Grand Cal Coastal, Oct. 10-17

[jasbo49]

My wife and I got off the Grand six days ago, and I figure if I'm ever going to jot some things down, I'd better get going. Overall, it was a nice cruise. No major complaints, but as usual I figure if we point out the few problems we did encounter, Princess stands a better chance of fixing them.

 

THE PROS.

First, the ship: I don't know how the Grand became a target of the "tired, old ship" finger-pointers. It may have been built in 1998, but it doesn't feel or look like it. In fact I saw very little difference between the Grand and the recently renovated Crown (Alaska in early June) in terms of condition.

 

There were a couple times I wished there were public stairs covering all the decks at mid-ship, but that's the extent of my criticisms of the ship. There were no buckets to catch drips, and there was no musty smell that I've seen others complain about. I'm not saying these things didn't happen on another cruise, but they sure didn't happen on ours.

 

A real plus for the Grand is Alfredo's. We'd never been on a ship with the free sit-down pizzeria before and found it to be a great addition. It's among the best pizzas I've had, for my tastes (great crispy crust), and splitting a pie for lunch was a good way to keep it light so we wouldn't stomp on our appetite for dinner.

 

I should also say for the second straight cruise, I was happy not to be hounded to buy wine tastings and extra drinks at dinner. This became a real downer a year ago for us.

 

THE CONS.

On our 7-day cruise, there was exactly one production show. That's pretty lame, and it seemed like they had a lot of second-rate fill-in stuff going on in the Princess Theater just so it wouldn't go unused. On the other hand, given the quality of the production shows in June on the Crown, maybe they're doing us a favor by sparing us shows like Motor City. We love the old motown music, but this was more like Bobby Sherman singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" on Shebang. Where's the soul in that? Entertainment is just a real weakness for Princess in our opinion.

 

Going along with the lack of quality entertainment was the lack of anything that could be called lectures or port talks or enrichment, unless you count line-dancing classes or martini demonstrations. I know the California coast doesn't present the rich opportunities for education that Alaska or the Panama Canal might, but if they're not going to offer anything (maybe a little mission history?), they shouldn't promote it in their pre-cruise communications.

 

This cruise also marked our first experience at Crown Grill. While we found the food wonderful, the service was pretty sad for an extra-charge venue. Our server took probably 20 minutes to get to our table for drink orders, telling us several times as she brushed by that she'd be there in a minute or a few seconds. When the food came, my wife asked several times for steak sauce and it never arrived. And it took another 20 minutes for me to get coffee after dinner. It came after the dessert it was supposed to go with.

 

THE SUITE STUFF.

This was our first cruise in a full suite. I've saved this till last because people who don't book suites and never plan to might not care to read this. We took an upsell and wound up paying about half what an aft Penthouse would have gone for. We loved it, but agreed it wasn't in our budget to do this again unless we got a similar deal.

 

When it comes to added amenities, we agreed with a lot of Cruise Critic posters that breakfast at Sabatini's was a huge bonus. You can order pretty much whatever you want. There was only one true server, and she usually had 8 to 12 tables to deal with, but she handled it nicely, along with three or four male helpers.

 

For us, an unanticipated perk of being in a suite was our steward. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing they assign only their best stewards to the suites. We had Augustin from the Philippines. He was so smooth and capable that he seemed to get his job done with virtually no intrusion. Whenever we left the room, he would notice, greet us and go do his stuff right away. If we happened to come back 25 minutes later, no problem. He was finished. Wish we could have Augustin as our steward on every Princess cruise.

 

Another possibly underappreciated perk is the ability to make ATD reservations whenever you want. For the most part, people trying to get reservations in an MDR have to choose between early (5-5:30) and late (8-8:30). When you're in a suite, you can get a reservation for 6 or 6:15, 7:30 or whatever. We tried to be sensitive to the fact they needed to use that table twice, so never made a 7 or 7:30 res, but if it was important, we had the flexibility to do it.

 

The only disappointment in staying in a suite was our one experience with ordering dinner off the MDR menu. I'd read here on CC that if you ordered dinner from a suite, they'd come and dress up your balcony table with table cloth, etc. When ours came the room service gal just kind of plopped down a tray of plates and split. And of course the food was lukewarm at best.

 

We did enjoy being able to order a room-service MDR breakfast on disembarkation day. While most were doing battle at the buffet, we were enjoying our last breakfast on the balcony, with the San Francisco skyline as a backdrop. Too bad we can't afford this more than once in a great while.

 

If anyone's stayed with this till the end, thanks for your patience. And again, it was a good cruise. I tend to spend more time on the negative, but that's just a personal flaw as an old newspaper editor. We had a great cruise and bought two more Future Cruise Deposits each. That must mean something.

 

Jim

[tserface]

Thanks for your review. We're doing that cruise in a few weeks so we're very excited and it was great to hear good news about the ship.

 

Tom

[wowzz]

Jim

What a well balanced, erudite critique.

Thank you.

[Sea Hag]

We're on the 11/8 sailing, so I found your review interesting and useful. Thanks! :)

[2pbears]

Thanks so much for posting this review. We will be on the Grand in a few weeks and I must admit that some of the reviews on her rundown condition caused some concern. Happy to hear that she is in good shape. Wish we were going to have a suite as you did, maybe some day:rolleyes:

[jasbo49]

We will be on the Grand in a few weeks and I must admit that some of the reviews on her rundown condition caused some concern.

 

Rundown condition? Don't waste a second of your time worrying about the condition of the ship. It's a typical Princess ship. Almost everything is spic and span. If you look hard enough, you can always find something. But it's as nice as a 17-year-old cruise ship can be.

 

Jim

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your balanced review.:):):)

[JF - retired RRT]

THE SUITE STUFF.

The only disappointment in staying in a suite was our one experience with ordering dinner off the MDR menu. I'd read here on CC that if you ordered dinner from a suite, they'd come and dress up your balcony table with table cloth, etc. When ours came the room service gal just kind of plopped down a tray of plates and split. And of course the food was lukewarm at best.

For those who stuck with you to the end and are interested in ordering from the MDR menu in a suite...

I read an interesting method of doing this on a thread on CC.

When you order, don't order everything all at once.

Order the appetizer and bread, etc.

Eat, then order the main

Eat, the order the dessert

 

Keeps the ice cream from melting:D

[srpilo]

Great review, Thanks for sharing

 

 

 

The Grand remains one of my favorite ships too

Srpilo

[Crystabel]

I'm happy to read a current and positive review of the Grand. Thank you for posting.

[cruiselvr1]

My wife and I got off the Grand six days ago, and I figure if I'm ever going to jot some things down, I'd better get going. Overall, it was a nice cruise. No major complaints, but as usual I figure if we point out the few problems we did encounter, Princess stands a better chance of fixing them.

 

THE PROS.

First, the ship: I don't know how the Grand became a target of the "tired, old ship" finger-pointers. It may have been built in 1998, but it doesn't feel or look like it. In fact I saw very little difference between the Grand and the recently renovated Crown (Alaska in early June) in terms of condition.

 

There were a couple times I wished there were public stairs covering all the decks at mid-ship, but that's the extent of my criticisms of the ship. There were no buckets to catch drips, and there was no musty smell that I've seen others complain about. I'm not saying these things didn't happen on another cruise, but they sure didn't happen on ours.

 

A real plus for the Grand is Alfredo's. We'd never been on a ship with the free sit-down pizzeria before and found it to be a great addition. It's among the best pizzas I've had, for my tastes (great crispy crust), and splitting a pie for lunch was a good way to keep it light so we wouldn't stomp on our appetite for dinner.

 

I should also say for the second straight cruise, I was happy not to be hounded to buy wine tastings and extra drinks at dinner. This became a real downer a year ago for us.

 

THE CONS.

On our 7-day cruise, there was exactly one production show. That's pretty lame, and it seemed like they had a lot of second-rate fill-in stuff going on in the Princess Theater just so it wouldn't go unused. On the other hand, given the quality of the production shows in June on the Crown, maybe they're doing us a favor by sparing us shows like Motor City. We love the old motown music, but this was more like Bobby Sherman singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" on Shebang. Where's the soul in that? Entertainment is just a real weakness for Princess in our opinion.

 

Going along with the lack of quality entertainment was the lack of anything that could be called lectures or port talks or enrichment, unless you count line-dancing classes or martini demonstrations. I know the California coast doesn't present the rich opportunities for education that Alaska or the Panama Canal might, but if they're not going to offer anything (maybe a little mission history?), they shouldn't promote it in their pre-cruise communications.

 

This cruise also marked our first experience at Crown Grill. While we found the food wonderful, the service was pretty sad for an extra-charge venue. Our server took probably 20 minutes to get to our table for drink orders, telling us several times as she brushed by that she'd be there in a minute or a few seconds. When the food came, my wife asked several times for steak sauce and it never arrived. And it took another 20 minutes for me to get coffee after dinner. It came after the dessert it was supposed to go with.

 

THE SUITE STUFF.

This was our first cruise in a full suite. I've saved this till last because people who don't book suites and never plan to might not care to read this. We took an upsell and wound up paying about half what an aft Penthouse would have gone for. We loved it, but agreed it wasn't in our budget to do this again unless we got a similar deal.

 

When it comes to added amenities, we agreed with a lot of Cruise Critic posters that breakfast at Sabatini's was a huge bonus. You can order pretty much whatever you want. There was only one true server, and she usually had 8 to 12 tables to deal with, but she handled it nicely, along with three or four male helpers.

 

For us, an unanticipated perk of being in a suite was our steward. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing they assign only their best stewards to the suites. We had Augustin from the Philippines. He was so smooth and capable that he seemed to get his job done with virtually no intrusion. Whenever we left the room, he would notice, greet us and go do his stuff right away. If we happened to come back 25 minutes later, no problem. He was finished. Wish we could have Augustin as our steward on every Princess cruise.

 

Another possibly underappreciated perk is the ability to make ATD reservations whenever you want. For the most part, people trying to get reservations in an MDR have to choose between early (5-5:30) and late (8-8:30). When you're in a suite, you can get a reservation for 6 or 6:15, 7:30 or whatever. We tried to be sensitive to the fact they needed to use that table twice, so never made a 7 or 7:30 res, but if it was important, we had the flexibility to do it.

 

The only disappointment in staying in a suite was our one experience with ordering dinner off the MDR menu. I'd read here on CC that if you ordered dinner from a suite, they'd come and dress up your balcony table with table cloth, etc. When ours came the room service gal just kind of plopped down a tray of plates and split. And of course the food was lukewarm at best.

 

We did enjoy being able to order a room-service MDR breakfast on disembarkation day. While most were doing battle at the buffet, we were enjoying our last breakfast on the balcony, with the San Francisco skyline as a backdrop. Too bad we can't afford this more than once in a great while.

 

If anyone's stayed with this till the end, thanks for your patience. And again, it was a good cruise. I tend to spend more time on the negative, but that's just a personal flaw as an old newspaper editor. We had a great cruise and bought two more Future Cruise Deposits each. That must mean something.

 

Jim

It was nice reading about your suite experience, we will be in our first suite also the Grand in three weeks. What we wanted to do was have our dinners in our room, except for nights at the Crown grill.

[pris993]

We cruise the Grand from Istanbul when it was brand new in l998, did another 7 day when it first became home ported in San Francsico, had a great time, no problems at all. Going again on Dec 30th for a New Years cruise to Mexico... hope the entertainment improves. Thanks for your review. Glad you had a great time.

 

Our service in the MDR was so good we did not eat elsewhere on our last cruise.

[Flafun888]

Thanks for your review...we were on the sailing after yours (10.17-10.24). I thought the ship and almost everything on the coastal cruise was great - other than the same things you mentioned - stairs only at ends of the ship and the funky layout of the Grand where all floors don't seem to go through from end to end without having to go up or down a floor.

 

I thought the comedians were pretty good, but really didn't really care for the rest of the entertainment at all - that was the only real disappointment for us. We really liked Celebrity's offerings much better, but entertainment, like food, is so subjective. Many passengers seemed to be enjoying it.

 

For any non-smokers, the only advice I'd share is to avoid the entire area adjacent to the casino, if you can. I don't think the casino has a ventilation system. We occasionally needed to visit nearby areas and the smell of smoke was overpowering even far from the actual casino entrance. From the 2nd day on, we'd go up or down a deck and then over, just to avoid the general area.

[caribill]

Thanks for your review...we were on the sailing after yours (10.17-10.24). I thought the ship and almost everything on the coastal cruise was great - other than the same things you mentioned - stairs only at ends of the ship and the funky layout of the Grand where all floors don't seem to go through from end to end without having to go up or down a floor.

 

 

Royal Caribbean ships we have been on also have decks you cannot walk across and thus have to go up and then down to get to venues.

 

But I do not see posts about it being confusing on the RCI board. Do not know why.

[tml1230]

Jim, thanks for the GREAT review, i appreciated your balanced writing….

 

we are doing a B2B on the Grand next month…we had a decision to make……….it was one cruise in a balcony room ,OR, a B2B in an inside room…

 

Can you send me a pic or 2 of your suite? i will take it on our cruise and tape one to the mirror near the TV ….and dream

 

and tape another pic in the bathroom if there is enough space to do so!

 

thanks again for a great report.

[cvpends]

THE CONS.

On our 7-day cruise, there was exactly one production show. That's pretty lame, and it seemed like they had a lot of second-rate fill-in stuff going on in the Princess Theater just so it wouldn't go unused. On the other hand, given the quality of the production shows in June on the Crown, maybe they're doing us a favor by sparing us shows like Motor City. We love the old motown music, but this was more like Bobby Sherman singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" on Shebang. Where's the soul in that? Entertainment is just a real weakness for Princess in our opinion.

 

Going along with the lack of quality entertainment was the lack of anything that could be called lectures or port talks or enrichment, unless you count line-dancing classes or martini demonstrations. I know the California coast doesn't present the rich opportunities for education that Alaska or the Panama Canal might, but if they're not going to offer anything (maybe a little mission history?), they shouldn't promote it in their pre-cruise communications.

 

Jim, I appreciate your review! Could you please tell us more about the entertainment? If there was only one production show, what was in the Princess Theater the other nights? And what was in the Vista Lounge? Thanks!

[DougH]

Hi I was on the cruise with you. The CD mentioned a couple of times that the dancers had just joined the ship when we did and were in the process of getting set up on the ship. Having costumes altered to fit, learning the stage etc and that was why they only had the one production show, I though the other entertainers were pretty good but wish they had at least two options each night instead of one guest entertainer and then something hosted/run by the cruise staff.

 

Other than that a nice cruise. I've never seen these water leaks everyone talks about and also a huge fan of Alfredos.I had lunch about three times and I think dinner there twice :)

[jasbo49]

Can you send me a pic or 2 of your suite? i will take it on our cruise and tape one to the mirror near the TV ….and dream.

 

My only pics are on my phone, and I'm having trouble getting them to upload to my laptop. Plus I just looked and discovered all my photos are of the balcony. The suite photos on the Princess website are just like the room we had (even though they say "Your view and room layout will differ from this," or some such thing.

 

Jim

[jasbo49]

Jim, I appreciate your review! Could you please tell us more about the entertainment? If there was only one production show, what was in the Princess Theater the other nights? And what was in the Vista Lounge? Thanks!

 

One night was "country star Ric Steel," who probably isn't an actual since he appears to do only covers. There was a vocal impressionist who was not at all our cup of tea. One night there was a combination of those two. Another night they had the piano bar gal doing a Princess Theater show. That sounds like patchwork to me. There was one night that looked good, but we got there late and the house was packed. It was Alfred and Seymour, plus a comic (whose name escapes me) who was at the embarkation show and was good.

 

I can't remember what was going on in the Vista other than bingo and movies. I was sure I put the Patters in my suitcase so I could answer questions like this, but I can't find them.

 

Jim

[Who Knew]

THE SUITE STUFF.

This was our first cruise in a full suite. I've saved this till last because people who don't book suites and never plan to might not care to read this. We took an upsell and wound up paying about half what an aft Penthouse would have gone for. We loved it, but agreed it wasn't in our budget to do this again unless we got a similar deal.

 

When it comes to added amenities, we agreed with a lot of Cruise Critic posters that breakfast at Sabatini's was a huge bonus. You can order pretty much whatever you want. There was only one true server, and she usually had 8 to 12 tables to deal with, but she handled it nicely, along with three or four male helpers.

 

For us, an unanticipated perk of being in a suite was our steward. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing they assign only their best stewards to the suites. We had Augustin from the Philippines. He was so smooth and capable that he seemed to get his job done with virtually no intrusion. Whenever we left the room, he would notice, greet us and go do his stuff right away. If we happened to come back 25 minutes later, no problem. He was finished. Wish we could have Augustin as our steward on every Princess cruise.

 

Another possibly underappreciated perk is the ability to make ATD reservations whenever you want. For the most part, people trying to get reservations in an MDR have to choose between early (5-5:30) and late (8-8:30). When you're in a suite, you can get a reservation for 6 or 6:15, 7:30 or whatever. We tried to be sensitive to the fact they needed to use that table twice, so never made a 7 or 7:30 res, but if it was important, we had the flexibility to do it.

 

The only disappointment in staying in a suite was our one experience with ordering dinner off the MDR menu. I'd read here on CC that if you ordered dinner from a suite, they'd come and dress up your balcony table with table cloth, etc. When ours came the room service gal just kind of plopped down a tray of plates and split. And of course the food was lukewarm at best.

 

We did enjoy being able to order a room-service MDR breakfast on disembarkation day. While most were doing battle at the buffet, we were enjoying our last breakfast on the balcony, with the San Francisco skyline as a backdrop. Too bad we can't afford this more than once in a great while.

 

If anyone's stayed with this till the end, thanks for your patience. And again, it was a good cruise. I tend to spend more time on the negative, but that's just a personal flaw as an old newspaper editor. We had a great cruise and bought two more Future Cruise Deposits each. That must mean something.

 

Jim

 

Thank you for your review! I have sailed on the Grand twice before and have always had a soft spot in my heart for her as she was my very first ship/cruise.

 

I am on the 11/8 cruise, and like you, we took an upsell to a full suite--also my first time in a suite. Thanks for the tips and comments about your suite experience! :D

Edited October 26, 2015 by Who Knew

[jasbo49]

Hi I was on the cruise with you. The CD mentioned a couple of times that the dancers had just joined the ship when we did and were in the process of getting set up on the ship. Having costumes altered to fit, learning the stage etc and that was why they only had the one production show, I though the other entertainers were pretty good but wish they had at least two options each night instead of one guest entertainer and then something hosted/run by the cruise staff.

 

Other than that a nice cruise. I've never seen these water leaks everyone talks about and also a huge fan of Alfredos.I had lunch about three times and I think dinner there twice :)

 

Hi, Doug. It was good to talk to you at the meet and greet. I did hear once that the singer-dancer crew was new, but I didn't hear the details.

 

I assumed the new personnel was part of the reason for fewer shows. But if they're going to cut the usual three shows to one, I think they should have brought more talent on board instead of stretching the non-headline acts too thin.

 

Jim

[cflutist]

Just got off the Grand 10/17 to 10/24 sailing.

 

There were three Production Shows:

 

Do You Wanna Dance?

Motor City (in the Vista Lounge)

British Invasion

 

Watched Jurrasic World on MUTS and in the Princess Theatre.

Also showing the Sound of Music, Ant Man, Far from the Madding Crowd on MUTS.

[DougH]

Sounds like the cast is back on a more normal Production show schedule and we were just the unlucky ones. I've seen all of those already so it was really not a big deal for me.

 

Had been looking forward to the Ultimate Ship Tour again but was told only thee of us signed up for it so it was cancelled

[Enforcer]

THE PROS.

First, the ship: I don't know how the Grand became a target of the "tired, old ship" finger-pointers. It may have been built in 1998, but it doesn't feel or look like it.

 

Hi,

 

We were on the same cruise, although we really enjoyed our cruise and had a great time the ship is quite shabby. There were several buckets catching drips in the Horizon cafe and the leaks even resulted in one side of the access route being coned off. The ship does need a refit or at least some money spending on it to get it in better shape.

 

The photographers were a nuisance.

 

Pete

[DougH]

Hi,

 

The photographers were a nuisance.

 

Pete

 

That is not just on the Grand, it's every ship on every line

 

I don't eat in the MDR so I don't get bothered by photographers there. Walking off the ship I just walk right past them, no big deal. I thought the "in you face" sales of items on this cruise was almost non existant.

 

I ate most of my meals in the Horizon and never noticed any buckets. (I was mostly port side aft) Occasionally they were cleaning some areas but that should be expected as they are open almost 24/7