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Princess Cruise Line

MS Grand Princess

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:John Quirin
# previous cruises: 3
Date of Trip: May 20, 2001
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

The Grand Princess, the name says it all. This vessel is nothing short of GRAND!!! Don’t get me wrong, there are little idiosyncrasies that are not to everyone’s specs, but remember in the business of hospitality, it is impossible to satisfy all walks of life.

Let me start with the service and staff. One cannot find better service than that to be found on this floating paradise. The wait staff and that certainly includes the asst. waiters(tress) are unmatched, namely Margaret and Pavel from Poland, in Da Vinci’s. Their personalities and work ethic are absolutely amazing. The entire wait staff which includes the bar servers all over the boat, poolside, casino, Promenade Bar, Skywalkers nightclub, the list goes on, all work extensive hours but never loose their smiles or personalities.

On past cruises, I wanted to throw the Maitre d’ overboard, well not on this one. Vincenzo and Robert were simple a couple of guys trying to assist our group in seating as painlessly as possible. A personal thank you to Robert for introducing us to our table servers Margaret and Pavel. Some things to note aboard the ship. When walking by the shops on deck 7, please notice the “martini shirt,” in the window. Stop in and ask where they are on the shelf. The response I got from that question was “it’s $85.00.” Well excuse me! In the middle of the afternoon, while passing through did I need to take the bathing suite off and put my suite on to shop?

The Promenade bar is an excellent place to meet up with other people if that is what you are doing. It is centrally located to a lot of things and there is a ton of action there. After 9:00 a good little sing along bar as well. Try the arcade and play some air hockey and outside play shuffleboard and chess. The Skywalker's nightclub doesn’t get going until about 1 AM, so be prepared for very late nights. There did seem to be too large of a number of staff members lingering each night. There is no cigar bar like other ships, but there are cigars sold at some bars, but you need to smoke them outside. All in all this was one of my best vacations ever and I highly recommend it.

Now to the ship itself, as I said earlier, one word to describe it is GRAND! One might think that with 3,000 plus passengers aboard, you might feel crowded or have to wait in lines or just not have your space. Well this vessel is so large that you never feel overcrowded or see an annoying long line. As a matter of fact sometimes I was wondering where everyone was??? The 4 pools are spread out throughout the length of the ship and people somehow evenly spread themselves out as well. My group would walk around the ship’s decks, play shuffleboard, chess, use different pools, bars, Jacuzzis, etc. and never were we feeling like we needed more space.

The décor: Again very wonderful. From the pools to the common areas and hallways, nothing less than classy sophistication. Comparing the pool areas to other ships I’ve been on, there is no comparison. The coloration through tiling and columns and statues are just superb. The spa lap pool is a great workout as well as being beautiful in itself. The small pool located under the nightclub has its own charm all alone, from one angle it’s like one of those everlasting pools you might find at a tropical resort. There must have been about 15 Jacuzzis located throughout as well. Often you may find people in them, but some of them are so large that they can accommodate what appeared to be 20 people. Well my friends and me had this discussion one afternoon and that was my guess and I’m sticking to it.

Another note about the service staff, even during some of the heavy rainstorms that we had, we might find ourselves in the Jacuzzis with beverages of all types in hand. The staff had no problem coming out of cover and getting soaked just to take or deliver an order or to take an empty glass or bottle. Kudos to them again.

Restaurants: In the main dining rooms, the décor was good, but the service was so intriguing in many ways, that to be honest I really never took notice of it. The food was, well, as one table mate continued to state-delightful. Try the cold soups, you’ll be surprised every time. Sabatini’s is an experience. Coming from the part of the country with the best Italian food available, it was no world class experience, but not disappointing either. Food was very good. Service started out awful, but mid dinner our waiter appeared to give up on us and we received a new one. He was excellent all the way down to singing to us and choosing my meal for me, which turned out to be one piece of all items on the menu after he stated over and over again, trust me. I do recommend this stop, but be prepared to eat way too much food.

Painted dessert was another story. The Maitre d' was an absolute mess. First he did not understand the type of reservation we wanted (5 people?). Then while waiting to be seated I saw and heard him turn several couples and small groups away stating that they were overbooked. At best the restaurant was half full. Each night I walked through it to get to the Promenade Bar were my group usually met and I noticed that the restaurant was never full. I just can’t understand that one. The food was ok. I’ve had much better southwestern food. Get the steak, it’s the best thing on the menu, not even warm chips with your salsa and they really should hide the “no frills” bags that they pour the chips out of. Service was ok as well. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it is a good alternative (for a break) to the regular restaurants.

I am not handicapped, but was placed in a handicapped room, therefore I had pleanty of space. It was literally 2 times the size of other people's cabins that I was traveling with who were in the same category as me.

The entertainment service is not quite as smooth. Cruise director Graham Seymore leaves a lot to be desired. He is far from “Julie on the Love Boat” and as a matter of fact he is quite unfunny and/or entertaining. His messages over the intercom system are merely a tease to any useful info or entertainment. The rest of his staff does suffice though, I guess. The comedian was the only paid entertainer on this grand ship that is worth any remarks and to be honest, he is down right hilarious. I had read some reviews before my trip and was somewhat hesitant to spend the time with him, but believe me he is worthy of a second evening’s time. Those reviewers who wrote about him really have NO CLUE what comedy is. I am not speaking of the comedian/singer with the skunk. As a matter of fact we heard good things about this gentleman but as Graham was opening for him, my entire group said we need to get out of here before we all fall asleep. So thanks to Graham, we never saw him. Beside the paid comedian, the Captain was the most entertaining of all with his announcements that often started with: “From de bridge….” A combination of his accent and serious demeanor, leading into his review or thoughts on an evenings shows, to his announcing our course of sailing and procedures to how we’ll get there, to his often squeezed in jokes, he was damn entertaining. The group I was with as well as others around all would stop conversations and stop what we were doing just to listen with amusement to these funny messages. I also heard several passengers imitating this gem on board as well as on land. Congrats to a job well done from the Captain.

Itinerary: We actually originally chose the Western Caribbean on the Grand Princess because it was 3 Islands and 3 days at Sea. We really just wanted to relax and enjoy the ship, then they added Costa Maya to the agenda and as we boarded they explained that a storm had destroyed Costa Maya’s dock and that we would be stopping at Playa Del Carmen. Well it turned out great. Playa Del Carmen is awesome from what we experienced with our rainy weather. Other stops were Princess Cay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Princess Cay was a huge surprise for me. We had a ball there as it was basically a beach party with all sorts of water sports and activities. A band played all day long while food and drinks were served. A great day.

Grand Cayman was extremely disappointing to me. I heard lots of great reviews about Stingray City. I went golfing, good day, really nice course, bring plenty of balls there is a ton of water in all the right places, but it could have been in a LOT better shape. Others went to the beach, but a storm rolled in and put a damper on that activity. Most of those who shopped were disappointed. I stopped by the shops and was so disappointed in about 5 minutes that I just got back to the ship and relaxed. Same shopping and shops as most Islands. I had really been looking forward to this Island for many years, but it proved to be a huge disappointment for me.

Cozumel was another great day. Then again I still have not met a day in Mexico that isn’t. We did a catamaran sail and snorkel trip. Lots of fun. We sailed out to a snorkel site where you snorkel for I guess about an hour, Mexican time is different then the rest of the world. Then you reload and sail to a beach for a beach party again with plenty of activities and water sports. All along there is open bar, on board as well as on the beach. Food is also available. Then back aboard and sail back to the ship. Now it was a scenic party aboard this boat as the crew brought drinks and more drinks to you, if you wanted them. It was a blast. An extremely nice photographer aboard this boat drew me a map where I can go to this “warehouse” to buy authentic Mexican art and things for my home (versus the tourist traps near the dock). (Excellent map) So we made our way there and negotiated our heads off to find little success. We then made our way through town and had lunch and shopped some more. But before leaving Cozumel, coming from a Cancun veteran, you need to stop by Carlos and Charlie’s. Well we did and WOW! Just like we remembered. Probably about 90% of the patrons in this establishment were from our ship. Well I’ll make 3 simple comments here: a can’t miss, people somehow let loose and do crazy things (we saw a couple, from the ship performing acts of lust on the dance floor and they were no 20 something year olds either), well lets just say a great time, you need to stop by and have a beer and tequila shooter. On our way back to the ship, we had a monsoon. Literally 5 inches of water on the streets and sidewalks. It didn’t kill our plans as we continued in the rain and our group grew and grew to about 20 as we approached the ship. The party then continued in the Jacuzzis. Awesome day!!!

Playa Del Carmen is a great stop, but it was rainy and dreary all day. We shopped, hit the beach for about 10 minutes and chilled out at Senior Frogs, another place a Cancun vet can’t miss. That and Carlos & Charlie’s are sister establishments. This could very well have been the best of all ports, but the weather was not good to us this day. Some went to the ruins and enjoyed them although they got muddy. We were tempted to rent a Jeep and drive to Cancun, but the honest man at the rental agency told us that the weather would be the same there. Thank you to him. I do not consider myself an expert or one to have others listen to me, but from my experiences in the Caribbean, my honest opinion, as well as others I was traveling on this trip with, Mexico is by far the highlight of this part of the world. The people, culture, attitude of the natives, beaches, water, activities, shopping, the list goes on, are far superior that the rest of the Caribbean. Also the ship had plenty of activities all day and night. Just read the "Princess Patter" each morning.

There was a group of High Schoolers on their senior class trip, but besides that I did not meet one passenger.