Kellyansapansa

Ship Grand Princess Class Grand Deck Caribe Cabin #C753 Category B4 Port/Starboard/Bow/Stern Stern Connects With Cabin # not applicable Accessible No Quiet No Balcony Size Slightly larger than normal View Fabulous Privacy Issues None Wind Lots - but it was a rough trip in poor weather Soot None Problems None Comments This was the first time we had ever booked an aft balcony, and we probably wouldn't do it again. The view was fabulous, but it was a rough trip in cold, windy weather and we really noticed the movement at the rear of the ship. We also didn't like the narrow configuration of this stateroom as there was very little storage space. It was fine for this very short 2-night trip but would have been annoying on longer trips not to have more closet space.

We disembarked the Grand in Melbourne on the 15th. At that point the Noro outbreak had been declared over, but I caught it on board with symptoms appearing late on the 14th. Their idea of a deep clean is very different to mine - I spent several hours with my head very close to the toilet bowl which had a lovely thick ring of black mould under the rim. 🤢

We dined in the buffet twice during non-peak periods, at Sabatini's once and at Slice once.

Hubby and I were on the 2-day segment from Adelaide to Melbourne and disembarked this past Wednesday. Gastro/Noro hit me hard on Tuesday night and I'm still feeling the effects five days later. Hubby picked it up from me with symptoms appearing on Thursday. We are very hygiene conscious, but we also appreciate that cruise ships are a high-risk environment. Did Princess have protocols in place? Yes. Could they have gone further? Yes. Were we super careful? Yes. Could we have gone further? Yes. Did we get annoyed by other passengers blatantly ignoring the protocols. Also yes. Would we cruise again under the same circumstances? Abso-bloody-lutely!

We're just off a short 2-day itinerary on the Grand. My usual favourites are the frozen pina colada and the raspberry Baileys martini. The pina colada was exactly how I remembered it. Yes, it's a mix but that's how I like it. The raspberry Baileys martini was dreadful. It was icy rather than creamy and I chose not to drink any more after the first one.

We're just off a very short 2 night cruise on the Grand and we were very disappointed with the food. We've not sailed on the Grand before and we were surprised at how small Horizon Court was, and the lack of variety the buffet offered. It's the first Australian itinerary we've ever sailed, so perhaps that was a factor, but everything was very bland. There weren't many different cuisines available at all and the 'Australian station' with meat pies was cringeworthy. The desserts and cakes in Horizon Court were also disappointing with minimal variety and we suspect some of the items were at least a day (or more) old. We sailed on Coral in February and loved the range of items available at the International Cafe. The Grand IC did not seem to rotate the available items and several times when we walked past the display cabinets were almost empty. We also had the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast and felt the quality was lower than our last experience. The pastries were not fresh at all. On the other hand, the pizza at Slice was just as good as we remembered it to be. We also ate at Sabatini's for the first time and found the quality of the food and service was exceptional. It wasn't the end of the world for such a short cruise but if we had been sailing for longer we definitely would have been disappointed.

We had the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast on the Grand this morning. We're currently cruising in Australia and we were charged AU$75 in total, not per person. We're not coffee drinkers so we had juice and tea plus a small bottle of champagne. They did not open the champagne. We received one plate of pastries and two each of the other plates shown below. We also had the Ultimate Balcony on the Coral earlier this year and requested gluten free. They were happy to substitute.

I'm in Australia and it's totally borked on my Google Pixel phone.

I came here to say the same thing. The app has always been dreadful but since the latest update it is completely unusable on my Google Pixel phone.

You could also try COTA Insurance which caters specifically for Australians over 55. 😊

My husband and I did an 11 day PNG cruise on Coral Princess departing from Brisbane earlier this year. We didn't book a tour in Alotau, we just walked into the main street and visited the small foreshore market, the war memorial and a supermarket. We're visiting again next year and have booked the 'Lik Lik Festival' tour just to see something different. We purchased Kina at Travelex at Brisbane airport. We didn't pre-order, they had it on hand so there was no minimum enforced. There was also a currency exchange offering Kina at the Brisbane cruise terminal on embarkation day.

Yes, thank you for clarifying my comments. Of course we all want the best possible deal, but I was referring to those, thankfully in the minority, who boast of these types of tactics, and then complain when Princess makes changes in an attempt to maintain profitability.

Hey, please don't put all Aussies in the same bucket. The Covid testing requirement is still in place thanks to the eastern and western states. Us in the middle are far more rational. 😂

I find it interesting that some of the people shouting the loudest about Princess not rewarding loyalty any more, are the same people who proudly boast about their tactics to screw down the price and minimise onboard spending. 🤔 Perhaps Princess is nickel and diming more because it's being nickel and dimed by its customers ? 😜

Please don't do this. It's petty and wasteful and puts extra pressure on crew members who are already overworked.