Grand Princess - 3/29/08 - 4/5/08

[kywildcatfanone]

Hi,

 

Just got home an hour ago from our Grand Princess cruise to the Western Caribbean. What an amazing cruise. This is 3rd cruise, all on Princess, 2nd on the Grand. The Grand is a wonderful ship. Yes, she is showing her age a bit in places, but for the most part she is in fabulous shape.

I won't bore you with a full review, there are people who are much more eloquent than me at doing that, plus I'm probably kind of a boring cruiser to many people I would guess. We don't do many shore excursions, nor formal nights, and eat in the buffet for all meals except non-formal nights. My wife is a teacher, and it was spring break for us this week. She just wants to sit by the pool and sun.

According to the CD, there were 2200 Americans, 400 Canadians, and a few assorted others on this cruise, 400 kids included in those numbers. Never had a problem with kids during the entire week.

Dinner in the dining rooms is top notch, the highlight of the evening for me. The shows and entertainers are good as well. We are fairly easy to please, so I usually look for the good in all of these things.

The weather for the week was fabulous, only 5 minutes of rain on a couple of days, mostly sunny each day, just wonderful.

We are likely doing this same itinerary next year with family, so we didn't plan too much from a shore excursion perspective, only one.

 

Embarkment: We arrived in FLL at about noon. I was increasing nervous about flying in the same day as there had been many threads about whether that is a good idea or not. I considered trying to change to the day before, but it never worked out. Turned out it didn't matter, we were on time. Got to the cruise terminal around 12:45, and the line (I think) hadn't started moving yet, and was stretched all along the front of the terminal, a good football field length. When it did start moving though, it went quickly, and we were on the ship in about 30 minutes. It was very orderly and smooth.

 

Day 1 - Sea Day: Fabulous weather, one incident of "chair hog rage" that I witnessed. Folks were mad because they were gone for 2+ hours and someone had moved their towels.

 

Day 2 - Ocho Rios: Docked at an old run down pier area, but it was fine. Just got off and walked around shopping areas for a while then back to the ship. Typical day until we left port and had the engine room fire or some other problem (at least that is what I understood). I assume this has already been discussed, so I won't bore with details. If not, I can expound with what I know. I have a pictures of the black smoke rolling out of stacks that I will upload later after I have gotten it off my camera. I think we sat for an hour or so before we started moving again, and ended up late to Grand Cayman.

 

Day 3 - Grand Cayman: We did the Island Highlights and Turtle Farm tour. It was a lot of fun. I was told by another passenger that someone from the crew told him that a part was replaced on the problem engine and we were back up to speed as we left there.

 

Day 4 - Cozumel: Shopping only for us. We kind of enjoy being on the ship in port and having the place to ourselves.

 

Day 5 - Sea Day: Another relaxing, beautiful day. Ice carving demo was really cool, and my wife went on the galley tour. She said it was good, but they didn't take questions, nor did the tour of the actual galley last very long. Her words were "they herded us in, and herded us out".

 

Day 6 - Princess Cays: Another great day. We snorkeled and had a lot of fun. If we go there again, I'm buying a $2 float from Wal-Mart and taking it with me. We rented one for my wife for $8, and she used it all the time we were there.

 

Day 7 - Disembarkment: We had a 10:30am flight, so we signed up for Express Walk-off. We gathered in the Casino at 7:30, disembarkment started about 7:40, and we were off the ship and through customs by 8:00, grabbed a taxi, and were at the airport before 8:30am. Easy and smooth. A couple of tips about his process. If you only have one wheeled suitcase (and have a hand free), when you come off the ship, you can bypass waiting for an elevator to the bottom floor by using the escalator. They wouldn't let people with two rolling suitcases in their hands use the escalator. We bypassed quite a few people because of this.

Also, when we were walking up to the customs official, there were three lines being used. We went to the one with only one other family in line. A couple came up behind us and I thought the guy was going to walk right past me; he actually bumped into me while I was answering questions of the customs agent. The agent started looking at the guy closely while talking to me, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't listening to my answers anymore. The line next to us freed up, and the couple jumped under the rope and moved over there. The agent let us go, and made the couple come back to his lane, and wanted to talk to them. They were talking the whole time we were walking away. TIP: Don't do anything unusual in the presence of the customs officials, it will draw attention to you.

 

Random thoughts: I'm easy to please with coffee generally, but the coffee in the buffet was undrinkable for me. I tried everything I knew, more sugar, less sugar, more cream, less cream, and I couldn't drink it. The coffee in the dining rooms was great. Princess, fix this. Also, we don't drink, and I know they cater to those who do, because that's where the money is. However, why when I order Iced Tea in the dining room with dinner, can I drink it before I've had my salad and never be offered a refill without asking for it? Same issue by the pool area, they don't seem as interested in bringing you soft drinks. Our room steward was wonderful. She took care of all of our needs and was very pleasant to talk to. We did anytime dining and went at different times some nights, so we didn't have the same wait staff each night. I kind of missed that because it's fun to have a re pore with the waiters.

Anyway, those are minor things. Princess is a fabulous cruise line, even though I don't have any comparison since I have only used them. I did purchase FCC's and will continue to look at Princess first. I am ready to go again! Attached is the picture of the smoke stack mentioned on Jamaica day. I could write a lot more, but I'm sure I have already bored many of you. If you have any questions, let me know.

 

Mike

[strummer]

I love reading reviews and as we are going on the Grand this August I like to hear any info about this ship!

 

I agree with your thoughts on ordering non-alcoholic drinks. I found on the CB that I ended up never asking a waiter by the pools for soda from my soda card as I either never received my order or they seemed so dismissive about it I always went up to the bar myself. This attitude was replicated in the dining room and I ended up finding myself apologising for not ordering alcohol :rolleyes:. That said it didn't spoil my cruise and I certainly wouldn't say no to going again!!:D

 

Thanks again for the review and the picture of the smoke from the engine fire - glad it did't affect your cruise.

[teripp]

Mike:

Thanks for the review. The longer the better as far as I am concerned. I can almost picture myself back on a cruise reading reviews. I thank you for the time and effort you put in. Not to long at all. Now that I see the black smoke I can understand better what some other posters were talking about.

[dforeigner]

Thank you for taking time to write a review.

[kywildcatfanone]

I love reading reviews and as we are going on the Grand this August I like to hear any info about this ship!

 

I agree with your thoughts on ordering non-alcoholic drinks. I found on the CB that I ended up never asking a waiter by the pools for soda from my soda card as I either never received my order or they seemed so dismissive about it I always went up to the bar myself. This attitude was replicated in the dining room and I ended up finding myself apologising for not ordering alcohol :rolleyes:. That said it didn't spoil my cruise and I certainly wouldn't say no to going again!!:D

 

Thanks again for the review and the picture of the smoke from the engine fire - glad it did't affect your cruise.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I agree. While I was doing something else, my wife asked a waiter at the Neptune pool for a soft drink four times, and while he took alcohol requests all around her and delivered them, she never got her coke. Overall, not a big deal, I just went over to the bar and picked it up myself. I've just learned with soft drinks, it's easier to walk to the bar and get it myself. It's only bothersome that I spend $62 on soft drinks for the week and I don't seem to get the same courtesy as the "pay by the drink" folks. Again, not a big deal, or a deal breaker at all. I just get it myself. Princess is our cruise line of choice.

 

Mike

[kywildcatfanone]

Mike:

Thanks for the review. The longer the better as far as I am concerned. I can almost picture myself back on a cruise reading reviews. I thank you for the time and effort you put in. Not to long at all. Now that I see the black smoke I can understand better what some other posters were talking about.

 

Thank you. It was a bit unnerving at first, especially since the crew doing the mixing drinks demonstration at the pool area seemed to look as puzzled as the rest of us when they heard the alarm sound. Initially they looked like they would just continue on with their demo, but then stopped and announced they had to postpone it for a while, then left, but returned a bit later and continued on. That's when they said there was a "fire" in the engine room, but I never had that confirmed by anyone else. I'm sure they are told not to discuss problems with passengers generally. Another passenger told me that a crew member told him that a part had been brought in to do repairs when we arrived at Grand Cayman, and the ship was back to full speed when we left there, so I guess that was correct. All in all, not a disruption to us at all. There were a few excursions cancelled in Grand Cayman because of our late arrival, and some where shifted to later times.

 

Mike