Live from Grand Princess, Roundtrip San Francisco, 14-24 August 2019

[grapau27]

9 minutes ago, marden1970 said:

I'm looking forward to your review as well.  
We were on her in June to Alaska and will be on her again on  November 3rd to Hawaii.  

Grapua27 - is that the cruise you will be on?

 

No.

Edited August 14, 2019 by grapau27

[cougaraz]

We are onboard and ready for muster. Details to follow, but embarkation was absolutley perfect. In fact, from the moment we stepped out of our taxi until I was ordering lunch in the Davinci Dining Room was under 20 minutes. 

[The Mikado]

Yep, embarkation was great.

 

We arrived about 10:55 AM, the porter took our bags off the Uber and we were on our way in. Absolutely no lines at all, either at security or at the check in desk. We waited about five minutes for them to call our boarding group and we were on the ship from curb to dining room in less than 15 minutes. They did fully enforce the 1:00 PM access to the state rooms. 

 

We do have two chairs on our balcony. I’ve read other posters referred to “barrel chairs”. I have no idea what those are but we do have two semi-comfortable chairs and a small round table on our balcony. 

 

Just now coming up on 4 PM which is departure time. And just now feeling the side-thrusters spin up. 

[The Mikado]

I also noticed this outside our room:

[IrishLassie]

Looking forward to your post & pictures.  Have a great cruise!

[Aus Traveller]

54 minutes ago, The Mikado said:

We do have two chairs on our balcony. I’ve read other posters referred to “barrel chairs”. I have no idea what those are but we do have two semi-comfortable chairs and a small round table on our balcony.

Barrel chairs are the ones that are (or used to be) in the cabins. They are a soft-upholstered type shaped like a half barrel on legs.

[WAussieSFO]

1 hour ago, The Mikado said:

 

 

We do have two chairs on our balcony. I’ve read other posters referred to “barrel chairs”. I have no idea what those are but we do have two semi-comfortable chairs and a small round table on our balcony. 

 

Bon Voyage!! Love the closeness and convenience of access to the aft of the ship from that cabin.

 

Barrel chairs are in the cabin, we still had one in the cabin when we were on the Grand earlier this year.

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by sfkaren

[Ken the cruiser]

Deleted

Edited August 15, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[mek]

We are on the 9/13 sailing - will be following your posts.

[SmilesYourWay]

Following.

I have not been on the Grand. But will be getting on her the day you get off for a 10 Alaska cruise.  Looking forward to your posts and possibly learning something about the ship and ports before I go. Happy cruising!!

[Lucky TGO]

Enjoy and have a great cruise 🚢 

Tony

[Lucky TGO]

Enjoy and have a great cruise 🚢 

Tony

[live2skide]

47 minutes ago, SmilesYourWay said:

Following.

I have not been on the Grand. But will be getting on her the day you get off for a 10 Alaska cruise.  Looking forward to your posts and possibly learning something about the ship and ports before I go. Happy cruising!!

Theresa - this is going to be a fun roll call to follow along on while we wait for our sailing on Aug 24. Interesting that they were allowed to board early.  I am coming from a SFO airport hotel that morning; and was going to be "good" and wait for the 1:30; but now I am re-thinking! 

 

[live2skide]

2 hours ago, The Mikado said:

Yep, embarkation was great.

 

We arrived about 10:55 AM, the porter took our bags off the Uber and we were on our way in. Absolutely no lines at all, either at security or at the check in desk. We waited about five minutes for them to call our boarding group and we were on the ship from curb to dining room in less than 15 minutes. They did fully enforce the 1:00 PM access to the state rooms. 

 

We do have two chairs on our balcony. I’ve read other posters referred to “barrel chairs”. I have no idea what those are but we do have two semi-comfortable chairs and a small round table on our balcony. 

 

Just now coming up on 4 PM which is departure time. And just now feeling the side-thrusters spin up. 

Happy sailing. I am on the Aug 24th sailing and wondered how "close" did they allow the UBER driver to get to drop off???  Enjoy your trip!

[live2skide]

6 hours ago, The Mikado said:

We are on the ship, standing at the entrance to the Da Vinci MDR waiting for the 11:30 opening. 

 

The wine police were out in force making me cough up $150 for absolutely nothing. So, I did not dodge that bazooka. But they didn’t actually count the bottles. Hmmm...

 

All in all, things have gone very smoothly, from Amtrak, to the Amtrak bus across the Bay Bridge, to the hotel, to the Uber XL to drag our bags to Pier 27, to the no-wait check-in, to the 5 minute wait to board the ship, to the sort-of aggressive security guy taking our photos. 

 

So so far so good. 

Guessing you brought on board more than 1 bottle each??  Is the $150 a corkage charge??

 

[The Mikado]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Barrel chairs are the ones that are (or used to be) in the cabins. They are a soft-upholstered type shaped like a half barrel on legs.

These are more like outdoor, casual furniture. The chair in the room doesn’t fit that description, either. 

 

Thank you. 

[The Mikado]

2 hours ago, sfkaren said:

Bon Voyage!! Love the closeness and convenience of access to the aft of the ship from that cabin.

 

Barrel chairs are in the cabin, we still had one in the cabin when we were on the Grand earlier this year.

 

 It’s kind of nice stepping out of the room and being at the aft pool in 10 seconds. I just don’t like that kick out that hinders our view aft from our balcony. 

[The Mikado]

56 minutes ago, live2skide said:

Theresa - this is going to be a fun roll call to follow along on while we wait for our sailing on Aug 24. Interesting that they were allowed to board early.  I am coming from a SFO airport hotel that morning; and was going to be "good" and wait for the 1:30; but now I am re-thinking! 

 

 Don’t wait. Be there by 11 o’clock and get straight on the ship. 

[The Mikado]

56 minutes ago, live2skide said:

Happy sailing. I am on the Aug 24th sailing and wondered how "close" did they allow the UBER driver to get to drop off???  Enjoy your trip!

I didn’t know there was an issue with Uber. We drove right up along with everybody else and we were not discriminated against. He found a parking spot at the curb about 50 yards past the entrance to the check-in building. Right along with everyone else. 

[The Mikado]

37 minutes ago, live2skide said:

Guessing you brought on board more than 1 bottle each??  Is the $150 a corkage charge??

 

Yep, we brought 12 bottles, 2 got on free and the other 10 we paid $15 each for.

 

On another thread, I am more or less at war on these corkage charges... for personal reasons that are not important. It’s a battle I won’t win... which should make at least one poster very happy. 

[The Mikado]

1 hour ago, Lucky TGO said:

Enjoy and have a great cruise 🚢 

Tony

 I hope I’m not hijacking this thread from the OP. But, thank you, Tony. 

[live2skide]

4 minutes ago, The Mikado said:

Yep, we brought 12 bottles, 2 got on free and the other 10 we paid $15 each for.

 

On another thread, I am more or less at war on these corkage charges... for personal reasons that are not important. It’s a battle I won’t win... which should make at least one poster very happy. 

Enjoy!!!  I guess between the "corkage" and purchase price vs the minimum $40/bottle on board you are still ahead!  I will bring 2 bottles for my roommate & myself; because I can't carry much more; then stick to the bottle of vodka I pre-ordered and the mini bar.

I remember bringing wine home from a European cruise in the days where nobody cared how much liquid was in your carry-on. I got nailed in Venice on overweight "carry on" charges (>22#) and had to check the bag. Wasn't happy about the 150EU I had to spend to bring home my cheap wine! HA!!  I also remember in Europe that Princess never checked how much wine you brought on board! We would stock up in every port, and drank it all the way across the Atlantic!  Have corkscrew and stopper already packed for this trip!

Thanks for the UBER info and the early boarding! :)  We are aft on Dolphin next cruise, close to the elevator as well, and look forward to that quick trip up to the pool area and horizon court for breakfast.  Happy sailing!!  Will enjoy your posts for the next 10 days!!

[Theoldguy]

Drop off parking goes to the first available...regardless of Uber...taxi or my cousin Vennie dropping you off...the traffic folks are trying to eliminate traffic on the Embarcadero

 

At one point they allowed you to bring wine on and just charged corkage for consuming in public areas...but folks would board with cases of wine...and the different cruise lines figured that they were losing 💸💸💸 so now it is the first bottle free per adult passengers...$15 per bottle for excess...and they still charge an additional corkage fee for consuming your wine in a public area or dining room...for us 2/3rds of the time we aren’t charged for consuming in the dining room...so I don’t  become cross the few times they tag me

[The Mikado]

2 hours ago, live2skide said:

Enjoy!!!  I guess between the "corkage" and purchase price vs the minimum $40/bottle on board you are still ahead!

Yep, we’re ahead. Drinking the equivalent of $80-$100 champagne we paid about $28 for. I was told the “wine police” desk is only infrequently manned but we didn’t have the luck this time. 

 

Uber was not a problem. I didn’t know it could potentially be so. 

 

And definitely early board; only about 100 people there and literally no one in line ahead of us, either at security or check-in. Either that or after 14:00 or so after everyone’s on. 

 

Thank you for the wishes! 

[The Mikado]

2 hours ago, Theoldguy said:

...and they still charge an additional corkage fee for consuming your wine in a public area or dining room...

The wine police guy didn’t mention an additional corkage fee beyond the $15 and the dining room folks checked the sticker and were satisfied. 

 

Curious to hear your experience if it’s been different in the past than ours today.