Grand Princess - condition

[Alaska05]

I’m looking at the Grand for May 2024 in Alaska.

 

I know it is the oldest in the fleet, but would like to know if there any drydock or refurbishment planned between now and May 2024.

 

Finally looking to resume cruising.  Yay!

 

TIA

[mtnesterz]

Don't know how to find out what was done, but last dry dock in 2019 that I can see. Wet dock in Portland OR in fall '22, so probably not again by '24. We sailed on the Grand in '22. Our cabin air was wonky and never fixed to our satisfaction. There was a pipe leaking in the hallway near Explorer's Lounge. CD was our least enjoyable. He is not on the CC sticky of current senior staff on any ship. Not complaining. Instead I'm saying we enjoyed the cruise so much just getting out there cruising again. I hope you too enjoy yourself as much as we did.

Edited July 17, 2023 by mtnesterz

[cr8tiv1]

Most of 2022 dry dock was external.  I will mention changes to the Window Suites.

 

New sofa.  Best I've had in years.  You could actually sit on it without sliding off.

New carpets inside cabin

New carpets in other passageways.  

Bed lamps had USB ports

 

I was also on her pre-pandemic when she was a bucket brigade.  Haven't seen buckets since.  

 

They do need to change out their archaic thermostats.  

 

 

[Ellipooh]

Cool video, never seen that perspective before. The ship look practically flat on the bottom!

 

Grand is my favorite, despite obvious age issues. So many wonderful memories. And I’m a big fan of the Window Suites!

[lesnpatty]

We were on it in a mini suite in May 2022  It was our worst cruise ever. There was no hot water to use our tub The carpet and sofa in our room were very aged We asked for a sheet to keep the sofa covered.  The dining was the worst we every had in the buffet, The food was unrecognizable. We never had issues finding something we liked between the buffet or dining room, even he crown grill steak hose was below par.  It is the first time we have ever said we will not go back on this ship again 

[20165]

7 hours ago, lesnpatty said:

We were on it in a mini suite in May 2022  It was our worst cruise ever. There was no hot water to use our tub The carpet and sofa in our room were very aged We asked for a sheet to keep the sofa covered.  The dining was the worst we every had in the buffet, The food was unrecognizable. We never had issues finding something we liked between the buffet or dining room, even he crown grill steak hose was below par.  It is the first time we have ever said we will not go back on this ship again 

Thats sad to hear.  We sailed her when she was first built in 98/99 timeframe when it had the cool spoiler in the back.  It was actually a really neat bar.  Wonder why they removed it. 

[mtnesterz]

1 hour ago, 20165 said:

We sailed her when she was first built in 98/99 timeframe when it had the cool spoiler in the back.  It was actually a really neat bar.  Wonder why they removed it. 

It's called Skywalkers. First ship of it's class, it was found to make the ship stern heavy. In later builds, they used lighter aluminium in the structure, then the design changed. The ramp was removed and the bar moved further forward. The One5 bar substitutes for Skywalkers on the Grand today.

There used to be a video of the removal on Youtube.

Edited July 18, 2023 by mtnesterz

[20165]

49 minutes ago, mtnesterz said:

It's called Skywalkers. First ship of it's class, it was found to make the ship stern heavy. In later builds, they used lighter aluminium in the structure, then the design changed. The ramp was removed and the bar moved further forward. The One5 bar substitutes for Skywalkers on the Grand today.

There used to be a video of the removal on Youtube.

Oh thats right.  I remember joking about the Starwars reference back in the day.  Too bad there gone, definitely made the ship somewhat unique at the time.  thx

[MissP22]

We haven sailed the Grand since 2010 and many of the problems I'm reading about were common back then.

If there was another choice of ship going to the same itinerary, I'd give it some serious consideration. 

It is an older ship that has some problems. 

[Thrak]

6 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We haven sailed the Grand since 2010 and many of the problems I'm reading about were common back then.

If there was another choice of ship going to the same itinerary, I'd give it some serious consideration. 

It is an older ship that has some problems. 

 

I'm also an older build with problems but I keep on going anyway...

[rogueriver]

We were on the Grand this past April for the trans Pacific Sydney to San Francisco.  We enjoyed the ship, but some of the furniture, especially in the Vista and Explorer Lounges really needs to be replaced.  There were also occasions when buckets were out catching drips from the ceilings. We also had a major electrical issue that caused many of us to be moved to other cabins, but that was fixed once we arrived in Honolulu.  Even with these issues, we really enjoyed the ship and the crew was fantastic, especially the Cruise Director Jayson and all of this staff.  

 

[GateGuardian]

Does anyone know if Starlink is running on the Grand?

[MissP22]

17 hours ago, rogueriver said:

Even with these issues, we really enjoyed the ship and the crew was fantastic, especially the Cruise Director Jayson and all of this staff. 

He must have gotten demoted.

Last Feb/March he was on the Enchanted. 

[Thrak]

16 hours ago, GateGuardian said:

Does anyone know if Starlink is running on the Grand?

 

Can't say from personal experience but I asked this question earlier in another place and was told the answer is YES. I'll have to wait until the end of October to find out for myself but I'm happy to have had the reply to my earlier query.

[Princess Chatterer]

On 7/18/2023 at 7:13 AM, 20165 said:

Thats sad to hear.  We sailed her when she was first built in 98/99 timeframe when it had the cool spoiler in the back.  It was actually a really neat bar.  Wonder why they removed it. 

It was removed because of the weight it put on the back of the ship.

[icat2000]

On 7/20/2023 at 1:42 AM, MissP22 said:

He must have gotten demoted.

Last Feb/March he was on the Enchanted. 

Unless he wanted to cruises down to NZ/Australia region.

 

Spent 20 days on the Grand in March 2023. It was fine. No compliants but then again not much bothers me. Went three times to Crown Grill. No issues with the food.

Edited March 7 by icat2000

[Thrak]

On 7/18/2023 at 7:01 PM, GateGuardian said:

Does anyone know if Starlink is running on the Grand?

 

Most definitely. We had great connectivity from San Francisco to Hawaii to Tahiti to Australia to New Zealand. No issues at all.