Grand Princess is now 26 years old. Is she still ship shape?

[Princess Chatterer]

Grand Princess is now 26 years old.  Is she still ship shape?

[memoak]

I don’t see why it shouldn’t be it just won’t have some of the bells and whistles of the Royal class ships. I will be on her for 14 days this summer with one of my favorite bartenders

[Ken the cruiser]

I hope so. We’re booked on the Grand for 22 days on an Alaska B3B starting the end of April. So far in the last couple of years, we’ve been on other Grand class ships like the Sapphire, Caribbean (twice), and the Diamond and have nothing but fond memories and have nothing but high hopes we’re going to have more of the same on the Grand on our upcoming cruise. 😁

[startedwithamouse]

10 minutes ago, memoak said:

I don’t see why it shouldn’t be it just won’t have some of the bells and whistles of the Royal class ships. I will be on her for 14 days this summer with one of my favorite bartenders

Alaska? Viewing areas can't be beat with the Grand class.

[memoak]

35 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Alaska? Viewing areas can't be beat with the Grand class.

We almost always sail all the way aft on ships when we can and really prefer Grand class. Yes b2b Alaska out of. An outer and then in 2025 17 day Alaska  RT from Seattle 

[tkwbear]

I sailed the Grand last July on a back to back Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver. Since I had an inside room, I spent a lot of time outside and enjoyed the lower promenade.

 

My room was decent, but I did not enjoy the public areas. There was a foul smell from the laundry room, 2 doors down. The buffet restaurant was poorly designed with large sliding doors on each end. Wear your coat to the restaurant when cruising in a cool area.

 

I didn’t go to any shows but was told the smell was bad in the show room.

 

The ship looks nice from afar but there was quite a bit of rotting wood on the lower promenade deck.

 

Food was fair to good. Service was fair though my cabin steward was very good.

 

The front desk consisted of newbies. I found out the hard way to buy my transfers before boarding as they will not sell you one to Seattle once on board. No one seemed to know why; they were not sold out.

[Thrak]

Just sailed Grand Princess September 26 - November 29. 63 days on the ship. No foul smells anywhere. Crew was excellent except for the steward in our second cabin - we changed cabins half way through and the second steward was terrible. The aft elevators had some "interesting" noises when they - sloooooowly - opened and closed and the floors in them felt "spongy". There were a couple of different days when one or another of them was out of service. Everybody also froze in the theater. Most wore coats because it was so cold in there. Other than that we had no issues with the ship or the crew.

[mtnesterz]

3 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Alaska? Viewing areas can't be beat with the Grand class.

Few would disagree and add the best viewing place on the Grand Class is Skywalkers. Readers new to the line should be aware the Grand itself, the topic of this thread, had Skywalkers removed in 2011.

[karatemom2]

13 minutes ago, Over from NZ said:

What a daft question. No, they'll be giving you a bucket when you get onboard to help bail.. and you'll sign an insurance waiver. Goodness.. 🤣😂

 

We love the Grand and have cruised on her a number of times - both in Alaska and to Hawaii. She is a great old ship and I'm sure much work has been done to maintain her over the years, but your comment made me laugh, because I will say that the times we cruised on her, we found her the leakiest Princess ship we have ever encountered.

 

Every cruise featured areas where they literally did have buckets set up to catch the drips. On more than one occasion I had water dripping on my head from the ceiling!

 

But regardless, we spent many happy days on that ship and I have nothing but fond memories and would consider a cruise on the Grand again for the right itinerary.

[Coral]

I was on the Grand over Christmas 2 years ago and didn't miss Skywalkers. 

 

I had forgotten how much I loved that ship until I was on it again. Would sail again in a heart beat.

[Princess Chatterer]

40 minutes ago, Over from NZ said:

What a daft question. No, they'll be giving you a bucket when you get onboard to help bail.. and you'll sign an insurance waiver. Goodness.. 🤣😂

I asked the question because it was reported four months ago the Grand Princess had vomit smells everywhere.  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-13/grand-princess-ship-covid-gastro-docks-in-adelaide/103096836

 

We will be sailing on the Grand Princess for 33 days this year so I was just asking whether the ship ls now in "ship shape."  Last year we sailed on the 21 year old Island Princes when air conditioning completely failed in our part of the ship.  A/C was out for the entire length of our Panama Canal west coast to east coast cruise. We and passengers in our part of the ship were truly miserable getting little sleep.  I'm thinking that as the Princess ships start ageing out  passengers should pay a little attention before before they book..

[memoak]

35 minutes ago, Princess Chatterer said:

I asked the question because it was reported four months ago the Grand Princess had vomit smells everywhere.  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-13/grand-princess-ship-covid-gastro-docks-in-adelaide/103096836

 

We will be sailing on the Grand Princess for 33 days this year so I was just asking whether the ship ls now in "ship shape."  Last year we sailed on the 21 year old Island Princes when air conditioning completely failed in our part of the ship.  A/C was out for the entire length of our Panama Canal west coast to east coast cruise. We and passengers in our part of the ship were truly miserable getting little sleep.  I'm thinking that as the Princess ships start ageing out  passengers should pay a little attention before before they book..

Things can break down on a ship of any age. Things like a/c, toilets etc may have problems even on new ships. When we had heating issues it took many days to fix and we got a substantial amount of OBC

[Princess Chatterer]

Note to Cruise Critic Editors:  Please delete the link in post #12 and #13 referencing abc dot net dot au/news.  It was an honest mistake.

Edited March 7 by Princess Chatterer

[cr8tiv1]

@Thrak (aka sheldon moment):  Besides the freezing in the theater, did they reduce the volume?  I wonder if hoodies would work for both.  For all others, I always take a wrap with me to dinner and the theater.

 

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

Just sailed Grand Princess September 26 - November 29. 63 days on the ship. No foul smells anywhere. Crew was excellent except for the steward in our second cabin - we changed cabins half way through and the second steward was terrible. The aft elevators had some "interesting" noises when they - sloooooowly - opened and closed and the floors in them felt "spongy". There were a couple of different days when one or another of them was out of service. Everybody also froze in the theater. Most wore coats because it was so cold in there. Other than that we had no issues with the ship or the crew.

 

Yes, the Grand removed Skywalkers and replaced it with One5.  Not a "bad" lounge.  Ample places to sit during the day.  Then there is the enclosed Conservatory midship (part of the covered pool).

 

5 hours ago, mtnesterz said:

Few would disagree and add the best viewing place on the Grand Class is Skywalkers. Readers new to the line should be aware the Grand itself, the topic of this thread, had Skywalkers removed in 2011.

 

[mtnesterz]

7 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Yes, the Grand removed Skywalkers and replaced it with One5.  Not a "bad" lounge.  Ample places to sit during the day.

Yes, there is the One5, on deck 15, (how creative of them,) but it is not known as a place to sightsee, which was my reason for posting. I also made note of the date of change, 2011 for a reason. A poster recommended a ship (class) based on what the ship was 13 or more years ago, not what it is today.

@Princess Chatterer wants to know what the ship is like, now.

Two years ago there was a persistent leak outside Explorers and some odors. But likewise, that is not the state of the ship today. To the OP, consider asking in a "live from" or ask in a roll call. Someone there right now.

[Princess Chatterer]

Already asked in the latest on board roll call.  So far - silence.  This thread however has been very informative.

[cruisevac4]

I was on the Grand for 14 nights in Feb., 2024.  I still like the ship.  All in all, we really enjoyed our expericence on the Grand.  There were some issues like a light bulb in the main dining room that flickered (all the staff just ignored it) until we complained; water in the shower not being that hot in some our rooms and really hot in others; one elevator out of service for a day; our room not being cold enough on hot days; the aft hot tub jets not working. The maintenace staff attempted to correct the A/C problem after we called, but all they could do is change out the grill.  I kind of had the impression that they hoped to leave before we could tell if that helped.  It was a little better for the rest of the cruise.

 

Sometimes, the food (especially the soupy appetizers) were not hot.  However, the French Onion Soup was always hot and tasted great.  We ate B/L/D mostly in the dining room and the service and food was very good.  Our wait team worked really well as a team all of us really enjoyed meals together.

[555]

20 hours ago, Princess Chatterer said:

A/C was out for the entire length of our Panama Canal west coast to east coast cruise. We and passengers in our part of the ship were truly miserable getting little sleep. 

That seems to be one of the major problems with the older ships, which we no longer sail on.

[startedwithamouse]

21 hours ago, mtnesterz said:

Few would disagree and add the best viewing place on the Grand Class is Skywalkers. Readers new to the line should be aware the Grand itself, the topic of this thread, had Skywalkers removed in 2011.

Best viewing area is forward above the bridge. 

[memoak]

18 minutes ago, 555 said:

That seems to be one of the major problems with the older ships, which we no longer sail on.

And we almost always sail the older ships to avoid the huge crowds and deafening piazza 

[555]

13 hours ago, memoak said:

And we almost always sail the older ships to avoid the huge crowds and deafening piazza 

They still seem to attract a crowd. 

[2022cruisey]

January 2024 our mini suite floor was wet or damp for 6 out of 14 days.

[geniesue]

Although the Grand Princess is the oldest ship of the fleet, she is in great condition.  We have just completed a 14 day New Zealand cruise and have another 21 days to look forward to.  There is absolutely no odors present, the promenade deck goes around the entire deck, and no warped planking evident.  The Grand had a major refurbishment during Covid with extensive updating.  The crew was excellent.  Don’t hesitate to sail on the Grand Princess!

[Princess Chatterer]

Thanks.  Based on what has been mentioned above we just booked the Grand for 33 days, embarking on Oct 31 out of LA.  Port stops in Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, French Polynesia and then slow boating back to LA.  Our first voyage on the Grand was 24 years ago.

[damiross]

Due to the numerous dry docks the Grand has gone through, the ship has had many changes.  It's not the same ship as the one that started service 26 years ago.

Here's just on change.