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Grand princess

bandgbasset

By bandgbasset,
in Princess Cruises

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bandgbasset

bandgbasset

Posted
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The web cam shows the grand en route to San Francisco. It usually arrives around 5:45 a.m.

 

Anyone know what time she'll be leaving for Victoria for her drydock?

 

Boarding should be fairly easy next friday for our christmas cruise.:D

 

Gerry

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iceleven

iceleven

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She arrived this morning around 5a.m. I know this because I was on the ship and was awakened around 4:30a.m. when then put three of the tenders into the water on the starboard side and creating quite a bit of noise in the process. We were already near the pier when this happened. Not quite sure why the tenders were being placed in the water other than they would be going through some repair work while the Grand was in port and it would be impossible for them to be lowered while she was in port. It's possible that they simply needed to be tested and would be put back on once the Grand leaves the pier.

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elliair

elliair

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Anyone know why they were doing continual maintenance on the ship that could have waited until it got into dry dock? We were on The Aloha deck and they were painting inside the crew quarters. The smell of paint and varnish leaked out into the hall way and into our cabin on the port side causing several people to have headaches and nausea. This went on for 2-3 days. Then they blocked off the outside Promenade deck doing maintenance as well - more painting. Also workers were dragging carpet here and there. We felt like we were on a maintenance cruise instead of a Hawaiian cruise. I hope they have everything fixed in 10 days for the next batch of cruisers. Our door to the balcony was rotted out! The Grand is tired!:eek:

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elliair

elliair

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Posted (edited)
I will be on the Grand on Jan 4th. Should be all spruced up and ready to go. Can't wait as the Grand is one of my favorite ships in the fleet. :D

 

Don't go barefoot on the Aloha deck. Our room steward dumped 3 trays of glasses right in front of of cabin door. We couldn't leave our cabin for 45 minutes until they got it cleaned up. There's still slivers of glass in front of our cabin door and in the hallway. I felt bad for our room steward - he was beside himself. We had children on our deck!:eek:

Edited by elliair
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iceleven

iceleven

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We've been on the grand three times this year and she was always in the process of maintenance of some sort.

 

I recall hearing that the delay we had with leaving port (SF) was due to "the many things" that needed to be put on the ship. I assume that was the carpeting that was loaded and which was replaced in areas while we slept. The art gallery area, as an example.

 

We did see a few mattresses lined up in the hallway one morning on Caribe deck. Unfortunately, for us, ours was NOT on the list and we still had a rock-hard mattress. Someone started a thread a couple months ago stating that ALL the mattresses on the Grand had been replaced. It got my hopes up. We had the most-gawd-awful mattresses on our 15 day Hawaii cruise last week but we lucked out with a wonderful steward who gave us two very effective egg crates. Only one made it feel like we were lying on a cheap sponge on a brick but two worked perfectly. Our steward was handsomely rewarded. Yeah Jimmy!

 

I found that the Grand showed her age but the main public rooms were in good shape. Having the longer, extended balcony on the Caribe deck allowed us to lean out and look up at the other balconies above and below us. This is where she needs the most cosmetic maintenance. It's impossible for crew to work on private decks while they are occupied so I suspect that the private deck areas (railings and walls) will be painted and the new deck flooring put in place.

 

The best part of our cruise was that Captain Laws was back from his family holiday!

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elliair

elliair

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I found that the Grand showed her age but the main public rooms were in good shape. Having the longer, extended balcony on the Caribe deck allowed us to lean out and look up at the other balconies above and below us. This is where she needs the most cosmetic maintenance. It's impossible for crew to work on private decks while they are occupied so I suspect that the private deck areas (railings and walls) will be painted and the new deck flooring put in place.

 

The best part of our cruise was that Captain Laws was back from his family holiday!

 

I have to chuckle at this because we could see down to the Caribe deck extended balconies from our Aloha balcony. We got an eye full a couple of times. :D I also had to chuckle at the thread about privacy in your cabin, if you think people aren't watching, well, they are!

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johnsfo

johnsfo

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Since it took the better part of two days to sail from San Francisco to Victoria for the dry dock and will probably take the same amount of time to return to San Francisco for the 12/20 holiday cruise; and since the dry water has to be pumped out, work done on the hull, and the dry dock fiilled with water again, where is the savings for doing the dry dock in Vancouver vs. San Ferancisco. Not to mention the fuel cost it takes to travel to Victoria and back? Does anyone know? Are we on the 12/20 cruise going to be met with carpet layers, painters and other workers finishing up the job?

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johnsfo

johnsfo

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Please enlighten me. Since it took the better part of two days to sail from San Francisco to Victoria for the dry dock and will probably take the same amount of time to return to San Francisco for the 12/20 holiday cruise; and since the dry water has to be pumped out, work done on the hull, and the dry dock fiilled with water again, where is the savings for doing the dry dock in Vancouver vs. San Ferancisco. Not to mention the fuel cost it takes to travel to Victoria and back? Does anyone know? Are we on the 12/20 cruise going to be met with carpet layers, painters and other workers finishing up the job? Is it possible that when everything is taken into account that the San Francisco drydock is so much more expensive than the Victoria drydock?

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yyjguy

yyjguy

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Holland's Amsterdam was scheduled at the San Francisco dry dock at the same time. Princess has a history of using the facility in Victoria many times, the original Sun Princess becoming a Princess ship at the same dry dock way back when. The run up and down the coast while costly for fuel, does save Princess a great deal of money, Canada allows "foreign" workers to live on the ship while in Canada, and to perform all sorts of work on the vessel. America does not permit non US citizens to work while in the USA. Princess has workers from many different European nations working on various aspects of the refit. Press reports put 900 technical and trade workers living on the ship while here, and other 600 local trades people also hired.

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johnsfo

johnsfo

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for your explanation which now makes alot of sense. Do the non-Canadian workers who are part of the drydock work leave the ship in Canada prior to the ship coming back to San Francisco for thr 12/20 holiday cruise? Or does the US allow them to continue their work on the ship and disembark in San Francisco? I wonder as the ship will be in international waters on the trip to SF.

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eandx

eandx

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I found this media release on Google it gives a little insight as to what the Grand is having done

http://gvha.v3.ca/uploaded/gvha%20-%20cruise%20economic%20benefits%20significant%20to%20region.pdf

 

in the middle of the the article is this statement:

 

The Grand Princess is currently in drydock at the shipyard for a refit involving ship's underwater gear,

including propellers, thrusters, etc. as well as hull painting. The ship will also be re -floored, the

ventilation ducts cleaned and marine glass replaced.

 

Guess we will know for sure what was done in a few days!:)

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