Grand Princess Review Dec 8-15, 2012

[xavier]

My DH and I just returned yesterday. We are both in are mid 50's and enjoy waking up each morning in a new location or just sitting on our balcony reading and not having to woory about having too much wine at dinner & not being able to drive home so cruising is a good fit for us. A couple of months prior to departure our TA got a call from Princess to see if we wanted an upsell from our AE guarantee mini to a full suite. Doh! yes yes yes! Especially since the price of our mini kept dropping so the upsell price was equal to what we orginally were paying for the mini. We got our choice of suites and chose a PH on the Caribe deck as previously we had stayed in VS and OS suites in the aft.

 

All I can say is wow! The balcony was HUGE! We were in Heaven. But I digress...we had rented a car from National as we had arrived in Florida a couple of days early to get into vakay mode. Alamo/National has a shuttle from the car drop off to the Port but with so many ships in town it was sloooow. I wish we would have taken a taxi as the shuttle made a lot of stops. It took about an hour to get to the Grand.

 

We had been on the Grand during her inaugaral season & watched the dry dock videos faithfully.

 

Check in was a breeze no line what so ever (about 1:15p). Shock number one was that there is no middle staircase on the Grand. We never take elevators (just on cruises so we can convince ourselves that we are exercising by going up and down all thoses stairs) so we were completly surprised that there's only a forward and aft staircase.

 

Once we got to our suite we saw that our mailbox had been decorated with some Christmas stuff (not just our mail box all the mail boxes) it was very cute and festive. I had to laugh when I saw the 2 mini bars (1 for us being Elite 1 for us being in a suite) all lined up. Sure looked like a lot of liquor, but we were up for the challenge! Called downstairs to have the liquours switched out for beer & Vodka. We also had brought 5 bottles of wine and some bourbon (We like to drink) with no issures from Princess.

 

The complimentary dinner at the Crown Grill is a nice touch for a suite amenity. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Now here are some random thoughts about our cruise, I will be happ if you have any specific questions that you would like me to answer.

 

Our Steward, Aqueles was the best. Did everything to make it seem like we were his only stateroom.

 

I thought the food was good, but also when at home I don't usually cook with any fat and eat mostly vegetarian. However on vacation I eat and drink what I like. So anything probably would taste good to me. I especially enjoyed the Calamari steak from the dining room & the Rack of Lamb from the Crown Grill. I don't enjoy Lobster but DH said it was tasty.

 

We did MUTS for dinner a couple of nights. WE brought down a bottle of wine had some pizza and watched the movie. Didn't really matter what we were watching it was just a fun thing we liked doing.

 

The passenger services desk folks were nice! This is worth mentioning because usually I have found that they are a bit cold. Which I understand after listening to some of the things that the cruisers are asking of them.

 

Speaking of fellow cruisers...When did it become acceptable to walk around barefoot in the PIazza? EWWW! The international Food Court is right there and I saw lots of middle aged men just walking around barefoot. Also saw people mostly women laying on any chair the could find with there barefeet on another. (hmmm, perhaps this is just my issue, nevermind) enough ranting.

 

We did go to the Hannukah candle lighting service the first night and it was SRO.

 

The dining room menus were not autmatically delivered to us however upon asking Stewart for them Voila! we had them every night.

 

Saw more people buying photos than I have ever seen. Perhaps because this was a 7 day cruise?

 

IN San Juan we walked aroung a lot. Walked to the Cathedral, the fort and I'm sure a bunch of other places.

 

In St Maartin we booked Joyce Prince to be our private guide for the day. very nice. Had a great lunch at Sandy's on the Frence side. Goat Curyy & Amstel Brites Yummo!

 

IN St. Thomas we docked at havensight. Walked to down via the Yacht harborside shopping mall. Looked around a bit. Walked up the hill to the Synagogue. Then walked back. Looked aroung havensight for just a bit.

 

On the private Island we walked the beach the sat at a bar with rocking chairs and drank rum punch. Fab-u-lous!

 

We had opted for the EZ Check. We were group AAAA and suposed to leave the ship at 7:50a.m. WE left our suite around 8:00am & walked right off the ship. Customs was a breeze and were in a taxi on the way to the airport by 815am.

 

All in all a delightful cruise.

[Coolmama_1]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing your fabulous week.

[xavier]

Oops forgot to mention two things

 

Alfredo's never looked busy but smelled delicious

 

Vines was also never busy and had a so so wine list but they used reidel glasses which felt nice after using the thick ones supplied in our room. The waiters there were also very friendly

 

Oh, I guess I forgot 3 things. Had an old coffee card and they punched it no problems and did not stamp or write anything on it

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. Sounds like a wonderful cruise and a great suite.:)

 

In regards to people walking around barefoot in the piazza, I guess sometimes folks think they are on their own private yacht and don't need to be aware that they are sailing with several thousand other people.:eek:

[PathfinderEss]

Nice review, thanks.

[chsalas]

Check in was a breeze no line what so ever (about 1:15p). Shock number one was that there is no middle staircase on the Grand. We never take elevators (just on cruises so we can convince ourselves that we are exercising by going up and down all thoses stairs) so we were completly surprised that there's only a forward and aft staircase.

 

There are elevators in the center of the ship, just behind the elevator bank, according to the deck plan, unless the plan is wrong.

 

Speaking of fellow cruisers...When did it become acceptable to walk around barefoot in the PIazza? EWWW! The international Food Court is right there and I saw lots of middle aged men just walking around barefoot. Also saw people mostly women laying on any chair the could find with there barefeet on another. (hmmm, perhaps this is just my issue, nevermind) enough ranting.

OMG, you've got to be kidding, that is gross, I don't like it when they do it in the pool area, but I guess that's ok since your swimming and stuff, but in the Piazza, that's wrong. I hope we don't see that.

 

 

 

Thank you for you wonderful review, we sail on the Grand soon and this review really sets the stage for us.

[xavier]

There are elevators in the center of the ship, just behind the elevator bank, according to the deck plan, unless the plan is wrong.

 

 

No, deck plan is right there are elevators but no stairs

[TracieABD]

Thank you for the review! Sounds "grand"!

[jimmy2x]

Has Princess done anything yet about covering the bare metal balcony floors?

[xavier]

Has Princess done anything yet about covering the bare metal balcony floors?

 

NO! & thanks for reminding me about that. They look horrible. Especially after it rains, there is what looked like dried mud/dirt on them.

[caribill]

There are elevators in the center of the ship, just behind the elevator bank, according to the deck plan, unless the plan is wrong.

 

 

 

The OP prefers to use the stairs instead of an elevator and never said there were no elevators in that area.

[frozennorth]

Thanks for the review. We will be on her come this Saturday and I can't wait. Nice to know about the stairs. DH and I usually like to take the stairs whenever possible. Our cabin is forward so will probably use them most of the time. Again thanks for a great review.

[jimmy2x]

NO! & thanks for reminding me about that. They look horrible. Especially after it rains, there is what looked like dried mud/dirt on them.

 

Too bad. Was seriously considering the Grand out of San Francisco too Hawaii next year. We spend a lot of time on the balcony and that metal deck is a deal breaker.

[TLC535]

We were also on the same sailing & had a wonderful cruise, but I must agree about the layout of the ship...this was our first time on the Grand & probably the last, we are stair users & it was very annoying to have to go forward or aft to get one deck up or down without waiting on the elevator, also on formal nights when taking photos on the staircase you have to use the elevator as there is only one set of atrium stairs on deck 5 (midship)....did it "ruin" our cruise :confused:

NO WAY :D just annoying :rolleyes:

The staff / crew were all great & CD Peter Tredgett was very good, energetic & personable along with all his staff.

Alfredo's WAS DELISHIOUS...we dined there twice (lunch) & for us it was MUCH better than the pizza on Lido deck...can't wait to try it out again on the Royal next year :D

We also ran into one in particular man that we NEVER saw with shoes on, supposedly (was told by another passenger) he does not "believe" in them :confused::rolleyes:...you are so right....EWWWWW GROSS !!!

Glad to hear you had a good trip also !

[caribill]

also on formal nights when taking photos on the staircase you have to use the elevator as there is only one set of atrium stairs on deck 5 (midship)....

 

The mid-ship stairway does exist for passengers from decks 5-7 on the Grand, so there is no need to take an elevator to go from one atrium deck to another.

[chsalas]

Correction, I intended to say stairs, yes there are elevators, but according to the deck plan, there are stairs in the middle section of the ship or so it seems to be listed. http://www.princess.com/learn/ships/ap/deck_plans/index.html

[TLC535]

The mid-ship stairway does exist for passengers from decks 5-7 on the Grand, so there is no need to take an elevator to go from one atrium deck to another.

 

 

On deck 5 to 6 on formal nights they were using it for pictures on the ONE stairway they have there & had it blocked off for that...so YES, you do have to take the elevator or wait & try and slip by between peoples pics.

[caribill]

On deck 5 to 6 on formal nights they were using it for pictures on the ONE stairway they have there & had it blocked off for that...so YES, you do have to take the elevator or wait & try and slip by between peoples pics.

 

To be sure we are talking about the same stairway, I am talking about the one just aft of the elevators near the atrium. I am not talking about the one that is in the atrium itself.

 

The one just aft of the elevators actually goes all the way to deck 14, but it is crew only above deck 7.

[TLC535]

To be sure we are talking about the same stairway, I am talking about the one just aft of the elevators near the atrium. I am not talking about the one that is in the atrium itself.

 

The one just aft of the elevators actually goes all the way to deck 14, but it is crew only above deck 7.

 

 

Yes, you are correct on those stairs...sorry for any confusion, I should have clairified more, I was strickly talking about the atrium stairs ;)