Grand Princess California Coastal 10/22/17-10/29/17-My take

[EllieinNJ]

We booked this cruise the Monday after Thanksgiving last year because of the "3 For Free" promo, $1 Deposit for Cyber Monday and two free specialty dinners for Cyber week. We also combined it with a visit to my daughter and her family who live in Berkeley. We almost booked the week prior when there were the fires in Sonoma and my daughter said they had to wear surgical masks some days, but when we got there the air quality was much better.

 

In planning this trip, I learned so much from this forum. I was able to use four Amex credit cards to save $400 when paying for this cruise but had to pay early because that special ended 4/30/17. Then I was planning to use my OBC in the casino but read here that it was not allowed. I usually do not take cruise excursions but had no where else I wanted to use the OBC so planned to book them once I got on board because I also read here that if you book excursions in advance they will charge your credit card and cannot use OBC.

 

So the Tuesday before the cruise I was again looking at the excursions and noticed there were only two spots left on one that I wanted to take. I thought if I bought additional refundable OBC I could book the excursions in advance and maybe transfer them to my non-refundable OBC once onboard. Amex was running the $100 off $500 special again so I called Princess and purchased $500 OBC. The agent was very nice and when I told him about booking the excursions, he said that he could book them using my non-refundable OBC. He broke it down between me and my husband, so was charged $2.80 on my credit card for his and I still had a credit of $27.10. That I planned to use to buy a coffee card when I boarded.

 

Now I went to my cruise personalizer to check everything out but couldn't find where I had the specialty dinners. Called Princess again and they had no record of it. Called my TA and she said she would check into it. After two days, she finally straightened it out. When she booked it for me she forgot to put in a certain code but now everything was good. Only thing now was to make sure we booked a restaurant first thing after boarding because someone on my roll call said that most times were already booked.

 

Embarkation was very smooth and we were on the ship by 12:30. Went directly to the services desk where the agent called the dine line for us and secured a reservation at the Crown Grille. Then asked her which MDR was open for lunch and she said none were, only the buffet. We turned around, walked passed the piazza and directly into the Davinci room, which was most definately open for lunch. She downright lied to us.

 

After a not great lunch (the burgers were like hockey pucks because the waiter was very chatty and neither of us said how we wanted it, our bad but didn't want to send it back.) we went to our balcony stateroom on the Caribe deck (another gem I learned from this forum about how the balconies were larger). We met our steward, Rusty, who also was very friendly and chatty. He told us that the Patters were printed wrong so we would not have them until early evening. I started reading the excursion pamphlet and noticed that there were additional times for some of the excursions we booked which were better for us, so went to the excursion desk and changed the times, (not knowing there would be a problem later). I also noticed a card in our room that said we had the two complimentary dinners at the Crown Grille. That is all it said.

 

Finally went to explore the ship. We did not have a scheduled Meet and Greet because the woman who started to run it said we did not have enough people for Princess to put out refreshments and meet the officers so someone said we should meet informally at Al Fresco after muster. Unfortunately, no one thought to say wear beads or something to recognize our fellow roll call members so when we got there, did not see any one we thought we could approach. Then sailaway started and we wanted to be in the pool area so never got to meet anyone except for Stan (Gimer) by accident because he was wearing his cruise card around his neck and I recognized his name.

 

MORE TO COME!

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to post the first installment of your review. Looking forward to reading your future reports.....:):):)

 

Bob

[easyboy]

Nice start. Looking forward to what the problem was on your excursion.

 

 

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[need2cruisesoon]

Was on the same cruise last year and Stan was the Man.

[Keith1010]

You are off to a good start. I look forward to your additional posts.

Keith

[EllieinNJ]

We had signed up for Anytime dining and again read here that if you go to the Michaelangelo room after 7:30pm there would be no lines, except when we got there at 7:30, the line was all the way passed the International Cafe. We waited on line for about five minutes and nothing moved. Then I remembered that the Davinci room opened for Anytime dining at 7:45 so we just walked up to Deck 6 and got on a line with only about 6 couples ahead of us. We were promptly shown in to an almost empty dining room at 7:45 and went there every night, except for the evening we did the Crown Grille. In fact after the third evening the headwaiter recognized us and saved us the same table and waiter for every night thereafter.

 

Now I would like to put my review into certain topics with random thoughts afterwards.

 

FOOD

 

We were a little disappointed with the food the first two days. In addition to the lunch I already mentioned, we ate in the dining room the first morning of the cruise. My DH likes homefries or shredded potatoes with his eggs but the only one they had was the small square ones like you get at McDonalds. I ordered the Eggs Benedict and they came out almost hard boiled and the sauce was baked on. We ate in the buffet for breakfast from then on and was very happy with the variety. We had no trouble getting a table and even got a window table some days.

 

We found the food improved after the filet and lobster meals, which were delish. They even let DH order a second lobster tail. I know food is subjective but I am just reporting our experience.

 

We loved the lobster tails so much that we again ordered it in the Crown Grille, but was disappointed because they grilled it and it tasted burned. They got DH another one and it still tasted burned. Was glad we didn't have to pay for it, but that was another problem that cropped up later.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

We love going to shows and went to the Princess Theater every night, sometimes the early show, sometimes the later show, depending on when we got back from an excursion and when we wanted to eat dinner. Most days we got back too late for the buffet so had something at the International Cafe to tide us over until dinner. We usually get to the theater about 1/2 hour before the show but one evening we were running late and didn't get to the early show until 10 minutes before showtime. Not a seat to be had, so we went to dinner instead and did the late show, which was practically empty.

 

The Princess productions shows were very good, especially the British Invasion show. We really liked Steve Moris, who used to tour with the Beach Boys and did a singing/comedy act. We also saw his second show in the Vista Lounge another night. We also loved the comedy team of Alfred and Seymour, two Afro-American comics who made fun of themselves and everyone else. We also saw their second show in the Vista.

 

The singer Dwight Blake also did a Motown act in the Vista one night which was great, but we didn't really care for him when he played piano and sang in Crooners. The Mariachi band was good and we enjoyed watching certain passengers dancing to their music. They had a singing competition called "The Voice" which was a takeoff of the TV show. The finale was only one early performance at 8pm. We were in Vista for a 7pm performance so ran like bats out of hell to make the show. We did get seats, one in the first row and one in the second row. Although we didn't sit together, we really enjoyed the passengers who were singing.

 

We did not see any movies or gamble in the casino. Just couldn't find the time.

 

MORE TO COME!

[rwmiller]

I noted your comment "Then asked her which MDR was open for lunch and she said none were, only the buffet. We turned around, walked passed the piazza and directly into the Davinci room, which was most definately open for lunch. She downright lied to us."

 

This is exactly what happened to us also on our Alaska cruise in September. Incredible that they lie like that when the dining room is right there. We even made a comment on it during our post-cruise survey - they obviously did not take action on our comment.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Bob

[mrrickyg]

Awesome so far, I'm sailing on Feb 16 to Mexican Riviera and hope it's as nice then as it is now.

[jennybenny]

Enjoying the review. Thanks!

[EllieinNJ]

Thank you for your kind comments. I will be back shortly.

[MTJSR]

I have sailed on the Grand 3 times, Princess over 10 times and while reading your review, I realized you have seen more shows on a ship than I have. I suppose I will have to come down off the upper decks sometime!:D

[EllieinNJ]

I have sailed on the Grand 3 times, Princess over 10 times and while reading your review, I realized you have seen more shows on a ship than I have. I suppose I will have to come down off the upper decks sometime!:D

As I said before, we do love the shows. What else is there for us to do in the evenings? We are not drinkers so do not patronize the bars except to listen to GOOD music. We do not like trivia or games on board. DH doesn't gamble so did not want to leave him alone to go into the casino.

 

 

Why don't you try one or two shows? You also may like them.

[MTJSR]

As I said before, we do love the shows. What else is there for us to do in the evenings? We are not drinkers so do not patronize the bars except to listen to GOOD music. We do not like trivia or games on board. DH doesn't gamble so did not want to leave him alone to go into the casino.

 

 

Why don't you try one or two shows? You also may like them.

 

I think it's great!

I was laughing at myself, because I just never seem to make it to the shows and I don't drink, smoke, gamble or do trivia either.

[knippsel]

Thank you for the review. Quick question re: Caribe Balcony. How much of the balcony is covered? We've been on the Grand a number of times, and this January we're looking forward to our first Caribe Deck balcony. Is there enough room to sit in the shady portion?

 

Glad to hear that Steve Moris still performs onboard. He's the one act we've seen multiple times and always enjoyed. (And he's not too loud! We've had to avoid most of the other shows - the acts may be good but they're over-amped and just painful to try to sit and enjoy, even with earplugs.) Oh well. There's lots else to do.

[WVBill]

Thank you for the review. Quick question re: Caribe Balcony. How much of the balcony is covered? We've been on the Grand a number of times, and this January we're looking forward to our first Caribe Deck balcony. Is there enough room to sit in the shady portion?

 

Glad to hear that Steve Moris still performs onboard. He's the one act we've seen multiple times and always enjoyed. (And he's not too loud! We've had to avoid most of the other shows - the acts may be good but they're over-amped and just painful to try to sit and enjoy, even with earplugs.) Oh well. There's lots else to do.

The Caribe deck balconies are approximately half covered. How much shade that gives you depends on the time of day and the heading of the ship. It could be total shade or no shade.

 

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[EllieinNJ]

Hi. I'm back to continue my review.

 

PORTS AND EXCURSIONS

 

Santa Barbara

This was our first stop and one of the excursion times I changed. We originally booked the 9:30am Trolley tour (the 11am tour was booked up) and had to meet at 8:15 in the theater. I saw they opened another time at 1pm which was more convenient so I changed to it. After we tendered to the pier, it looked like over 100 people were waiting for this tour. We managed to get on the trolley and hoped there were other trolleys for the people left.

 

The tour was okay. California was having a heat wave this week and the temp was over 90. One elderly man wasn't feeling well so they called Uber to take him back to port.

 

The tender coming over was very good but going back to the ship was super dangerous. Many people fell trying to get on the ship because it was rocking so much.

 

Long Beach

When I was reading the excursions I saw they had a bus tour that went to San Juan Capistrano, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach for $150 per person. That came to $300 for two. Crazy. So before the cruise I called Hertz and rented an intermediate car for $40 for the day. We called the local office in the morning and they picked us up just outside of the dome building around 9:00am and as long as you return it before 5pm, they will drive you back to where they picked you up, which is what we did.

 

We drove to Huntington Beach, looked around and then drove to Laguna Beach. We found free parking near some private homes near the beach and then walked the beach for about an hour. What a beautiful beach. Now here it was 98 and I regretted not bringing swimsuits and towels. DH went down to wade in the water. There were surfers everywhere. Just lovely. Next up San Juan Capistrano's mission. $8pp for seniors and really very nice and interesting.

 

I had read on line that the Queen Mary was free admission after 6pm, but when we got there they would not let us in for free because they were running a Halloween event. We were tired anyway so walked back to the ship.

 

Ensenada

Usually this is the last stop on this itinerary but for our cruise it was next to last. We took the Princess excursion city tour and Mexican Folk Music and Dancing. We really enjoyed it. This tour started late (2:30pm) so we relaxed on the ship in the morning.

 

San Diego

Another Princess excursion where we changed the time. Old Town Trolley HoHo bus. Because we did Ensenda first, we had to go through customs in the morning and that screwed up many excursion times. So all three times for the trolley got there together and they were just boarding us as we came. So there wasn't really any reason to change times. It was a very nice tour. Some got off at different stops but we stayed on for the whole trip.

 

I knew the tour ended early, so I bought a Groupon for a 2 hour harbor cruise tour. With a discount code, it came out $25 for the two of us. One hour would have been enough. It was very hot and practically no shade.

 

San Francisco

This wasn't a cruise tour but after we got back to my daughter's house in Berkeley, we took a bus into SF one day and did the HOHO City Sightseeing bus, which we also booked through Groupon at $39pp, $78 total, which was one of the higher HOHO bus tours that I have ever taken. They said it was at Fisherman's Wharf, but we had to walk about five more blocks to their main office. Then we must have waited at least 45 minutes for the bus. Then the microphone broke so we had to get off and get on another bus. Then it was so cold and windy that we had to go and sit downstairs and you could hardly look out the windows because they were so dirty and had advertisements on them from the outside. Then we had to wait another 45 minutes for another color bus to take us back to where our bus to Berkeley leaves from. We put in complaints to Groupon and City Sightseeing and waiting to hear from them. I would suggest you do another bus company.

 

MORE TO COME!

[EllieinNJ]

COFFEE CARD

 

We are big coffee drinkers and knew we needed to purchase a coffee card and tasting the horrible muck they served as coffee in the MDR that first lunch verified it.

 

We got the card at the International Cafe and the waitress wrote the ship's name and date on the back. Every time we went for coffee they ALWAYS looked at the back of the card to make sure it was purchased for this cruise. Every morning went down to the IC and got a LARGE coffee to bring up for breakfast and lasted for the whole meal. Usually also got coffee there in the afternoon returning from excursions. We once tried to get coffee during dinner in the MDR to have with dessert, but it was too inconvenient.

 

After the shows in the evening we used it for cappachinos. You can request whipped cream on them. There was also cocoa powder and chocolate sprinkles on the side, which made it sweeter. We still have three punches left.

 

I read here on the forum you could also use it for gelato, but when I inquired about it at Coffee and Cones, they did not serve gelato anywhere on the ship. They only had soft service which was free. And they did not have the fresh brewed coffee like in the IC. You could only get it there or in Crooners bar. But they did do cappachinos.

 

SETTLING UP THE FINAL BILL

 

On Thursday we asked for a printout of our bill and noticed it was $40 more than what we estimated. Looking it over, we saw that we were charged more money for the excursions than what we booked them for. Went down to the service desk and was told we have to take it up with the excursion desk, which was closed until the following morning.

 

Next morning we went there and was told because we changed the times of our excursions, the old charge was removed and a new charge was placed on our account which is higher when you book on board rather than before the cruise. No one told us that when we changed times, so asked to speak to a supervisor. She also went into the schpiel about more money for changing the time, but then relented, saying she would credit it back to us this one time and we should be aware of this policy for future cruises.

 

So on Friday we again asked for a copy of the bill and was very happy to see those credits to our account. This night was our ressie in Crown Grille and sure enough, another problem popped up.

 

On Saturday morning we asked for a copy of our bill again and saw there were two charges of $29 each for the Crown Grille. Again down to the service desk to tell them those dinners were suppose to be complimentary but the agent said we were suppose to bring that card that said we had the free dinners to the restaurant with us. NOWHERE on the card or elsewhere said that. So we gave her the card (had a photocopy taken) and she would hand it in to the restaurant for the credit. The credit showed up that night on the final, final bill so now everything added up and we should be getting a check for the balance of our refundable credit. To date we are still waiting but I have been reading here that it can take one week to three months from different posters.

 

All in all we really enjoyed the cruise. It was very relaxing because we didn't have to be on any early excursions and didn't have to rush, except from show to show.

 

We went into the hot tubs around 5pm and we had them all to ourselves. The pool was never crowded.

 

My only complaint (please don't flame me) was the hair dryer. It wasn't strong or hot enough. I have shoulder length hair and like to curl the ends with a round brush, but with this dryer it wouldn't curl. I had to wet my ends until almost soaking and use the dryer, which took forever to finally curl.

 

If anyone has any questions I can answer I would be very happy to do so.

 

Safe cruises to you all.

[2pbears]

I noted your comment "Then asked her which MDR was open for lunch and she said none were, only the buffet. We turned around, walked passed the piazza and directly into the Davinci room, which was most definately open for lunch. She downright lied to us."

 

This is exactly what happened to us also on our Alaska cruise in September. Incredible that they lie like that when the dining room is right there. We even made a comment on it during our post-cruise survey - they obviously did not take action on our comment.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

Bob

 

Our recent experience on the Grand (we were on the coastal cruise just prior to this one) was that if we asked any crew member about something that was going on in a different part of the ship than where they worked, they were clueless. I don't think you were lied to, I just think this person was not well informed.

[partybarbie]

Thanks for your review. I've taken three cruises on the Grand this year (with my dad) for a total of 30 days. Last year, on the Ruby, we traded our mini-bar in for two coffee cards. My dad only drinks the plain, brewed coffee. He's been using the same card (no punches) for over a year now. So far, no one has checked the back of the card for a voyage number. I guess you get lucky sometimes. ;)