Grand Princess Christmas Cruise to Mexico

[ILOVESHIPS]

A wonderful Christmas was spent on the Grand Princess. 600 children on board.

Making many Gingerbread Houses, The Night before Christmas was read by the Captain,

Christmas carols were sung. The ship was decorated beautifully.

 

Great entertainment on board. Paul Baker(singer) Heather Sullivan (singer) Jeff Peterson

and Indy the Magic Dog (magician) 4 production shows and a Christmas special with

several singers.

 

The ports were Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas and returning to San Francisco.

 

We enjoyed enrichment lecturers John and Diane Stockham as they had 5 programs

on History of Mexico, the ports of call, and whales in the area. They prepared us for our ports of call. They were excellent.

 

The crew really got everyone into the holiday spirit.

[Colo Cruiser]

Glad you had a great time. :)

[riclop]

A wonderful Christmas was spent on the Grand Princess. 600 children on board.

Making many Gingerbread Houses, The Night before Christmas was read by the Captain,

Christmas carols were sung. The ship was decorated beautifully.

 

Great entertainment on board. Paul Baker(singer) Heather Sullivan (singer) Jeff Peterson

and Indy the Magic Dog (magician) 4 production shows and a Christmas special with

several singers.

 

The ports were Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas and returning to San Francisco.

 

We enjoyed enrichment lecturers John and Diane Stockham as they had 5 programs

on History of Mexico, the ports of call, and whales in the area. They prepared us for our ports of call. They were excellent.

 

The crew really got everyone into the holiday spirit.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[tml1230]

Thanks for posting and glad you had a great Christmas on board….we disembarked the Grand on 12/20 after a great 25 days aboard and we sure do miss her….happy new year!

[TracieABD]

Sounds magical!

[dchip]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounded wonderful.

 

We spent 22 days on the Grand in Oct/Nov. The crew was simply marvelous. We can't wait to board again on February 3 for a Mexican Riviera cruise. We just booked it yesterday!!

 

Cheers, Denise

[MTJSR]

I was onboard as well. Had a great time!

 

This was my second Christmas cruise and my 12th Princess cruise overall. So, I will be offering Princess an extended review that includes serious areas of concern because, I really think our "productive" critiques help Princess in the long run, when we have them. I have several!

 

 

.

Edited December 31, 2015 by MTJSR

[raider23]

ILOVESHIPS and MTJSR,

We will be onboard the Grand next May, this will be our first Princess cruise. Do you have any advice or tips on the ship or embarkation? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)

[MTJSR]

ILOVESHIPS and MTJSR,

We will be onboard the Grand next May, this will be our first Princess cruise. Do you have any advice or tips on the ship or embarkation? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)

 

Hmm, well the Grand is a nice ship as are all the Grand class vessels in the fleet. If you were sailing right after me then I may have lots to share with you and tips that may matter for your sailing. The crew will certainly be a mix of different people than were on my sailing. As I struggle to think of a meaningful tip or some advise that helps you on the Grand specifically, I can only clear up a general question some might have. "Old" coffee cards with punches left are still good on the Grand for "specialty coffees only". They do look for current issue cards for unlimited brewed coffee. In the end though, I think some crew like enforcement and others are happier to just keep pouring.

 

You will have an excellent cruise!

[srpilo]

Glad to hear the sprit was alive onboard the Grand

 

Welcome back

Srpilo

[Greyhound3]

I was onboard as well. Had a great time!

 

This was my second Christmas cruise and my 12th Princess cruise overall. So, I will be offering Princess an extended review that includes serious areas of concern because, I really think our "productive" critiques help Princess in the long run, when we have them. I have several!

 

 

.

 

Please post your review here on CC as well, if possible. We have an upcoming cruise on the Grand and are interested in your comments. Thanks.

 

 

Grey

[Cruisin' Chick]

A wonderful Christmas was spent on the Grand Princess. 600 children on board.

Making many Gingerbread Houses, The Night before Christmas was read by the Captain,

Christmas carols were sung. The ship was decorated beautifully.

 

Great entertainment on board. Paul Baker(singer) Heather Sullivan (singer) Jeff Peterson

and Indy the Magic Dog (magician) 4 production shows and a Christmas special with

several singers.

 

The ports were Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas and returning to San Francisco.

 

We enjoyed enrichment lecturers John and Diane Stockham as they had 5 programs

on History of Mexico, the ports of call, and whales in the area. They prepared us for our ports of call. They were excellent.

 

The crew really got everyone into the holiday spirit.

 

Somebody who was on the Grand earlier this year started a thread about how the kids' program was limited as to the number allowed to participate. Maybe with her cruise, there wasn't enough staff hired, even though it would seem Princess would have a pretty good idea of how many kids and their ages are on any sailing by final payment and would hire more staff if necessary.

[MTJSR]

Please post your review here on CC as well, if possible. We have an upcoming cruise on the Grand and are interested in your comments. Thanks.

 

 

Grey

 

For sure I will.

[satxdiver]

The OP's report sounded really good until I saw where there were 600 kids aboard. :eek: We love sailing out of the city by the bay and spending time in the city before and after the cruise.

 

We were on the CCL Magic the first week of May this year. So I thought that it being the first week of May, all the kids would be in school and not on the ship. Boy was I wrong as we had over 300 aboard! Don't these kids have to go to school?

[timetravler]

I have done several Christmas cruises and I was also on this particular cruise. If you do not want kids on board then simply do not book a cruise during Spring Break, Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas or in July or August. Now as far as the kids on this cruise, I never had any trouble with them other then a few playing in the elevators or running and bumping into others. But that was very rare. Most all the kids were well behaved. I had more problems with the parents who let their kids run around in the dinning room or let them in the hot tubs by themselves, or simply ignored them completely. Parents are the ones to blame, not the kids.

[MTJSR]

The OP's report sounded really good until I saw where there were 600 kids aboard. :eek: We love sailing out of the city by the bay and spending time in the city before and after the cruise.

 

I was onboard as stated earler and to be honest, I heard several kid totals from different crew. On the day of embarkation, we wound up on deck 15 and chatted with one of the kids program supervisors, she stated there were 500 boarding today. Whatever the actual number is I will say that we never once heard a peep the whole 10 days that bothered us. On the very last night some kids got mischievous and were playing "push every elevator button" and "pull out every Privacy Please" door tag. The Princess kids team must have done an outstanding job, we were never bothered.

[Britinsac]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounded wonderful.

 

We spent 22 days on the Grand in Oct/Nov. The crew was simply marvelous. We can't wait to board again on February 3 for a Mexican Riviera cruise. We just booked it yesterday!!

 

Cheers, Denise

So nice to hear this review of the staff...we leave on Saturday 9th Jan on the Mexican Riviera cruise. Cannot wait!

Happy New Year!

[raider23]

Hmm, well the Grand is a nice ship as are all the Grand class vessels in the fleet. If you were sailing right after me then I may have lots to share with you and tips that may matter for your sailing. The crew will certainly be a mix of different people than were on my sailing. As I struggle to think of a meaningful tip or some advise that helps you on the Grand specifically, I can only clear up a general question some might have. "Old" coffee cards with punches left are still good on the Grand for "specialty coffees only". They do look for current issue cards for unlimited brewed coffee. In the end though, I think some crew like enforcement and others are happier to just keep pouring.

 

You will have an excellent cruise!

 

Thanks!

[LBJWife]

My husband and I were also was on the Grand Princess Christmas cruise. It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas.

This was our second Princess cruise.

The crew was great. We met many friendly and helpful passengers.

Due to living in the Bay Area, sailing out of San Francisco made our total cruising experience more enjoyable.

[sportsmum]

We were on this cruise as well. We did encounter a couple of issues - not enough to ruin or put a bump in our holiday.

1. cabin wasn't really cleaned well before we got there: used tissues in bedside table, kids stickers on the back of the closet door, wrappers on our floor.

2. Did anyone else hear that yappy 'service dog' on the port side? It was in the piazza as well 'haha, he's greeting everyone!' was one of the owners response to his constant barking. It was with different people so it was a busy mutt! I am a huge dog person and a not so much kid person. Would take kids over that thing any day!:D

 

Kids were not a problem at all to us on this cruise -even though there were tons. We had a group approach us in the Horizon Court and ask for an empty can for their scavenger hunt. So polite I asked if they needed anything else and DH almost had a heart attack with me offering to help KIDS!

 

Some in the dining room could use a firmer hand but, as stated, it's a holiday cruise and we got better than we expected!

 

It was our first Christmas cruise and we all agreed we would do it again.

[LBJWife]

I did see the service dog, once, while being carried by owner on the Lido Deck. The dog was quiet and appeared to enjoy being carry.

We didn't experience any bad encounters with any children. We were surprise when we heard there were over 600 children on board.

[Dididi]

We were on the Pacific Princess for the Christmas and New Year's Panama Canal cruise. We had a fantastic time celebrating the holidays Princess-style. In figuring out which Princess ship to take to celebrate the next holiday season -- we want to win the gingerbread house contest and will be working on our house concept during the next 11 months ;) --, I found this thread. Thank you for letting us know that 600 children can enjoy their cruise on this ship and hardly bother adults. We booked today! Four full days in magical Mexican ports, a couple of days in San Francisco, Princess Christmas celebration, and the contest!

[mrswallace2012]

I am so glad to hear you had a wonderful time!! We have talked about going on a Thanksgiving/Christmas cruise when our children are a bit older. You've convinced me!!

[snow bunny]

Does anyone have the patters from the sailing? I am wondering what kind of activities they had, particularly looking for dancing!

 

snow bunny

[RiahFly]

I have done several Christmas cruises and I was also on this particular cruise. If you do not want kids on board then simply do not book a cruise during Spring Break, Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas or in July or August. Now as far as the kids on this cruise, I never had any trouble with them other then a few playing in the elevators or running and bumping into others. But that was very rare. Most all the kids were well behaved. I had more problems with the parents who let their kids run around in the dinning room or let them in the hot tubs by themselves, or simply ignored them completely. Parents are the ones to blame, not the kids.

 

As a parent, I'm sorry that you had that experience! I was on this same cruise with my husband's family-- Four generations of us, including our children. We experienced the kids left in the hot tub. Very annoying. We also heard that there were a few kids whose parents allowed them to run around the dining room at dinner one night! I would be mortified if either of my kids did that!! It's simply not safe to let kids run wild in that kind of environment. We always had our kids with us at the table and made sure that they didn't bother people. We know that not everyone finds our little angels to be as wonderful as we do ;) The crew actually told us that they really appreciated the discipline.