Back from the Grand Princess Jan 21-28

[ehogan]

Given all the recent problems with the Grand, I am giving my two cents worth re our trip Jan 21-28

 

The ship is experiencing problems with the itinerary and also had problems related to the poor weather we had for the first two days (heavy rains in Costa Maya and Belize). We were given a $75 per person on board credit since the Grand Cayman port was cancelled. If you are going on this itinerary, do not expect to make this port, the last four or five sailings there have been cancelled. This is the second time we have had Grand Cayman cancelled (previously on Celebrity) and I understand that 1/3 of the time this is the case.

 

Playa del Carmen was the replacement and it was excellent. I'll give a more detailed description of the ports in the port section.

 

In spite of the problems and obvious complaints heard from the passengers, the staff throughout the ship was courteous and tried to be as helpful as possible, even though a lot of the circumstances were beyond their control. I found service throughout the ship to be excellent, with no trace of surliness or rudeness. The staff had to try and satisfy the passengers in a couple of situations where I think the adminstration made some poor choices. (e.g. we were required to wait for an hour and a half for a tender in one of the lounges - a better choice would have been to allow us to carry on on board and call our tender number when the tender was ready)

 

The ship is beautiful but is showing some slight signs of wear. The only complaint I have is that the Princess Theatre is much too small for the number of passengers. The shows are at 8:15 and 10:15 and if you wish to see the early show, you need to be there a half hour before the performance. The Horizon Court on the Lido Deck (buffet area) is very poorly laid out and becomes quite congested. Try the rear of the area to find good seating.

 

We had traditional dinner seating which we prefer, but we did try the anytime dining. As expected, we didn't really care for the anytime dining since they seated passengers at different times, so that we were having dessert while they were ordering their meals - made things a bit fractured. We did not experience any waits, though.

 

I have to say that I only found the food to be average in quality - the steaks in particular were poor and the fish dishes I tried were quite dry. It is kind of sad that the best meal I had all week was the one we prepared at the Mexican cooking class in Cozumel (fabulous tour!)

 

Embarkation and debarkation were a dream - we were on board by 12:30 and with their express check-out (you take off your own baggage) as an option, the ship was cleared out in no time.

 

Entertainment (except for the comedian) was just fair to average.

 

All in all, I would give this trip an "average" rating. I expected better from Princess (we hadn't sailed with them since 1996) and I have to say that I think RCCL, Carnival or NCL are better choices. I would also avoid this itinerary in the future - the ports do not offer much, and I wonder why they even stop in Belize or Costa Maya. If you do these ports, you should definately consider a ship's tour. There is not much to do on your own, and the few people I spoke to who tried to arrange for something on land, weren't happy with the result.

 

I'll check the board for the next few days and try to answer any questions you might have.

[adjburch]

Going in March with Princess. Have taken several cruises before but with different cruise lines and always in Jan. or Feb. The food was best on Carnival Conquest when it first started out. I hated to read in your review that the food was not what what one would expect from Princess.

 

Have heard that the coffee is the worst of any cruise line. Anything you can share would be greatly appreciated. So please post lots of info.

 

Thanks!!:)

[LARGIN]

Remember food ratings are subjective.. I have never had a bad meal on all of the cruises I have been on. Some passengers I guess are more critical than others. If you do not like the entree, send it back and ask for another dish. You waiter wants you to be pleased and will bend over backwards to ensure you enjoy your dinner experience. As for coffee, tasted all right to me. If you want fresh brewed, there are places on the ship that you can get it.. I am sure you will have a great March cruise.

[calikak]

Going in March with Princess. Have taken several cruises before but with different cruise lines and always in Jan. or Feb. The food was best on Carnival Conquest when it first started out. I hated to read in your review that the food was not what what one would expect from Princess.

 

Have heard that the coffee is the worst of any cruise line. Anything you can share would be greatly appreciated. So please post lots of info.

 

Thanks!!:)

 

On the grand-class ships, coffee in the buffet tends to be substantially worse than anywhere else on the ship (dining rooms, room service, bars). They make it from a syrup for the buffet and it's very bitter, IMO (although it's all subjective). But I think it's fine everywhere else on the ship. If you must drink it in the buffet, try having half coffee & half hot water. That seems to cut the bitterness a bit.

[ehogan]

Re the coffee: We are big coffee drinkers and quality of brew is important to us. The only place on board to get fairly good coffee is on Deck 7 where there is a small coffee bar that actually brews the coffee ( I understand that the rest of the coffee is prepared from syrup). You can also get specialty coffee drinks here and also in the dining areas at $2.

 

By the end of the cruise the Deck 7 coffee area was pretty busy - so I guess a lot of people felt the same way about the coffee.

 

Don't get the wrong impression from my post - generally we had a great time, but I think it is important to mention the negatives so that you can avoid them if possible. We are not gourmands, but we've been on all the cruise lines (14 cruises) so I feel that I can validly compare the food between cruises. Nothing was bad enough to send back, just not special enough to impress.

 

PS. We didn't try the specialty dining restaurants, but I hear they were fabulous.

[LUCY55]

Just a comment about the OP's statement about this itinerary. I originally was looking at the Grand Princess and Carnival Valor for this type of western itinerary. We had been on the Golden Princess before and enjoyed it. My sister, a Princess fan wanted to do the Grand, and I wanted to try the Valor. When I compared itineraries I noticed that in most cases Carnival has longer port times. The time in Belize off the Grand was particularly short. I may be wrong about this-but I think Carnival is the "big boy" and gets the better times. We had a great trip on the Valor. We did Carnival's Xunantunich Mayan ruins tour in Belize. And also did Mayan ruins in Costa Maya -Chacchoben with David. Both tours were very good. We went Jan 8-15 and appears we got better weather. It poured rain in both ports, but not for real long. So don't write-off the exotic western itinerary. And BTW the food on the Valor was pretty good which was a pleasant surprise since we had lower expectations.

[LUCY55]

Just read that Princess has increased the port time in Belize. That would help a great deal.