Grand Review (Long)

[Gabrielle R.]

We were on the Grand Dec. 22-29- yup over Christmas! What a great cruise! Ports of call & sea days: Ft. Lauderdale Princess Cays, at sea, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, at sea, Ft. Lauderdale.

The ship was great! Very excited to see it as we drove up in our shuttle from the hotel. 1 suggestion, if you can get into port a day early I would recommend it. Took us over 12 hours to get from Minneapolis to Ft. Lauderdale. Plane problems were the reason for the longest part of the trip plus a very busy travel day.

Embarkation: We saw this very long line outside of the terminal when we got there. No problem really. We were each handed the noro-virus form to fill out. (A series of questions about your health.) We had to fill this out as we moved quickly through line. We were up to the front of the line and handing it to a representative with in 5 minutes. (Maximum) Some people did not fill out all of their forms ahead of time. Those people were told to fill it out at a set of tables set off to the side. A lesson that was learned- FILL OUT YOUR FORMS AHEAD OF TIME! YOU DON’T GET TO STAND IN LINE AND HOLD EVERYBODY UP. I was very glad to see that. This also kept the line moving very quickly.

Once handing in our Bahamas form and noro form, we quickly saw that Princess had each deck’s name set up. You simply go to the line your room is located at, give them your e-documents and show them your passport. You should have your Passport signed before you get there! One family of 4 didn’t have this done and that held us up a bit. We whisked through the line and was headed out to get on the ship. I would say this entire process took about 15 minutes. We were there at 12:30 for check in.

The ship: looks and activities: Beautiful! I looked for wear and tear. Found very little of that. The ship was clean and neat. Only saw some left over dishes early morning on the day we left the ship. So it does look like a new ship.

Many different areas to go to on this ship. We could be in the middle of the action, or off in a quiet corner. The only ‘bad’ area onboard was the photo gallery on deck 7. Huge bottle neck in the evening. People would just stop and start talking in the area, with no thought of the people in back of them trying to get through. This area has the Vista lounge on one end, the photo stands are set out on one, thus narrowing the gap. Of course on the other side of the walkway is the checkout stand, Sabatini’s specialty restaurant, a bar (I think the Wheel house) and more photos (On either side) just before you get to the atrium area. So too much in one area. We sometimes got around the bottle neck by going out onto the promenade deck and walking around.

There was always a choice to do things onboard. Movies were in several different locations. There was always something on the big screen in the main pool area, day and night. The shows in the big theater were good. The comedians in the Vista lunge were generally good. The magician/comic was OK. Started off trying to tell jokes,- which fell flat. Jokes about the elderly and depends just weren’t funny. Great illusionist- which we did like. The other comedians were good. I don’t understand why parents feel the need to bring their younger children to a comedian show when it is set up and billed as adults only.

We didn’t see many naughty kids. There were over 500 kids on board! We saw ‘youth patrol’ staff all over. I would notice teens or kids running amuck since I am a teacher and feel the need to manage children. Never felt that urge. The comedians mentioned the push every bottom on the elevator to the kids in the shows. guess what increased? You got it- a stoppage of the elevators on the floors. We only saw the ghost elevator once- since we took the stairs everywhere. I think the children’s program was good since the kids seemed to be out and about having fun with the staff. No kids- so I couldn’t tell you what they had available. I did see the kids making something in the atrium with the ships kitchen staff. That looked like fun. They had family decorate the gingerbread house.... Looked like fun.

We didn’t use the spa or the fitness center. I didn’t see the entrance to the fitness center. I saw 4 doors in the Spa pool area- but you couldn’t get in through those doors. My understanding is you had to go through the spa desk area to get to where you wanted to go. The jogging track was nice- it’s on top of the ship, it takes 8 times around to make a mile. There was a small tennis court in this area also. The promenade deck was a nice place to walk- 3 times around makes 1 mile. Some people decided to jog around that- I don’t think you are supposed to do that....

Ports of Call & excursions:

Princess Cays: We just went ashore and hung out. If you want to get away from the crowds we went to the far side of the beach. When you get off the tender go left and continue past the ‘look out tower’ and you get the quiet area of the beach. We did some snorkeling there- it’s not a good place to just play in the water. The games and things are in the center part of the beach. We never ate the shore lunch there- too long of lines....

Jamaica, Ocho Rios: We didn’t really go ashore there I wanted to pick up some coffee for a friend of mine. The usual push by the locals. We just hung out on the ship and enjoyed the ship. I did find I liked Montego Bay better only because they have a small area to buy goods with out the crush of the locals.

Grand Cayman: A great time as usual there. We did the Pirate ship encounter- booked through the cruise ship. That was a blast. We did the smaller ’pretty’ Pirate ship. That was fun and we fired our cannon at the ship! Talked to couples on board the ship who saw & heard us fire at them while they were on board. That was great, fun, excursion. Went to Senior Frogs after wards- Fun, fun fun!

Cozumel: We did the Paradise Island excursion- booked through the ship. Great day at the beach. Hugo our ‘host’ was fun and got many involved in beach games. Open bar and open buffet - fun and pretty area. Still recovering from Wilma, so very few large palm trees.

Ft. Lauderdale: We had a 5:30 PM flight so chose to do the longest of the ship’s offered excursion. The Everglades Flamingo Gardens tour. That was fun going on an air boat ride. We saw a ton of birds, a few alligators and lots of bright sunshine and warm weather. The flamingo Gardens were very beautiful. We got to the airport at 2:30. Good way to kill the day.

Leaving the ship: We ate and got to our designated area about 20 minutes early. It went very quickly. In fact we left for our tour about 15 minutes early. No problems with TSA, immigration or the process of getting our bags. Lots of taxis waited for those getting off on their own, and the buses seemed to fill quickly and leave. Saw the Princess staff helping the elderly and physically disabled people with care and understanding.

That’s the long and short of it. Hope this review helps answer those nagging questions about the Grand. Questions? I’ll do my best to answer. Gabrielle

[CaliJohn]

Very nice review - nice to hear the Grand is still a great cruise experience. BTW; what cabin did you have?

[Coolmama_1]

Nice review. Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

[jean s]

Thanks for a great review. We go on this cruise in February on school vacation week. It's nice to hear that the chidren are engaged in activities. We have sailed on this ship before and really enjoyed it. Now that I have read your review I really am getting excited about our upcoming cruise.

[Colo Cruiser]

Great review, thanks. :)

[dewats784]

Thanks for sharing. My sisters and I will be on the Grand Jan 12-19. It is our 1st cruise and we are very excited about. Did you do traditional or anytime dinning? We are scheduled for early traditional, but are thinking of changing to anytime. What were some of the movies that were playing? Sounds like you had a great time!

[B40 Tha Cruisa]

Thanks for sharing. My sisters and I will be on the Grand Jan 12-19. It is our 1st cruise and we are very excited about. Did you do traditional or anytime dinning? We are scheduled for early traditional, but are thinking of changing to anytime. What were some of the movies that were playing? Sounds like you had a great time!

 

Ill take care of the ship for you, im on from the 5th-12th!

 

Great review, thanks.

[whenistrivia]

Thanks for the review.. we're on from the 19th-26th.

 

Haven't been on the Grand since 1999.. we did our 25th anniversary renewal-of-vows on board.

 

Hope you all have a great cruise over the next few weeks, and happy New Year's to all !

 

Gary

[STEVEPCPA]

We'll be sailing our first time on the Grand the week of March 15th. I didn't think the Grand had Movies Under the Stars. Is it something they added to this ship? That would be great. We really enjoyed it on the Crown. Do you remeber any of the movies that were shown during your trip? Did you go to any of the musical stage reviews? Do you know which shows were on board this ship? Also, who was your Cruise Director? Thanks for the review, and for answering any of my questions. Steve

[jbjarko]

I'll be on there with B40, thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to seeing her:D

[Gabrielle R.]

I'll try to answer some of the questions:

Cali: We had an inside room Deck 10 the Caribe deck. Nice deck since you are in the middle of everything. It was a quiet floor since we had cabins above and below us. Really surprised that we never really heard our neighbors at all.

DeAnn: We had anytime dining. The first time for us to try this- we have cruised 7 times with assigned seating. We really liked the anytime dining since we met many nice people. It worked well for us too since there were only 2 of us. I did notice that some big groups had a set table and time to eat. We dined in the Michaelangelo dining room. We never had a line when we went to eat. We saw lines at Leonardo's all the time. Did eat Christmas Day breakfast in Leonardo's it was fine. The only difference between the two rooms are the paintings on the wall, lay out is the same.

Movies: Shrek 3, Borune (SP?), Transformers, Ratatulli (sp?) mission Impossible 3, greece, Ghostbusters (not sure of what number.) Indiana Jones- Temple of Doom, It's a wonderful life, Tina Turner in Concert, Elton John in Concert Some were playing during the morning/afternoon. I'll double check in the Patters to find more of the more recent movies

Steve: We saw only two of the production shows- just so much to do. The ones we saw were good. Cruise director was James Ibrahms. He was OK, I rarely saw him, or for that matter most of the assistant directors. Gavin (From Trinidad) was the most noticeable around ship. I kind of ignore the CD. Not an over abundance of announcements- which was nice. I mentioned the movies above.

 

Thanks for the kind words- glad my review helped! Gabrielle

[STEVEPCPA]

Thanks for taking the time to anwer my questions. I appreciate it. Happy New Year! Steve

[sunlover2]

Thanks for the review. We are taking our first Princess cruise in March. Sounds like the Grand is still living up to her name~ :)

[wrongwaywatson]

We'll be sailing our first time on the Grand the week of March 15th. I didn't think the Grand had Movies Under the Stars. Is it something they added to this ship? That would be great. We really enjoyed it on the Crown. Do you remeber any of the movies that were shown during your trip? Did you go to any of the musical stage reviews? Do you know which shows were on board this ship? Also, who was your Cruise Director? Thanks for the review, and for answering any of my questions. Steve

 

Yes, the Grand has Movies under the Stars. We sailed on her last March when she sailed from Galveston. She is a great ship. We preferred the Caribbean Princess a little over the Grand, because we didn't like the "feel" of the atrium. We liked having the open pool/movie area. Other than that, the ship was beautiful and well maintained. I wish I was on it right now! It is snowing and blowing in Illinois and my house is a mess from having the whole family over for New Years Eve!

[B40 Tha Cruisa]

We'll be sailing our first time on the Grand the week of March 15th. I didn't think the Grand had Movies Under the Stars. Is it something they added to this ship? That would be great. We really enjoyed it on the Crown. Do you remeber any of the movies that were shown during your trip? Did you go to any of the musical stage reviews? Do you know which shows were on board this ship? Also, who was your Cruise Director? Thanks for the review, and for answering any of my questions. Steve

 

The Grand does have MUTS, and yes it was an afterthought. It was put on when the idea came about years after the ship was built. On the Grand it is on a different area of the ship than the others. The aft pool, I understand. I havent yet been on the Grand, but will be in 3 days! I will report back.

[gregj359]

Thanks for the great review. Who was the captain on your Cruise?

[Gabrielle R.]

Yup, I forgot to mention most of the movies were on the big screen! The MUTS really are under the sun or stars! Movies day and night in the big pool - right in the middle of the ship! Movies that played Over the Hedge, Golden Eye, Blades of Glory Shrek 3, Oceans 13, Ice Age, Rumor has it, Superman returns, Ratatoullie, Next, Finding Nemo, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Italian Job, Tina Turner in Concert, Elton John in concert, Marvin Gaye in concert, Christmas with the Kranks, The Pursuit of Happyness, How the Grinch stole Christmas, Bourne Ultimatum, Toy Story, Transformers, Ghostbusters, Grease, Mission Impossible- some of these were also in the Vista Lounge!

Vista Lounge had movies too: Wild Hogs, Zodiac, Evan Almighty, It's a Wonderful life, License to Wed.

Captain: Nicolo Bommarco is the captain

 

There! Did I cover what you needed?;)

Gabrielle

[parsova@sbcglobal.net]

Thank you for the review, we will be on the Grand 1/12-19 also. First time on Princess and counting the days.:)

[leavitt1]

Thank you for the review, we will be on the Grand 1/12-19 also. First time on Princess and counting the days.:)

 

Take good care of her for me! I'll be on the Grand from 1/19-1/26! :D

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

Thanks for your nice review. We have been on the Grand twice and would not hesitate to sail on her again.

[Shelly97060]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the review.

[dforeigner]

Thanks for taking time to write a review.

[pd52]

Thanks for your honest input.

 

General questions:

New Menus ?

Did you get a table for 2 any nights, how long a wait ?

New Mattresses?

What's the quietest place to hang out during the day

What/where did you find that you thought was special ?

What days did they have eggs benedict (a personal favorite, only seem to get on a cruise)

 

 

Thanks

[JandD Mom]

Thanks for the great review. I just have one question:

 

How quickly were you able to tender into port in Grand Cayman? We are trying to arrange something and are trying to figure out what time we can reasonably be off, without sleeping in the room where they give out tender tickets.

 

I guess if you could elaborate on the tender procedure for Cayman that will be helpful.

 

Many thanks!

[Alnursu]

Hi

 

Great review!

We are booked on Grand next Christmas and New Year (1s time on Princess) and are wondering do they do anything special for Christmas or New yearThanks

Al.