Grand Princess 11/20-11/27/04 We're Back!!

[drewlane]

Kathy,

 

Can you tell me which independent dive operators you used for Cayman, Costa Maya and Cozumel?

 

Did you pre schedule these dives with the independents?

 

Thanks!

 

Drew

[KaC-Cruiser]

Kathy,

 

Can you tell me which independent dive operators you used for Cayman, Costa Maya and Cozumel?

 

Did you pre schedule these dives with the independents?

 

Thanks!

 

Drew

Drew - in Cayman we took a cab up to Dive Tech - next to the Turtle Farm - and did shore diving - so we had no need to pre-book once we new they were back open. The reef was in good shape, and lots of good fish life

 

In Cozumel, we pre-booked via e-mail with Scuba with Alison, and she was wonderful!! Due to our arrival time, we missed all the other ops normal morning boats, but she was willing to arrange her time to accomodate us.

 

In Costa Maya, we pre-booked with Maya Palms (Douglas-Nitrogen Addict) - and that turned out to be a bit of a problem. Without letting us know, Douglas dumped us on Blue Ha Diving, and we haven't heard from him since - although he is still active posting under the Costa Maya section. He did the same to someone else a few weeks before us. So if you plan to dive there, you might as well book straight with Blue Ha, as you may end up there anyway. The diving was okay, but no where near as nice as Coz or Cayman.

 

Hope this helps a bit!!

[euphscott]

The cruise director on the Grand was Tim Donovan. He did the morning reports and was pretty good in my opinion. I thought he walked the think line of being out of control at times, but for the most part was entertaining without being offensive. He seemed like a genuine guy as opposed to the always on entertainer/plastic personality.

 

It was our first Princess cruise as well, and I will echo the sentiments of the others. We'd definitely sail Princess again when the itinerary and ship are right. Unfortunately we are planning for Bermuda next and as for now, Princess is not going there.

 

We loved our cruise critic friends! It was fun seeing lots of friendly faces throughout the week. Thanks to all for for the evening at Tortuga's and your company as we ran into one another.

 

One piece of advice for anyone that might be using hotel shuttles - take a taxi!!! There are indeed plenty available (in spite of Princess' persistent message that limited taxis exist) and much quicker than waiting for shuttles to arrive and weave through the maddening crowds.

[KaC-Cruiser]

It was our first Princess cruise as well, and I will echo the sentiments of the others. We'd definitely sail Princess again when the itinerary and ship are right. Unfortunately we are planning for Bermuda next and as for now, Princess is not going there.

 

We loved our cruise critic friends! It was fun seeing lots of friendly faces throughout the week. Thanks to all for for the evening at Tortuga's and your company as we ran into one another.

 

One piece of advice for anyone that might be using hotel shuttles - take a taxi!!! There are indeed plenty available (in spite of Princess' persistent message that limited taxis exist) and much quicker than waiting for shuttles to arrive and weave through the maddening crowds.

Scott ... Luckily we had a speedy disembarkation .... We were out of the dock area & on the road in about 20 minutes after grabbing the luggage ... nice to know about the cabs ... it seemed a bit odd how they harped on their being limited cabs available.

 

Say Hi to Cindy for us!! Ditto on the Tortugas & shipboard run-ins. I'd love to run into you guys on a future cruise!! Our next one is set for the Galaxy 11 night Panama Canal - next Thanksgiving! Hope we can convince Celebrity to run the UT/A&M game like Princess did!!!! What a way to close out a cruise!!!

[euphscott]

OK - now I am jealous - only 20 minutes?! :)

We waited for a half hour watching as shuttle after shuttle arrived and sat forever trying to get all their passengers. We walked down to ask about a cab and within a matter of minutes headed on our way. Had we know, we would have sped out of there and avoided the pile up. Oh well...

 

As it worked out, I returned our rental car with 2 minutes to spare!

 

We too would love to run into you guys on another cruise, or any of our cruisecritic buddies as well. It was a fun group. Our future cruise plan is to take the Voyager out of NYC to Bermuda next October. Hopefully the plans will work just as we dreamed them!

 

Happy sailing all!

[KaC-Cruiser]

OK - now I am jealous - only 20 minutes?! :)

We waited for a half hour watching as shuttle after shuttle arrived and sat forever trying to get all their passengers. We walked down to ask about a cab and within a matter of minutes headed on our way. Had we know, we would have sped out of there and avoided the pile up. Oh well...

 

As it worked out, I returned our rental car with 2 minutes to spare!

 

We too would love to run into you guys on another cruise, or any of our cruisecritic buddies as well. It was a fun group. Our future cruise plan is to take the Voyager out of NYC to Bermuda next October. Hopefully the plans will work just as we dreamed them!

 

Happy sailing all!

Yup!! Timing was perfect ... Alan ran for the parking shuttle, I went with the porter with the luggage to the pick-up area .....zip, zip, we were out!

 

Bermuda was our first ever cruise back in 92, and I still have great memories. Hope you guys have a great time there ......:)

[steveo2916]

We parked at the Harbor House for the cruise and once we got our bags, a porter loaded them all on his cart and took the bags all the way to the car. Needless to say he got a nice tip!

[KaC-Cruiser]

We parked at the Harbor House for the cruise and once we got our bags, a porter loaded them all on his cart and took the bags all the way to the car. Needless to say he got a nice tip!

Wow! That's an even better deal! I wonder how many people parked at Harbor House think to ask!