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Princess Cruise Line

MS Grand Princess

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Reviewed by: Dave Burgess
# previous cruises: 3
Date of Trip: February 16, 2003
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

This review is subjective and consists entirely of my own thoughts and experiences. Other people who have sailed on this ship at the same or a different time may have very different opinions to my own. This was to have been a very special holiday for my wife, our two younger children and myself as this was, at least for now, the last holiday we would have together. Our two youngest children, aged 16 and 17, have decided that for now they would rather stay at home than travel the world on exotic holidays and travel in style on some of the worlds finest cruise ships. In truth we don't understand it either. We decided then to pull out the stops for this holiday. The first week would be spent in Orlando, Florida, a destination none of us have ever visited before. This in fact was my wife and children's first ever visit to the US, I have had two previous trips, one to New York for 6 weeks and one to San Francisco for 4 weeks to visit relatives. Orlando was fantastic and trips to Universal studios, Wet and Wild, Sea World and of course the shops made for a memorable week. For a two-week holiday a stay and cruise option is well worth thinking about as you do get the best of both worlds.

We stayed at the Hyatt Orlando and found this to be a very nice, comfortable base for the week. Maybe a bit far away from the International Drive area but you can't have everything.

On the Sunday of the cruise we were collected from the hotel by a bus laid on by Princess for the run down to Ft. Lauderdale and the waiting Grand Princess. My wife and I had thought of the first week as being the children's week, with us tagging along while the second week on Grand Princess was for us with the children tagging along. Don't tell them but we had a ball the first week.

On the approach to Port Everglades Grand Princess could be seen in the distance and she looked every bit as impressive as she looks in the pictures and the video. Some people have said the ship looks ugly with a 'shopping cart handle' on the stern. To us this was very impressive. On the drive through Port Everglades to the Grand we passed a number of other ships including Millennium, Massedam, two Costa ships and one Royal Caribbean, they were too far away to see the names and I am not that much of an expert to recognise them on sight.

Embarkation was very straight forward, forms had to be filled in for the Bahamas but that did not take long as I am not nor ever have been a spy, terrorist or member of the Nazi party between 1939 and 45 nor did I intend to overthrow the government during this trip. I was just a plain everyday tourist on holiday with his family.

On boarding the ship we had the first photograph of the cruise taken then onward in to the Grand Princess atrium. This area I have to admit could be grander. It is well laid out and throughout the cruise very well used, it just lacked something. We had a quick look at our cabin, more of that later, then it was off to tour the ship. The Princess theatre excellent, great seats, great sight lines very impressive. The vista lounge is the other main theatre on board and is situated at the stern on deck 7. This looks a little tired, the seats seemed in need of refurbishment and the pillars did restrict the stage view from certain areas. Our favourite lounge was the Explorers, and we headed for here more often than not.

There are shops on the top two tiers of the atrium with something for everyone, except me. A souvenir I always like to buy on a ship is a polo shirt with the name of the ship embroidered on it or the shipping lines logo. Princess does not sell them, the crew have them, but they are not available to passengers. Memo to Princess: make them available; I was not the only passenger who was looking for them.

Deck 17 is Skywalkers disco.Wow this is fantastic, more power to the shopping cart!!! The view is outstanding, am I looking forward to dancing the night away in here. Due to the design of the Grand's interior it does not feel like a 109,000 tons. You do not feel as though you are in an aircraft hanger and Princess have done an excellent job of making the ship feel smaller than she is. Their only error, the restaurant, deck 6 stern. Botechellies is one of the main restaurants on the ship. To find it is no easy task and once you have mastered the route the cruise is over. This could be a deliberate ploy to make you use the pay as you eat restaurants. A far better idea would be for Princess to include orienteering lessons, map and compass to be made available in all staterooms.

For future passengers the trick is to approach the stern on deck 7 then go down the rear staircase to deck 6 and there it is. Any other way is doomed to fail.

On this cruise I did not use the pools, the alternative pay as you eat restaurants, or the casino so I cannot comment on them.

The service in the restaurant was very good, the head waiter went round every table, every night. Nice touch. Our waitress, Gabrielle was from Mexico and she was very friendly, efficient in fact every thing you could want. The food, whilst plentiful and wholesome was very American, why not, 99% of passengers are after all from America. We though are from the UK and as we all know our taste in food is different and we missed the UK P&O style of food, especially breakfast. I must stress that this is not a complaint, we did not go hungry and some meals, especially the lamb chops were delicious, it's just we have different tastes. To contradict some previous posts I enjoyed the cheeseburgers on deck and the pizza was ok to. We also thought the coffee was ok, the tea though was like left over dish water. Memo to Princess: Please e-Mail P&O UK and ask them to send you some decent tea.

This was the first cruise we have taken and been in an inside cabin. NEVER, NEVER again. I hated it. It drove me mad to wake up and not know the time, was it 03.00 or 10:30 after all without natural light it is not very apparent. I don't care if you do only sleep and get dressed in them from now it it's back to the outside for us. For four adults the cabin was very small. Our cabin came equipped with 7 hangers, not each, in total. Two of the drawers were broken and would not work and a handle was missing of another. Like the Vista lounge, some cabins are in need of refurbishment. On the plus side the broken drawers were fixed very quickly although the missing handle was never replaced.

Our cabin steward was very efficient and the cabin was always immaculate, being cleaned, polished, vacuumed and dusted with the beds neatly made every morning.. by my wife before our steward had a chance to come in, after all .We don't want to give him a bad impression of us do we. No dear! I did think of asking Princess to transfer the daily gratuity to her but never got around to it.

The entertainment that I saw was of a very high standard. Two excellent comedians though of course some jokes went right over our heads but every one else laughed so they must have been funny. The hypnotist was outstanding, a very good show, do not miss it. One odd point though, the hypnotist did two shows in the large Princess theatre, both to full houses. At the end of each he announced there would be one late night show later in the week in the smaller Vista lounge. The result being far too many people trying to get into too small a venue and many being disappointed because they did not get to see the show. Why not hold this special in the larger venue? At least ten more people would be able to get in to see it, or am I being too obvious. The only stage production I saw was Lights, Camera Action. Do not miss this show; it's on the first night.

Our first port of call was Princess Cays in the wonderful sunny Bahamas. It rained, all day. Being from the UK we are used to this, but why here and why now. Still we went ashore anyway, after all I had to set foot in the Bahamas, I had after all filled out the paperwork before boarding the ship. With both Princess Cays and Grand Cayman you go ashore by tender, these are amazing craft as they can make a dead flat clam sea feel like you are sailing in a force 10 storm. The slightest ripple makes them rock and roll! Day two is a sea day. Being a Brit and fair of skin the sun and I do not get on that well. I don't mind this and stay in the shade or covered up if I can't so today I found a nice shady spot, the temperature though was 94 + so a pair of shorts was in order. I was in the shade so no harm. The relaxing lounge chair, the warm sea breeze, the gentle rocking of the ship and I was very drifted off to sleep only to wake up about an hour and half later to find my nice shady spot was not any more, the suns full 94+ power had been on my legs long enough for them to resemble a lobster in colour. I have to say that at this point my holiday was over, most of the rest of it being spent in the cabin, in agony with legs fours times bigger than they should have been. Ointments, remedies, painkillers and regular cold showers did nothing to help. My attempts to walk around the ship resulted in some very odd looks from my fellow passengers. I am writing this review four days after we arrived home and tomorrow will be my third medical appointment for continued treatment and I will be off work for at least another 10 days. What should have been a memorable family holiday had now turned into my personal holiday from hell.

I did manage to get ashore at all ports of call but never got more that a few hundred yards before having to go back to the ship. The evening shows were out, Sky walkers never happened. All those months of planning and anticipation gone. I cannot ever remember feeling so low and for the rest of the week I was far from the happiest passenger on board. I never thought I would ever say so but all I wanted to do was get home, from here on in the cruise could not finish soon enough.

All our fellow passengers were great, I did not hear anyone complain, grumble, swear, complain or be anything other that nice people. My wife has been brought up on a diet of American tv shows and despite my best efforts she was convinced that Jerry Springer guests are typical Americans. She now knows they are not, she also now realises that every American does not go out armed to the teeth and shoot outs do not happen once every five minutes. In fact she loves Florida so much she could live there.

A special mention though to a group of 8 New Yorkers on the table next to ours. The group were elderly Italian Americans from New York who enjoyed a good conversation, especially when everyone talked at the same time. We enjoyed all of their conversations, it was difficult not to, in fact I am sure the people 6 tables away also enjoyed their conversations. Yes they were loud, very loud but so funny, humorous and witty with it I would have them over for dinner any day.

Did I enjoy the cruise? What I could I did, and I will go on the Grand Princess again because she has so much to offer and I missed so much. The shows, entertainment, dinning options, venues, ports of call. Next time there will be no shorts and no accidents. So if this time next year you are on the Grand Princess and it's 90+ and some one is relaxed on a lounger dressed for winter don't think it's odd, it could well be me.