So happy we tried Princess!

We loved our first Princess cruise! We sailed on the Grand on March 10 to Hawaii. The Grand is a lovely ship with a wonderful crew. We found her to be in very good condition and I never missed the bells and whistles that are on the newer ships.

Embarkation and disembarkation were both exceptional. SFO is a perfect port to sail from. Efficient and beautiful. Our cruise started off on a high note, and sailing under the Golden Gate bridge was awe inspiring.

Everything I preordered was either in the stateroom, or the paper work was there. Well done Princess!

Our mini suite was perfect for us. We loved the layout and found the bathroom to be plenty spacious. The bed was comfy and the pillows were great. I had snagged E728, the last mini on Emerald over the Vista Lounge. I had read some reviews that made it sound like there would be very loud music playing until the wee hours every day, but we heard music only a few times and it never bothered us. One evening there was some Motown playing while we were getting ready for dinner, so maybe 6:30ish, and it was loud enough to dance to so we did :) The balcony was divine. We had exceptionally calm seas, so we had no issues with it being too windy & we loved that it was covered as my husband doesn't do sun. I would book that stateroom again in a heartbeat!

I thought I would be bored with so many sea days, but there were so many interesting things to do that I could not believe how fast the days flew by. Brian and Rowena, the Hawaiian Ambassadors were absolutely marvelous. My husband attended many lectures and took ukulele lessons. I joined the Pop Choir, which was fun and I found Melissa, one of the Assistant Cruise Directors, quite charming. I played too much in the casino, and really shouldn't have since I had no luck, but it was still fun. We only did a few shows, but we are usually underwhelmed by cruise shows and these were no better or worse than others. We did laugh at a couple of the comedians although I preferred the shows in the Vista to the Princess Lounge, as they were more personal. I hate to say it, but I could not get into the piano player that played in the lounge, so could not attend the sing alongs. The guitar player that played in the Atrium appeared and sounded bored. I felt bad for him. The rest of the musical groups were very good and we enjoyed them very much.

We selected Anytime Dining as we have been Freestyling for years, so we were concerned after reading some pretty tough reviews. Luckily I read carefully, so on the first night we went to DaVinci knowing that they would be turning over every table after early seating. We had the good luck to be placed with Roland and Dhede in a quiet area in the back of the dining room. We fell in love with them, and the maitre'd was kind enough to put us at their table every evening. We arrived every night between 7:30 and 7:45 and headed straight to our table. Overall we were pleased with the food, and some of it was outstanding. I would say our main dining room experience was excellent, and we enjoyed it so much that we only skipped 2 nights which is most unusual for us.

Dinner in the Crown Grill was only okay. The service was average, the steaks were good but the sides were mediocre. We were glad we tried it, but were underwhelmed. We had better dinners in the MDR.

MDR for breakfast and lunch was disappointing (the WORST eggs benedict I have ever had on land or at sea!) so we abandoned it in favor of the buffet. The buffet was small and felt disorganized, but the food was better than we expected and the selection was adequate. I really appreciated having beverages and omelets brought to the table. We ate many lunches and breakfasts here and always found something we enjoyed.

The International Cafe was a big hit. We had coffee cards and made good use of them. We enjoyed salads & sandwiches, and I am pretty sure my husband dropped by for cookies much more often than he admits! We only had Afredos Pizza once, but it was terrific. I feel like that Atrium area is the heart beat of the ship and we loved it down there.

We never pose for pictures, but I grabbed the great pre-cruise photo package offer. We got some fabulous shots and are amazed at the results. We have a boatload of pictures, including one in a frame, one in a nice folder and the rest in both hard copy and on the flash drive. It was a great deal for us and it was actually fun. Some of the photographers (Tumi in particular) were very funny and friendly.

Hawaii was a dream come true. We did everything independently, so I have no comments on the Princess excursions, but most people I spoke to seemed to have enjoyed them. Tendering in Maui went quite well, so as someone with no status I was very pleased. We made our independent excursion with time to spare.

A couple of weird things. What is with the undersized furniture in a few areas, such as outside the Explorers Lounge? We kept wondering who the heck thought those teeny tiny chairs were a good idea. And the low sofas in the lounges and the stateroom. Most of the cruisers were 60 and older, and hauling oneself up from those was quite a challenge! Elevators seemed slow or overworked, but we managed to get where we were going, and used the stairs a fair bit. But that's all picky stuff.

The bottom line is that we loved the ship, the crew, the itinerary and felt that the attention to detail was very good. Princess compares very favorably to our preferred cruise lines and we are looking forward to our second Princess cruise in November.

I know I left out a bunch of stuff, so if you have questions I will be happy to try to answer.

What kind of tours did you do on the islands. We are going in October?

Glad to hear you enjoyed pur cruise. As with anything there are always so e things a person will find not to their liking. You seem to be able to look beyond those things and enjoy the overall experience. Hope you keep cruising with Princess and posting here.

Thanks for your review.

What kind of tours did you do on the islands. We are going in October?

On the Big Island we rented a car and visited Volcano National Park, a coffee farm, Farmer's Market and snorkeled at Richardson Beach Park which is a black sand beach with pretty good snorkeling. We also popped in to a Walgreen's to pick up a couple things we forgot.

On Oahu we booked a private tour with Oahu Private Tours. Jason, the owner, worked with me to set up an itinerary that included all the things I really wanted to see. We had a fun driver and a van all to ourselves. It was a wonderful day and I highly recommend them.

In Lahaina we booked a Whale Watch with Ultimate Whale Watch. We chose them because we wanted less people and a smaller boat. They use a 30' zodiac and it was fabulous! We saw tons of whales and I was sitting on the pontoon dragging y foot through the water when we were going slowly. It was the experience of a lifetime! After that we met some friends of mine for lunch at Lahaina Fish Company which was very good. We wandered around the town a bit and then snuck into Kimo's for their world famous Hula Pie just before it was time to tender back. OMG, it was divine!

On Kauai my husband did a helicopter tour with Blue Hawaiian. He loved it, and has already watched the video 3 times since we got home! We met up at Kalipaki beach which is walking distance (or there are a couple of free shuttle options) from the ship. We rented 2 chairs and an umbrella for $45 for the day. We also enjoyed a lovely lunch at Duke's Canoe Club right there on the beach. It was a very relaxing day for me!

We didn't get off the ship in Ensenada.

Thanks for the information!

Did you notice that Princess costs less than Disney???:D

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MDR for breakfast and lunch was disappointing (the WORST eggs benedict I have ever had on land or at sea!) so we abandoned it in favor of the buffet. .....................

 

Hint about the Eggs Benedict. Order them with the sauce on the side. It is the only way to get them fixed properly.

Thanks for the review.

Hint about the Eggs Benedict. Order them with the sauce on the side. It is the only way to get them fixed properly.

YES!! That baked on thin coating of sauce just doesn't get it. I always ask for extra.

Happy to hear that you enjoyed the Grand. We had a good time on the Grand in Oct. She is an oldie but goodie [emoji2] like you, we weren't thrilled with the Crown Grille on that ship at all, so much so,

That we canceled our second reservation since the dining room food was so good!

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Thanks for sharing.

Tony

I love the Grand and a little disappointed to hear about the food. Maybe things will improve by the next time we sail on her.

Thanks for your review. We are on the Grand next month to Hawaii for our 40th anniversary, so this review is very timely. Can't wait!

Nice honest review; thanks for posting.. Did you enjoy your tour on Oahu?

OP;

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise.....:):):)

Bob

Glad to hear you enjoyed pur cruise. As with anything there are always so e things a person will find not to their liking. You seem to be able to look beyond those things and enjoy the overall experience. Hope you keep cruising with Princess and posting here.

I will most definitely be cruising Princess again. Next up is the Royal :)

Did you notice that Princess costs less than Disney???:D

Actually, we haven't sailed on DCL since 2003 when our kids were still kids, so we finally paid those cruises off ;) Just kidding! DCL has a nice product, but so does Princess and Princess suits us much better now.

Hint about the Eggs Benedict. Order them with the sauce on the side. It is the only way to get them fixed properly.

Thanks for the review.

YES!! That baked on thin coating of sauce just doesn't get it. I always ask for extra.

I am so glad we aren't the only ones! It cracked us up that the server seemed so proud that he could get us Eggs Eenedict even though they weren't on the menu. I could not believe that the hollandaise was actually baked on like a plastic coating. Nope. I will choose something else in the future :)

Happy to hear that you enjoyed the Grand. We had a good time on the Grand in Oct. She is an oldie but goodie [emoji2] like you, we weren't thrilled with the Crown Grille on that ship at all, so much so,

That we canceled our second reservation since the dining room food was so good!

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It's not that the Crown Grill was bad. It's just that it wasn't better than the Main Dining Room, so it made no sense to pay an upcharge for it. And our MDR service was so good that we missed our guys!

I love the Grand and a little disappointed to hear about the food. Maybe things will improve by the next time we sail on her.

I hope I didn't give the impression that the food wasn't good, because it was actually very good most of the time. It was certainly as good or better than most of the cruises we have been on. There were some hits and misses, but definitely more hits and a number of home runs. I will try to post some food porn if I can figure out how.

MDR for breakfast and lunch was disappointing (the WORST eggs benedict I have ever had on land or at sea!) so we abandoned it in favor of the buffet.

I agree with you completely. I have tried the Eggs Benedict at MDR breakfast and it was truly horrible. Almost no Hollandaise. Dried out muffin on the bottom. Overcooked eggs - hard yolk. Bleh.

I have heard it can be made "better" if you insist on getting a small dish of Hollandaise on the side as well so that you can put enough on to actually notice but, while that would definitely be an improvement, the rest of the dish simply couldn't have been saved by more Hollandaise.

Since so many people say the Eggs Benedict served to Suite passengers who can eat breakfast in Sabatini's is so great it seems to me they should be able to serve at least a "decent" Eggs Benedict to passengers at MDR breakfast but, for some reason, that seems to not be the case.

Dznymom, let me compliment you on a very good report.

Since we are going on an Alaska cruise this summer on the Grand, I am a bit disappointed by your report on the Crown Grill. Disappointed, but not terribly surprised. My experience with the Princess specialty restaurants is that there is quality variation between the ships--both in terms of service and food quality. Frankly, I'm never sure what we're in for until we try it. So, generally, when we embark we make reservations in both the specialty restaurants for the first few days of the cruise. It sounds like you did not try Sabatini's. Even though the two restaurants are on the same ship I've found, several times, that my experience in one is mediocre but my experience in the other is excellent. Go figure.

One of the reasons we are really looking forward to our trip on the Grand is because we love the Alfredo's Pizzeria. We think that is a little gem.

Glad to hear about your Grand experience! Kevin and I took the Grand Princess to Hawaii in October 2013 -- this 15-day cruise was my very first cruise ever. We loved everything about the cruise -- 4 piece classical orchestra played in the Atrium almost every night, the International cafe's Chicken Waldorf Salad was dreamy, the Gluten free custom pizza outstanding, and the daytime lectures were awesome. Not enough time in the day to do everything we wanted! The food in the Horizon Court buffet was superb, and I had no trouble eating like royalty, even gluten-free, all 15 days. Our MDR experience was less than pleasing, so we stuck to the buffet everyday but one, and were not the least bit disappointed.

Just cruised on Carnival for the first time, and although nice, was a bit of a let down after our Princess experience. However, the MDR on the Carnival Liberty was superb! Happy cruising!

Hint about the Eggs Benedict. Order them with the sauce on the side. It is the only way to get them fixed properly.

 

Thanks for the review.

I agree - and we also get lemon wedges to drip the juice into the sauce. Yummy!

I agree with you completely. I have tried the Eggs Benedict at MDR breakfast and it was truly horrible. Almost no Hollandaise. Dried out muffin on the bottom. Overcooked eggs - hard yolk. Bleh.

 

I have heard it can be made "better" if you insist on getting a small dish of Hollandaise on the side as well so that you can put enough on to actually notice but, while that would definitely be an improvement, the rest of the dish simply couldn't have been saved by more Hollandaise.

 

Since so many people say the Eggs Benedict served to Suite passengers who can eat breakfast in Sabatini's is so great it seems to me they should be able to serve at least a "decent" Eggs Benedict to passengers at MDR breakfast but, for some reason, that seems to not be the case.

Thus my "hint". When you order them with the sauce on the side they are freshly cooked and haven't been sitting in a warmer where the yolks get hard and the muffin gets dry. And no burnt on sauce on the eggs. :)

Thank you for your review. Nice that you enjoyed your Princess experience.

Here are some random food pictures of things we really enjoyed from the main dining room.

First night prime rib.

Delicious smoked duck appetizer

Curtis Stone chicken leek pot pie. It didn't photograph well but I actually had it twice I enjoyed it so much.

One of many chocolate journeys

Prosciutto with a goat cheese soufflé thing

I forget what this beef dish was called but it melted in your mouth. Delicious!

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