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Grand Princess 1/5 - 1/12/13- somewhat lengthy review

hmg1215

By hmg1215,
in Princess Cruises

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hmg1215

hmg1215

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Disclaimer #1: English is my second language, so please forgive grammatical mistakes.

Disclaimer #2: this is my first review. I hope it not too lengthy. I tried to include as much info as I could.

This was my 4th cruise, first with Princess. I cruised before with Celebrity, Norwegian and Carnival lines. I really liked Princess and I think we will cruise with Princess again. I usually travel with my husband, but this time we took with us our college-age kids; 22 year old son and 20 year old daughter.

We left from Boston Friday night and landed in FLL around 12:30 am. We booked the Bridge at Cordova hotel for the night. The main reason was the price and proximity to shopping center. We paid about $130 for 2 bedroom student apartment. For that price I did not expect luxury and we did not get it. Positives: very nice and accommodating staff, apartment was a bit shabby but clean, 2 minute walk to supermarket where I could get wine and beer, decent breakfast served by the pool and 2 bedrooms for cheap price! To sum it up: I did not mind it, kids did not mind it, DH did not like it (complained about lumpy mattress). Hotel offered a shuttle to the port for $6pp. The shuttle broke down that day and owner had to arrange for cabs for all passengers. Cab was $11.50 plus tip. A funny thing is that I tried to call a cab company myself asking for price of ride from hotel to the port and they quoted me $40! I wonder why such discrepancy.

The Everglades port is huge!! Princes was at pier 21. We got there around 11:20 AM. Checking process was fairly fast but after that we got a piece of paper with big letter “C” printed on it and we were told to sit and wait. Apparently the boarding was to start around noon. Well, the problem was that nobody had any microphone or even rolled tube of paper to magnify their voices. They were yelling out information to the first 2 rows and the rest of us did not know what was going on. When people started getting up and lining up to board the ship, there was a mass of disoriented passengers who decided that they should get in line as well. It created an unnecessary mess. Eventually we got into a line as well, and after a long and slow shuffle forward we got on the ship! Cabins were accessible right away (big plus!), so we were able to drop our backpacks and hit the buffet.

We had two inside cabins on Baja (11) deck. The cabins were the smallest we had so far, with somewhat small storage spaces. But we managed to unpack our stuff and shove empty bags under the bed. We had a small refrigerator where ice bucket was kept. I was able to keep my wine there as well J. Right at the front of the fridge there was a small round table. The space was so small that every time I wanted to open the fridge I would have to move the table beside the bed, effectively blocking my access to my side of bed. I was also worried that I may trip over it. It was really in a way. We asked our steward Gemson to take it out of the cabin. The bed was really nice, big and comfy! The cabin is just to sleep in, take shower and occasional nap, so it was perfectly adequate.

We loved our steward Gemson. I say he was a real gem! He made an effort to learn our names (not easy to remember and say correctly) and was always cheerful and helpful. We found the staff on the ship very courteous and friendly. We are not demanding customers and we appreciate how hard they work to make our lives pleasant. We all were very happy with the service.

Let’s talk about the food: the food at Horizon buffet is plentiful and there is always something you can find that tastes great. I usually selected 2 or 3 items, got a little bit of each, plus some salad. Few times I tried carving station and it was very good. I usually stay away from fish because I think it gets overcooked sitting on a hot plate. I tried couple of times a small piece of fish cooked in some sauce and it was pretty decent. Overall, I think the food was excellent despite the fact that it is being prepared in mass quantities. Both my kids marveled at the fact that cafeteria style food can taste good! Given their college dining experiences they were not expecting much! As a matter of fact after 3 nights they opted to skip dining room dinner for the buffet! The desert station looked outstanding! Many choices and all looked good. Thankfully I was able to limit myself to one desert at the time. My hubby had a blast though, he has a terrible sweet tooth J. There was always some warm desert with vanilla sauce on the side. That is what I usually got; rice pudding, awesome blueberry cobbler, peach cobbler- I can’t remember it all. I am not a big fan of pies and cakes, so I was able to resist them (mostly). Once I got a slice of chocolate pecan pie and it was delicious! We all liked the fact that the coffee, tea, water and juices are being brought to the table. The tables are set up with napkins and silverware. You sit down and immediately someone asks if you would like something to drink. The staff was very pleasant and attentive.

About the dining room: we had anytime dining arrangement. Usually we ate about 6:30 PM. We never had to wait to be seated but we were always willing to share a table. We like meeting other people and during our trip we’ve met some interesting individuals from Canada, Australia, UK and from many US states. The conversation was usually really lively and interesting. We went to dining room first three nights, after that kids opted for the buffet. The ambience of a formal setting wore off for them pretty quickly. I think they just did not want to dress up. Since we like their company, we trailed after them to Horizon buffet J The food in dining room was good. The appetizers were usually very good; I had some excellent Carpaccio, Thai beef salad, mixed green salad, onion soup (almost a meal in itself) and mushroom soup. For the main course I had fettuccine Alfredo in parmesan basket , vegetarian spinach and potato flan and I can't remember what else. DH had prime rib one night, which he said was really good. DS had a lamb dish and crawfish etoufe and he liked both. DD had one day chicken breast that was rubbery and dry. Beef medallions were good. Overall, food was good to very good.

Entertainment: the best show hands down was Juan Carlos, flamenco guitarist. We barely made it, because it was on Monday when we were docked at San Juan until 10 PM. All I can say is that JC is a great caliber artist. He could easily have his show at Las Vegas or any professional concert hall. He was just fantastic! Great guitar player and fabulous flamenco singer. I could watch him again and again. Other shows we've seen: comedian Carlos Oscar (very good), Motor Town (pretty good) and British Invasion which I enjoyed greatly. We missed some shows as well; once I opted to watch Movies under the Start (Dark Knight Rising) with the whole gang and couple of times I just wanted to enjoy a quiet drink and a book.

Ports: we liked the itinerary and that was one of the reasons we selected this cruise. The only new stop for us was Princess Cays, but for our kids all of it was new. I loved to be with them while they were taking it all in! We all stood at the upper deck watching San Juan getting closer and closer. We admired Ell Morro and the beautiful buildings of Old SJ basking in the sun. Watching the ship getting in a port is one of my biggest pleasures. We opted to just walk around the OSJ. There are plenty of drivers asking to join a trip around SJ for $10, but we just wanted to do it ourselves. Old SJ is not that big and it is very walkable. We spent first hour looking for Internet Cafe (DD forgot to order her college books and they had to be ready for pick up on Monday following our cruise). If you need Internet connection, it is right across the street from pier 4, where we were docked. There is no Internet sign, it is a money transfer place (forgot the name), but it has 4 computers. 8 minutes for a dollar (you feed banknotes as you need). Not a bad deal. After that we walked to San Christobal castle, which closes at 6 PM. We had an hour to explore, take pictures and just wander around. From there we walked along the Atlantic shore toward El Morro. We wandered there for some time then just went through the random streets to explore. Traffic was pretty horrendous, so I am not sure how those excursion busses made it around. Lots of people milling around. We just browsed some shops, drunk coconut juice from fresh coconuts that were sold by a street vendor, bought some cigars, tried local beer and generally just wandered around. Finally we decided to go back to ship, get a quick bite at the buffet and see the flamenco guitarist show.

Tuesday we were at St Martin. We booked a trip with Bernards Tours. DH and myself did it last year and loved it. We decided to take it again, mostly for our kids benefit. Since there was a fairly large group that booked this trip we were all split into smaller group. 4 of us ended as a one group with the addition of a 'walk in' gentleman from Texas. DH and Texan hit it off and quite often I was not able to hear the driver over their dialog. Our driver was Daniel. Very nice guy! We went driving around for first 30 minutes, stopping for some picture opportunities. Daniel tried to point some interesting places and give us information about the island. After snapping some pictures we went to Maho beach. It was still to early for big planes. We decided to take a swim and just stay on the beach. You have to stay away from the path of jet blasts (right in the middle of the beach) otherwise you will get sand blasted. I've seen many young people intentionally staying there, I guess for some form of excitement. The beach is nice but crowded. Water was warm and beautiful! And it was cool to watch planes going right over our heads! We left after 45 minutes and right at the end we caught a big KLM plane landing. Cool pictures opportunity (I have some great pics from last year) and really weird feeling when that thing is right over you and you feel like you can touch it. From Maho beach we went to Marigot. We went to Serafina for fantastic almond croissants and coffee. All pastries and sandwiches look mouthwatering! We explored a little market across the street (I got some nice spices) and then went to Orient beach. Last year Bernard dropped us off right at the border between 'clothed' and 'naked' part of the beach. Nakedness does not bother me, but some sights were not pretty! This year Daniel brought us to the right, 'clothed' side. We did not rent chairs, since we wanted to be there for an hour only. Couple of guys tried to tell us that 'it is not allowed to sit on the sand' but we ignored them. We found a space between two resorts with plenty of place to put our towels down. The surf was rough and I got flipped few times by waves. But the water was warm, the sun was hot and the beach was surprisingly not to crowded. We enjoyed every minute of it! After the Orient beach we decided just to go back to the ship. Daniel wanted to take us to iguana farm, which is another stop on the trip, but we decided to skip it. We had plenty of time to explore shops around the port, just out of curiosity. DS got few more cigars (eventually they made him sick, so that's it for his cigar smoking), DD got a pair of silver earrings and that's it.

We arrived at St Thomas very early on Wednesday. I got up at 6:15 am and we were already docked! We docked at Heavensight, not at Crown Bay. Heavensight is much closer to the town. We wanted to go downtown for a bit and then go to the beach. We took a trip around the island last year, so this year we just wanted to go to the beach. I wanted to buy a necklace made from conch shell. I've seen it last year, but regrettably did not buy it. I bought it this year; a necklace and a pair of earrings for $27. I love the set! We wanted to walk to downtown from the port, but managed to get lost! After asking around we decided to try Safari buses ($1 pp per trip). We took one to downtown where we did some shopping (necklace and dress). Kids decided to walk back to the ship and DH and myself took another Safari bus to Lindbergh beach. You have to get off by the airport sign and then walk maybe half a mile by the airport to the beach. We accessed the beach via Best Western (?) resort, just walked through reception. But if you go past the resort there is a public access to the beach. We grabbed a pair of chairs under the tree and just enjoyed ourselves for couple of hours. The beach is beautiful! There are couple of bars where you can get drinks (beer about $5.50). After couple of hours we walked back to the main street, grabbed another Safari bus that brought us back to the ship. Another successful day!

Our last stop :( was Princess Cays. Everyone gets tendered to the beach. We decided to go the right (facing the beach) where was less crowded and we could find some shade under pine trees. On the left, where shops are is much more crowded (or at least it was that day). You pay for everything with the ship card. There is a small market beyond the fence. You need a photo ID and your ship card to go out. There you have to pay with cash. DD and I got some interesting necklaces and bracelets made with different seeds and wooden beads. There were also some interesting earrings and rings made of shells. Not very expensive. DS took a walk around. He said that he saw a lot of abandoned buildings. He forgot to take a camera, so we do not have any pictures from beyond the fence. I hope this will not be the last time I will see Princess Cays, so maybe I will have more opportunity to explore? Anyway, we loved PC! Beautiful water, beautiful sights, great beach. One thing: you definitely need water shoes to walk into the water. At least on the right side. The bottom is very, very rocky and it is almost impossible to wade into the water barefoot! It hurts!!! But the water is crystal clear!

On disembarkation day we bought ship organized trip to Florida Everglades. Everything went smoothly. We got silver color tags for our luggage in advance, meet 8:20 with the rest of the group. We all got stickers with different number (our was #4). Each group was walked off the ship separately, we found our luggage very easily and then got on the bus. All was quick and smooth! The bus took us to Everglades where we took a 30 minutes boat ride, spotted some alligators, admired scenery (beautiful!) and after the boat ride we had some time to see alligator show. And after few hours at the very crowded and not very comfortable FLL airport we got back to cold New England.

Overall it was a fabulous journey! Any cruising is great. I enjoyed every trip with every cruise line. I just wish I could cruise more often. Kids loved it too. I am already thinking about our next trip, hopefully with Princess.

If you have any questions, please ask. I will try to answer to the best of my ability! Happy cruising everyone!

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hmg1215

hmg1215

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Thank you all for kind words!

I am already trying to find a way to wrangle a week out of work in April and take another cruise with Princess. Maye from Galveston. I always wanted to try famous Texas barbecue, and maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.

Not sure if that will happen though.. new project at work and bossess telling us 'no vacations will be approved for the time being' :mad:

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hmg1215

hmg1215

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Enjoyed reading your review thank you for taking the time to post it.

 

Question ... with eating at the buffet in the evenings, do you know if they offered basically the same food items that are served in the dining room that night?

 

Some of the items were the same- for example carving station usually had the same meat dish that was served in dining room. Some of the salads/appetizers were there as well.

But for example on second formal night there were escargots served in dining room, but not in the buffet. They had beef Wellington though and it was yummy. No lobster in the buffet either - but I would not order it anyway, I think it is overcooked and tasteless. But I am from New England and I am spoiled when it comes to lobster :D

We liked dining room for the atmosphere, service and food presentation. We liked buffet for more variety and more casual dress code.

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CruisinMinnie

CruisinMinnie

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Some of the items were the same- for example carving station usually had the same meat dish that was served in dining room. Some of the salads/appetizers were there as well.

But for example on second formal night there were escargots served in dining room, but not in the buffet. They had beef Wellington though and it was yummy. No lobster in the buffet either - but I would not order it anyway, I think it is overcooked and tasteless. But I am from New England and I am spoiled when it comes to lobster :D

We liked dining room for the atmosphere, service and food presentation. We liked buffet for more variety and more casual dress code.

 

Great info on dining room vs buffet. Thanks for posting your review. Really enjoyed reading it. :)

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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Some of the items were the same- for example carving station usually had the same meat dish that was served in dining room. Some of the salads/appetizers were there as well.

But for example on second formal night there were escargots served in dining room, but not in the buffet. They had beef Wellington though and it was yummy. No lobster in the buffet either - but I would not order it anyway, I think it is overcooked and tasteless. But I am from New England and I am spoiled when it comes to lobster :D

We liked dining room for the atmosphere, service and food presentation. We liked buffet for more variety and more casual dress code.

 

thank you. Just what I needed to know. Hubby would be extremely unhappy if he didn't get escargot. Beef Wellington is one of my favorites.

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paradise4ever

paradise4ever

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thanks for the review. I saw Carlos Oscar last year and really enjoyed his comedy. Do you know if he is going to be on the Grand for the Alaska cruised. I would love to see him again and i am sure my friends will love his comedy. Hopefully he will be there. thanks again

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highheel girl

highheel girl

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thanks for the review. I saw Carlos Oscar last year and really enjoyed his comedy. Do you know if he is going to be on the Grand for the Alaska cruised. I would love to see him again and i am sure my friends will love his comedy. Hopefully he will be there. thanks again

 

And he does it without profanity! :D

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