Grand Princess-New Cruiser

[snoopy124]

This is the first time my husband and I are going to be going on a cruise. We are going on the Grand Princess in February. Can anyone please give me some advice? We have a balcony on the Baja floor. Not sure if it is covered or not.

How about the excursions. what do you recommend for cozumel, ocho rios and grand cayman.

What are the fun activities?

Please help the new cruisers. :)

[prarie cruiser]

The best advice about things to do in ports, and also hotels to book in the embarkation city, are found on the ports of call boards elsewhere on the CruiseCritic site. It will give you all kinds of info about where to go, the best taxi drivers to hire, etc.

 

My personal favorites are swimming with the sting rays in Grand Cayman and visiting Mayan ruins at Cozumel (tourist type shopping is fun there too).

 

Welcome to cruising and enjoy your trip on the Grand Princess ( I love her, have cruised on her 3 times).

[cherylandtk]

Welcome to the boards--to answer your specific question, yes, your balcony is covered.

 

To find out more about the ports and the activities, scroll down the main board page until you get to the Ports of Call sections. Lots of comments there; and remember that everyone has different likes and dislikes. Be sure to read WHY someone does or does not like a particular event or activity. Their dislike may be just what you prefer.

 

Last, but not least, go to the First Time Cruisers forum, also further down the page under special interest cruising and browse around there. There is a link at the top of that page for a lot of Cruise Critic hints and information especially for First Time cruisers, but here it is direct:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/ftc/

:)

[snoopy124]

Thanks for the responses. Is it a bad thing to have a covered balcony? I am paying a lot for the room.

[cherylandtk]

Its a personal preference sort of thing. The cover is not right over your head, so you don't feel like you are in a cave, but it is nice to keep the rain off. It will be like this:

[shofer]

Snoopy124, what date are you going on Grand Princess? We are going w/our son/daughter-in-law, daughter/son-in-law on 2/2/07. We have a roll call going on these boards.

 

We have balconies on the Aloha deck. Since the Princess site doesn't have a link for our type of cabin, we went to the Golden Princess which is a sister ship and looked at the virtual view.

 

This will be our 2nd Princess cruise but our 9th cruise overall. We used Barrett's Adventures in Jamaica as a private tour agency and we were very pleased. Did use the Princess excursion for the swimming w/stingrays in Grand Cayman and it was very nice. Snorkling in Cozumel was fun and we opted for the lunch part too.

 

If this is your first cruise, you might be more comfortable with the ship's excursions to get a feel for each place. Just go with what looks like fun for you.

[shofer]

Whoops! Meant we are going next year! Already went in Feb this year!

[snoopy124]

We are going Feb 16th. I am stuck with school vacations.

I will check out the virtual link on the other boat. Thanks.

[jemily45]

Finally more teachers booked for this grand cruise. Can we get a roll call going? Jane

[snoopy124]

Where in Long Island are you a teacher?

[boatladyuk]

Hi we are going on this cruise and have cruised many times before however we are taking our 7 year old grandaughter this time so nboy is it gonna be differant

 

I have started a roll call for this cruise on the Roll Call forum as i could not find one but if you know differant let me know please.

Lesley

[ggprincess2004]

We are heading aborad on the Grand in December for the western itinerary. We prefer that to an eastern or Southern one because we LOVE to swim with the stingrays in Grand Cayman and play with the dolphins in Cozumel.

 

Very specifically, we like taking either the Cockatoo or Allura catamarans to the sandbar at stingray city. The crew is really great, and they are great stingray wranglers. We always wind up getting the DVD. (Take a credit card). We also take along our regular camera and some disposable waterproof cameras.

 

In Cozumel, if you haven't ever been to the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula, then you might want to take a shore excursion that includes Tulum. If you have already been there, IMHO the most fun you can have in Cozumel (sober) is swimming with the dolphins at Chankanaab Park. Choose the Royal Dolphin Swim. Most expensive, but so worth it. Try not to lean or brush against the wire fencing when you are in the water - fire coral grows on it. I always do no matter how hard I try not to, and have a rash for the rest of the cruise. Oh well. We also take disposable waterproof cameras for this, but also always buy the DVD and also a lot of the shots the professional photographers at the park take of us with the dolphins. That would be a budget of about $150 - $200 for pictures in addition to the cost of the swim. They fill our walls now - don't need to go to the art auctions on board.:p

Chankanaab was badly damaged a few years ago, and when they rebuilt it, they did it right. The facilities are neat, clean, spacious, well thought out. You will have a locker to put your outerclothes and valuables in for the swim. There is the opportunity to get the salt water off of you after the swim, or to enjoy the rest of the park.

I don't have stong opinions about everything, but in this case I am enthusiastic to share our enjoyment of particular activities, in the hope that you will also have fantastic memories that last a life time.

We have done each of these excursions numerous times - we take the cruise so we can do it again!!!!

Have a great cruise!

[sueandkent]

I would highly recommend swimming with the sting rays in Grand Cayman. We booked our tour privately through Moby Dick Tours. They're on the web. They were great. There were only 16 people on our tour and we had the most time in the water than any of the other boats around. We found Jamaica a great place for shopping. In the same area as Margaritaville is a wonderful little open air mall that had great items and great prices. After we headed to Margaritaville and if you order they give you a pass to use the beach at your leisure. Other than that for Jamaica I would book a ships tour or one that comes HIGHLY recommended on port of call boards. Jamaica can be a little scary due to the crime and agressiveness of the locals with travellers. We never got to go to Cozumel because of hurricane Wilma:(

[Dame Delilah]

We will be on the Feb 2nd Grand cruise.

 

It will be our 11th cruise on Princess and we've done about 40 cruises on different lines. This will be a "Super Bowl Sunday" cruise-:D -so be ready for a GOOD TIME!! We've not been on "A Super Bowl" cruise before, but we are looking forward to it, even though we are NOT BIG fans!!:rolleyes:

 

We love Princess (but also enjoy Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Costa, Holland America and other cruise lines).

 

We usually go for a Mini-suite. Mainly because we like the bigger bathroom (and SHOWER)! But we've also enjoyed many trips in balcony cabins.

 

Whatever you do, you will have a great time!!;)

[KAYEF]

Oh, Boy!

You will LOVE this ship. It has all kinds of private places.

We ate breakfast every day by the aft pool.............had that area almost to ourselves. You just keep walking through the seating area of the buffet until you come to the far doors............and, magically, you're in a quiet, private area.

We will definitely cruise on the GRAND again.:)

[jemily45]

Hi,

I am a teacher at a private school for handicapped children in woodmer. I haven't looked at the roll calls recently but, i will join. I am glad you started the roll call. Thank YOu