Grand Princess is now 26 years old. Is she still ship shape?

[cr8tiv1]

It is what she still HAS that counts:  Wheelhouse, Explorers Lounge, wrap around promenade, bigger balconies, Ocean View staterooms, covered pool and conservatory, window suites, Leaves & Tea Library, Crooners, Alfredo’s, Vista Lounge, and less passengers.

[memoak]

8 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

It is what she still HAS that counts:  Wheelhouse, Explorers Lounge, wrap around promenade, bigger balconies, Ocean View staterooms, covered pool and conservatory, window suites, Leaves & Tea Library, Crooners, Alfredo’s, Vista Lounge, and less passengers.

We will be on her for 14 days this dummer and the 17 days in 2025

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

59 minutes ago, memoak said:

We will be on her for 14 days this dummer and the 17 days in 2025

10 of our 15 upcoming bookings are on the Grand.  Everyone likes different things.  

[cruzky]

Just got off the Grand on Feb 25th. She is still in good shape.  She does have a lot of rust on the bow. I also noticed a lot of rust in different places on the ship.  A lot of the teak railings need to be sanded. I had never encountered this on any ship I have ever been on. It must be a Carnival group thing. We seen a P & O ship that looked just as bad. The  stateroom carpet and drapes look they were fairly new. The dust ruffles need to be replaced. 

 

The  problems I encountered had to do with the buffet and the main dining room and pool restaurants:

Dining room. Maximum of 5 entrees, most nights 4 entrees listed for dinner. Always available section of the menu no longer lists salmon or chicken breast. Still have shrimp cocktail and French onion soup. Lobster is no longer available unless you want to pay for it. Several nights at dinner it took a long time to get your food.
 

Buffet. Most of the drink machines were not working. Only water and ice seemed to be working. Coffee and lemonade were only available at wait staff stations. Same most days with coffee. Iced tea was available for about 5 days only, then it disappeared. When I asked for a glass of iced tea I was told they were out. When I voiced my concern to higher ups a glass would mysteriously appear. I do not drink soft drinks. Trying to get drinks sometime became a free for all. The wait staff wanted to bring them to you all the time which was not feasible with the amount of guests on the ship. Went up for breakfast one morning at 8 AM and could not find a coffee cup. The food that was supposed to be chilled or on ice, was not and was room temperature. This included salads and dishes with mayonnaise and salad dressings. The food that should have been hot was cold or lukewarm. There were no heating elements or warmers under the dishes. 

Pool area. Mayonnaise and ketchup were sitting on the counter all day in the sun. They were not chilled. 
 

I can see why gastro illnesses break out on cruise ships.

 

 

We also did the Majestic for a 10 day Great Barrier Reef cruise prior to this and encountered a lot of the same issues on it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hobo1937]

14 hours ago, cruzky said:

Just got off the Grand on Feb 25th. She is still in good shape.  She does have a lot of rust on the bow. I also noticed a lot of rust in different places on the ship.  A lot of the teak railings need to be sanded. I had never encountered this on any ship I have ever been on. It must be a Carnival group thing. We seen a P & O ship that looked just as bad. The  stateroom carpet and drapes look they were fairly new. The dust ruffles need to be replaced. 

 

The  problems I encountered had to do with the buffet and the main dining room and pool restaurants:

Dining room. Maximum of 5 entrees, most nights 4 entrees listed for dinner. Always available section of the menu no longer lists salmon or chicken breast. Still have shrimp cocktail and French onion soup. Lobster is no longer available unless you want to pay for it. Several nights at dinner it took a long time to get your food.
 

Buffet. Most of the drink machines were not working. Only water and ice seemed to be working. Coffee and lemonade were only available at wait staff stations. Same most days with coffee. Iced tea was available for about 5 days only, then it disappeared. When I asked for a glass of iced tea I was told they were out. When I voiced my concern to higher ups a glass would mysteriously appear. I do not drink soft drinks. Trying to get drinks sometime became a free for all. The wait staff wanted to bring them to you all the time which was not feasible with the amount of guests on the ship. Went up for breakfast one morning at 8 AM and could not find a coffee cup. The food that was supposed to be chilled or on ice, was not and was room temperature. This included salads and dishes with mayonnaise and salad dressings. The food that should have been hot was cold or lukewarm. There were no heating elements or warmers under the dishes. 

Pool area. Mayonnaise and ketchup were sitting on the counter all day in the sun. They were not chilled. 
 

I can see why gastro illnesses break out on cruise ships.

 

 

We also did the Majestic for a 10 day Great Barrier Reef cruise prior to this and encountered a lot of the same issues on it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So is there anything "always available" or are you stuck choosing between the 4 entrees for that evening?

[LouCoop]

On 3/9/2024 at 8:37 PM, cr8tiv1 said:

It is what she still HAS that counts:  Wheelhouse, Explorers Lounge, wrap around promenade, bigger balconies, Ocean View staterooms, covered pool and conservatory, window suites, Leaves & Tea Library, Crooners, Alfredo’s, Vista Lounge, and less passengers.

We will be on the Grand next month for 29 days. It will be our 14th Princess cruise but first time on the Grand. Could you tell how many usb connections there are in cabin? Are there any on the bedside lamps? TIA

[cr8tiv1]

47 minutes ago, LouCoop said:

We will be on the Grand next month for 29 days. It will be our 14th Princess cruise but first time on the Grand. Could you tell how many usb connections there are in cabin? Are there any on the bedside lamps? TIA

It has been a while since I was on the Grand.  It my memory serves me correctly, the lamps have USB ports.  There are no USBc ports/smaller ones. 
 

I was in a window suite so can’t say how many lamps there are in other cabins.  This was on voyages post pandemic.  I would think all cabin lamps have USB connections.  

[memoak]

1 hour ago, LouCoop said:

We will be on the Grand next month for 29 days. It will be our 14th Princess cruise but first time on the Grand. Could you tell how many usb connections there are in cabin? Are there any on the bedside lamps? TIA

There are never enough usb connections on any ship we bring a device that lets us charge 5 devices at a time

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

There are never enough usb connections on any ship we bring a device that lets us charge 5 devices at a time

Grand Window Suites had 5 lamps with USB connections in addition to behind the tv US outlet and near the desk.  It also had 5 European outlets that would need an adapter.  
 

I am aware that most cabins will not have sufficient outlets to charge our many devices.  Best to invest in a non-surge protected power cube. 
 

My sister, on the Caribbean Princess, took over the desk with her: iPhone, watch, headphones, hearing aids, and computer.  There were no USB connectors.  

[cruzky]

On the desk there was also  at least one 110 plug. They had a 110 hair dryer in the drawer of the desk.I can’t remember if there were other choices on always available entrees. I wish I would have taken a picture of the menus. 
 

A couple of other things:

 

Very few glasses in the buffet that are larger than small juice size. I went to one of the bars and asked for a large glass everyday. Then took it to the buffet and filled it. They do have water filing stations in the buffet for your personal bottles. 
 

Some of the machines in the laundromats were not working. $4 to wash and $4 to dry. I believe detergent was $2. 

 

If anyone is doing the Great Barrier Reef cruise out of Sydney, all ports but Brisbane are tender ports. It took forever for everyone to get off the ship. They only lowered 2 lifeboats to tender in way too many guests. One port ( I don’t  remember which, they did finally have a boat from shore to come out and help tender people off the ship). Their transportation and logistics need some work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yehootu]

16 day R/T from LA to Alaska in Aug 2025. Hope she is still around, we have our Favorite Emerald Deck Mini.

[canadjineh]

I hope the Grand will still be in decent shape in early 2025.  We are booked for LA-Hawaii-LA on Feb 25th.  We had an interior cabin near the stern on our Canada/New England cruise on the Caribbean Princess this past Oct. and I think it was one of the best areas on the ship.  Very few people hung out in the lounge and deck areas back there, they all crowded up front I guess.  We had the rear hot tub all to ourselves as we sailed down the Saguenay Fjord at sunset with a couple of nice drinks in hand. 

We picked another interior cabin on Caribe deck toward the stern port-side for this Hawaii trip on the Grand so I hope it's a similar situation.  I'm hoping to have the Terrace Pool deck all to ourselves, lol. 🤞

[EDVM96]

The Island, Grand, and Caribbean are the ships that I would most likely not book in the fleet. And the Sun. lol.

[cr8tiv1]

7 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

The Island, Grand, and Caribbean are the ships that I would most likely not book in the fleet. And the Sun. lol.

 

Everyone has their favorites.  First on my list would be the Grand, Caribbean, and the Coral (followed by Sapphire/Diamond) IF they were ported on the West Coast. You won't catch me on the Royal Class or Sphere Class ships. 

[EDVM96]

13 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Everyone has their favorites. 

Yes, of course.

 

13 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 First on my list would be the Grand, Caribbean, and the Coral

Wow, why do you prefer the older Grand and Caribbean?
I love the Coral, it was my 1st Princess cruise.

 

13 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

You won't catch me on the Royal Class or Sphere Class ships. 

First, I thought so, too. But Royal class is amazing. These ships also never feel crowded. The best Royal Class ship is the Regal imho.

And I prefer the Sapphire and Emerald as the best Grand/Gem class ships.

 

Edited April 3 by EDVM96

[cr8tiv1]

The Grand and The Caribbean have the old Window Suites.  The new Royal Class ships have Window Suites...too....but they are too forward and too high up.

 

I also like the smaller ships.  I don't miss the bells and whistles.  

[canadjineh]

5 hours ago, EDVM96 said:

The Island, Grand, and Caribbean are the ships that I would most likely not book in the fleet. And the Sun. lol.

The Sun I can certainly see never booking on, what an ugly behemoth with too many people on it, plus too many charges for new class divisions on the ships - the stuff that used to be included.  (Back to HAL for us.)

Is it just because of the age of the other ships?  Or some other reason you don't like them?  Curious, as this upcoming cruise in Feb 2025 will only be our second Princess cruise.

[memoak]

Every Royal class ship I have ever been on has seemed crowded especially in Alaska with kids running everywhere. Our favorite ships are the Ruby, Crown, Grand and Coral   In our next 7 cruises only one is in a Royal class ship and that is for the itinerary 

[Ken the cruiser]

We like the Grand class ships over the other Princess ships for one reason. They have fully covered aft-facing verandas.

Edited April 3 by Ken the cruiser

[walkingsoon]

The Grand is fine.

 

For me, it's really simple. There are two categories of ships in the Princess fleet. You can classify them three different ways, each reaching (nearly) the same result:

1- is there a Riviera deck?

2- was it built since 2004?

3- do they sail with >3000 passengers?

 

Here's the simple part: each ship in category one (no,no,no) is superior (my opinion) to any one of the ships in category two (yes,yes,yes).

 

Will a spot of rust on the edge of your balcony ruin your cruise experience? If so, perhaps you'd prefer one of the ships in category two. I just hope you don't mind long lines, constant noise in public areas and an atrium you can barely walk through.

 

Princess has made a business decision to become a megaship brand, no different than RCI, NCL or MSC. Once that transformation is complete, I see HAL, Cunard and Seabourn providing for my future travel plans.

 

Different people have different opinions. I've provided mine for the benefit of the original poster.

 

Walkingsoon

[damiross]

Airliners are "reborn" every few years when they go in for major maintenance.  Same thing with ships. When they go into dry dock, they come out as a somewhat different ship.  After multiple dry docks over 26 years, it's doubtful much of the original ship is there

[EDVM96]

5 hours ago, walkingsoon said:

Princess has made a business decision to become a megaship brand, no different than RCI, NCL or MSC.

There is still a BIG difference between 3000+ and 5000+ ships.

Royal class ships - at full capacity - are way less crowded than the RCL mayhem.

 

[memoak]

2 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

There is still a BIG difference between 3000+ and 5000+ ships.

Royal class ships - at full capacity - are way less crowded than the RCL mayhem.

 

And Grand class ships are way less crowded and less noisy than Royal

[EDVM96]

9 minutes ago, memoak said:

And Grand class ships are way less crowded and less noisy than Royal

 

This is a sea day at noon, 27°C on the fully booked Royal Princess.

 

Crowded?

 

 

[memoak]

7 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

 

This is a sea day at noon, 27°C on the fully booked Royal Princess.

 

Crowded?

 

 

What does the piazza look like and how many decibels. ?  Every Royal class ship I have been on has had a noise problem and you can’t find a seat