Thoughts on my first Princess cruise

[illiniwahoo]

We recently completed our first Princess cruise on the Grand Princess. This was our 8th overall cruise. We switched to this California costal cruise within 1 month of sailing becuase I'm pregnant and we had to cancel our sailing to the carib. becuase of Zika.

 

I did a bunch of research in a short time, and I thought I would share some of my thoughts on a variety of topics recently discussed on this board. I'll start off by saying we had a lovely time. I've never been on a bad cruise! We still prefer Celebrity most, but would cruise Princess again for a better itinerary or substantial cost savings. All of these Comments specifically apply to the Grand.

- the hair dryers really are as bad as you have heard. I've Never been tempted to bring a blow dryer anywhere while traveling, but if I end up on the grand again I will be packing my own.

-the drink packages were more reasonably priced than celebrity, but I missed having bottled water and fancy coffee drinks in the non alocholic package that celebrity includes.

-the food was decent. Not the best (celebrity), not the worst (ncl).

-the fettuccine Alfredo with the parmsean bowl really is that good. We always got the bowl, even with the appetizer portion without asking.

-I was so excited about the International cafe after hearing the rave reviews here, but found it disappointing. One evening they had a lovely cheese platter - perfect for a before dinner snack, but the only bread or crackers they had were saltines. Really? Premade sandwiches just aren't really that exciting to me.

-the covered pool was not what I expected it to be. On celebrity it is temperature controlled - had doors and was never to hot or too cold. It was perfect for a swim in any weather. That is not the situation on the grand. The doors were propped open and there seemed to be no attempt to control the climate. It was chilly some days, so I found this extremely disappointing.

- princess had great entertainment. I loved that multiple things were going on every evening. After reading how hard it was to get a seat at the shows, I insisted my husband and I show up 10 mins early ( which I thought would be too late based on what I had read here, but I was never going to get him to wait longer than that). It was the second show, but the theater never filled for any second show time.

- we never had to wait for anytime dining. We went the the dining room that did an early seating then changed over to anytime. We sat down between 730 and 815 every evening with no wait ever for a table for two.

-the grand has seen better days. We saw several ceiling leaks. When public bathrooms flooded, they just put up a wet floor sign rather than fixing the problem (yuck!). Some areas need a refresh badly.

-I've never had to wait in food lines for the buffer on any other cruise ship, but did several times this trip. I did enjoy that they brought you the omelet rather than waiting in line for it.

- we often thought "where is everyone" I still don't know. Haha. The ship never seemed crowded.

- good luck finding nightlife after 11pm.

-E323 is listed as an onstructed oceanview, but had little obstruction. I would recommend this cabin.

 

Any question feel free to ask. If I didn't mention it, it's becuase we didn't experience it, or it was exactly what I expected to I had no need to comment.

 

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[Thrak]

Glad you had a good cruise overall. The Grand isn't the best Princess ship - it's the oldest of the Grand Class (duh...) and has some oddities such as the missing central stairs and smaller closets. You might enjoy one of the newer Royal Class ships more and I have heard great things about the buffet layout on those ships.

 

Thanks for posting your impressions.

[Keith1010]

I enjoyed your report.

 

Keith

[Clarea]

Appreciate the feedback.

[illiniwahoo]

I did forget to mention how annoyed I was by lack of a central staircase - especially since I was on deck 8 midship! But it gave me a good excuse to be lazy and take the elevator! I do recognize the grand is an old ship. We do generally prefer newer ships, but it was slim pickings since I needed to cruise before mid april, couldn't so the carib. and wasn't interested in taking long international flights.

 

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[srpilo]

Thanks for sharing your fair and reasonable thoughts

 

 

Srpilo

[illiniwahoo]

As I keep reading other posts I think of more things to say

-the bed was the worst we experienced. It only had a duvet, but we were given a top sheet when requested. Both sides had a giant dip, which made the seam between the two beds seem even more dramatic.

-seas were very rough on the ride back from Ensenada. My poor husband was seasick in bed all day.

- on sea days they showed an afternoon movie. I saw jurassic world and now you see me. I enjoyed them both. It was chilly enough when the sun went down that we never saw the nighttime movies. On port days they generally showed a concert about 5pm. I enjoyed the big screen.

- we really liked the aft pool. I great setup back there that many people seem to have never discovered.

- they really needed an adults only hot tub (or they needed to enforce it if they had one). There were about 300 kids on board, and the hot tubs seemed to be the only crowded place on the ship!

 

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[LARGIN]

I did forget to mention how annoyed I was by lack of a central staircase - especially since I was on deck 8 midship! But it gave me a good excuse to be lazy and take the elevator! I do recognize the grand is an old ship. We do generally prefer newer ships, but it was slim pickings since I needed to cruise before mid april, couldn't so the carib. and wasn't interested in taking long international flights.

 

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So you cannot use the stairs just aft of the glass elevators. We used them to get from deck 7 to deck 5.. ???

[Coral]

The problems with getting seats to the shows started with the Caribbean Princess and later ships.

 

The Grand, Golden, and Star didn't seem to have problems as there are less passengers on the ship with a similar size theatre.

[riclop]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[hopestotravelmore]

Thank you for your review. As I am new to Princess and actually cruising in general I love reading what others think about each cruise line.

 

We went on the Golden Princess and adored the ship and our cruise but then like I said it was our first cruise and we never had to wait for any time dining or in a line at the Horizon Court.

 

I to loved the arf pool.

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for review. I always enjoy reading reviews from cruisers who primarily cruise other lines.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[Cruise Raider]

Nice review! I hear tale that all Princess ships will be swapping out their mattresses for new ones ... they are supposed to be wonderful. It cannot happen fast enough as we are sailing on the Grand again later this summer. It was my sister in law's choice, not mine.

 

I know exactly what you mean about the central staircase ... just annoying! It's worse when you have sailed on other Princess ships that have it because you always tend to forget.

 

I do understand that the Grand will be going into dry dock for refurbishing in December. I agree ... I think she needs it.

 

Best of luck to you and your husband on the birth of your child.

[arctickitty]

thanks for sharing

[illiniwahoo]

So you cannot use the stairs just aft of the glass elevators. We used them to get from deck 7 to deck 5.. ???

The staircase only goes from 5-6-7. Then there's half a flight of stairs that makes you think you will get to 8, but they dead end at a crew only door.

 

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[floridalover5623]

 

-I was so excited about the International cafe after hearing the rave reviews here, but found it disappointing. One evening they had a lovely cheese platter - perfect for a before dinner snack, but the only bread or crackers they had were saltines. Really? Premade sandwiches just aren't really that exciting to me.

 

Same here. Although they try to offer decent sandwiches it's easier & much better to make you own at the Horizon with what they put out. At least they not soggy. Maybe at 2 AM in a pinch they might suffice.

[GUT2407]

Some interesting observations.

 

I hate the mid ship stairs issue, why they just didn't go all the way is beyond me.

 

And I must say Princess aren't great on the sandwich front, it was one thing we thought Celebrity were much better at. And on a longer cruise in particular there comes a time when something baic, like a sandwich, is just what you feel like.

[NoWhiners]

Hi all

 

We too just returned from our first Princess cruise. I wasn't going to post but I read this and changed my mind. Although we were on the Caribbean Princess, I agree with many of the comments. Overall, we had a great cruise and would consider Princess again. Some additional observations:

 

We found emabarkation/disembarkation very clumsy. Maybe this only happens in Houston, but we were queued in long lines to get on the ship (think like a Disney ride line), with a lot of waiting around for the line to move. Also, they took pictures of each guest as they got on the ship, before you could go inside. I thought this was a silly way to do it. (Full disclosure--we have only sailed HAL in the past, 7 cruises, and they take the pic at the same time they do your cruise card. This makes a lot more sense than having 3000 plus people get their picture taken one at a time as we try to board! And we walked right on the ship, no long lines).

 

Disembarkation was equally bad. We were told we had to have our bags out at 6 pm the last night. That seemed very early, so we checked with our cabin steward and he said 8 or later was OK. And the disembarkation video said they could be out by 11. We returned from dinner a little before 8 and all the bags that everyone put out, were still in the halls.

 

I didn't like that we had to be out of the cabin by 8 but couldn't go to our assigned waiting area until 8:40. We went to breakfast early, returned to the cabin by 8, and sat there, with our door open, until 8:10. We understand the need for the cabin steward to clean the cabin for the next guests and didn't want to get in his way but there didn't seem to be a lot of options, since most other public places already had tons of people in them and they were clear we shouldn't go to our meeting area until the correct time. (And not to focus on HAL, but they allow room service the last day, you can stay in your cabin until departure time and when you board, you go right to your cabin, as with Princess). I refuse to drag my bags up to the buffet while I eat. They have to do better at this.

 

I liked the IC (had tuna sandwiches a couple of times and I was surprised they weren't soggy). Also loved the Princess buffet hours, much better than HAL. The breakfast sandwich that the grilled for you was surprisingly good.

 

Pizza was as good as advertised too.

 

But the buffet layout (again, maybe only for Caribbean Princess) was insane. A small space, even though there were 2 sides and the back part, with no room to turn. I found it hard to maneuver around without bumping into other pax or staff. Just a crazy layout for so many people. Not sure what they were thinking when they set this area up.

 

The food seemed quite good and I liked that it was always prepared the way I requested it (mostly rare, for meat). HAL hasn't done that. We got the app size fettuccine a few times and even when we asked, they wouldn't give us the Parmesan bowl.

 

Loved Vines and the no charge sushi! In general, Princess had a very good selection of reasonably priced wine. We bought by the glass, no beverage package, since we would never have had enough to drink to justify that.

 

Most of the staff was good but the waiters on the Lido deck were terrible about bringing glasses of water (walked past us many times without even asking if we wanted anything) and some crew were downright surly when you asked a question. Room steward was excellent and most bartenders were quite good too.

 

Our bed was OK, but the last day I noticed it had a doubled over mattress topper on it. Underneath it, the mattress looked old and worn. We slept OK but I think we were lucky. Friends we met said their bed was terrible.

 

Completely agree about the hot tub for adults. Pools and hot tubs were dominated by kids, including some in diapers. Sort of yucky...

 

Our cabin was on Caribe deck and it was great!! So glad I read on these boards about them before we booked.

 

We did the Ultimate Balcony Dinner one night for DH birthday and it was excellent. Enough food for 4 people and well worth the cost. I recommend this, especially if you have a larger balcony.

 

Overall, we liked the cruise and the little things won't prevent us from using Princess again but I came away with the sense that Princess does things that make it easier/more convenient for them, not pax. I didn't feel treated as well as on HAL but again, we would take another Princess cruise, just with different expectations now that we have tried them.

 

Hope I didn't hijack the thread, but this seemed better than starting a new one.

 

ML

 

PS: We both hated the stickers they put on us as we boarded "because we were new to Princess" and the blue card that identified us as newbies. These are completely unnecessary steps and make you feel like you're stupid or something right from the start.

Edited April 3, 2016 by NoWhiners

[illiniwahoo]

Funny how different the experience can be at different ports. Both in and out of San Francisco was the easiest embarkation and debarkation we have ever experienced! We also didn't get a newbie sticker, but did have a blue card.

 

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[Cruise Raider]

Funny how different the experience can be at different ports. Both in and out of San Francisco was the easiest embarkation and debarkation we have ever experienced! We also didn't get a newbie sticker, but did have a blue card.

 

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Pier 27 in San Francisco is much improved over the previous pier used (sometimes still used). We once got to the pier in SF around 11 AM and waited in line to board until 6 PM....and we have a black card. I swore I wasn't going to travel out of that port again but have done so and it has been great. I had friends that disembarked from their Princess cruise last Sept at the old pier as Celebrity had one of their ships at pier 27. They said it was a nightmare. It is all in what is going on around at the port.

[NoWhiners]

Funny how different the experience can be at different ports. Both in and out of San Francisco was the easiest embarkation and debarkation we have ever experienced! We also didn't get a newbie sticker, but did have a blue card.

 

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Yes, it is sort of surprising that it varies so much. I guess there are enough differences among ports that it changes. Lucky you didn't get branded with the sticker :) Thanks for letting me add to your thread.

 

ML