the two people left in Curacao!

[bigguy1]

A few comments:

 

*toilet in cabin would not flush on 2 different days - 3 calls to purser's desk & problem was fixed

 

*nicely decorated for Christmas

 

*badly stained carpets in our cabin

 

*room service food was unedible/pot of coffee cold on delivery, missing items we ordered

 

*enjoyed Princess Cays beach day-nice set up/food good there

 

*cabin steward told us the next time we wanted our cabin cleaned in the morning, we had to call him & leave a message... We could not believe he said this to us.

 

One would think if stains cannot be removed from a cabins' carpet, then Princess would replace the carpet. Its certianly unsightly and possibly a germ carrier. There is an inherent obligation to provide a clean cabin to passengers. Stains indicate an unclean cabin.