Trip Report - Grand Princess Vancouver to Sydney Sep - Oct 2023

[cruiser3775]

I'm not sure where to put this trip report, but as Grand Princess is going to be in Australia for the summer season, I thought it might be of most interest to Australian and NZ cruisers.

This was a repositioning cruise. Grand Princess spent the Northern Hemisphere summer season cruising up and back between Vancouver and Alaska, then moved across the Pacific to Australia at the end of the season. For me, it was a four week cruise. Of the 28 days, 20 were sea days. We visited San Francisco, Hawaii,Tahiti, American Samoa and New Zealand.  I am a solo traveller, and I had a balcony cabin on Baja deck.

It was my second Princess cruise. The first was on Coral Princess to PNG almost a year ago.  Comparing the two ships, I preferred Coral to Grand, though a lot of things were very similar.  Grand is bigger and has a more subdued decor than Coral, fairly plain with a sort of Art Deco vibe.  Coral seemed to me to have more places to just sit and watch the waves and the people, and more hideaway quiet places.  That's more my style, not being a very gregarious person. I liked the Coral library area better than Grand, for example, and the bars were more self contained, rather than being really open to the passing parade.

I found Grand to be less stabilised than Coral. We had some bad weather and rough seas on both my trips, and Coral definitely handled it better. Grand tended to rock about more, and we got frequent warnings about holding onto the handrails in the corridors. Maybe because it's an older ship, the stabilisers are less effective?  I wouldn't pick this ship if you are prone to seasickness.

The itinerary:

I enjoyed all the sea days, though that would be a deal breaker for many people, I expect. We got more sea days that the itinerary showed, because we skipped the first port stop, Victoria BC, Canada because of a major storm. The two day stop in Los Angeles was not a port visit. It was to clean the ship's hull, and passengers were not able to disembark. We spent most of those two days anchored off Long Beach.   I knew about this, because I booked relatively late, about 3 months before the cruise start. People who booked earlier expected to disembark at Los Angeles, and it took months before Princess actually notified them that it was not a port stop. Even two months before, they were still taking bookings for non-existent shore excursions from LA. Not good.

Costs

On board currency was USD, which meant a significant slug for the poor Aussie dollar holders. The extra cost of staff gratuities of $US17 per person per day added up to a lot over 28 days.  

Food

I didn't eat at the speciality restaurants, as I considered the extra cost not good value for money. I tried each of the main dining rooms, and decided the one I liked best was the Da Vinci room. The menus are essentially the same in all three. Da Vinci was a little smaller and quieter than the other two, and centrally located mid ships, so it rocked less.  The decor in all three is corny larger than life reproductions of the painters' works, including a massive Mona Lisa, of course. The food was generally good, well prepared and presented. The menu did have some repetition over four weeks, but not extreme. There was no "If it is Tuesday, it must be Beef Wellington" problem.  On formal nights, there were more upmarket choices like Lobster tail. Coming from an Alaska season, the menu had some good seafood choices. The food service was excellent.  I was able to sit at shared tables (which I prefer) for between 4 and 8 people almost every night. Unfortunately, this meant I had little choice of times, as shared tables only seemed to be available of the 6.20pm or sometimes 6.40 slots. I would have preferred to have a later meal, but that was only available on a private table.

I also enjoyed a couple of pizza slices for lunch, and liked the DIY salad bars at the Lido buffet for lunch. The hot food at the buffet was very obviously mass produced and reheated. The Asian food choices were poor quality, bland, overcooked and insipid.  The buffet dessert choices were minimal, mostly very lightweight layered sponge cakes with artificial cream, or brightly coloured jellies. There were nice looking cake son display, but they were "Display only". Not sure who actually got to eat them? The buffet coffee was awful.

The small snacks at the International Cafe were of much higher quality than anything at the buffet, and you could have a good breakfast from thier offerings, or for lunch they also had soup and hot pies and toasted sandwiches. They did good coffee there, too, for an extra charge.

Drinks

I didn't take a drinks package because I couldn't justify the daily cost for what I expected to consume. I'm mainly a wine drinker, and you can bring on your own wine. The first bottle is free, but any more and you pay a whopping $30 corkage, which has doubled since my previous Princess cruise less than a year ago. Without a package, any drinks you order have an 18% gratuity added to their price.  I decided to buy wine by the bottle to have with evening meals over several nights, as this works out a little cheaper than wine by the glass, and gives you much more choice. That's the theory, but the Wine List they present you with in the dining rooms has no basis in reality. It's pages long, but the majority of the wines on the list turn out to be "sorry, not available".  Sometimes I had to make three choices before they found one they actually had in stock.  The drinks waiters in the dining rooms have very little wine knowledge.   Keeping my bottle for the next meal was easy - they always found it next time for me. The lowest price wines worked out at about $US 55 per bottle, and went up from there.

Apart from that, I had a couple of cocktails, and tried the beers from several different countries.  There was a good choice of beers, but it was usually a different choice, depending on which bar you went to.

 

I'll do some more on the ship and on the ports in a further post.

[yes!yes!yes!]

I'm enjoying your report.

How was the cruise director?

[OzKiwiJJ]

Coral is a very special Princess ship with a wonderful ambience that is unique to that ship. We also enjoy Grand Class ships (we cruised on Grand in March) but the newer Royal Class ships are just too big for us.

 

We had a similar problem with wine on Royal Princess during a Mediterranean cruise in 2017. It was late in the season and I think Royal was close to ending its European season. At least 25% of the wine list was out of stock.

 

Since we enjoy speciality coffees during the day and a cocktail or two before dinner for our future cruises we're using the Plus fare for internet and some drinks but have budgeted to buy some wines by the bottle (at 25% discount) for dinner. That seems to be the most cost effective way for us that allows us to enjoy decent quality wines. However if we have trouble getting the wines we like on our upcoming Japan cruise then look out for some serious grumbles on my "Live(ish)" thread!

[cruiser3775]

The cruise director was enthusiastic and seemed to be everywhere at once. I wouldn't like to sustain that level for a whole month!

 

Re the wine choices.

Basically they were poor. Wine by the glass in the dining rooms was restricted to about eight choices at the basic $11 US (plus 18%) level. Apparently if you are cheap enough to order these basic wines, you don't need to know anything about them, so the only information is the grape type. No place of origin, no vintage.  Probably Chateau Cardboard.

Wine by the bottle has a bigger range, and better information, but much of it was actually not available. Wine waiters don't know the names of wine grapes except the basic ones like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir. I caused much head shaking by ordering a Semillon.

 

Will write some more when I get home from work.

[cruiser3775]

Trip Report Part 2

Some more about the ship

The Medallion

Most of the bugs seem to have been ironed out of the system by now, and it seems to be generally accepted by passengers, unlike my cruise 10 months ago, when many people complained about it. The closed Medallion Net facility worked fine for me ( and I'm not very tech savvy) and I found it very useful for checking my on board account, or using a map of the ship decks, plus the luxury of ordering a drink or snack anywhere on the ship, and a waiter turning up with it wherever you were, like magic.

 

My cabin

I had a balcony cabin on deck 11 aft.  Good location, about half way between the middle and aft lifts.  It had a 6 drawer desk on one side with a bedside lamp on a swing arm, and a desk chair. This was the only seating in the room. A second person would have to sit on the bed. There were two US power sockets, but so close together that, if you attached an Australian converter plug you could only use one of them. Next to the bed was an Australian power socket and two USB sockets, and there was another USB in the base of the bedside lamp. The old TV had been removed and replaced with a flat screen on the wall, but the now obsolete shelf that once held the TV was still there, and had a dangerous edge that stuck out at eyebrow level for me. I hit my head on it a couple of times. Below it was a bar fridge. Mine stopped working after a few days, and it took them two weeks to attend to it. It was finally replaced on the second last night of my cruise.

The bathroom was strictly one person at a time, but the shower was bigger than I've had on any other cruises, and there was good water pressure. There was one storage cupboard with five shelves, one of which held the safe. Opposite that was an open hanging area with about 15 hangers.

The TV had a good sound system and offered closed captions for many of the channels, which is helpful if you have hearing loss. You could also use it to check the day's menu and book dining times and check what activities were on. There was a much better range of movies and some good recent documentaries than I got on my recent Carnival cruise.  However the news channels were poor. there were nine, but five of them were sports, with three of those being American football.  There were four news channels, CNBC ( mostly financial), MSNBC ( far left politics), Fox News (very far right politics) and BBC overseas service, which was poor quality and never very up to date.  Forget Australian or NZ  news - there was nothing.

 

Room Service

Once you pay the new $US14.99 pp charge, you have access to the room service menus, on your TV or your phone.  The range is fairly limited, but there is enough to make up a meal or a snack if you don't feel like going out. A few items incur an extra cost, but most are "free" ie. included. You can also order from the speciality restaurant menus and have that delivered to your room.  There are other things on the room service menus, such as necessities like paracetamol or a tooth brush at fairly low prices.  I ordered quite a few room service items, especially in the first week, when I was ill with the flu. Everything came promptly.

I also had many room service breakfasts, which are free when you use the paper menu that is left in your room each night. Basically a continental breakfast, but there are some hot items on the list. The delivery of breakfast was erratic. Often items I ordered were missed. One annoying morning, I got the cereal but not the milk, and the coffee but not the cup.

My room steward was excellent. The room was cleaned/restocked with towels etc, twice per day. My balcony was cleaned about every three or four days, with prior warning the night before, so you could shut the curtains.

 

Shops

The usual ship shops - expensive jewellery and watches and handbags and spirits etc. Another with Princess branded goods and soft toys.  Another with clothing.  There were perpetual sales, every second day, offering huge "discounts", but mostly of lower priced goods that were not on regular sale in the shops, but brought out from storage especially for the sales.

 

More on entertainment and the ports next time.

Edited October 27, 2023 by cruiser3775

[cruiser3775]

Post No. 3

 

Events & Entertainment

Plenty of time for these with so many sea days. I know I don't have many mainstream tastes, but a lot of the offerings were of no interest to me.  Many of them had a whiff of the social committee at a Retirement village - lawn bowls, bean bag toss, bingo, very easy quizzes etc.  Another lot were thinly disguised sales pitches for the spa, the casino and the shops - Botox Party or Intro to Acupuncture, or Arthritis remedies, complimentary jewellery cleaning, etc.  I did go to a trivia session, encouraged by another passenger to join her. It was "Famous Landmarks" trivia, with photos. The first three were the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and the Las Vegas neon strip.  Not much brain power or knowledge needed.  There were movies on the big screen, but they were the same movies you could watch on your room TV.  There were lots of exercise to music sessions in the Piazza, plus ballroom dancing lessons, both of which were popular.

Live music was good quality. The ship's band of six were all quality performers and very versatile. There were several smaller acts, usually duos, with different styles of music and song that I enjoyed. The only classical music option was one session with two violinists, which was obviously not popular, because the audience was very sparse.  There were some larger production shows, well choreographed and lit, and the sound system on the ship was first class.

The 'Enrichment" sessions, with backgrounds on the ports were very good. They did not tow the cruise ship line and push the official shore excursions, but gave good information on places to see and how you could DIY if you chose that option.

The library had a fair selection of books and games and jigsaws, and the book selection got better as people finished a book they had brought on board and exchanged it for another. The communal jigsaws might have been good, but there was only one table (out of about eight) in the library that was rectangular and fitted a large jigsaw. The others were all small round tables.  The library is combined with the Tea Leaves Lounge, but that part is strictly decor - glass fronted drawers with tea leaves and a display of teapots, but no hot water or cups to actually make tea.

 

PORTS

The only one I was unfamiliar with was Samoa, so I'm not the best person to comment on excursions.

San Francisco

I spent the day revisiting old haunts and friends, so didn't go on a shore excursion. The port is very close to Fisherman's Wharf, and the excellent public transport systems of central San Francisco, so it would be relatively easy to do a DIY trip around.

Honolulu

Again, another place I'm familiar with, so this time I took the advice of the ship's enrichment presenter, and planned a day on the public transport system, called The Bus. This is an absolute bargain at $3 per trip. You can also buy a $7.50 all day ticket at convenience stores.  The nearest stop is a three minute walk from the port.   I decided on a long distance bus ride, right over to the other side of the island of Oahu and along the northern beaches.  This took me all day and cost peanuts.

Tahiti

The port is very centrally located, so I just walked around the town, did some sightseeing, revisited some places I like, like Notre Dame Cathedral and the Papeete Market, and had some nice French food and wine. It was hot and humid the day we were there.

Samoa

I'd never been here before, so I took a tour. Not the ship's tour, but one I booked privately.  You can also just pick up a tour on exiting the port. There are many people offering a $20 tour of the island for a couple of hours in one of the rusty old local buses. These tours do not have a guide, so you are on your own for background and explanations. The one I went on took 4.5 hours, cost $60 and was on the same sort of bus, but came with a proper local guide. She was very good on local history, culture and economy and told us legends associated with the landmarks. The tour went  first to the National Park headquarters, which has museum type displays, then past the very aromatic fish cannery (Samoa's main export), then over to the other side of the island to a village where we were introduced to the village elders and shown around. Then more driving and sightseeing, ending up back in Pago Pago at a place on the water where we were served a spread of typical Samoan snacks and a drink  , and could use their wifi.   I thought it was a good intro to American Samoa, and worth the money. The company was Best Tours.

New Zealand

We spent one day in Auckland and one in the Bay of Islands

I did a DIY trip by ferry from Auckland to the lovely small town of Devonport on the north shore, where I spent time just wandering around, did a little shopping, sightseeing and lunch, and caught the ferry back. The local ferry terminals are right next to where the ship was berthed. I did look at a day trip to Waiheke Island, but was put off by the cost of $165 for the ferry, plus the HOHO bus, plus winery visits.

Bay of Islands, I took the free shuttle bus to the port for the ferry to the small historical town of Russell, and wandered around again until it was time to go back. The ferry is not frequent, so you need to watch your timing.

 

Last post about this cruise. Hope it has been useful.

 

 

[Yaya_in_Oz]

Thanks for posting. I enjoy your writing style. Too many sea days for me, shame they can’t make more stops but I guess that would take too long.

[cruiser3775]

Yes, we went past several other Pacific islands, very close, that I would love to visit, such as the Cook Islands and Tonga, though I don't know if they welcome cruise ships. We spent two days anchored just offshore at Long Beach, near Los Angeles, while the hull was cleaned, but no-one was allowed to disembark.   I know it was a repositioning cruise, but they could have made it more attractive with some other port stops.

The ship seemed not to be anywhere near capacity, which I think reflects the number of sea days and the length of the cruise. I got this cruise for a very good price (balcony cabin for one person at the single rate, no single supplement, which was literally worth thousands of dollars), and it seems many others got excellent discounts, from conversations I had with other passengers.

[yes!yes!yes!]

I've enjoyed your report.

I don't mind sea days, I just read a lot more on those.

[Galesa]

Thanks for the report. Really enjoyed reading it.

 

I'm always attracted to trans pacific cruising for some reason but know I'm way too hyperactive to enjoy that  many sea days or any really long cruise for that matter.

[cruiser3775]

I actually enjoyed all the sea days, just watching the waves and the weather, exploring the ship and chatting to people. It made me realise just how enormous the Pacific Ocean is, something you have no perception of at 35,000 feet.   When I was sick with the flu, I absolutely appreciated that I was in the equivalent of a four star hotel, with cleaning and room service meals and someone to check on me.  Although many of the organised activities didn't appeal to me, I always found enough that did. 

You could actually be super active and very social on a big cruise ship every day, if that's the sort of holiday you enjoy.

[sewgood]

On 10/29/2023 at 4:00 PM, cruiser3775 said:

I got this cruise for a very good price (balcony cabin for one person at the single rate, no single supplement,

We were recently on the Royal's repositioning from Alaska and noticed lots of single rooms on deck 8 as we walked along the corridor.

We found out from solo travellers on board they too got the cruise at the single rate with no single supplement.

I told my husband if I had know that I would have booked us in two separate cabins. 😁

[Ethel6666]

Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review. It’s so useful to read about your experience and you write so well. We have tossed up a few of the trans Pacific cruises, but are not sure about the sea days. Im also not sure why they don’t add a few more ports to make things a bit more interesting - I suppose there is some business model around that.

 

I recall from a Celebrity cruise some time ago the day time enrichment was fairly weak with a lot of the activities offered very thinly disguised advertising, talks about ports were advertising ship’s tours and the entire library, board games, etc were packed away due to a noro outbreak. We are trying a Sydney to Hong Kong cruise on Azamara next year with a few sea days, so we’ll see how we go. We do enjoy the dining, bars, music and shows in the evening.

[cruiser3775]

19 hours ago, Ethel6666 said:

talks about ports were advertising ship’s tours

I'm pleased to say that didn't happen on my Princess cruise. They covered the geography of the islands, and history and culture, in brief.

The presenters also told you how you could do it yourself if you wanted. They covered things like where you could find independent tour companies just outside the port gates, what sort of tours they might offer, and sometimes how much it would cost, and whether you had to pay in local currency or could use a credit card. They also covered accessing public transport from the ports, which is how I discovered I could do a five hour tour of the island of Oahu by public bus, and it cost me the grand total of $9 in fares.

I found you got the same independent shore excursion information on Holland America also.

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for a great report.

[joejoe 59]

On 10/29/2023 at 12:09 PM, cruiser3775 said:

Post No. 3

 

Events & Entertainment

Plenty of time for these with so many sea days. I know I don't have many mainstream tastes, but a lot of the offerings were of no interest to me.  Many of them had a whiff of the social committee at a Retirement village - lawn bowls, bean bag toss, bingo, very easy quizzes etc.  Another lot were thinly disguised sales pitches for the spa, the casino and the shops - Botox Party or Intro to Acupuncture, or Arthritis remedies, complimentary jewellery cleaning, etc.  I did go to a trivia session, encouraged by another passenger to join her. It was "Famous Landmarks" trivia, with photos. The first three were the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and the Las Vegas neon strip.  Not much brain power or knowledge needed.  There were movies on the big screen, but they were the same movies you could watch on your room TV.  There were lots of exercise to music sessions in the Piazza, plus ballroom dancing lessons, both of which were popular.

Live music was good quality. The ship's band of six were all quality performers and very versatile. There were several smaller acts, usually duos, with different styles of music and song that I enjoyed. The only classical music option was one session with two violinists, which was obviously not popular, because the audience was very sparse.  There were some larger production shows, well choreographed and lit, and the sound system on the ship was first class.

The 'Enrichment" sessions, with backgrounds on the ports were very good. They did not tow the cruise ship line and push the official shore excursions, but gave good information on places to see and how you could DIY if you chose that option.

The library had a fair selection of books and games and jigsaws, and the book selection got better as people finished a book they had brought on board and exchanged it for another. The communal jigsaws might have been good, but there was only one table (out of about eight) in the library that was rectangular and fitted a large jigsaw. The others were all small round tables.  The library is combined with the Tea Leaves Lounge, but that part is strictly decor - glass fronted drawers with tea leaves and a display of teapots, but no hot water or cups to actually make tea.

 

PORTS

The only one I was unfamiliar with was Samoa, so I'm not the best person to comment on excursions.

San Francisco

I spent the day revisiting old haunts and friends, so didn't go on a shore excursion. The port is very close to Fisherman's Wharf, and the excellent public transport systems of central San Francisco, so it would be relatively easy to do a DIY trip around.

Honolulu

Again, another place I'm familiar with, so this time I took the advice of the ship's enrichment presenter, and planned a day on the public transport system, called The Bus. This is an absolute bargain at $3 per trip. You can also buy a $7.50 all day ticket at convenience stores.  The nearest stop is a three minute walk from the port.   I decided on a long distance bus ride, right over to the other side of the island of Oahu and along the northern beaches.  This took me all day and cost peanuts.

Tahiti

The port is very centrally located, so I just walked around the town, did some sightseeing, revisited some places I like, like Notre Dame Cathedral and the Papeete Market, and had some nice French food and wine. It was hot and humid the day we were there.

Samoa

I'd never been here before, so I took a tour. Not the ship's tour, but one I booked privately.  You can also just pick up a tour on exiting the port. There are many people offering a $20 tour of the island for a couple of hours in one of the rusty old local buses. These tours do not have a guide, so you are on your own for background and explanations. The one I went on took 4.5 hours, cost $60 and was on the same sort of bus, but came with a proper local guide. She was very good on local history, culture and economy and told us legends associated with the landmarks. The tour went  first to the National Park headquarters, which has museum type displays, then past the very aromatic fish cannery (Samoa's main export), then over to the other side of the island to a village where we were introduced to the village elders and shown around. Then more driving and sightseeing, ending up back in Pago Pago at a place on the water where we were served a spread of typical Samoan snacks and a drink  , and could use their wifi.   I thought it was a good intro to American Samoa, and worth the money. The company was Best Tours.

New Zealand

We spent one day in Auckland and one in the Bay of Islands

I did a DIY trip by ferry from Auckland to the lovely small town of Devonport on the north shore, where I spent time just wandering around, did a little shopping, sightseeing and lunch, and caught the ferry back. The local ferry terminals are right next to where the ship was berthed. I did look at a day trip to Waiheke Island, but was put off by the cost of $165 for the ferry, plus the HOHO bus, plus winery visits.

Bay of Islands, I took the free shuttle bus to the port for the ferry to the small historical town of Russell, and wandered around again until it was time to go back. The ferry is not frequent, so you need to watch your timing.

 

Last post about this cruise. Hope it has been useful.

 

 

Thank you I've really enjoyed reading it🙂

[up anchor]

On 11/1/2023 at 1:36 PM, cruiser3775 said:

I'm pleased to say that didn't happen on my Princess cruise. They covered the geography of the islands, and history and culture, in brief.

The presenters also told you how you could do it yourself if you wanted. They covered things like where you could find independent tour companies just outside the port gates, what sort of tours they might offer, and sometimes how much it would cost, and whether you had to pay in local currency or could use a credit card. They also covered accessing public transport from the ports, which is how I discovered I could do a five hour tour of the island of Oahu by public bus, and it cost me the grand total of $9 in fares.

I found you got the same independent shore excursion information on Holland America also.

 

[up anchor]

Thank you Cruiser3775 for your most informative and helpful report on your Grand Princess Transpacific Cruise.  My sister and I are doing the same in reverse APL 2 next year.  Have cruised quite a few times with Princess and really looking forward to this one on the Grand old Lady.

[austromyrtus]

On 11/1/2023 at 1:36 PM, cruiser3775 said:

I'm pleased to say that didn't happen on my Princess cruise. They covered the geography of the islands, and history and culture, in brief.

The presenters also told you how you could do it yourself if you wanted. They covered things like where you could find independent tour companies just outside the port gates, what sort of tours they might offer, and sometimes how much it would cost, and whether you had to pay in local currency or could use a credit card. They also covered accessing public transport from the ports, which is how I discovered I could do a five hour tour of the island of Oahu by public bus, and it cost me the grand total of $9 in fares.

I found you got the same independent shore excursion information on Holland America also.

yes, one of the things i really appreciate about princess. we were on rci brilliance of the seas recentlly where there was no info for independent travelers. thanks for your review. 

[phoenixxx]

On 10/29/2023 at 6:00 PM, cruiser3775 said:

Yes, we went past several other Pacific islands, very close, that I would love to visit, such as the Cook Islands and Tonga, though I don't know if they welcome cruise ships. We spent two days anchored just offshore at Long Beach, near Los Angeles, while the hull was cleaned, but no-one was allowed to disembark.   I know it was a repositioning cruise, but they could have made it more attractive with some other port stops.

The ship seemed not to be anywhere near capacity, which I think reflects the number of sea days and the length of the cruise. I got this cruise for a very good price (balcony cabin for one person at the single rate, no single supplement, which was literally worth thousands of dollars), and it seems many others got excellent discounts, from conversations I had with other passengers.

How far in advance did you book to get this great price?

[cruiser3775]

I booked this cruise 100 days out. The 90 days out limit is when many people have to pay the balance or lose their deposit. So that's when some good deals come up, if a number of people cancel. It's also long enough for me to get organised before I have to get on board.

[MMDown Under]

On 12/11/2023 at 7:02 AM, cruiser3775 said:

I booked this cruise 100 days out. The 90 days out limit is when many people have to pay the balance or lose their deposit. So that's when some good deals come up, if a number of people cancel. It's also long enough for me to get organisecd before I have to get on board.

My cruise on  Resilient Lady was half price for a solo.  Chiildren under 18 aren't allowed on this ship so half price for January summer holidays is a bargain.